Re: billions across the world in english

This topic is more troublesome than multi-tasking in windos

1,000,000,000 is an American billion. I think everyone agrees.

It is also the French and Russian billion but
not the German billion which is 1,000,000,000,000

I have, after much searching, established that theThe British billion has
now changed from 1,000,000,000,000 to 1,000,000,000
but changed to avoid confusion (sic) in common useage.The earliest
confirmation I have found for this is a 1995 edition of the Oxford English
dictionary. (THe 1993 version was still transitional)
So you can now expect that anything written in England can contain a billion
meaning either 1,000,000,000
or 1,000,000,000,000 depending on how old the person is or whether they have
bought a new dictionary and looked up the word.
When us older ones (those above school age) have died out thge situation
should be clear.
Interestingly enough I tried to find out using an online dictionary and was
indeed misinformed by Websters, the otherwise extremely reliable American
dictionary, that the British billion is still 1,000,000,000,000.

The German's retain "die Milliarde" - 1,000,000,000 and are not liable to
change to suit everyone else.

As for the Dutch - I still like Gouda.

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