Mar 25, 2015 16:52
9 yrs ago
1 viewer *
Spanish term
Spain
Striving for excellence
Native in: English (Variant: British) 
Works in: Spanish to English, Catalan to English
decimal figure or decimal number
Non-PRO
Spanish to English
Science
Mathematics & Statistics
This is probably a really simple question but I'm bit stuck. I need to translate 'número decimal' but I don't know whether it should be 'decimal number' or 'decimal figure'.
La media...
a. nunca puede ser un número decimal.
b. siempre será un número decimal.
c. nunca puede ser un número negativo.
I'm afraid there's no more context but an example of a decimal figure/number would be 4.25
When I was at school, I'm sure we used to refer to 'decimal figures' but it doesn't seem to be as widely used as 'decimal numbers'.
Thank you very much!
La media...
a. nunca puede ser un número decimal.
b. siempre será un número decimal.
c. nunca puede ser un número negativo.
I'm afraid there's no more context but an example of a decimal figure/number would be 4.25
When I was at school, I'm sure we used to refer to 'decimal figures' but it doesn't seem to be as widely used as 'decimal numbers'.
Thank you very much!
Proposed translations
(English)
| 4 +6 | decimal number |
Tony M
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Change log
Mar 25, 2015 18:11: M.A.B. changed "Language pair" from "English" to "Spanish to English" , "Field" from "Other" to "Science"
Proposed translations
+6
8 mins
Selected
decimal number
I think 'number' is what you need here. I note your text also has a 'begative number' — there, it is clear-cut, so perhaps that will help convince you.
Generally speaking, 'figure' will be used to refer to a digit, like 'the figure 7', or 'a six-figure salary'; only in certain contexts is 'figure' used to refer to an actual number, typically when we are getting further away from the actual values, e.g. 'figures show that road deaths are falling every year'
Generally speaking, 'figure' will be used to refer to a digit, like 'the figure 7', or 'a six-figure salary'; only in certain contexts is 'figure' used to refer to an actual number, typically when we are getting further away from the actual values, e.g. 'figures show that road deaths are falling every year'
Note from asker:
| Thank you. I always think of a number as referring to a specific number (she's 12 years old; he lives at number 25, etc.) and figure to refer to a series of digits written next to each other, but which don't actually refer to anything. |
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Mikhail Kropotov
5 mins
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Spasibo, Mikhail!
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| agree |
B D Finch
: I think that "number" is the concept and the essence of what the symbol (figure) communicates.
7 mins
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Thanks, B! :-)
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| agree |
Charles Davis
: With Barbara: a decimal figure essentially a form of notation that expresses a decimal number. The quantity is a number and that's what this is referring to.
1 hr
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Thanks, Charles! Now why couldn't I express it as succinctly as that?
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| agree |
Brenden Gerber
1 hr
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Thanks, Brenden!
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| agree |
Neil Ashby
1 hr
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Thanks, Neil!
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| agree |
Jorge Merino
2 hrs
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Thanks, Jorge!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Thank you very much!"
Discussion