Government to temporarly scrap stamp duty up to £250k?

Cannon_Fodder

There is such a thing as being too pedantic.

If you want to put the world to rights, start with the BBC: http://search.bbc.co.uk/search?uri=%2F&go=toolbar&q=250k
or the Bank of England; http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/markets/money/mmfuture.pdf
or http://www.thefreedictionary.com/K

Just because something is used in 1 field, does not mean it is not used in another field;

K
symbol for 1. (Mathematics & Measurements / Units) kelvin(s)
2. (Group Games / Chess & Draughts) Chess king
3. (Chemistry) Chem potassium
4. (Physics / General Physics) Physics kaon
5. (Economics, Accounting & Finance / Currencies) Currency a. kina
b. kip
c. kopeck
d. kwacha
e. kyat

6. one thousand
7. (Electronics & Computer Science / Computer Science) Computing a. a unit of 1024 words, bits, or bytes
b. (not in technical usage) 1000

8. (Engineering / Automotive Engineering)

international car registration for Cambodia


Why you refer to Potassium in the middle of Stamp duty discussions is anyone's guess. Or does context play a part?

sarah_elton

From The Economist Style Guide: The Bestselling Guide to English Usage:

"k, m and M are standard international metric abbreviations for thousand, thousandth and million."

A previous poster was correct that it should be lower-case (not upper-case) k.

An upper-case K means 1,024 in the context of KB only.

Technically, upper-case K used elsewhere (e.g. £50K) doesn't have a meaning. But I think most people would understand it to be £50k.

Are you suggesting that k (k or K) always means 1,024 (incorrect), or were you simply being facetious because the post that started this argument made reference to £50K?

To answer your next question, it will be a statutory declaration, in much the same way you declare your income on your tax return. No doubt penalties will ensue if you claim to be a first time buyer when in fact you aren't.

babylonfree

James_N wrote: »

I don't quite know what to say. The dissertation that K = 1000 in numbers (as opposed to measurement) is erroneous, but wrong. Just because you've been getting it wrong for some time doesn't make it right.

English language evolves constantly, if it didn't we'd all be sat here speaking like somebody from of a Shakespearean play.

98% of the population now use k to abbreviate thousand. We don't look wrong, you just look like a grammatical dinosaur.

James_N

Cannon_Fodder wrote: »

There is such a thing as being too pedantic.

Sorry, you asked for that one!

James_N

sarah_elton wrote: »

Are you suggesting that k (k or K) always means 1,024 (incorrect), or were you simply being facetious because the post that started this argument made reference to £50K?

I was being facetious because £50 thousand is a lot more than most people can count on as an annual income.

sarah_elton wrote: »

To answer your next question, it will be a statutory declaration, in much the same way you declare your income on your tax return. No doubt penalties will ensue if you claim to be a first time buyer when in fact you aren't.

Thank you for this.

krajab

James_N wrote: »

Sorry, you asked for that one!

Originally Posted by James_N
Exactly £50K = £51,200. And we are talking pounds. It's an error often made.

Hint: that's where you went wrong, and where everyone jumped on you.

Old_Wrinkly

Thought I'd missed the spat, but no, James_N seems intent to keep on digging.

Eton Rifle, I see your decades, and raise you with 'pre-Internet'.
(Strictly speaking, it was pre-WWW, not quite ARPANET. We had ways of communicating. How did we manage? )

James, kilo (prefix for use in English) from the greek khilioi - a thousand.
If you dig around to the origin of kilobyte, you will find it was simply a shorthand by those 'in the know' to use with others in the same field.
I assume you have heard of the term 'kibibyte'?

James_N

Old_Wrinkly wrote: »

Thought I'd missed the spat, but no, James_N seems intent to keep on digging.

Those with eyes to see would have noted my real beef is with the idiot who thinks that £50,000 is a salary we all have at our disposal

Old_Wrinkly wrote: »

Eton Rifle, I see your decades, and raise you with 'pre-Internet'.
(Strictly speaking, it was pre-WWW, not quite ARPANET. We had ways of communicating. How did we manage? )

Punched cards in my case, but not ARPANET either - Wow you must be well-old!

Old_Wrinkly wrote: »

James, kilo (prefix for use in English) from the greek khilioi - a thousand.

χίλια, actually. (now I have made this pedant persona, I have to keep to it)

Old_Wrinkly wrote: »

If you dig around to the origin of kilobyte, you will find it was simply a shorthand by those 'in the know' to use with others in the same field. I assume you have heard of the term 'kibibyte'?

No, so I am intrigued.

EDIT: looked up: well you learn something every day.

James_N

What effect do you think this will have on houses in general, and on the "around" £250 thousand level in particular? Free-up / mad dash / sit-on-hands?

Old_Wrinkly

kilobyte=1000 bytes
kibibyte=1024 bytes
(Time to abandon the peculiar shorthand)
And admittedly I transliterated. I didn't think the original language would be appropriate.
Still, it's been fun.
That "erroneous, but wrong" bit - classic.