ShmoopTube

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Numbers at the beginning of sentences, a la Shmoop.

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Two hundred million five hundred and twenty-three thousand people in the United States have

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seen the original Star Wars.

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There are two things you should know about that number. One: We made it up.

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Two: You should do whatever you have to, including allowing yourself to be frozen in carbonite

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and turned into wall art...

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...to avoid starting a sentence with a number. Here's why. Say the number at the beginning

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of the sentence is small, like “twelve”.

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“Twelve Stormtroopers went out for pizza.” That's easy for the reader to process, right?

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However, the number “seven hundred and twenty thousand eight hundred and two”, when written

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out, is quite long.

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While your reader is probably willing to put up with a sentence like, “Twelve Ewoks got

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smooshed by a Walker”...

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...no one wants to read, “Seven hundred and twenty thousand eight hundred and two

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Ewoks reside on Endor.” If you are bound and determined to mention

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those seven hundred and twenty thousand eight hundred and two Ewoks...

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...then you should consider changing your sentence to something more manageable for

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the reader, like, “There are 720,802 Ewoks on Endor.”

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See, when you put a number anywhere in a sentence other than at its beginning...

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...you can actually use numbers...

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...instead of words. Here's the grammar rule one more time, in

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case you're confused.

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While Darth Vader is unlikely to pursue you across the galaxy for using a number like

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“seven billion nine hundred and forty-two million three hundred and twelve thousand”

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at the beginning of a sentence...

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...your reader may not be quite so forgiving.

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So, avoid starting a sentence with a number. Please. Obi-Wan Kenobi, you’re our only

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hope…

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