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How do you write your 7 ?

Also inspired by this question: http://answermug.com/forums/topic/30392/do-you-write-your-8-with-two-stacked-circle-or-the-s-with-a-slas/view/post_id/273987

Cross or no cross?

I'm a seven crosser.  I had some teachers I really hated in elementary school and they all took away points for crossing sevens on written assignments so now as an adult I always cross my sevens as my lasting act of rebellion.

My hubby is also a seven crosser and he said he does it for the same reason which was originally to give the middle finger to teachers in elementary school he didn't like but now it's just kind of a habit for both of us.


Posted - May 26, 2017

Responses


  • 32527
    I make just a regular 7 but if I am writing a lot of numbers I do the crossed 7 so there is no confusion between the 1 and 7. Oddly enough, I was taught to do this technique by my grade school math teacher. 
      May 26, 2017 7:58 PM MDT
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  • 5455
    The teachers I had in elementary school were obsessive compulsive about 1 being a vertical only and 7 never being crossed but if the 7 is crossed there's no question that it's a 7.

    This post was edited by Livvie at May 26, 2017 8:19 PM MDT
      May 26, 2017 8:03 PM MDT
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  • 32527
    Yes the crossed 7 is clearly a 7. My teachers were not that picky. The only time I was told not to write something that way was in 3rd grade, I wrote my "a" like that instead of the circle with the line. And then wasn't told it was wrong, the just asked me "why I would write it that way?"....I got the message though.
      May 26, 2017 8:26 PM MDT
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  • 5455
    I guess it depends on the school district.  For elementary school I went to a Christian school and my hubby went to a Christian school of the same denomination and in both of our cases flagged ones and crossed sevens were considered wrong.  Hmm, maybe that's why whistle6 called it great wickedness in the post below lol.

    I went to a public high school and they didn't care as long as they could tell what it was supposed to be.
      May 26, 2017 8:31 PM MDT
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  • 32527
    I don't know.... can't see what would be evil about it. I went to public school. 
      May 26, 2017 8:42 PM MDT
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  • I write mine starting with the top horizontal, the a downward stroke.  I do not put a slash through the perpendicular.  Doing so is a great wickedness.
      May 26, 2017 8:07 PM MDT
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  • 5455
    I guess I'm not going upstairs then.

      May 26, 2017 8:26 PM MDT
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  • There is time to repent.
      May 26, 2017 8:45 PM MDT
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  • 17364
    I've never crossed a seven in my life.
      May 26, 2017 9:38 PM MDT
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  • 5455
    That's smart.  I've heard that 7s sometimes attack people if they get crossed.
      May 27, 2017 11:34 AM MDT
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  • No cross. Crossed 7's are horrible :P
      May 26, 2017 9:44 PM MDT
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  • 5455
    They're really nice numbers once you get to know them!

      May 27, 2017 11:38 AM MDT
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  • 3191
    Crossed.
      May 27, 2017 7:38 AM MDT
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  • 5455
      May 27, 2017 11:42 AM MDT
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  • Crossed 7's and flagged 1.  
      May 27, 2017 5:17 PM MDT
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  • 5455
      May 28, 2017 4:46 PM MDT
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  • 3680
    Just as 7

    The crossed form is popular in France, but quite rare in the UK, though I do know some Britons use it.

    The digit 'one' is always 1 uncrossed but not long ago I read in a technical magazine, of an 18-19C, crossed version of the letter I. It has been spotted in some old masonry, and on the walls of old mines, and may have been a local-dialect practice.  
      May 28, 2017 4:46 PM MDT
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  • 5455
    Interesting.  I had to look it up.  From Wikipedia: The "Crossed Seven" is commonly used throughout Europe and Canada, but is sporadically used in the United States.  From my own observations about half the people I know cross the 7 and half don't.


      May 28, 2017 4:53 PM MDT
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  • 3680
    The earlier contributors together suggest some of that such variation might stem from individual schools.

    It reminds me of a particular maths topic, vectors I think, in which the letters used as symbols are often indicated as such by an accompanying line above or below - I forget which - because the printed book method uses bold type instead, not practicable in hand-written work.  
      May 28, 2017 5:03 PM MDT
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  • 5455
    That was true in my case because the teachers I had in elementary school all got their underwear in a bunch over flagged ones and crossed sevens but from Kindergarten to 8th grade I went to a private Christian school.

    I wonder how or why they got the idea that crossed sevens and flagged ones were so bad.

    Then again, they also got their underwear in a bunch over blue nail polish or lipstick.
      May 28, 2017 5:09 PM MDT
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  • 3680
    Well, teachers like that become so set in their ways that anything can be good or bad. Perhaps it was a nationalist thing. A problem with over-flagging the 1 is that it might be confused with a 7 - hence perhaps crossing the 7!. When hand-writing, I use a short serif on the one if it might become all confused and think it was born a letter I.

    (When I started to learn how to use computers, I encountered examples of  a very strange looking command phrase, "For I = 1 to ... ".)
      May 28, 2017 5:17 PM MDT
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  • 22891
    the same way you just did
      May 29, 2017 3:45 PM MDT
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  • 488
      July 8, 2017 12:01 PM MDT
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  • 46117
    I do the line thing.

    I do it with z as well to not mistake it for a 2.

      July 8, 2017 12:02 PM MDT
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