pedants, apply here

[baratron]

How do you pronounce the number 1175?

OK - now, how do you describe a place that is 1175 square feet? Is it "a 1175 square foot place", or "an 1175 square foot place"? The article depends on the pronunciation of 1175, doesn't it?

Fascinating discussion going on over at epi_lj's - not least of all because a lot of the commenters haven't actually realised what the problem is!

Comments

[johnckirk.livejournal.com]

I think it does depend on the context, but people tend to be inconsistent. For instance, I pronounce all 4 digit years as a pair of two digit numbers, but most people would pronounce 1066 as "ten sixty six" vs 2005 as "two thousand and five". In this context, I'd probably cop out by saying "it's roughly a twelve hundred square foot place".