<blockquote>
  <p>In formal writing in Chinese, should we write 事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Only when you are writing in vertical writing format -- from top to bottom, right to left in columns</p>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/7PuUX.gif" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/7PuUX.gif" alt="vertical writing format"></a></p>

<p>As for horizontal writing format like English, when we see sentence like "My phone number is 001-2000-110" we would read it as "my phone number is zero zero one- two zero zero zero- one one zero" but we would never write it that way. The same is true in Chinese if you write horizontally</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-07T04:44:28.110Z
2019-04-07T04:44:28.110Z
Tang Ho
<p>If you write horizontally, it should always be:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>事情已经过去了12345天。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>If you write vertically, it should always be:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>事</p>
  
  <p>情</p>
  
  <p>已</p>
  
  <p>经</p>
  
  <p>过</p>
  
  <p>去</p>
  
  <p>了</p>
  
  <p>一</p>
  
  <p>万</p>
  
  <p>二</p>
  
  <p>千</p>
  
  <p>三</p>
  
  <p>百</p>
  
  <p>四</p>
  
  <p>十</p>
  
  <p>五</p>
  
  <p>天</p>
  
  <p>。</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-08T03:41:02.917Z
2019-04-08T03:41:02.917Z
Victor
<p>事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。 Vs  事情已经过去了12345天。</p>

<p>In terms of formality, I would say the first one (事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天) is more formal. That's what I was taught from school. </p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-08T13:12:36.207Z
2019-04-08T13:12:36.207Z
dan
<p>As a Chinese, I would say that NO ONE CARES if you wrote "一万二千三百四十五" or "12,345".<br>
The first one is written in Chinese numerals, the second one in Arabic numerals, they are much pretty the same.<br>
If you insist on writing Chinese numerals, I would recommend you do say "事情已經過去了超過一萬天", if you want to emphasize that the event has passed for a long time.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-13T15:15:38.097Z
2019-04-13T15:15:38.097Z
昨晚忘記呼吸
<p>In formal writting in Chinese, should we write</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>or</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>事情已经过去了12345天。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>or</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>事情已经过去了12,345天。</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Which one is considered more standard?</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-07T03:05:04.383Z
As a matter of practicality, I don't think we would write **It's been twelve thousand, three hundred and forty five days since that matter has occurred** in English either.
dROOOze
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-07T04:28:23.317Z
Arabic numerals have been incorporated into many languages, when we see sentence like  "My phone number is 001-2000-110" we would read it as  "my phone number is zero zero one- two zero zero zero-  one one zero" but we would never write it that way. The same is true in Chinese
Tang Ho
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-07T05:58:31.037Z
When writing Chinese vertically, Arabic numerals are less suitable. I have vertically-written Chinese books where even the page numbers are in vertically-written Chinese numerals!
Flux
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-08T01:22:48.773Z
You may sometimes see numerals like this: 1万2345
fefe
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-08T13:39:39.027Z
The last form is not proper here, you may only use seperator in articles of maths or scicence industries. The first two forms are acceptable, but you'd better use digits for small numbers (using 20 instead of 二十) while Chinese characters for large numbers (using 1.2 万 or 一万二/一万二千/一万两千 instead of 12000).
xenophōn
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-08T20:37:16.743Z
@賈可Jacky so, 事情已经过去了1.2345万天？
Zuriel
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-04-09T09:09:35.353Z
@Zuriel What the hell is 1.2345 万天? If you say large numbers with units, 一万多天 or 一万两千多天 is better, or 一万余人, 一万多人, 1.2 万余人, 1.2 万多人 for population, etc, almost nobody would say 一万二千三百四十五天 or 1.2345 万天, for that there are larger units like 月 and 年. Why not say 事情已经过去了三十几年 or 事情已经过去了几十年?
xenophōn
<usage><number>
Chinese numerals or Arabic numerals?
# Chinese numerals or Arabic numerals?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-04-07)

In formal writting in Chinese, should we write

> 事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。

or

> 事情已经过去了12345天。

or

> 事情已经过去了12,345天。

Which one is considered more standard?

**Tags:** usage, number
> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: As a matter of practicality, I don't think we would write **It's been twelve thousand, three hundred and forty five days since that matter has occurred** in English either.  
> **username_2**: Arabic numerals have been incorporated into many languages, when we see sentence like  "My phone number is 001-2000-110" we would read it as  "my phone number is zero zero one- two zero zero zero-  one one zero" but we would never write it that way. The same is true in Chinese  
> **username_3**: When writing Chinese vertically, Arabic numerals are less suitable. I have vertically-written Chinese books where even the page numbers are in vertically-written Chinese numerals!  
> **username_4**: You may sometimes see numerals like this: 1万2345  
> **username_5**: The last form is not proper here, you may only use seperator in articles of maths or scicence industries. The first two forms are acceptable, but you'd better use digits for small numbers (using 20 instead of 二十) while Chinese characters for large numbers (using 1.2 万 or 一万二/一万二千/一万两千 instead of 12000).  
> **username_0**: @賈可Jacky so, 事情已经过去了1.2345万天？  
> **username_5**: @Zuriel What the hell is 1.2345 万天? If you say large numbers with units, 一万多天 or 一万两千多天 is better, or 一万余人, 一万多人, 1.2 万余人, 1.2 万多人 for population, etc, almost nobody would say 一万二千三百四十五天 or 1.2345 万天, for that there are larger units like 月 and 年. Why not say 事情已经过去了三十几年 or 事情已经过去了几十年?  

---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2019-04-07. Score: 3

> In formal writing in Chinese, should we write 事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。

Only when you are writing in vertical writing format -- from top to bottom, right to left in columns

[![vertical writing format](https://i.sstatic.net/7PuUX.gif)](https://i.sstatic.net/7PuUX.gif)

As for horizontal writing format like English, when we see sentence like "My phone number is 001-2000-110" we would read it as "my phone number is zero zero one- two zero zero zero- one one zero" but we would never write it that way. The same is true in Chinese if you write horizontally


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2019-04-08. Score: 2

If you write horizontally, it should always be:

> 事情已经过去了12345天。

If you write vertically, it should always be:

> 事
>
> 情
>
> 已
>
> 经
>
> 过
>
> 去
>
> 了
>
> 一
>
> 万
>
> 二
>
> 千
>
> 三
>
> 百
>
> 四
>
> 十
>
> 五
>
> 天
>
> 。


---

### Answer by username_7 on 2019-04-08. Score: 1

事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天。 Vs 事情已经过去了12345天。

In terms of formality, I would say the first one (事情已经过去了一万二千三百四十五天) is more formal. That's what I was taught from school.


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### Answer by username_8 on 2019-04-13. Score: 0

As a Chinese, I would say that NO ONE CARES if you wrote "一万二千三百四十五" or "12,345".  
The first one is written in Chinese numerals, the second one in Arabic numerals, they are much pretty the same.  
If you insist on writing Chinese numerals, I would recommend you do say "事情已經過去了超過一萬天", if you want to emphasize that the event has passed for a long time.


---

