24/7 ("twenty four-seven")

Hello!

Here is an excellent question received from a viewer.  Because we did not have your email address, we could not respond to you personally via email. However, there’s a bright side to that because we will answer your question on the blog for all to see!

The question was:  “Shouldn’t it me 24:7 and not 24/7?” The question is about how we write this expression, “twenty-four (24) seven (7)”.

The expression 24/7 is the way we write “twenty-four seven”, meaning 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The forward slash / is commonly used to indicate “per”. Thus, we abbreviate “twenty-four (24) hours per day, seven (7) days per week” as “24/7″.

To us, 24:7 is a ratio or a division problem: 24 divided by 7.

I hope this helps!

Thanks for your question.

The ESL Help Desk!