How are probabilities written in German?

Question

I was reading over some statistics notes that one of the German universities had made available online (it is entirely in German), and I'm confused because they've written P(X=1)=0.25. That's exactly how we write decimal probabilities in English, but I was told that the commas and periods are always switched in German. So for example, your weekly salary of one thousand Euros is written 1.000 and your coffee costs you 2,00 in Germany.

Most of the notes on the Wahrscheinlichkeit document are written as P(X=1)= 1/4 (in English, we also tend to write probabilities as fractions, so those ones are easy to read as they're identical to how we write it). But I'm definitely confused about why P(X=1)=0.25 isn't written with a comma there? I couldn't find anything on Google explaining what is going on with those probabilities. Thanks!

Answer 1

This is not related to writing about probabilities in particular. Most probably this is just a typo of someone who is used to writing in English.

You are right, in general a comma is used as the decimal separator in German. However, in contexts where most relevant literature is in English (as in statistics / stochastics) and in documents written by people who are used to communicating in English, you might stumble across this "mistake" to write a dot instead of a comma, as it is usual in English. So, from a different point of view, this could also be classified as an anglicism in writing, rather than as a mere mistake. (This is why I write "mistake" in quotes here.) If the document consistently uses dots instead of commas, this is a strong argument that we actually face a style of writing the author chose intentionally.

As with many "mistakes", once they become common enough, a new standard develops. I would say, writing a comma as the decimal separator is still the standard in German, but maybe we happen to find ourselves in the midst of a language change process here.

Answer 2

I am teaching statistics too at an Austrian university¹ together with a professor for statistics (I'm not a professor). And I noticed, that my colleague - although he is a German native speaker, born, grown up and living in Austria - uses his compete computer equipment in English language. And this makes sense, because the lingua franca of any modern science, including mathematics and statistics, is English.

And I also noticed, that in handwritten notes he also uses the English notation, so he writes a decimal dot instead of a decimal comma. And also in our lessons, when he teaches the students in German language, he consequently used the English notation.

This is not a problem, neither to me nor to our students. We all are used to read scientific papers in English language, and many of the students also write their bachelor or master thesis in English. They are even encouraged to write in English, because when you decide to become a scientist, this is the language you have to use to publish all your scientific papers, at least in computer science, mathematics and statistics.

But you are right: Using English decimal notation in German documents is wrong. But especially scientists who care more about correctness in their own subject than about correct language make this special kind of mistake.

At the moment these are just singular errors, and maybe it will not spread out. But it is also possible, that we just now watch the beginning of a change of how we use our language. Maybe in some decades decimal dots and decimal commas are two accepted variations which coexist side by side.

---

¹ _{St. Pölten University of Applied Sciences}

Answer 3

In school and in texts for the general public/a non-international audience, you will pretty much only find the German way of writing decimals: using a decimal comma.

At university or in similar contexts of higher education, top-level research or large international companies, a decimal dot might be used for any of the following reasons:

• the writers are used to using it in their English works
• the writers expect the readers to be used to or to get used to English usage
• the writers consciously chose to use English usage in both English and German publications so that they only need to deal with one notation
• the writers are following a style guide that requires consistent usage across all languages (especially for international companies)

Finally, it is possible that it is really just a typo and the writer intended to use a decimal comma: the two are next to each other on the keyboard.

I do want to stress though, that unlike Jonathan I do not think that the German standard of a decimal comma will change any time soon. Most of the bullet points above are people choosing for themselves to not follow standard German practice, knowing that their usage is now not a standard. I see little evidence of this catching on in any scale across the general public – especially since standard office programs sold in German default to a decimal comma.

Answer 4

Another thing to consider: The German publications are getting "internationalized" more often compared to the past. It used to be the case that a lot of German research work was primarily done in German and written for a German speaking audience (in Germany, Austria, Switzerland), especially in social science, psychology etc.

There is a shift for German researchers to write their publications in English and to use the "common" English citations and formation guidelines (e.g. APA). When APA is used in a German publication, the APA guidelines for numbers are used, no matter the language of the publication. This could also be the "cause" of the punctuation in the German paper. (https://www.jcu.edu.sg/__data/assets/pdf_file/0009/680085/Numbers-in-APA.pdf)

APA Numbers