How do you read “540” here? Five forty? Thanks.

yes. five forty.

Yes

If you’re in Southern California, you’d say “The five forty”

Yes, we never pronounce the hundred in highway names.

What this sounds like in my head: *"How do you read 'five forty' here? Five forty? Thanks."*

That's Interstate Highway 540; I would pronounce that as I 540 ("eye five forty") and not just "five forty". How to say the names of highways may vary from region. As u/TheLizardKing89 pointed out, people from Southern California would refer to the same highway as "the five forty".

Most people would read it as “Five-Forty”, but it isn’t strictly incorrect to read it as “Five-Four-Oh” (with “Oh” meaning zero in this context) or even “Five Hundred and Forty”. It’s a matter of convention - it’s quicker and easier to say “Five-Forty” here than another way, but if you were looking at another number, “264” for instance, most people would read that as “Two Six Four”, while “222” would probably be read as “Two-Twenty-Two”.

US interstate highways with three-digit labels are a loop road related to the primary route. I-40 is the main route here, and 540 is a loop that services a small area to connect a city or metro area to the main highway. It would be "five forty" as a result.

Interstate five-forty is what I say but it is also correct in contexts of it as a number to say five hundred and forty

We have to be done at exactly 5:40🫲

Yes

Yes. Five forty. That is typical of the way we say three digit numbers anyway, but it is the correct way to say our highway numbers. For bonus points, a middle zero is pronounced 0 in this case. As in four-oh-five or one-oh-one.

I definitely read it as five-forty, only five hundred and forty when I have to stress for someone who’s new to the 3-digit system (which has happened like only twice lol)

Five fordy

If you're from Southern California, you might say "*the* five forty".

We don't use the proper five hundred and forty when referring to interstates. As others have said, we tend to use one digit, two digit references as in five forty.

I legit thought I was in the r/Raleigh sub for a minute. Yeah, locals say 'Five Forty'.

Yep

These interstate highways are numbered in a specific way. There are main highways with two-digit names, and there are auxiliary highways, which are named by prepending a digit to the name of the main highway they're connected to. If you're driving on interstate 540, you're likely familiar with interstate 40, which this is connected to. So it's pronounced five-forty.

Five four Oh

I'd say "five forty" for the highway, "five four oh" for a phone number area code, and "five hundred forty" for dollars or something counted.

First correct second the reason you are correct is that in english (i'd bet it happens in other languages but my french isn't good enough to know if it's the case elsewhere) Numbers in the hundreds will often be used differently and changed how they are pronounced accordingly. For example, my the ESL home room I've been assigned to observe is room 305. That doesn't mean that the school has three hundred and five numbered rooms, but rather it's room 5 on floor 3. and since hundreds aren't involved, it slips into just reading each number in turn because it's shorter and english loves short. Hell we even shorten "zero" to "O" like saying what the letter is called because it's one east syllable instead of 2 harder ones. Not that zero is hard to pronounce just that it's effort and english is just kinda a lazy language with reductions happening often and everywhere. So in this case we would assume this is road forty of set 5 but that's... not actually true because the organizing system of american highways is just... kinda fucked. TLDR: you got it right, you can also apply this to room numbers and phone numbers

Is there a road called “four twenty”?

One difference in freeway names would be if the 0 is in the middle it's pronounced like the letter O. The Four Oh Five, the One Oh One.

Five-forty (or the outer beltline), four-forty (or the inner beltline). Then there's U.S. One, or 'Capital' through Raleigh. Most of the smaller highways would just be like ninety-six, ninety-eight, etc. 401 is Four-Oh-One. Then there's like 15/501, fifteen-five-oh-one. Some people would say something like 'eye five-forty' but not so many.

English is all about laziness. Whatever is the easiest way to say it, is almost always the right way to say it. In this case, "five forty" and "five four oh" are both 3 syllables, but "forty" is easier and faster to say than "four oh." Also, five four zero is never considered an option, except by the most literal-minded, as it's four whole syllables!

What's really confusing is knowing whether the specific dialect you're in would call that a highway, a freeway, route 540, or "the 540".

I would add that usually when giving directions or talking about traffic, you would also add the direction on interstates. I recently had this conversation with a friend. "I two ninety four southbound was backed up into the city so I took three fifty five south to I eighty."

Highway names vary by region. Californians would say “the five-forty”. Other places may say i-540.

The way I read the title was "how do you read...here". I just don't pronounce big numbers in my head.

UGH NOT THE INTERSTATES r/fuckcars

Yes - five forty (native English speaker from Chicago)

One thing to note is that if there is a shorter way to say something that's commonly said, choose the short version

As someone who lives in Raleigh, I am pleased to tell you that you are correct.

It’s in a U.S. Interstate shield, so it would read “I-540 (eye-five-forty)”.

I'd read it as "I five forty", or for short as "five forty" or "the five forty."

Five forty. If it was 543, I would likely say five four three. As a rule of thumb, speakers are lazy and what is easy to pronounce without being ambiguous is better.