Do the words match the figures?

The figures are the digits with a currency sign or code in front of them or after them: a sign such as R, $, £, €, GH¢, ₦ or ₱, or a three-letter code such as ZAR, USD or AED. A figure with a sign is chosen over a bare number, so a clause number or a count of days in the same sentence does not get in the way, and the page tells you what it set aside. With no sign anywhere, a line with one number in figures and one in words is compared as plain numbers, which is how “thirty (30) days” is checked.

The words are the run of number words together with the currency and the cents, handed to the same reader as words to number. It reads British and American forms alike, capitals, hyphens, “a thousand” and “twelve hundred”, and a phrase that could mean two numbers is reported as ambiguous. “Only” at the end is set aside. The cents may be written in words, as “and fifty cents”, or as a fraction over a hundred, as “and 50/100”.

The separators in the figures are read as every other tool here reads them. Thousands are read in groups of three with one kind of separator, as in 1,500 or 1 500. A decimal part is read after a point, as in 1500.50, or after a comma where the comma cannot be a thousands separator, as in 1 500,50. A figure whose separators can be read two ways, such as 1234,567, gets an explanation instead of a verdict, since a misread figure would make the verdict wrong.

An amount is compared place by place: the groups of three digits the words are built from, millions, thousands and the part below a thousand, and then the cents. That is what makes a missing scale word visible. Beside R150 000, the words “one hundred and fifty rand” say R150.00, and the table shows the thousands empty in the words where the figures have 150. The words that belong to a place that disagrees are highlighted, and so are the digits.

A currency that does not match is a disagreement too, even when the numbers are equal: a figure in pounds beside words in rand is two different amounts. So is a unit the currency does not have, such as pounds with cents.

This tool says whether the two agree. It does not say which of them binds anybody; that depends on the document and on the law that governs it. For cheques and other bills of exchange, a statute and a uniform code answer the question in so many words.

In the United Kingdom, section 9(2) of the Bills of Exchange Act 1882: “Where the sum payable is expressed in words and also in figures, and there is a discrepancy between the two, the sum denoted by the words is the amount payable.”

In the United States, section 3-114 of the Uniform Commercial Code, as the states enact it: “If an instrument contains contradictory terms, typewritten terms prevail over printed terms, handwritten terms prevail over both, and words prevail over numbers.”

Both apply only to bills of exchange and negotiable instruments, and a contract can set its own rule. This page does not summarise the law of any other country. Either way, check before the document is signed.