How to Write Dimensions in Feet and Inches

So you need to write something like “Height: 5 feet” or “Length: 9 feet” but you don’t know the correct abbreviations. Well, this article is for you!

There are several different ways of writing measurements in text and abbreviating measurements.

Table of Contents

Write Dimensions in Foot

The most common unit of length in the United States is the foot (abbreviated ft). One foot is equal to 12 inches.

While writing “Height: 5 feet” you could abbreviate it as “Height: 5′ “.

To write “feet,” you must use the symbol “prime” which is a single quotation mark “ ‘ “.

For inches you must use a double quotation mark “.

“Length: 9 feet” you would abbreviate it as “Length: 9′ “.

Foot or Feet?

Let’s remember within this context that the plural of FOOT is FEET.

In informal talk, “feet” is commonly replaced by “foot” even though grammatically “feet” is correct, except when you are talking about something that measures one foot.

For example, even though “five-feet-two-inches” is grammatically correct, you’d frequently hear people say “five-foot-two” which is also correct as far as the daily usage is concerned. People especially in the United States just talk way even though it is not correct from a strictly grammatical point of view.

Write Dimensions in Other Length Units

There are also other units of length that are commonly used in the United States, such as the yard (abbreviated yd) which is equal to 3 feet.

One foot equals twelve inches, so one yard is equal to 36 inches.

There are also units of length used in other countries, such as the meter (mm), kilometer (km).

To write “Height: 5 yards” you would abbreviate it as “Height: 5 yd” or, optionally, “Height: 5′ yd”.

When you write “Length: 9 meters” you would abbreviate it as “Length: 9 m”. To say “We walked 10 kilometers today” you can write “We walked 10 km today.

Write Dimensions in Area Units

In addition to the units for length there are also units of area, such as the square foot (abbreviated ft²) which is equal to 144 inches. One square foot equals one square yard, so one square mile equals 640 acres.

In order to write “Area: 1,000 square feet” you would abbreviate it as “Area: 1,000 sqft” or, optionally, “Area: 1,000 ft²“.

If you’d like to write “Size: 5 square miles” you can abbreviate it as “Size: 5 sqmiles” (the space between the number of square feet and the diameter of the area is optional).

Volume Units

There are also units for volume such as quarts (qt) and gallons.

One gallon is 4.8 (U.S. liquid) quarts.

And one quart equals 32 fluid ounces.

So one gallon roughly equals 128 fluid ounces.

To write “Volume: 24 quarts” you would abbreviate it as “Volume: 24 qt”.

If you’d like to say “We filled our 10 gallon tank with gasoline” you can write “We filled our 10 gal tank with gasoline”.

Weight Units

Lastly, there are units for weight, such as pounds (lbs) and kilograms (kg).

One pound is equal to 16 ounces, so one kilogram is equal to 2.2 pounds.

To write “Weight: 350 pounds” you would abbreviate it as “Weight: 350 lbs”.

You can rewrite the statement “Mass: 10 kilograms” by abbreviating it as “Mass: 10 kgs”.

To say “I weigh 220 pounds” you would write “I weigh 220 lbs”.

Instead of “He weighs 77 kilograms” you could write “He weighs 77 kg.”

So now that you know all of the abbreviations it’s time to practice your understanding of measurements. Below are a few exercises.

Exercise 1

Write the following measurements in feet and inches:

Height: 5′ 2″
Width: 10′ 6″
Length: 3′ 4″

ANSWER

Five feet two inches high. INFORMALLY: “He is five-foot-two.”
Ten feet six inches wide. INFORMALLY: “It was ten-foot-six wide.”
Three feet four inches long. INFORMALLY: “That’s three-foot-four long.”

Exercise 2

Write the following measurements in yards and inches/centimeters.

Height: 5 yd 1 in
Length: 9 yd 3 in

ANSWER

It’s five yards and one inch high.
It’s nine yards and three inches long.

Exercise 3

Write the following measurements in meters and centimeters/millimeters.

Height: 1 m 76 cm
Length: 7 m 21 cm

ANSWER

It’s one meter and seventy-six centimeters high. OR: It’s one hundred (and) seventy-six centimeters high.
It’s seven meters and twenty-one centimeters long. OR: It’s seven hundred and twenty-one centimeters long.