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There is another common business type of partnership 51% / 49%.

Would it be correct to say “to” instead of the slash sign while speaking, like:

51% to 49%

If “to” is wrong, please correct me.

Symbols should always be pronounced to denote their intended meaning. For example, the ampersand symbol (&) means "and", and so is pronounced that way:

eg "Smith & Jones" would be read as "Smith and Jones".

You would not expect someone to pronounce the symbol as "ampersand" when encountering it in a text.

The "slash" symbols (/ and ) are described by the terms "forward slash" and "backslash" but as mathematical symbols they can denote a number of things. Therefore the reader needs to understand their intended meaning before they can be read properly.

In your example...

There is another common business type of partnership 51% / 49%.

... it seems to me that this is representing a ratio.

A ratio expressed using the format "51:49" would normally be pronounced:

Fifty-one to forty-nine.

However, when it comes to percentages it is quite common to omit the ratio altogether. You may be familiar with the expression "50/50" (fifty-fifty) meaning an equal split two-ways. It may, therefore, be acceptable to say:

Fifty-one forty-nine.

There are other uses for the slash symbol, for example, a fraction. Although fractions are traditionally displayed vertically with the numerator above the denominator, it is also common for some to display these on one line using a slash due to the limitations of a computer keyboard. Whatever the symbol, you should consider what it means in context before attempting to pronounce it.

Many times, slashes and hyphens are left silent when reading expressions that use them. For example:

• Marriage is a 50/50 relationship.


• We need to be vigilant 24/7.


• The school will hold its first 50-50 raffle on Friday.


• The measure passed 51-49.



• Liverpool and Manchester played to a 2-2 tie.




• The Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling yesterday.

All of those can be said aloud without the use of a preposition, and without the mention of a punctuation mark between the two numerical values. (The word to could be used in those last three, but it's also commonly omitted.)

I'd be inclined to read your sentence without any mention of the slash.

It is basically representation of ratio. So there are various ways you can say/express it.

It is same as to ask whether a bar chart or line graph is correct to
summarize a data. While both of these are appropriate/correct for the
task, it is completely an individual choice.

"Obviously, something totally vague is not going to work"

But anything that expresses correctly the proportion of how one is related to the other is CORRECT.

Many people say it differently, and I guess all are fine. For example:

• 51% to 49%


• 51% slash 49%


• 51% over 49%


• 51% or 49%

Mathematically speaking, over is correct.

The most correct answer would probably be versus ( or vs for short) but this is a little clumsy in spoken language, so most commonly the slash would become completely silent.

In this context, to is wrong - it would mean that you were talking about a range FROM 51% to 49% when in fact the second number is redundant in this use.