How do I decide whether to spell out a spoken number or use digits?

Start with a simple default: spell out ordinary numbers in conversational prose when doing so makes the passage easy to read, and use digits when the speaker is clearly giving a digit sequence. Then define any exceptions your transcript needs. There isn’t one universal choice that suits every publication, so the useful rule is the one your editors can apply consistently without changing the speaker’s meaning.

For example, if the speaker says, “We had about five boxes,” write “about five boxes.” If they say, “The code is four, seven, two,” write “the code is 4-7-2” only if your format makes clear these are separate digits. You might instead use “4, 7, 2” to preserve the spoken grouping. Decide on one treatment for such sequences and use it throughout.

Treat the distinction as a matter of meaning, not just appearance. A spoken quantity names an amount: “forty-two people” or “about six minutes.” A digit-by-digit reading gives separate characters: “four, two” might be a code, while “forty-two” is a quantity. Use digits for the separate characters, with punctuation or a brief label if needed to prevent confusion.

A practical style-sheet rule could be: “When a speaker explicitly reads a sequence one digit at a time, render each digit as a numeral. Keep spoken pauses as commas only when they reflect meaningful grouping; otherwise, follow the project’s chosen separator.” Don’t silently convert a sequence into a whole number if that could change what a reader enters or understands. If the audio does not make the distinction clear, flag the passage for review rather than guessing.

No. Keep the speaker’s degree of precision. “Roughly ten” should not become “10” if the change makes the statement seem exact, and “somewhere around a hundred” should not become a precise figure that the speaker did not give. Spelling out the number can help the sentence read naturally, but the more important decision is to retain words such as “about,” “roughly,” or “around.”

For instance, a transcript might read: “We sent roughly ten invitations.” That wording keeps both the approximate amount and its scale. If a speaker corrects themselves—“around ten, maybe twelve”—preserve the correction or use the project’s established method for edits and interruptions. A number-style sheet should guide formatting; it should not tidy away uncertainty, hesitation, or a meaningful self-correction.

Here’s a copyable starting point. Adjust the defaults to fit your publication, then use the same choices throughout the transcript:

Transcript number style

1. Ordinary quantities: spell out numbers in conversational prose unless the project has a defined exception.
2. Digit-by-digit sequences: use numerals for each spoken digit; use [separator] consistently.
3. Approximate amounts: retain approximation words such as “about,” “roughly,” and “around.” Do not add precision.
4. Unclear number or grouping: mark it for review using [unclear number] rather than guessing.
5. Exceptions and examples: record any project-specific choices here: [add examples].

Worked example: Speaker says, “We expected about five people, but the door code is four, seven, two.” A style-sheet rendering could be: “We expected about five people, but the door code is 4, 7, 2.” The first number remains an approximate quantity; the second remains a sequence of separate digits. Before delivery, check that every number has the same treatment wherever the same kind of speech occurs.