Is it okay to start a sentence with a number?

Answer 1

Yes, but you must spell out the number in words. You may wish to rephrase the sentence to avoid starting it with a long or unwieldy number. (Use the hyphenated form for adjectives.)

Examples:

• "Twenty-five boys were in the class, and thirty girls".
• "The class had 25 boys and 30 girls."

Style guides differ about how high a number has to be before you should use numerals. Some use 10, but others say 20. The above example shows how the numbers should agree in their form, which is an exception even for low numbers.

Examples :

• "Four of the fifty-five students were sick today"
• "The number of sick students was 4 out of 55."