Teacher Discussion Forums

# (Hope this shows OK. two horizontal lines over
two vertical lines)
What do you call the above?
1. a sharp (mark/sign/signal/symbol)
2. a number (mark/sign/signal/symbol)
3. a pound (mark/sign/signal/symbol)
4. any other?
Never 'mark' or 'signal'?
Thank you.

Itasan wrote:# (Hope this shows OK. two horizontal lines over
two vertical lines)
What do you call the above?
1. a sharp (mark/sign/signal/symbol)
2. a number (mark/sign/signal/symbol)
3. a pound (mark/sign/signal/symbol)
4. any other?
Never 'mark' or 'signal'?
Thank you.

I used to call it a number sign, but on telephone recordings I always hear, "press the pound sign," so that's what I call it now.

Thank you very much, Lorikeet. We hear it called 'sharp' in Japan. It might not be understood by people of other languages.

I knew this book would come in useful one day.

From Phonetic symbol guide by Geoffrey K. Pullum and William A Ladusaw:

The symbol [#] has a variety of names, including crosshatch, double cross, number sign, etc.

The section is headed "Number sign", however. In the English language service of Idea Polska, a mobile phone service provider, it is always referred to as "hash", which I know because when I ring the automatic service bureau to recharge my phone units a voice tells me to "terminate with the hash key."

Itsan, the sharp sign is strictly speaking only used in music and is the opposite of the flat sign <&#9837;>. It looks slightly different.
I hope all this comes out in your browser.

This is a sharp sign <&#9839;>
This is a number sign <#>

In "huge" fontsize:
flat&#9837;
sharp &#9839;
Number sign #

Andrew Patterson wrote:I knew this book would come in useful one day.

From Phonetic symbol guide by Geoffrey K. Pullum and William A Ladusaw:

The symbol [#] has a variety of names, including crosshatch, double cross, number sign, etc.

The section is headed "Number sign", however. In the English language service of Idea Polska, a mobile phone service provider, it is always referred to as "hash", which I know because when I ring the automatic service bureau to recharge my phone units a voice tells me to "terminate with the hash key."

Oh how interesting! If a voice told me to "terminate with the hash key." I'd have no idea of what to do. (Course maybe now, I will. )

Thank you very much, everybody.
I think it is the Atlantic Ocean that makes the difference.
West of the Ocean - Pound Sign
East of the Ocean - Hash Sign
Right?

Dear Andrew,
Thank you very much for the valuable information.

Andrew Patterson wrote:In the English language service of Idea Polska, a mobile phone service provider, it is always referred to as "hash", which I know because when I ring the automatic service bureau to recharge my phone units a voice tells me to "terminate with the hash key."

May I ask two questions?
1. What does this 'recharge' mean? Recharge the battery or increase your deposit money or...?
2. Are you an Englishman living in Poland?
Thank you again.
Itasan

Itsan wrote:

Thank you very much, everybody.
I think it is the Atlantic Ocean that makes the difference.
West of the Ocean - Pound Sign
East of the Ocean - Hash Sign
Right?

Wrong, the pound sign isn't common for this symbol in the UK as <£> is quite obviously what British people think of as the pound sign, but other synonyms are just as popular as "hash" if not more so East of the Atlantic.

Recharge phone units means buy units that let you speak on the phone. I buy a card with a 14 digit code which I have to type into the phone. It has nothing to do with the electric charge in the battery. You recharge that by plugging it in to the mains.