: How should I write a height in feet and inches? I wrote the sentence: From far away, he could easily be mistaken for a ten year-old, at 5’1 he was as thin as a rail and wore a

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I recommend you don’t write it in feet and inches at all. Those are antique, non-standard measurements that are understood by maybe 10% of the world population, and that number is shrinking in size every single day. You can not only make your manuscript understandable by the whole world if you use modern, standardized measurements, you can also future-proof your manuscript.

Your subject is 155 centimeters tall.

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In Chicago Manual of Style, they recommend spelling it out.

"At five foot one, he was as thin as a rail."

In some cases a hyphen may help avoid ambiguity. If it's being used as an adjective, you might add hyphens. "His five-foot-two-inch body was thin as a rail."

You can use numbers if you prefer—"He was 5'2" and small for his age"—no spaces, and be sure to add the mark for inches. There's no absolute right or wrong here. Styles vary with different publishers. The main thing is to be consistent within your story. Don't spell it out in one place and use numbers somewhere else.

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