Page range abbreviation "pp.164–71" — a typo or a common shorthand? [closed]
I have to translate the following sentence into French:
Scrapers and abrasives are used to prepare the surface of a workpiece before a finish (pp.164–71) is applied.
I believe there is a mistake in the page range and think it should be:
pp.164-171
By any chance, is there any rule in English that allows to drop the hundreds of a page number when abbreviating a page range, or is this a mistake, as I do believe?
This is likely not a mistake, as it is a fairly common style for ranges of numerals. The common leading digits are elided as unnecessary. In particular, the Modern Language Association style guide states:
Inclusive range of numbers. MLA style drops digits in numbers above 99 according to specific rules. This is the process of eliding a range of inclusive numbers.
When writing numbers through 99 give the full digits. For example, write 42-48 not 42-8.
Page numbers above 99 require only the last two digits of the second number as long as the result is unambiguous. Leading zeros are not dropped in MLA practice. Write pages 1123–24 not 1123–1124; write pages 2000–04 not 2000–4 nor 2000-2004. Write pages 112–35 and pages 102–21, but write pages 102–08 not 102–8 or 102–108.
Write pages 1,584–621 not pages 1,582–1,621, and certainly not pages 1,584–21.
Elide dates only when they fall within the same century. Write the years 1865-1917 not 1865-917.
Source
You say you are translating this text into French. So I assume your question is an attempt to confirm whether you have understood the English-language source text correctly, rather than asking how one should translate the page numbers into French (where different conventions than those governing an English-language text might apply).
Such presentational issues are often governed by style guides. If no style guide is operative, or if following it to the letter would lead to a problem of interpretation, then common sense should be applied. In practice, this most often means minimizing the scope for confusion, ambiguity or misunderstanding.
I don't think that result was achieved here. But even so, I think most readers would understand the page number meaning the same way you do.
To be safe, if I was translating this text and the question of how to present the page range was up to me, I would give both the numbers in full. After all, it's not as though doing so would involve any kind of sacrifice or inconvenience, and clarity would be maximized by presenting the second number in its entirety.