Her Majesty keeping an eye on the numbers
Here's an interesting British English/American English difference that if you are a high powered banker could get you into trouble.British English: Billion = a million million (in US trillion)
American English: Billion = a thousand million
British English: Trillion = a billion billion
American English: Trillion = a thousand billion
So I will be putting my trillion into a British bank, because otherwise it might end up less than it ought to be. ;)
2 comments:
Did you know that in English English, a thousand million is a milliard?
It's quite an obscure term isn't it? But at great one at that. Much more entertaining than 'thousand million'.
The term is alive and well in Germany and France at least. I think that Britain is using the American system more and more though.
There ought to be an official statement from the banks! I mean me and my stockbroker could be talking about totally different amounts of money! ;)
I don't really have a stockbroker...
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