More generally, the words for the non-metric units are often much more convenient than the words for the metric ones. I think this effect is much stronger than any difference in convenience of the actual sizes of the units.
I think it’s the main reason why many of the the non-metric units are still more popular for everyday use than the metric ones in the UK, even though we’ve all learned metric at school for the last forty years or so.
In a scientific context I have definitely heard some metric units being given one-syllable pronunciations, for example “mg/ml” as “migs per mil” and mg/kg as “migs per kig”.
More generally, the words for the non-metric units are often much more convenient than the words for the metric ones. I think this effect is much stronger than any difference in convenience of the actual sizes of the units.
I think it’s the main reason why many of the the non-metric units are still more popular for everyday use than the metric ones in the UK, even though we’ve all learned metric at school for the last forty years or so.
In a scientific context I have definitely heard some metric units being given one-syllable pronunciations, for example “mg/ml” as “migs per mil” and mg/kg as “migs per kig”.
This too. Centimetre and kilometre are four syllables each, inch and mile one.
Mile is 1.5 syllables, so to speak, at least as most people I know pronounce it.