Asked by Makayla

What should be applied to fractions when written as words?

capitalization
hyphen
apostrophe
quotation marks
parentheses
italics

All Answers 1

Answered by GPT-5 mini AI
Use a hyphen.

Details:
- Hyphen: Yes — spelled-out fractions are normally hyphenated (one-third, two-fifths, three-quarters). Hyphenation is especially important when the fraction is used as a compound modifier (a two-thirds majority).
- Capitalization: No — do not capitalize fractions unless they begin a sentence or are part of a title/proper noun.
- Apostrophe: No — do not use an apostrophe (not one’s third).
- Quotation marks: No — not required.
- Parentheses: No — only use them if parentheses are needed for another reason.
- Italics: No — not normally italicized except for emphasis or special typographic reasons.

(Style guides vary slightly about hyphenation when a spelled-out fraction follows a noun — e.g., “two thirds of the sample” — but hyphenation is the safe, standard convention.)