Linguistic issues concerning the euro
Encyclopedia
Several linguistic
issues have arisen in relation to the spelling of the words euro and cent in the many languages of the member states of the European Union
, as well as in relation to grammar
and the formation of plurals.
In official documents, the name "euro" must be used for the nominative singular in all languages, though different alphabets are taken into account and plural forms and declensions are accepted. In documents other than EU legal texts, including national legislation, other spellings are accepted according to the various grammatical rules of the respective language. For European Union legislation, the spelling of the words for the currency is prescribed for each language; in the English-language version of European Union legislation the forms "euro" and "cent" are used invariantly in the singular and plural, even though this departs from usual English practice for currencies.
, there has been a controversy about the spelling of the word. The official academic dictionary uses the spelling euru, respecting the Asturian tendency to write nouns with a final -u. However, considering that the international use is euro and that there is a tendency in Asturian to write some short forms with a final -o (like euro from Europa), other linguists, like Ramón d'Andrés, defend the spelling euro.
uses the Cyrillic alphabet
. The current design of euro banknotes
has the word euro written in both the Latin and Greek alphabet
s. The same is true of euro coins, but if the Greek model is followed, the alternative spelling will go on the national (obverse) side. In popular Bulgarian usage the currency is referred to as евро ˈɛvro (from Bulgarian Европа [ɛvˈropa], meaning Europe); the plural varies in spoken language – евро, евра [ɛvˈra], еврота [ˈɛvrota] – but the most widespread form is евро – without inflection in plural. The word for euro, though, has a normal form with the postpositive definite article
– еврото (the euro).
The word for eurocent is евроцент ˈɛvrotsɛnt and most probably that, or only цент [ˈtsɛnt], will be used in future when the European currency is accepted in Bulgaria. In contrast to euro, the word for “cent” has a full inflection both in the definite and the plural form: евроцент (basic form), евроцентът (full definite article – postpositive), евроцентове (plural), 2 евроцента (numerative form – after numerals). The word stotinki (стотинки), singular stotinka (стотинка), the name of the subunit of the current Bulgarian currency can be used in place of cent, as it has become a synomym of the word “coins” in colloquial Bulgarian; just like “cent” (from Latin centum), its etymology
is from a word meaning hundred – “sto” (сто). Stotinki is used widely in the Bulgarian diaspora in Europe to refer to subunits of currencies other than the Bulgarian lev
.
Initially, the ECB
and the EU Commission insisted that Bulgaria change the name it uses for the currency from ЕВРО to ЕУРО, claiming the currency should have an official and standard spelling across the EU. Bulgaria on the other hand stated that it wants to take into account the different alphabet and the principle of phonetic orthography in the Bulgarian language.
The issue was decisively resolved in favour of Bulgaria at the 2007 EU Summit in Lisbon
, allowing Bulgaria to use the Cyrillic spelling евро on all official EU documents.
As of 13 December 2007, all EU institutions – including the ECB
– use ЕВРО as the official Bulgarian transliteration of the single European currency.
the official plural is the same as its regular plural euros.
In Eastern Catalan, the official pronunciation of "euro" is ˈɛwɾu (ˈɛwɾo in Majorcan), while in Western Catalan (which includes Valencian
) is ˈewɾo.
For the cent, the word cèntim (ˈsɛntim, plural cèntims) is used, since historically this term has been used as the hundredth part of a currency unit. The fraction of the peseta
was also called cèntim, but it was withdrawn from circulation decades ago.
, euro is written ewro (like Ewrop 'Europe'), a masculine noun with its plural ewros. For cent, cent is used, a masculine noun with the plural centys.
, the words euro and cent are spelt the same as in English and pronounced per Czech phonology ˈɛuro, [ˈtsɛnt]. Occasionally the word eurocent is used instead of cent to distinguish the euro denomination versus its foreign counterparts. The spelling differs from the Czech word for Europe (Evropa); however "euro-" has become a standard prefix for all things relating to EU (Evropská unie). Sometimes German-like pronunciation [ˈojro] appears jokingly.
The Czech declension
uses the different form of plural
for various numerals: for 21, 31 etc. uses singular "euro" and "cent", for 2, 3 and 4 (and 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 34 etc.) it is plain nominative eura and centy, while for numbers above 5 genitive (a vestige of partitive
) eur and centů. For euro, these grammatically correct declensions are often ignored and non-declined euro is used for every value.
In Czech euro is of neuter gender and inflected as město, while cent is masculine and inflected as hrad.
(according to Danish law). Two plurals are given, euro when referring to an amount, and euroer when referring to coins. Both cent and eurocent are mentioned; the plural and singular forms are identical.
Danish words of Greek origin containing the sequence eu are traditionally pronounced with [œʊ̯], e.g. Zeus, terapeut, eutanasi, Europa. However, in the word Europa, and consequently in euro, a newer pronunciation with [eʊ̯] has gained ground in recent years.
, most abstract units of measurement
are not pluralised, including the former Dutch guilder (gulden in Dutch) and Belgian franc
(called frank in Dutch), and now the euro. An amount such as €5 is pronounced 5 euro. This coincides with EU legislation stating that euro and cent should be used as both singular and plural. In Dutch, the words are however pluralised as euro's and centen when referring to individual coins.
The euro is divided into 100 cent, as was the guilder. The Belgian franc was divided into 100 centiemen. The word eurocent is sometimes used to distinguish it from the cents of other currencies, such as the dollarcent, but originally mainly to differentiate it from what used to be 0.01 guilder, also called "cent".
Pronunciation: The word euro is commonly pronounced ʏːroː; [ʏː] being the standard way to pronounce the eu digraph before an r in Dutch (such as eu in Europa, "Europe").
Slang terms: In the Netherlands, slang terms that were previously applied to guilder coinage and banknotes are sometimes applied to euro currency. Examples in the Netherlands include stuiver
for 5 cents, dubbeltje for 10 cents. However, the word kwartje (quarter), previously used for a guilder coin worth ƒ0.25, did not survive the introduction of the euro, which lacks a coin worth €0.25. Another popular slang term is the plural form euri (ʏːri), a deliberate hypercorrect
form referring to the plural of Dutch words of Latin or Italian origin.
In Belgium, some Flemings refer to the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins as koper, which is the Dutch word for copper, the metal these coins are made of (compare nickel
). Another nickname is ros or roskes which means redhead
or little redheads, referring to the colour of the coins.
Syntax: In Dutch language print, the euro sign
(€) is chiefly placed before the amount, from which it is often separated by a (thin) space. This was also the case with the florin sign
(ƒ).
EU legislation (not necessarily in national legislation) is to use the words euro and cent as both singular and plural. This practice originally arose out of legislation intended to ensure that the banknotes were uncluttered with a string of plurals. Because the s-less plurals had become "enshrined" in EU legislation, the Commission decided to retain those plurals in English in legislation even while allowing regular plurals in other languages. The Directorate-General for Translation
now recommends that the regular plurals, euros and cents, be used. The European Commission Directorate-General for Translation's English Style Guide (a handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission) previously recommended the use of regular plurals for documents intended for the general public but now has no restriction on usage and states:
Prior to 2006, the inter-institutional style guide recommended use of euro and cent without the plural s, and the translation style guide recommended use of invariant plurals (without s) when amending or referring to original legislation but use of regular plurals in documents intended for the general public.
There has been a limited development of the term "eurozoner", as a denonym for people in the eurozone
. Although it began to appear at the turn of the 2000s, its usage is still rare.
decided to use the word euro as both the singular and plural forms of the currency, and because Irish broadcasters took their cue from the Department, the "legislative plurals" tend to also be used on the news and in much Irish advertising. This has had the effect of reinforcing the s-less plurals, although advertisements made in the UK for broadcast in Ireland tend to use the plurals euros and cents (see below). The print media also follows the popular usage of 'euro' for both banknotes and amounts.
While many in Ireland use the "legislative" plurals euro and cent, it is also the case that other people in Ireland use the s-based plurals euros and cents. At the time the s-less plurals were introduced, at least some people complained that the EU ought not attempt to "change English grammar". People who have become accustomed to what they hear on daily television and radio use the s-less plurals. These are also seen written on the notes and coins, and in clear contrast to the situation on English and US banknotes.
Any number of rationales were subsequently applied to explain why the s-less plural might be acceptable, but these are generally folk etymologies. Long-standing plurals in -s for currencies that have singular forms ending in -o, like peso
s and escudo
s, are relevant when considering the plural of the euro currency. (Compare also the plural of the name of the marsupials known as the Euro
.) While it is true that s-less plurals exist in English for some other currencies (such as the yen, won
, rand
and baht), this usage is not the reason that the s-less plural for the euro was introduced.
Use of both the "legislative" and s plurals is widespread in spoken English in Ireland although the use of "euros" in print media is very uncommon.
The term euro-cent is sometimes used in countries (such as Australia, Canada, and the United States) which also have "cent" as a currency subdivision, to distinguish them from their local coin. This usage, though unofficial, is mirrored on the coins themselves, which have the words "EURO" and "CENT" displayed on the common side. The terms "eurodollar
", which commonly refers to U.S. dollar deposits outside the United States, or "euro dollar" which is the spoken form of the EUR/USD currency pair
in the foreign exchange market
s, have occasionally been used, confusingly, to refer to the euro in other parts of the world, particularly non-EU countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States.
the euro is called evra, a feminine noun derived from the Faroese name of Europe, Evropa; this makes Faroese (with Icelandic and Maltese) one of only three European languages in which the word for the euro is feminine. The plural is formed regularly: evrur. The cents are often called sent which is a neuter word and has the same form in the nominative
singular.
pronunciation for "euro" is ˈeuro. In Finnish, the form sentti ˈsentːi is used for the cent – the letter 'c' is generally not used in Finnish, and nativized Finnish words cannot end in consonant combinations like '-nt', therefore an extra vowel 'i' is added. Finnish does not have irregular declensions, so euro and sentti are regular and decline accordingly. With numerals, the partitive
singulars euroa and senttiä are used, e.g., 10 euroa. This is abbreviated 10 €, where the € symbol takes the role of the word euroa (never *€10 or *10€). The colon notation (€:a) must not be used with the partitive of euro when the number is in the nominative. In general, colon notation should be avoided and, for example, one should write euron or euroa instead of €:n or €:a.
Plurals (e.g., kymmenet eurot "tens of euros") exist, but they are not used with singular numbers (e.g., kymmenen euroa "ten euro").
Sentti is problematic in that its primary meaning in colloquial language is "centimeter". Thus, the officially recommended abbreviation of sentti is snt, although Finnish merchants generally use a decimal notation (for example 0,35 €).
Slang terms: In Helsinki slang
, a common nickname for euro is ege. In Tampere
slang Eero, a common male name, may be used for euro.
In colloquial speech there is no problem with speaking of "euro" and "cent" as partivive as some "euroja" and "senttejä"; ege is known all around the country, but not used in the north. In the southwest, the colloquial standard is "yksi euro" one euro, "monta euroo", a lot of euros; "yksi sentti", one cent, "monta senttii", a lot of cents.
The Académie Française
, which is regarded as an authority for the French language in France, stated this clearly, following French legislation in this regard.
In France, the word centime
is far more common than cent and is recommended by the Académie Française. Centime used to be a hundredth of the French franc
which is now called centime de franc. The word cent (plural cents, both pronounced sɛnt to avoid the confusion with cent (100) pronounced sɑ̃) is the official term to be used in the French-language version of community legislation. Before its use in relation to the euro, the word "cent" was best known to European Francophones as a hundredth of a dollar (U.S., Canadian, etc.)
French-speaking Belgians use more often cent than centime because centime coins for the Belgian franc (worth, on 1 January 1999 about three U.S. cents) rarely circulated (only a 50 centime coin was still being issued) and because of the influence of Dutch and English, which are more commonly used in Belgium than in France as a result of Belgium's language diversity.
The only other marked case is the genitive singular, which is (des) Euros or, alternatively, des Euro.
Pronunciation: The beginning of the word Euro is pronounced in German with the diphthong ɔʏ, which sounds similar to the 'oi' in the English word "oil".
The spelling of the word Cent is not well adapted to German spelling conventions because these strive to avoid ambiguous letter-sound correspondences. Initial letter C is often used in loanword
s and corresponds to various pronunciations depending on the language of origin (e.g. [s] in Centime, [tʃ] in Cello, [ts] in Celsius and [k] in Café). Most of these words are therefore eventually spelt phonetically (e.g. Kaffee, Kadmium, Zentimeter).
Latin
words beginning with "ce" such as centum (hundred) traditionally represent [ts] in German, and German words derived from these have therefore for a long time already been spelt with a Z, which represents [ts] (as in Zentrum (centre), Zentimeter (centimetre), etc.). Equivalently, some German speakers pronounce the beginning of the word "Cent" [ts], but since they are familiar with the English pronunciation of the American unit cent, most people pronounce it [s].
As these are nouns, both Euro and Cent are capitalised in German.
Slang terms: In Austria and Germany, the euro has also been called Teuro, a play on the word teuer, meaning 'expensive'. The Deutsche Mark by comparison was worth half as much as the euro (a ratio of approximately 2:1) and some grocers and restaurants have been accused of taking advantage of the smaller numbers to increase their actual prices with the changeover.
In youth and Internet culture the fake plural Euronen is sometimes used; this form's origin is unknown but it bears resemblance to Dublonen (Dubloons) and has a retro
ring to it. Also, "Öre" is occasionally used, the name of the Swedish currency
. Among some punks
, the word "Oi", as in the punk rock subgenre of Oi!
, is used.
In German Internet culture, the name Fragezeichen (question mark) is occasionally used in reference to the widespread problems with the euro sign
which was often rendered as question mark. The term is most often written using the mock currency code FRZ.
In the eastern part of Austria the word Eumeln (meaning "twerps", also plural-only) is occasionally used. It combines the word euro with a typical Austrian-German ending (like the word Semmeln, Austro-Bavarian for "buns" or "rolls") and gives the word a more casual and familiar touch.
Abbreviations: Eur sometimes in all caps EUR. TEUR for thousand Euros and MEUR for a million Euros is often used in financial documents. Numbers are given with a comma as decimal separator.
the indeclinable word ευρώ (evˈro) is used as the currency's name. It was decided to use omega
(ω) rather than omicron
(ο) as the last letter of the word, partly because a noun ending with omicron would encourage mutability, and partly to stress the origin of the euro in the Greek word Ευρώπη (Eurōpē, Europe) which is also spelt with omega and it is actually written on the euro notes in Greek as ΕΥΡΩ. Also, the spelling ΕΥΡΟ (resulting in a plural ΕΥΡΑ) on the notes could have confused other Europeans, who might read it as a string of Latin
letters: "eypo". A plural form evra, as if from a regular declinable neuter noun in -o, is sometimes used in a jocular way.
For the cent, the terms used are λεπτό, plural λεπτά (leptó
, plural leptá), a name used for small denominations of various ancient and modern Greek currencies, including the drachma (which the euro replaced). The word means 'minute'
(literally "thin"), the same as the unit of measurement of time or of angle. The term "ευρωλεπτό", plural "ευρωλεπτά" (evˈroleptó, plural evˈroleptá) is sometimes used when a speaker wants to be completely specific that he refers to money and not time.
Some colloquial names for currency are also in use for the euro. A 5 euro banknote is also colloquially called τάληρο (taliro) from the Germanic root 'thaler' via the Italian 'talero'.
A 10 euro banknote is called δεκάρικο (dekariko) and a 20 euro banknote is called εικοσάρικο (eikosariko) or εικοσάρι (eikosari), derivatives of the word for ten and twenty respectively.
10 lepta of a drachma were called δεκάρα (dekara), but since lepta of the drachma were out of circulation long before the euro, this word is now considered too old-fashioned and only used in old expressions and thus it is not used for the 10 eurocent coin. Nevertheless all Greeks understand the word to stand for 10 cents of any currency and thus use it for non-euro currencies like the dime of the US dollar. The same is true for the 5 cent coin which is not called πεντάρα (pentara) like its drachma equivalent. These words come from the words for five and ten respectively.
In Cyprus, however, the cent is officially called 'cent' both in singular and plural. This is the name formerly used for the 1/100th of the Cyprus pound chosen for its neutrality to both official languages of the Republic (Greek
and Turkish
).
the currency is named euró and cent (as in Hungarian no plural is used after numbers), the former with a long ó, as decided by the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, since Hungarian words cannot end in short o either in writing or in speech (except for one or two interjections), see these international words as examples: fotó, videó, sztereó. The spelling is also in accordance with the word "Europe" in Hungarian ("Európa"). The plural is not normally marked in Hungarian after numerals, but both names can take suffixes like euróval, euróért, euróból, etc. ("with a euro", "for a euro", "from a euro", etc.).
On introduction of the euro, Hungary—along with Lithuania, Latvia, and Slovenia—struggled for the euro to be written in its official documents according to its own usage and spelling, in contrast with Community law, which provides for a single name throughout the Union (in the nominative singular and taking account of different alphabets).
The Treaty of Lisbon
, signed in 2009, contains the following declaration from Hungary, Latvia and Malta:
, the words euro and cent are used without change in spelling
or pronunciation
, and immune to the regular rules of Irish mutation after numbers. The masculine noun eoró (plural eorónna) has been coined from the word Eoraip ('Europe'), and ceint (plural ceinteanna) has been in the lexicon since at least 1959. The words eoró and ceint are attested in printed literature, but are very rarely encountered.
the word euro is used, as both singular and plural. Its correct pronunciation is ˈɛuro, although northern Italians use [ˈeuro] instead. Sometimes the plural euri is used.
The issue of whether the correct plural form would be euri or euro remained open for a long time, predating the actual introduction of the currency and leaving a relative uncertainty among speakers. The Accademia della Crusca
assigned to Severina Parodi, lexicographer, and to Luca Serianni, language historian, the task to give a response. They deliberated in favour of euri in 1999 with the motivation that "euro is a masculine noun". But the issue was then re-examined many times.
Finally, the consensus of the Accademia was in favour of invariability and appeared, with an articulate rationale, on issue 23 (October 2001) of La Crusca per voi (Gli euro e le lingue). The rationale was based on the fact that abbreviated words originating from a longer word (for example auto from automobile (car) or moto from motocicletta (motorbike)) do not have a plural form, as well as the fact that the word Euro is considered an abbreviation of the word Europa (Europe). In the 306th session of the Senate of the Italian Republic, 18 December 2002, an amendment to the financial act was proposed to adopt euri as the plural form for public official deeds but was quickly rejected (See Amendment 62.5).
The word cent is in practical use always replaced by the word centesimo
([tʃenˈtɛzimo]), which simply means "hundredth" (also see centime
in French); its plural form is centesimi. Cent only appears on documents such as electricity and telephone bills; in any case it is rather perceived by native speakers as an abbreviation of "centesimo" (and in fact often followed by a period and pronounced [tʃent]) than as an autonomous proper name.
there are still at least two concurrent usages. The majority say and write 'eiro' (which somewhat resembles the West European euro, but has also taken its sound from Eiropa, the Latvian word for Europe).
Purists insist that standardised usage is eira – a word that is declinable
according to the normal and convenient Latvian pattern. Eirai clearly means for the euro, eirās means in euros, and so forth. In contrast, eiro, like all Latvian words ending in an '-o', is unable to take on inflection
s therefore it results in ambiguous phrases like "samainīt eiro", which can be interpreted in a variety of ways: to exchange into euros, to exchange euros [for something else], to exchange one euro – and this limits the fluency of communication.
The official usage of eira has been affirmed by Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, with the argument that a potentially frequently used term needs to fit especially well in the structure of grammar
. However, some media outlets and banks have preserved a habit of using eiro. Latvian language routinely adapts foreign words by adding declinable endings (like Ņujorka for New York, freska for fresco), although internationalisms ending in '-o' (like foto, auto) are common as well. (See also the article on the euro in the Latvian Wikipedia, and the section above about Hungarian.)
, a language spoken in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora
, the word for "euro" is "euru", the plural being "euros".
the euro and cent are called euras and centas (in common language usually eurocentas, to distinguish from the cents of the current Lithuanian currency, litas), while plural forms are eurai and centai (eurocentai). The Lithuanian language routinely adapts foreign words by re-spelling them according to Lithuanian phonetic rules and adding standardised endings, resulting in words like kompiuteris
or Tonis Bleiras
.
euro is spelt ewro, as was announced in December 2005. Ewro is spelt with w instead of u because it is derived from the Maltese word Ewropa (Europe), also written with w. Furthermore, the vowels e and u are not written next to each other in Maltese, except when they are pronounced as two syllables, which is not the case with Euro. The plural is unchanged. The cent is known as the ċenteżmu, plural ċenteżmi, both abbreviated to ċ.
In Maltese 'ewro' always starts with a small letter e, except when it is found in the beginning of a sentence, and ewro is feminine singular.
(regional language spoken in the northeast Portugal region of Miranda do Douro
) adopted the prefix ou already used in words like European (Ouropeu). The singular form is Ouro (/ˈow.ɾu/) and the plural form is Ouros (/ˈow.ɾuʃ/). Ouro is also the Mirandese word for 'gold', as in Portuguese.
euro is spelt euro in both singular and plural, and pronounced ˈɛwrɔ. This noun belongs to a small group of nouns of foreign origin in Polish that, as an exception, remain non-declinable in any of the seven cases (other examples being zoo, Waterloo and few others). It is however likely for the word euro to follow the pattern of other foreign words like kino, studio and radio and eventually become fully declinable in a similar manner as a result of a full linguistic absorption of the word into Polish. Cent is declinable, being eurocent or simply cent ([ɛurotsɛnt]) in singular nominative and eurocenty / centy ([ɛuroˈtsɛntɨ]) in plural nominative or eurocentów / centów ([ɛuroˈtsɛntuf]) in plural genitive.
, euro passes as a Portuguese word and thus is used in the singular form, with euros as the common plural form. Cent, which does not conform to Portuguese word-forming rules, is commonly converted to cêntimo (singular) and cêntimos (plural).
The term cêntimo might have been adopted to distinguish it from the fractional value of the Portuguese escudo
, which was called centavo, though as of 2010 the word centavo is starting to be used too.
Pronunciation of euro in Portuguese is still not standardized: either ˈewɾɔ or ˈewɾu. The latter has the regular final unstressed -o pronunciation, as u, and is more widespread in the north of the country, while the former is more common in the south. Euro, cêntimo and centavo are masculine nouns in Portuguese, and as such, "the cents" are translated as os cêntimos and "those euros" as aqueles euros.
In Brazil, where the euro is frequently mentioned in the press, the pronunciation is ˈewɾu and fractional values are called centavos de euro (cents of euro) to differentiate them from Brazilian real
"centavos".
the euro and cent are called euro and cent (plural ). The official plural of euro is also euro, and this official form was readily adopted by speakers. The "eu" construct is not a diphthong, thus the pronunciation is ˈe.uro.
When speaking in a familiar–vernacular setting, some speakers would make the informal plural "euroi" (not seen as academic, and not used officially; its stylistic value–connotation is less than "bucks" for US dollars or "quid" for GBP in English and much lower than the almost everyday use of "piasse" (piastre, with the cent called "sou") for CAD in Canadian French). The USD also has a nickname (the word "para"/"parai" of Turkish origin) with the same negative stylistic value. Not to be confused with general nicknames for money in general or unclear nicknames for foreign currencies (e.g."coco" – the specific currency is supposed to be inferred by the listener from previous info/conversation or from the country the speakers are in).
the euro and cent are called euro and cent, the plural forms for amounts between 2 and 4 are 2 eurá/centy, and the plural forms for larger amounts are 5 eur/centov. Euro is spelt with a u because it is derived from the word Európa (Europe). The c in cent represents /ts/.
Slang terms: common nicknames for euro in Slovak includes: euráče, evri, juráše, éčka (literally "e"-s or "letters ‘e’"). Cents are sometimes jokingly called šestáky (as a common term for coins with small value); meďáky or medenáky (literally "coppers" or "the copper ones") or haliere which is a reference to the small coins of the original Slovak currency.
However, the v in the word evro, as well as in Evropa is not pronounced as [v], but as [w] (see Slovene phonology). The c in cent is pronounced as ts.
In laws and regulations, though, the word ‘evro’ is replaced with the word ‘euro’ in all grammatical cases in accordance with an agreement between Slovenia and the European Union
. In normative Slovene language usage ‘evro’ spelling should only be used, except as noted.
(plural céntimos) can be used.
The fraction of the peseta
was also called céntimo, but no céntimo coins had been issued since 1980, and had since been demonetized.
The word "euro" is pronounced ˈe̙uɾo and the word "céntimo" is pronounced ˈθe̙nt̪imo in Spanish.
Slang terms: the euro is usually referred to as pavo (the usual translation for buck in dubbed films).
writing, euro(s) as an amount of money is spelt euro (and cent is spelt cent) both in singular and plural, or written EUR, or €. The € sign is common in Finland but rare in Sweden. The currency "the euro" is spelt "euron" following Swedish grammar rules.
In Sweden, in TV and radio news, it is pronounced ˈɛvɾu, similarly to how eu is pronounced in modern Swedish in neuro- (but not Europa "Europe"). However, many Swedes choose to pronounce it in a more English way [ˈjʊːro] (no "s" in plural). Neither one is much more common than the other. In Sweden there are no widespread slang terms since the euro is a foreign currency.
In Finland, the euro is the official currency, and Swedish is an official language alongside Finnish
. The same spelling as in Sweden is used (officially Swedish in Finland
is spelt as in Sweden). The pronunciation, however, is [ˈɛuɾo], which has some similarities to Finnish
pronunciation. The abbreviation is like 3,14 €, same as for Finnish. Among Swedish-speaking as well as Finnish-speaking people in Helsinki
, a common slang term is "ege".
, the spelling is ewro [ˈɛurɔ], which is masculine, and has the plural form ewros. (There is already a native word euro [ˈɛɨrɔ, ˈɛirɔ], meaning 'to gild', derived from aur 'gold'.) For cent, sent is used, with the plural sentiau.
the euro is usually referred to as ˈjuːro, ˈjuːru, which is an adaptation of the English pronunciation of the currency's name. Another naming is ˈʔoːro, which is an approximation of the French pronunciation øˈʁo. In most cases this term is used both for the singular and the plural form, although the term /juːroˈwaːt/ is rarely used as the plural form. The name for Europe in Arabic is /ʔo(ː)ˈrobba, -ˈroppa/. Because loanword
s aren't of Arabic
origin, therefore they are pronounced in accordance with the spoken varieties of Arabic
phonology. For example is pronounced ʔoˈɾobbɑ, -ˈɾoppɑ by Egyptian Arabic
speakers, while [ʔoːˈrobba, -ˈroppa] by Levantine Arabic
speakers.
Attempts to artificially Arabize the pronunciation according to the standardized Arabic phonology
would be more conforming to Arabic transliteration
s such as which would be theoretically pronounced /ˈjuːruː, ˈʔuːruː, ʔuːˈrubbaː/ for , respectively.
See also Arabic diglossia to understand why the pronunciation differs from region to region.
the euro and cent are called euro and cent (occasionally the word eurocent is used instead of cent to distinguish the euro denomination versus its foreign counterparts).
Plural forms are, like in many Slavic languages, somewhat complex. The general plural form of euro is euri, but the paucal or identically written (but not identically pronounced) genitive plural eura is used with all numbers, thus 27 eura. The numbers ending in 1 (e.g. 21 or 101) take the nominative singular, the exception being numbers ending in 11 (e.g. 11 or 111). The examples are: 21 euro, 101 euro, 11 eura, and 111 eura respectively.
The general plural form of cent is centi and it is used with most numbers. The numbers ending in 1, except for those ending in 11, take the nominative singular cent, while those ending in 2, 3 and 4 except 12 to 14 take the paucal centa. The examples are: 1 cent, 4 centa, 7 centi, 10 centi, 11 centi, 12 centi, 22 centa, 27 centi, 31 cent, 101 cent, 102 centa, 111 centi.
Both euro and cent in Croatian
are of masculine gender.
Pronunciation follows Rules of Croatian language
. Euro is pronounced ˈɛuro. Cent is pronounced [ˈtsɛnt]
, the currency is called "eŭro", similar to the Esperanto word for the continent "Eŭropo." A cent is cendo, as is commonly used for subunits of all centimalized currency (cents, centimes, etc.). The o ending in euro conveniently accords with the standard -o noun ending in Esperanto, but rather than sound out e and u separately, Esperanto speakers elected to use the diphthong
eŭ making the Esperanto name of the currency not identical with what is written on the currency. Plurals are formed in accordance with Esperanto rules, eŭroj and cendoj. The words are also declined as any Esperanto noun (eŭro/eŭroj in the nominative, eŭron/eŭrojn in the accusative). Esperanto speakers are unlikely to call a cent cento, since cento means a group of 100, rather than a hundredth. The alternative word would be centono, literally, "one-hundredth part".
and the Bank of Israel
is ˈeʁo, derived from eˈʁopa = Europe).
An unofficial spelling and pronunciation ˈjuʁo, derived from the English pronunciation of the currency's name, is also used.
Although in Hebrew currency names are usually declined for singular and plural, both forms of the Euro name are used for the singular and plural alike.
the euro is called evra, a feminine noun derived from the Icelandic name of Europe, Evrópa; this makes Icelandic (with Faroese and Maltese) one of only three European languages in which the word for the euro is feminine. The plural is formed regularly: evrur. The cents are often called sent which is a neuter word and has the same form in the nominative
plural. However, a more common usage is to write, say, 20 cents as 0,20 evrur.
syllabary employed for foreign words. The word for Europe in Japanese is "yōroppa" (ヨーロッパ), probably borrowed from the Portuguese
Europa (ˈew.ɾɔpɐ), or from the Dutch
"Europa". The cent uses the same word employed for all currencies using cents. This is rendered "sento" (or セント in the katakana script). Japanese has no plurals so both "yūro" and "sento" are used as the singular and plural.
there could be a problem concerning the spelling, since euro is masculine
and would normally take a plural -er ending in Bokmål
and -ar in Nynorsk
. But since words for foreign currencies (like dollar and yen) normally do not have the endings -er or -ar in Norwegian the Norwegian Language Council
reached a decision in 1996 that the proper declension of the word euro should be
in Bokmål:
in Nynorsk:
The declensions are respectively: The two first in Singular
, and the two last in Plural
, while the first of each category are indefinite
, the last of each category are definite
nouns. The word cent is an old loan word in Norwegian – and it is conjugated the same way:
in Bokmål:
in Nynorsk:
The pronunciation of the two words in Norwegian are ˈæʉɾu and [ˈsɛnt].
. In Russian, just like in the Bulgarian language
, euro is spelt евро both in the singular and the plural, while cent is цент (sg.) and центы (pl.), though there are many colloquial semi-ironic forms such as евры 'yevry' or еврики 'yevriki' (there's no plural form for euro in Russian), копейки
for cents and others. Just as in Italian, although евро could have been declined as a regular neuter noun, it was made indeclinable; the same form is used in the singular and the plural. Cents are sometimes transliterated as цент 'tsent' – singular, центы 'tsenty' – plural. Numerative form is цент for 1 cent (as well as amounts that end in 1 except for the ones ending in 11 – e.g. 51 цент but 11 центов), центa, the genitive singular, for 2 to 4 cents (as well as any other amounts ending in 2, 3 or 4, except for the ones ending in 12, 13, 14 – e.g. 54 центa but 12 центoв) and центoв, genitive plural, for the rest – 88 центoв. Sometimes eвроцент (also romanized as 'yevrotsent' or 'evrocent') is used to distinguish euro-cents from the American cents. (If евро had been treated as a regular neuter noun instead of being indeclinable, it would have the forms евра (regular plural or genitive singular) and евр (genitive plural).)
the euro and cent are called evro (Cyrillic
: евро) ˈɛvro and cent (Cyrillic: цент) tsɛnt. Evro is spelt with a v because it is derived from the name Европа/Evropa (Europe).
Both evro and cent are masculine nouns. They are inflected according to regular rules of the language:
The genitive plural centi is produced in an old-fashioned way that is today mostly reserved for measurement units. The alternative centa follows the vastly more common pattern of other masculine nouns but is very rarely heard in practice.
continue to use the Turkish lira
as their official currency, but the euro is popularly used, particularly by individuals wanting to convert their savings into a more stable currency. Euro has colloquially been pronounced in the English fashion since its inception.
In response to criticism of the widespread English pronunciation of euro, the Turkish Language Association
officially introduced avro into Turkish
("av" being the first syllable of the Turkish word for Europe, Avrupa) in 1998. A concerted campaign by the Turkish Language Association has begun to blossom in recent years, with most sections of the Turkish media now using the new word. It has yet to enter widespread colloquial use, however.
Linguistics
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. Linguistics can be broadly broken into three categories or subfields of study: language form, language meaning, and language in context....
issues have arisen in relation to the spelling of the words euro and cent in the many languages of the member states of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
, as well as in relation to grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
and the formation of plurals.
In official documents, the name "euro" must be used for the nominative singular in all languages, though different alphabets are taken into account and plural forms and declensions are accepted. In documents other than EU legal texts, including national legislation, other spellings are accepted according to the various grammatical rules of the respective language. For European Union legislation, the spelling of the words for the currency is prescribed for each language; in the English-language version of European Union legislation the forms "euro" and "cent" are used invariantly in the singular and plural, even though this departs from usual English practice for currencies.
Summary
| Euro conventions | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| €1 | Language | Usage | Euro | With Numbers | Cent | With Numbers | Pronunciation (in IPA) | |
| Albanian | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euro | qindarkë cent |
10 qindarka 10 centë |ˈɛu.ɾo |
|||
| Bulgarian | 3,14 € | евро evro |
10 евро 10 evro |
евроцент evrocent цент cent |
10 евроцента 10 evrocenta 10 цента 10 centa |ˈɛv.ro |
ˈɛv.rotsɛnt | ||
| Breton | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euroioù | sent liard |
10 sent 10 liardoù |
|||
| Catalan | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euros | cèntim | 10 cèntims |ˈɛw.ɾu ˈɛw.ɾo ˈew.ɾo |
ˈsɛn.tim | ||
| Cornish | €3.14 | ewro | 10 ewros | cent | centys 2 cent 10 cent |
ˈɛʊɾo ˈɛʊɾoz |
sɛnt sɛntɪz |
|
| Croatian | 3,14 € | euro | euri 10 eura x1, xx1 euro but x11, xx11 eura |
cent eurocent |
10 centi x1 cent but x11 centi (x)2,(x)3,(x)4 centa but(x)12,(x)14 centi |ˈɛuro |ˈtsɛnt |
|||
| Czech | 3,14 € | euro | 2, 3, 4 eura 5 eur |
cent | 2, 3, 4, centy 5 centů |
ˈɛu.ro | tsɛnt | |
| Danish | euro | 10 euro | cent | 10 cent | ˈœʊ̯.ʁo ˈeʊ̯.ʁo |
sɛnˀd̥ | ||
| Dutch | € 3,14 | euro | 10 euro | cent | 10 cent | ˈøːroː ˈʏːroː |
sɛnt | |
| English4 | €3.14 (MT Malta Malta , officially known as the Republic of Malta , is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, south of Sicily, east of Tunisia and north of Libya, with Gibraltar to the west and Alexandria to the east.Malta covers just over in... , IE Ireland Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth... ) |
euro | 10 euro 10 euros |
cent | 10 cent 10 cents |
ˈjʊɹoʊz ˈjʊɹoʊ |
sɛnts sɛnt |
|
| Estonian | 3,14 € | euro | 10 eurot2 | sent | 10 senti2 | |||
| Faroese | €3,14 | evra | 10 evrur | sent | 10 sent |ˈɛvɹa |
sɛnt | ||
| Finnish | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euroa2 | sentti | 10 senttiä2 |ˈeuro ˈeu.ro.ɑ2 |ˈsentːi ˈsentːi.æ2 |
|||
| French | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euros | cent centime |
10 cents 10 centimes |
øˈʁo | sɑ̃, sɛnt sɑ̃ˈtim |
|
| Frisian | € 3,14 | euro jero Euro |
10 euro | sint Sänt |
10 sint 10Sänt |
|||
| Galician | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euros | céntimo | 10 céntimos | ew.ɾɔ(s) | ˈθetɨmɔ(s) ˈsetɨmɔ(s) |
|
| Georgian | 3,14 € | ევრო evro |
10 ევრო evro |
შეადგინა sheadgina |
10 ცენტი tsent'i |
|||
| German | € 3,14 (AT Austria Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the... ) 3,14 € (DE Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... ) |
Euro | 10 Euro | Cent | 10 Cent | ˈɔʏʁo | tsɛnt sɛnt |
|
| Greek | 3,14 € (GR Greece Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe.... ) € 3.14 (CY Cyprus Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the... ) |
ευρώ eyrō |
10 ευρώ 10 eyrō |
λεπτό (GR) leptó σεντ (CY) sent |
10 λεπτά 10 leptá 10 σεντ 10 sent |
evˈro | lepˈto lepˈta (GR) sent (CY) |
|
| Hungarian | 3,14 € | euró | 10 euró | cent | 10 cent | ˈɛuroː | ˈtsɛnt | |
| Icelandic | evra | 10 evrur | sent | 10 sent | ||||
| Irish | €3.14 | euro | 10 euro | cent | 10 cent | jʊɹoʊ | sɛnt | |
| Italian | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euro | centesimo | 10 centesimi | ˈɛuro | tʃenˈtɛzimo | |
| Latvian | € 3,14 | eiro eira |
10 eiro 10 eiras |
centi | 10 centi | |||
| Lithuanian | 3,14 € | euras | 2 eurai 10 eurų 21 euras |
centas | 2 centai 10 centų 21 centas |
|||
| Macedonian | 3,14 € | евро evro |
10 еврa 10 evra |
цент cent |
10 центи 10 centi |
ɛv.ro | ||
| Manx | €3.14 | euro oarey |
10 euro | cent | 10 cent | |||
| Maltese | €3.14 | ewro | 10 ewro | ċenteżmu | 10 ċenteżmi | ˈɛuro | tʃenˈtɛzmu | |
| Norwegian | euro | 10 euro | cent | 10 cent | ||||
| Polish | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euro | cent | 2, 3, 4 centy 10 centów |
ˈɛw.rɔ | tsɛnt ˈtsɛn.tɨ tsɛn.tuf |
|
| Portuguese | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euros | cêntimo/centavo | 10 cêntimos/centavos | ew.ɾɔ ˈew.ɾu |
ˈsẽtɨmu(ʃ) ˈsẽtavu(ʃ) |
|
| Romanian | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euro |
cent, eurocent | 10 cenți, 10 eurocenți | ˈe.uro | t͡ʃent, ˌe.uroˈt͡ʃent t͡ʃent͡sʲ, ˌe.uroˈt͡ʃent͡sʲ |
|
| Romansh | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euros | cent | 10 cents | |||
| Russian | 3,14 € | евро yevro |
10 евро 10 evro |
цент cent |
2 центa 2 centa 10 центoв 10 centov 21 цент 21 cent |
ˈjɛ̝v.rɐ | tsɛnt ˈtsɛnt̪ɐ ˈtsɛnt̪ə̥f |
|
| Scots | €3.14 | euro | 10 euros | cent | 10 cents | |||
| Scottish | €3.14 | euro eòra |
10 euros 10 eòrathan |
cent seant |
10 cents 10 seantaichean |
|||
| Serbian | 3,14 € | евро evro |
10 еврa 10 evra |
цент cent |
10 центи 10 centi |
ɛv.ro | ||
| Slovak | 3,14 € | euro | 2, 3, 4 eurá 5 eur/eúr |
cent | 2, 3, 4 centy 5 centov |
ɛʊ.ɾɔ | tsɛnt | |
| Slovene | 3,14 € | evro | 2 evra 3 evri 5+ evrov |
cent | 2 centa 3 centi 5+ centov |
eu̯.rɔ | ||
| Spanish | 3,14 € | euro | 10 euros | céntimo | 10 céntimos | eu.ɾo(s) | ˈθent̪imo(s) | |
| Swedish4 | 3,14 € (FIN Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... ) |
euro | 10 euro | cent | 10 cent | ˈɛu.ɾo (FIN Finland Finland , officially the Republic of Finland, is a Nordic country situated in the Fennoscandian region of Northern Europe. It is bordered by Sweden in the west, Norway in the north and Russia in the east, while Estonia lies to its south across the Gulf of Finland.Around 5.4 million people reside... ) ˈɛv.ɾu (SWE Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... ) ˈjʊː.ro (SWE Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... ) |
||
| Turkish4 | € 3.14(CY Cyprus Cyprus , officially the Republic of Cyprus , is a Eurasian island country, member of the European Union, in the Eastern Mediterranean, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and north of Egypt. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.The earliest known human activity on the... ) |
avro euro |
10 avro 10 euro |
sent | 10 sent | |||
| Ukrainian | 3,14 € | євро yewro |
10 євро 10 yewro |
цент cent |
2 центи 2 centy 10 центів 10 centiw 21 цент 21 cent |
ˈjɛu̯rɔ | ˈt͡sɛntɪ ˈt͡sɛntiu̯ t͡sɛnt |
|
| Welsh | €3.14 | ewro | ewros 10 ewro3 |
sent | sentiau 10 sent |
ˈɛurɔ ˈɛurɔs, ˈɛurɔz |
sɛnt ˈsɛntjaɨ, ˈsɛntjai |
|
- 1 The language is an official language in a eurozoneEurozoneThe eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...
member state, meaning there are official spellings in EU documents. - 2 PartitivePartitiveIn linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that divides something into parts. For example, in the English sentence I'll have some coffee, some is a partitive determiner because it makes the noun phrase some coffee refer to a subset of all coffee...
singularGrammatical numberIn linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. Most languages use a plural or immutable singular with numbers, but Estonian and Finnish use the partitive case. - 3 Welsh follows numerals with the singular form of the noun.
- 4 English, Turkish and Swedish are marked by the euro sign because they are official languages of eurozone members (English being the official language in Malta and Ireland, Turkish in Cyprus, and Swedish in Finland), despite the fact that Turkish is not an official language of the European Union and that neither Sweden nor the United Kingdom use the euro.
Asturian
In AsturianAsturian language
Asturian is a Romance language of the West Iberian group, Astur-Leonese Subgroup, spoken in the Spanish Region of Asturias by the Asturian people...
, there has been a controversy about the spelling of the word. The official academic dictionary uses the spelling euru, respecting the Asturian tendency to write nouns with a final -u. However, considering that the international use is euro and that there is a tendency in Asturian to write some short forms with a final -o (like euro from Europa), other linguists, like Ramón d'Andrés, defend the spelling euro.
Bulgarian
BulgarianBulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
uses the Cyrillic alphabet
Cyrillic alphabet
The Cyrillic script or azbuka is an alphabetic writing system developed in the First Bulgarian Empire during the 10th century AD at the Preslav Literary School...
. The current design of euro banknotes
Euro banknotes
Euro banknotes are the banknotes of the euro, the currency of the eurozone and have been in circulation since 2002. They are issued by the national central banks of the euro area or the European Central Bank...
has the word euro written in both the Latin and Greek alphabet
Greek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
s. The same is true of euro coins, but if the Greek model is followed, the alternative spelling will go on the national (obverse) side. In popular Bulgarian usage the currency is referred to as евро ˈɛvro (from Bulgarian Европа [ɛvˈropa], meaning Europe); the plural varies in spoken language – евро, евра [ɛvˈra], еврота [ˈɛvrota] – but the most widespread form is евро – without inflection in plural. The word for euro, though, has a normal form with the postpositive definite article
Definite Article
Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzard's 1996 performance released on VHS. It was recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre...
– еврото (the euro).
The word for eurocent is евроцент ˈɛvrotsɛnt and most probably that, or only цент [ˈtsɛnt], will be used in future when the European currency is accepted in Bulgaria. In contrast to euro, the word for “cent” has a full inflection both in the definite and the plural form: евроцент (basic form), евроцентът (full definite article – postpositive), евроцентове (plural), 2 евроцента (numerative form – after numerals). The word stotinki (стотинки), singular stotinka (стотинка), the name of the subunit of the current Bulgarian currency can be used in place of cent, as it has become a synomym of the word “coins” in colloquial Bulgarian; just like “cent” (from Latin centum), its etymology
Etymology
Etymology is the study of the history of words, their origins, and how their form and meaning have changed over time.For languages with a long written history, etymologists make use of texts in these languages and texts about the languages to gather knowledge about how words were used during...
is from a word meaning hundred – “sto” (сто). Stotinki is used widely in the Bulgarian diaspora in Europe to refer to subunits of currencies other than the Bulgarian lev
Bulgarian lev
The lev is the currency of Bulgaria. It is divided in 100 stotinki . In archaic Bulgarian the word "lev" meant "lion".It is speculated that Bulgaria, as a member of the European Union will adopt the Euro in 2015 .- First lev, 1881–1952 :...
.
Initially, the ECB
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
and the EU Commission insisted that Bulgaria change the name it uses for the currency from ЕВРО to ЕУРО, claiming the currency should have an official and standard spelling across the EU. Bulgaria on the other hand stated that it wants to take into account the different alphabet and the principle of phonetic orthography in the Bulgarian language.
The issue was decisively resolved in favour of Bulgaria at the 2007 EU Summit in Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
, allowing Bulgaria to use the Cyrillic spelling евро on all official EU documents.
As of 13 December 2007, all EU institutions – including the ECB
European Central Bank
The European Central Bank is the institution of the European Union that administers the monetary policy of the 17 EU Eurozone member states. It is thus one of the world's most important central banks. The bank was established by the Treaty of Amsterdam in 1998, and is headquartered in Frankfurt,...
– use ЕВРО as the official Bulgarian transliteration of the single European currency.
Catalan
In CatalanCatalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
the official plural is the same as its regular plural euros.
In Eastern Catalan, the official pronunciation of "euro" is ˈɛwɾu (ˈɛwɾo in Majorcan), while in Western Catalan (which includes Valencian
Valencian
Valencian is the traditional and official name of the Catalan language in the Valencian Community. There are dialectical differences from standard Catalan, and under the Valencian Statute of Autonomy, the Acadèmia Valenciana de la Llengua has been established as its regulator...
) is ˈewɾo.
For the cent, the word cèntim (ˈsɛntim, plural cèntims) is used, since historically this term has been used as the hundredth part of a currency unit. The fraction of the peseta
Spanish peseta
The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra .- Etymology :...
was also called cèntim, but it was withdrawn from circulation decades ago.
Cornish
In the Cornish languageCornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...
, euro is written ewro (like Ewrop 'Europe'), a masculine noun with its plural ewros. For cent, cent is used, a masculine noun with the plural centys.
Czech
In CzechCzech language
Czech is a West Slavic language with about 12 million native speakers; it is the majority language in the Czech Republic and spoken by Czechs worldwide. The language was known as Bohemian in English until the late 19th century...
, the words euro and cent are spelt the same as in English and pronounced per Czech phonology ˈɛuro, [ˈtsɛnt]. Occasionally the word eurocent is used instead of cent to distinguish the euro denomination versus its foreign counterparts. The spelling differs from the Czech word for Europe (Evropa); however "euro-" has become a standard prefix for all things relating to EU (Evropská unie). Sometimes German-like pronunciation [ˈojro] appears jokingly.
The Czech declension
Czech declension
Czech declension describes the declension, or system of grammatically-determined modifications, in nouns, adjectives, pronouns and numerals in the Czech language. There is a system of 7 cases in Czech...
uses the different form of plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
for various numerals: for 21, 31 etc. uses singular "euro" and "cent", for 2, 3 and 4 (and 22, 23, 24, 32, 33, 34 etc.) it is plain nominative eura and centy, while for numbers above 5 genitive (a vestige of partitive
Partitive
In linguistics, the partitive is a word, phrase, or case that divides something into parts. For example, in the English sentence I'll have some coffee, some is a partitive determiner because it makes the noun phrase some coffee refer to a subset of all coffee...
) eur and centů. For euro, these grammatically correct declensions are often ignored and non-declined euro is used for every value.
In Czech euro is of neuter gender and inflected as město, while cent is masculine and inflected as hrad.
Danish
The word euro is included in the 2002 version of Retskrivningsordbogen, which is the authoritative source for the Danish languageDanish language
Danish is a North Germanic language spoken by around six million people, principally in the country of Denmark. It is also spoken by 50,000 Germans of Danish ethnicity in the northern parts of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, where it holds the status of minority language...
(according to Danish law). Two plurals are given, euro when referring to an amount, and euroer when referring to coins. Both cent and eurocent are mentioned; the plural and singular forms are identical.
Danish words of Greek origin containing the sequence eu are traditionally pronounced with [œʊ̯], e.g. Zeus, terapeut, eutanasi, Europa. However, in the word Europa, and consequently in euro, a newer pronunciation with [eʊ̯] has gained ground in recent years.
Dutch
Plural: In DutchDutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
, most abstract units of measurement
Units of measurement
A unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a physical quantity, defined and adopted by convention and/or by law, that is used as a standard for measurement of the same physical quantity. Any other value of the physical quantity can be expressed as a simple multiple of the unit of...
are not pluralised, including the former Dutch guilder (gulden in Dutch) and Belgian franc
Belgian franc
The franc was the currency of Belgium until 2002 when the euro was introduced into circulation. It was subdivided into centimes , 100 centiem or Centime .-History:...
(called frank in Dutch), and now the euro. An amount such as €5 is pronounced 5 euro. This coincides with EU legislation stating that euro and cent should be used as both singular and plural. In Dutch, the words are however pluralised as euro's and centen when referring to individual coins.
The euro is divided into 100 cent, as was the guilder. The Belgian franc was divided into 100 centiemen. The word eurocent is sometimes used to distinguish it from the cents of other currencies, such as the dollarcent, but originally mainly to differentiate it from what used to be 0.01 guilder, also called "cent".
Pronunciation: The word euro is commonly pronounced ʏːroː; [ʏː] being the standard way to pronounce the eu digraph before an r in Dutch (such as eu in Europa, "Europe").
Slang terms: In the Netherlands, slang terms that were previously applied to guilder coinage and banknotes are sometimes applied to euro currency. Examples in the Netherlands include stuiver
Stuiver
The stuiver was a pre-decimal coin used in the Netherlands It was worth 16 penning or 8 duit. Twenty stuivers equalled a guilder.It circulated until the Napoleonic Wars...
for 5 cents, dubbeltje for 10 cents. However, the word kwartje (quarter), previously used for a guilder coin worth ƒ0.25, did not survive the introduction of the euro, which lacks a coin worth €0.25. Another popular slang term is the plural form euri (ʏːri), a deliberate hypercorrect
Hypercorrection
In linguistics or usage, hypercorrection is a non-standard usage that results from the over-application of a perceived rule of grammar or a usage prescription...
form referring to the plural of Dutch words of Latin or Italian origin.
In Belgium, some Flemings refer to the 1, 2 and 5 cent coins as koper, which is the Dutch word for copper, the metal these coins are made of (compare nickel
Nickel (United States coin)
The nickel is a five-cent coin, representing a unit of currency equaling five hundredths of one United States dollar. A later-produced Canadian nickel five-cent coin was also called by the same name....
). Another nickname is ros or roskes which means redhead
Red hair
Red hair occurs on approximately 1–2% of the human population. It occurs more frequently in people of northern or western European ancestry, and less frequently in other populations...
or little redheads, referring to the colour of the coins.
Syntax: In Dutch language print, the euro sign
Euro sign
The euro sign is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the Eurozone in the European Union . The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. The international three-letter code for the euro is EUR...
(€) is chiefly placed before the amount, from which it is often separated by a (thin) space. This was also the case with the florin sign
Florin sign
The florin sign is a symbol that is used for the currencies named florin, also called a gulden or guilder. The symbol "ƒ" is the lowercase version of of the Latin alphabet. In Unicode it has a separate code point at...
(ƒ).
English
Official practice for English-languageEnglish language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
EU legislation (not necessarily in national legislation) is to use the words euro and cent as both singular and plural. This practice originally arose out of legislation intended to ensure that the banknotes were uncluttered with a string of plurals. Because the s-less plurals had become "enshrined" in EU legislation, the Commission decided to retain those plurals in English in legislation even while allowing regular plurals in other languages. The Directorate-General for Translation
Directorate-General for Translation (European Commission)
The Directorate-General for Translation , located in Brussels and Luxembourg, provides translation of written text into and out of the European Union's twenty-three official languages. With an annual output of about 1.5 million pages, it is the largest translation service in the world, employing...
now recommends that the regular plurals, euros and cents, be used. The European Commission Directorate-General for Translation's English Style Guide (a handbook for authors and translators in the European Commission) previously recommended the use of regular plurals for documents intended for the general public but now has no restriction on usage and states:
Prior to 2006, the inter-institutional style guide recommended use of euro and cent without the plural s, and the translation style guide recommended use of invariant plurals (without s) when amending or referring to original legislation but use of regular plurals in documents intended for the general public.
There has been a limited development of the term "eurozoner", as a denonym for people in the eurozone
Eurozone
The eurozone , officially called the euro area, is an economic and monetary union of seventeen European Union member states that have adopted the euro as their common currency and sole legal tender...
. Although it began to appear at the turn of the 2000s, its usage is still rare.
In Ireland
As the euro was being adopted in Ireland the Department of FinanceDepartment of Finance (Ireland)
The Department of Finance is a department of the Government of Ireland. It is led by the Minister for Finance and is assisted by one Minister of State....
decided to use the word euro as both the singular and plural forms of the currency, and because Irish broadcasters took their cue from the Department, the "legislative plurals" tend to also be used on the news and in much Irish advertising. This has had the effect of reinforcing the s-less plurals, although advertisements made in the UK for broadcast in Ireland tend to use the plurals euros and cents (see below). The print media also follows the popular usage of 'euro' for both banknotes and amounts.
While many in Ireland use the "legislative" plurals euro and cent, it is also the case that other people in Ireland use the s-based plurals euros and cents. At the time the s-less plurals were introduced, at least some people complained that the EU ought not attempt to "change English grammar". People who have become accustomed to what they hear on daily television and radio use the s-less plurals. These are also seen written on the notes and coins, and in clear contrast to the situation on English and US banknotes.
Any number of rationales were subsequently applied to explain why the s-less plural might be acceptable, but these are generally folk etymologies. Long-standing plurals in -s for currencies that have singular forms ending in -o, like peso
Peso
The word peso was the name of a coin that originated in Spain and became of immense importance internationally...
s and escudo
Portuguese escudo
The escudo was the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the Euro on 1 January 1999 and its removal from circulation on 28 February 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 centavos....
s, are relevant when considering the plural of the euro currency. (Compare also the plural of the name of the marsupials known as the Euro
Eastern Wallaroo
The Eastern Wallaroo also known as the Common Wallaroo or the Hill Wallaroo is part of the Wallaroo family . It is a large, variable species of macropod ....
.) While it is true that s-less plurals exist in English for some other currencies (such as the yen, won
South Korean won
The won is the currency of South Korea. A single won is divided into 100 jeon, the monetary subunit. The jeon is no longer used for everyday transactions, and appears only in foreign exchange rates...
, rand
South African rand
The rand is the currency of South Africa. It takes its name from the Witwatersrand , the ridge upon which Johannesburg is built and where most of South Africa's gold deposits were found. The rand has the symbol "R" and is subdivided into 100 cents, symbol "c"...
and baht), this usage is not the reason that the s-less plural for the euro was introduced.
Use of both the "legislative" and s plurals is widespread in spoken English in Ireland although the use of "euros" in print media is very uncommon.
In Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the USA
.The term euro-cent is sometimes used in countries (such as Australia, Canada, and the United States) which also have "cent" as a currency subdivision, to distinguish them from their local coin. This usage, though unofficial, is mirrored on the coins themselves, which have the words "EURO" and "CENT" displayed on the common side. The terms "eurodollar
Eurodollar
Eurodollars are time deposits denominated in U.S. dollars at banks outside the United States, and thus are not under the jurisdiction of the Federal Reserve. Consequently, such deposits are subject to much less regulation than similar deposits within the U.S., allowing for higher margins. The term...
", which commonly refers to U.S. dollar deposits outside the United States, or "euro dollar" which is the spoken form of the EUR/USD currency pair
Currency pair
A currency pair is the quotation of the relative value of a currency unit against the unit of another currency in the foreign exchange market. The currency that is used as the reference is called the counter currency or quote currency and the currency that is quoted in relation is called the base...
in the foreign exchange market
Foreign exchange market
The foreign exchange market is a global, worldwide decentralized financial market for trading currencies. Financial centers around the world function as anchors of trading between a wide range of different types of buyers and sellers around the clock, with the exception of weekends...
s, have occasionally been used, confusingly, to refer to the euro in other parts of the world, particularly non-EU countries such as Australia, Canada, and the United States.
Faroese
In FaroeseFaroese language
Faroese , is an Insular Nordic language spoken by 48,000 people in the Faroe Islands and about 25,000 Faroese people in Denmark and elsewhere...
the euro is called evra, a feminine noun derived from the Faroese name of Europe, Evropa; this makes Faroese (with Icelandic and Maltese) one of only three European languages in which the word for the euro is feminine. The plural is formed regularly: evrur. The cents are often called sent which is a neuter word and has the same form in the nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
singular.
Finnish
The FinnishFinnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
pronunciation for "euro" is ˈeuro. In Finnish, the form sentti ˈsentːi is used for the cent – the letter 'c' is generally not used in Finnish, and nativized Finnish words cannot end in consonant combinations like '-nt', therefore an extra vowel 'i' is added. Finnish does not have irregular declensions, so euro and sentti are regular and decline accordingly. With numerals, the partitive
Partitive case
The partitive case is a grammatical case which denotes "partialness", "without result", or "without specific identity". It is also used in contexts where a subgroup is selected from a larger group, or with numbers....
singulars euroa and senttiä are used, e.g., 10 euroa. This is abbreviated 10 €, where the € symbol takes the role of the word euroa (never *€10 or *10€). The colon notation (€:a) must not be used with the partitive of euro when the number is in the nominative. In general, colon notation should be avoided and, for example, one should write euron or euroa instead of €:n or €:a.
Plurals (e.g., kymmenet eurot "tens of euros") exist, but they are not used with singular numbers (e.g., kymmenen euroa "ten euro").
Sentti is problematic in that its primary meaning in colloquial language is "centimeter". Thus, the officially recommended abbreviation of sentti is snt, although Finnish merchants generally use a decimal notation (for example 0,35 €).
Slang terms: In Helsinki slang
Helsinki slang
Helsinki slang or stadin slangi is a local dialect and a sociolect of the Finnish language mainly used in the capital Helsinki...
, a common nickname for euro is ege. In Tampere
Tampere
Tampere is a city in southern Finland. It is the most populous inland city in any of the Nordic countries. The city has a population of , growing to approximately 300,000 people in the conurbation and over 340,000 in the metropolitan area. Tampere is the third most-populous municipality in...
slang Eero, a common male name, may be used for euro.
In colloquial speech there is no problem with speaking of "euro" and "cent" as partivive as some "euroja" and "senttejä"; ege is known all around the country, but not used in the north. In the southwest, the colloquial standard is "yksi euro" one euro, "monta euroo", a lot of euros; "yksi sentti", one cent, "monta senttii", a lot of cents.
French
In French the official plural is the same as the regular plural euros.The Académie Française
Académie française
L'Académie française , also called the French Academy, is the pre-eminent French learned body on matters pertaining to the French language. The Académie was officially established in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, the chief minister to King Louis XIII. Suppressed in 1793 during the French Revolution,...
, which is regarded as an authority for the French language in France, stated this clearly, following French legislation in this regard.
In France, the word centime
Centime
Centime is French for "cent", and is used in English as the name of the fraction currency in several Francophone countries ....
is far more common than cent and is recommended by the Académie Française. Centime used to be a hundredth of the French franc
French franc
The franc was a currency of France. Along with the Spanish peseta, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra . Between 1360 and 1641, it was the name of coins worth 1 livre tournois and it remained in common parlance as a term for this amount of money...
which is now called centime de franc. The word cent (plural cents, both pronounced sɛnt to avoid the confusion with cent (100) pronounced sɑ̃) is the official term to be used in the French-language version of community legislation. Before its use in relation to the euro, the word "cent" was best known to European Francophones as a hundredth of a dollar (U.S., Canadian, etc.)
French-speaking Belgians use more often cent than centime because centime coins for the Belgian franc (worth, on 1 January 1999 about three U.S. cents) rarely circulated (only a 50 centime coin was still being issued) and because of the influence of Dutch and English, which are more commonly used in Belgium than in France as a result of Belgium's language diversity.
German
Plural: In German, Euro and Cent are used as both singular and plural when following a numeral, as is the case with all units of measurement of masculine or neuter gender (e.g. Meter, Dollar, Kilo[gramm], etc.). However, when talking about individual coins, the plurals Euros and Cents are used.The only other marked case is the genitive singular, which is (des) Euros or, alternatively, des Euro.
Pronunciation: The beginning of the word Euro is pronounced in German with the diphthong ɔʏ, which sounds similar to the 'oi' in the English word "oil".
The spelling of the word Cent is not well adapted to German spelling conventions because these strive to avoid ambiguous letter-sound correspondences. Initial letter C is often used in loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s and corresponds to various pronunciations depending on the language of origin (e.g. [s] in Centime, [tʃ] in Cello, [ts] in Celsius and [k] in Café). Most of these words are therefore eventually spelt phonetically (e.g. Kaffee, Kadmium, Zentimeter).
Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
words beginning with "ce" such as centum (hundred) traditionally represent [ts] in German, and German words derived from these have therefore for a long time already been spelt with a Z, which represents [ts] (as in Zentrum (centre), Zentimeter (centimetre), etc.). Equivalently, some German speakers pronounce the beginning of the word "Cent" [ts], but since they are familiar with the English pronunciation of the American unit cent, most people pronounce it [s].
As these are nouns, both Euro and Cent are capitalised in German.
Slang terms: In Austria and Germany, the euro has also been called Teuro, a play on the word teuer, meaning 'expensive'. The Deutsche Mark by comparison was worth half as much as the euro (a ratio of approximately 2:1) and some grocers and restaurants have been accused of taking advantage of the smaller numbers to increase their actual prices with the changeover.
In youth and Internet culture the fake plural Euronen is sometimes used; this form's origin is unknown but it bears resemblance to Dublonen (Dubloons) and has a retro
Retro
Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...
ring to it. Also, "Öre" is occasionally used, the name of the Swedish currency
Öre
Öre is the discontinued centesimal subdivision of the Swedish krona. The plural and singular are the same in the indefinite forms, whereas the singular definite form is öret and the plural definite is örena. The name derives from the Latin aureus , the name of a coin worth 25 denarii...
. Among some punks
Punk subculture
The punk subculture includes a diverse array of ideologies, and forms of expression, including fashion, visual art, dance, literature, and film, which grew out of punk rock.-History:...
, the word "Oi", as in the punk rock subgenre of Oi!
Oi!
Oi! is a working class subgenre of punk rock that originated in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s. The music and its associated subculture had the goal of bringing together punks, skinheads and other working-class youths ....
, is used.
In German Internet culture, the name Fragezeichen (question mark) is occasionally used in reference to the widespread problems with the euro sign
Euro sign
The euro sign is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the Eurozone in the European Union . The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. The international three-letter code for the euro is EUR...
which was often rendered as question mark. The term is most often written using the mock currency code FRZ.
In the eastern part of Austria the word Eumeln (meaning "twerps", also plural-only) is occasionally used. It combines the word euro with a typical Austrian-German ending (like the word Semmeln, Austro-Bavarian for "buns" or "rolls") and gives the word a more casual and familiar touch.
Abbreviations: Eur sometimes in all caps EUR. TEUR for thousand Euros and MEUR for a million Euros is often used in financial documents. Numbers are given with a comma as decimal separator.
Greek
In the Greek languageGreek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
the indeclinable word ευρώ (evˈro) is used as the currency's name. It was decided to use omega
Omega
Omega is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system, it has a value of 800. The word literally means "great O" , as opposed to omicron, which means "little O"...
(ω) rather than omicron
Omicron
Omicron is the 15th letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals it has a value of 70. It is rarely used in mathematics because it is indistinguishable from the Latin letter O and easily confused with the digit 0...
(ο) as the last letter of the word, partly because a noun ending with omicron would encourage mutability, and partly to stress the origin of the euro in the Greek word Ευρώπη (Eurōpē, Europe) which is also spelt with omega and it is actually written on the euro notes in Greek as ΕΥΡΩ. Also, the spelling ΕΥΡΟ (resulting in a plural ΕΥΡΑ) on the notes could have confused other Europeans, who might read it as a string of Latin
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
letters: "eypo". A plural form evra, as if from a regular declinable neuter noun in -o, is sometimes used in a jocular way.
For the cent, the terms used are λεπτό, plural λεπτά (leptó
Greek lepton
Lepton pl. Lepta is the name of various fractional units of currency used in the Greek-speaking world from antiquity until today...
, plural leptá), a name used for small denominations of various ancient and modern Greek currencies, including the drachma (which the euro replaced). The word means 'minute'
Minute
A minute is a unit of measurement of time or of angle. The minute is a unit of time equal to 1/60th of an hour or 60 seconds. In the UTC time scale, a minute on rare occasions has 59 or 61 seconds; see leap second. The minute is not an SI unit; however, it is accepted for use with SI units...
(literally "thin"), the same as the unit of measurement of time or of angle. The term "ευρωλεπτό", plural "ευρωλεπτά" (evˈroleptó, plural evˈroleptá) is sometimes used when a speaker wants to be completely specific that he refers to money and not time.
Some colloquial names for currency are also in use for the euro. A 5 euro banknote is also colloquially called τάληρο (taliro) from the Germanic root 'thaler' via the Italian 'talero'.
A 10 euro banknote is called δεκάρικο (dekariko) and a 20 euro banknote is called εικοσάρικο (eikosariko) or εικοσάρι (eikosari), derivatives of the word for ten and twenty respectively.
10 lepta of a drachma were called δεκάρα (dekara), but since lepta of the drachma were out of circulation long before the euro, this word is now considered too old-fashioned and only used in old expressions and thus it is not used for the 10 eurocent coin. Nevertheless all Greeks understand the word to stand for 10 cents of any currency and thus use it for non-euro currencies like the dime of the US dollar. The same is true for the 5 cent coin which is not called πεντάρα (pentara) like its drachma equivalent. These words come from the words for five and ten respectively.
In Cyprus, however, the cent is officially called 'cent' both in singular and plural. This is the name formerly used for the 1/100th of the Cyprus pound chosen for its neutrality to both official languages of the Republic (Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
and Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
).
Hungarian
In HungarianHungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
the currency is named euró and cent (as in Hungarian no plural is used after numbers), the former with a long ó, as decided by the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, since Hungarian words cannot end in short o either in writing or in speech (except for one or two interjections), see these international words as examples: fotó, videó, sztereó. The spelling is also in accordance with the word "Europe" in Hungarian ("Európa"). The plural is not normally marked in Hungarian after numerals, but both names can take suffixes like euróval, euróért, euróból, etc. ("with a euro", "for a euro", "from a euro", etc.).
On introduction of the euro, Hungary—along with Lithuania, Latvia, and Slovenia—struggled for the euro to be written in its official documents according to its own usage and spelling, in contrast with Community law, which provides for a single name throughout the Union (in the nominative singular and taking account of different alphabets).
The Treaty of Lisbon
Treaty of Lisbon
The Treaty of Lisbon of 1668 was a peace treaty between Portugal and Spain, concluded at Lisbon on 13 February 1668, through the mediation of England, in which Spain recognized the sovereignty of Portugal's new ruling dynasty, the House of Braganza....
, signed in 2009, contains the following declaration from Hungary, Latvia and Malta:
58. Declaration by the Republic of Latvia, the Republic of Hungary and the Republic of Malta on the spelling of the name of the single currency in the Treaties
Without prejudice to the unified spelling of the name of the single currency of the European Union referred to in the Treaties as displayed on the banknotes and on the coins, Latvia, Hungary and Malta declare that the spelling of the name of the single currency, including its derivatives as applied throughout the Latvian, Hungarian and Maltese text of the Treaties, has no effect on the existing rules of the Latvian, Hungarian or Maltese languages.
Irish
In IrishIrish language
Irish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
, the words euro and cent are used without change in spelling
Spelling
Spelling is the writing of one or more words with letters and diacritics. In addition, the term often, but not always, means an accepted standard spelling or the process of naming the letters...
or pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
, and immune to the regular rules of Irish mutation after numbers. The masculine noun eoró (plural eorónna) has been coined from the word Eoraip ('Europe'), and ceint (plural ceinteanna) has been in the lexicon since at least 1959. The words eoró and ceint are attested in printed literature, but are very rarely encountered.
Italian
In ItalianItalian language
Italian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
the word euro is used, as both singular and plural. Its correct pronunciation is ˈɛuro, although northern Italians use [ˈeuro] instead. Sometimes the plural euri is used.
The issue of whether the correct plural form would be euri or euro remained open for a long time, predating the actual introduction of the currency and leaving a relative uncertainty among speakers. The Accademia della Crusca
Accademia della Crusca
The Accademia della Crusca is an Italian society for scholars and Italian linguists and philologists established in Florence. After the Accademia Cosentina, it is the oldest Italian academy still in existence...
assigned to Severina Parodi, lexicographer, and to Luca Serianni, language historian, the task to give a response. They deliberated in favour of euri in 1999 with the motivation that "euro is a masculine noun". But the issue was then re-examined many times.
Finally, the consensus of the Accademia was in favour of invariability and appeared, with an articulate rationale, on issue 23 (October 2001) of La Crusca per voi (Gli euro e le lingue). The rationale was based on the fact that abbreviated words originating from a longer word (for example auto from automobile (car) or moto from motocicletta (motorbike)) do not have a plural form, as well as the fact that the word Euro is considered an abbreviation of the word Europa (Europe). In the 306th session of the Senate of the Italian Republic, 18 December 2002, an amendment to the financial act was proposed to adopt euri as the plural form for public official deeds but was quickly rejected (See Amendment 62.5).
The word cent is in practical use always replaced by the word centesimo
Centesimo
Centesimo is an Italian word derived from the Latin centesimus meaning "hundredth". It was equal to 1/100th of currencies named lira. However, not all lira-denominated currencies feature centesimo as their 1/100th subunit...
([tʃenˈtɛzimo]), which simply means "hundredth" (also see centime
Centime
Centime is French for "cent", and is used in English as the name of the fraction currency in several Francophone countries ....
in French); its plural form is centesimi. Cent only appears on documents such as electricity and telephone bills; in any case it is rather perceived by native speakers as an abbreviation of "centesimo" (and in fact often followed by a period and pronounced [tʃent]) than as an autonomous proper name.
Latvian
In LatvianLatvian language
Latvian is the official state language of Latvia. It is also sometimes referred to as Lettish. There are about 1.4 million native Latvian speakers in Latvia and about 150,000 abroad. The Latvian language has a relatively large number of non-native speakers, atypical for a small language...
there are still at least two concurrent usages. The majority say and write 'eiro' (which somewhat resembles the West European euro, but has also taken its sound from Eiropa, the Latvian word for Europe).
Purists insist that standardised usage is eira – a word that is declinable
Declension
In linguistics, declension is the inflection of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, and articles to indicate number , case , and gender...
according to the normal and convenient Latvian pattern. Eirai clearly means for the euro, eirās means in euros, and so forth. In contrast, eiro, like all Latvian words ending in an '-o', is unable to take on inflection
Inflection
In grammar, inflection or inflexion is the modification of a word to express different grammatical categories such as tense, grammatical mood, grammatical voice, aspect, person, number, gender and case...
s therefore it results in ambiguous phrases like "samainīt eiro", which can be interpreted in a variety of ways: to exchange into euros, to exchange euros [for something else], to exchange one euro – and this limits the fluency of communication.
The official usage of eira has been affirmed by Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, with the argument that a potentially frequently used term needs to fit especially well in the structure of grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...
. However, some media outlets and banks have preserved a habit of using eiro. Latvian language routinely adapts foreign words by adding declinable endings (like Ņujorka for New York, freska for fresco), although internationalisms ending in '-o' (like foto, auto) are common as well. (See also the article on the euro in the Latvian Wikipedia, and the section above about Hungarian.)
Leonese
In LeoneseLeonese language
The Leonese language is the endonym term used to refer to all vernacular Romance dialects of the Astur-Leonese linguistic group in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora; Astur-Leonese also includes the dialects...
, a language spoken in the Spanish provinces of León and Zamora
Zamora (province)
Zamora is a Spanish province of western Spain, in the western part of the autonomous community of Castile and León.The present-day province of Zamora province was one of three provinces formed from the former Kingdom of León in 1833, when Spain was re-organised into 49 provinces.It is bordered by...
, the word for "euro" is "euru", the plural being "euros".
Lithuanian
In LithuanianLithuanian language
Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.96 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania and about 170,000 abroad. Lithuanian is a Baltic language, closely related to Latvian, although they...
the euro and cent are called euras and centas (in common language usually eurocentas, to distinguish from the cents of the current Lithuanian currency, litas), while plural forms are eurai and centai (eurocentai). The Lithuanian language routinely adapts foreign words by re-spelling them according to Lithuanian phonetic rules and adding standardised endings, resulting in words like kompiuteris
Computer
A computer is a programmable machine designed to sequentially and automatically carry out a sequence of arithmetic or logical operations. The particular sequence of operations can be changed readily, allowing the computer to solve more than one kind of problem...
or Tonis Bleiras
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
.
Maltese
In MalteseMaltese language
Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic...
euro is spelt ewro, as was announced in December 2005. Ewro is spelt with w instead of u because it is derived from the Maltese word Ewropa (Europe), also written with w. Furthermore, the vowels e and u are not written next to each other in Maltese, except when they are pronounced as two syllables, which is not the case with Euro. The plural is unchanged. The cent is known as the ċenteżmu, plural ċenteżmi, both abbreviated to ċ.
In Maltese 'ewro' always starts with a small letter e, except when it is found in the beginning of a sentence, and ewro is feminine singular.
Mirandese
In MirandeseMirandese language
The Mirandese language is a Romance language belonging to the Astur-Leonese linguistic group, sparsely spoken in a small area of northeastern Portugal, in the municipalities of Miranda do Douro, Mogadouro and Vimioso...
(regional language spoken in the northeast Portugal region of Miranda do Douro
Miranda do Douro
Miranda do Douro or Miranda de l Douro , is a city in Miranda do Douro Municipality, district of Bragança, Portugal.The city has a population of 1,960.-General information:...
) adopted the prefix ou already used in words like European (Ouropeu). The singular form is Ouro (/ˈow.ɾu/) and the plural form is Ouros (/ˈow.ɾuʃ/). Ouro is also the Mirandese word for 'gold', as in Portuguese.
Polish
In PolishPolish language
Polish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
euro is spelt euro in both singular and plural, and pronounced ˈɛwrɔ. This noun belongs to a small group of nouns of foreign origin in Polish that, as an exception, remain non-declinable in any of the seven cases (other examples being zoo, Waterloo and few others). It is however likely for the word euro to follow the pattern of other foreign words like kino, studio and radio and eventually become fully declinable in a similar manner as a result of a full linguistic absorption of the word into Polish. Cent is declinable, being eurocent or simply cent ([ɛurotsɛnt]) in singular nominative and eurocenty / centy ([ɛuroˈtsɛntɨ]) in plural nominative or eurocentów / centów ([ɛuroˈtsɛntuf]) in plural genitive.
Portuguese
In PortuguesePortuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
, euro passes as a Portuguese word and thus is used in the singular form, with euros as the common plural form. Cent, which does not conform to Portuguese word-forming rules, is commonly converted to cêntimo (singular) and cêntimos (plural).
The term cêntimo might have been adopted to distinguish it from the fractional value of the Portuguese escudo
Portuguese escudo
The escudo was the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the Euro on 1 January 1999 and its removal from circulation on 28 February 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 centavos....
, which was called centavo, though as of 2010 the word centavo is starting to be used too.
Pronunciation of euro in Portuguese is still not standardized: either ˈewɾɔ or ˈewɾu. The latter has the regular final unstressed -o pronunciation, as u, and is more widespread in the north of the country, while the former is more common in the south. Euro, cêntimo and centavo are masculine nouns in Portuguese, and as such, "the cents" are translated as os cêntimos and "those euros" as aqueles euros.
In Brazil, where the euro is frequently mentioned in the press, the pronunciation is ˈewɾu and fractional values are called centavos de euro (cents of euro) to differentiate them from Brazilian real
Brazilian real
The real is the present-day currency of Brazil. Its sign is R$ and its ISO code is BRL. It is subdivided into 100 centavos ....
"centavos".
Romanian
In RomanianRomanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
the euro and cent are called euro and cent (plural ). The official plural of euro is also euro, and this official form was readily adopted by speakers. The "eu" construct is not a diphthong, thus the pronunciation is ˈe.uro.
When speaking in a familiar–vernacular setting, some speakers would make the informal plural "euroi" (not seen as academic, and not used officially; its stylistic value–connotation is less than "bucks" for US dollars or "quid" for GBP in English and much lower than the almost everyday use of "piasse" (piastre, with the cent called "sou") for CAD in Canadian French). The USD also has a nickname (the word "para"/"parai" of Turkish origin) with the same negative stylistic value. Not to be confused with general nicknames for money in general or unclear nicknames for foreign currencies (e.g."coco" – the specific currency is supposed to be inferred by the listener from previous info/conversation or from the country the speakers are in).
Scottish Gaelic
Due to the lack of a governing body and a standard orthography, there is no consistent usage regarding the terms for euro and cent in Scottish Gaelic. The various approaches include:- use of English spellings (including the English plural form and pronunciation), treating the nouns as indeclinableUninflected wordIn the context of linguistic morphology, an uninflected word is a word that has no morphological markers such as affixes, ablaut, consonant gradation, etc., indicating declension or conjugation...
: an euro (genitive an euro; plural na euro(s)), an cent (genitive an cent, plural na cent(s)) - use of English spellings and pronunciation for euro but with Gaelic case marking (both masculine and feminine as the gender of the word has not been determined to date)
- as a masculine noun: an t-euro (genitive an euro, plural na h-euro(s))
- as a feminine noun: an euro (genitive na h-euro, plural na h-euro(s))
- fully gaelicized forms (based on the Gaelic word Eòrpa "Europe") such as: an t-eòra (genitive an eòra, plural na h-eòrathan), an seant (genitive an t-seant, plural na seantaichean)
Slovak
In SlovakSlovak language
Slovak , is an Indo-European language that belongs to the West Slavic languages .Slovak is the official language of Slovakia, where it is spoken by 5 million people...
the euro and cent are called euro and cent, the plural forms for amounts between 2 and 4 are 2 eurá/centy, and the plural forms for larger amounts are 5 eur/centov. Euro is spelt with a u because it is derived from the word Európa (Europe). The c in cent represents /ts/.
Slang terms: common nicknames for euro in Slovak includes: euráče, evri, juráše, éčka (literally "e"-s or "letters ‘e’"). Cents are sometimes jokingly called šestáky (as a common term for coins with small value); meďáky or medenáky (literally "coppers" or "the copper ones") or haliere which is a reference to the small coins of the original Slovak currency.
Slovene
In Slovene the euro and cent are called evro and cent, the dual form is 2 evra/centa and the plural forms are 3 evri/centi, 4 evri/centi and 5 evrov/centov, the same declension case being used for all higher numerals. Evro is spelt with v instead of u because it is derived from the word Evropa (Europe), also written with v.However, the v in the word evro, as well as in Evropa is not pronounced as [v], but as [w] (see Slovene phonology). The c in cent is pronounced as ts.
In laws and regulations, though, the word ‘evro’ is replaced with the word ‘euro’ in all grammatical cases in accordance with an agreement between Slovenia and the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
. In normative Slovene language usage ‘evro’ spelling should only be used, except as noted.
Spanish
In the Spanish language, the official plural is the same as its regular plural euros. For the cent, the word céntimoCéntimo
The céntimo was a currency unit of Spain and other countries which were historically influenced by Spain or Portugal . The word derived from the Latin Centum meaning "hundred"...
(plural céntimos) can be used.
The fraction of the peseta
Spanish peseta
The peseta was the currency of Spain between 1869 and 2002. Along with the French franc, it was also a de facto currency used in Andorra .- Etymology :...
was also called céntimo, but no céntimo coins had been issued since 1980, and had since been demonetized.
The word "euro" is pronounced ˈe̙uɾo and the word "céntimo" is pronounced ˈθe̙nt̪imo in Spanish.
Slang terms: the euro is usually referred to as pavo (the usual translation for buck in dubbed films).
Swedish
In SwedishSwedish language
Swedish is a North Germanic language, spoken by approximately 10 million people, predominantly in Sweden and parts of Finland, especially along its coast and on the Åland islands. It is largely mutually intelligible with Norwegian and Danish...
writing, euro(s) as an amount of money is spelt euro (and cent is spelt cent) both in singular and plural, or written EUR, or €. The € sign is common in Finland but rare in Sweden. The currency "the euro" is spelt "euron" following Swedish grammar rules.
In Sweden, in TV and radio news, it is pronounced ˈɛvɾu, similarly to how eu is pronounced in modern Swedish in neuro- (but not Europa "Europe"). However, many Swedes choose to pronounce it in a more English way [ˈjʊːro] (no "s" in plural). Neither one is much more common than the other. In Sweden there are no widespread slang terms since the euro is a foreign currency.
In Finland, the euro is the official currency, and Swedish is an official language alongside Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
. The same spelling as in Sweden is used (officially Swedish in Finland
Finland-Swedish
Finland Swedish is a general term for the closely related cluster of dialects of Swedish spoken in Finland by Swedish-speaking Finns as their mother tongue...
is spelt as in Sweden). The pronunciation, however, is [ˈɛuɾo], which has some similarities to Finnish
Finnish language
Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland Primarily for use by restaurant menus and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two official languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a...
pronunciation. The abbreviation is like 3,14 €, same as for Finnish. Among Swedish-speaking as well as Finnish-speaking people in Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
, a common slang term is "ege".
Welsh
In the Welsh languageWelsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
, the spelling is ewro [ˈɛurɔ], which is masculine, and has the plural form ewros. (There is already a native word euro [ˈɛɨrɔ, ˈɛirɔ], meaning 'to gild', derived from aur 'gold'.) For cent, sent is used, with the plural sentiau.
Arabic
In the Arab worldArab world
The Arab world refers to Arabic-speaking states, territories and populations in North Africa, Western Asia and elsewhere.The standard definition of the Arab world comprises the 22 states and territories of the Arab League stretching from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Arabian Sea in the...
the euro is usually referred to as ˈjuːro, ˈjuːru, which is an adaptation of the English pronunciation of the currency's name. Another naming is ˈʔoːro, which is an approximation of the French pronunciation øˈʁo. In most cases this term is used both for the singular and the plural form, although the term /juːroˈwaːt/ is rarely used as the plural form. The name for Europe in Arabic is /ʔo(ː)ˈrobba, -ˈroppa/. Because loanword
Loanword
A loanword is a word borrowed from a donor language and incorporated into a recipient language. By contrast, a calque or loan translation is a related concept where the meaning or idiom is borrowed rather than the lexical item itself. The word loanword is itself a calque of the German Lehnwort,...
s aren't of Arabic
Classical Arabic
Classical Arabic , also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad and Abbasid times . It is based on the Medieval dialects of Arab tribes...
origin, therefore they are pronounced in accordance with the spoken varieties of Arabic
Varieties of Arabic
The Arabic language is a Semitic language characterized by a wide number of linguistic varieties within its five regional forms. The largest divisions occur between the spoken languages of different regions. The Arabic of North Africa, for example, is often incomprehensible to an Arabic speaker...
phonology. For example is pronounced ʔoˈɾobbɑ, -ˈɾoppɑ by Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic
Egyptian Arabic is the language spoken by contemporary Egyptians.It is more commonly known locally as the Egyptian colloquial language or Egyptian dialect ....
speakers, while [ʔoːˈrobba, -ˈroppa] by Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic
Levantine Arabic is a broad variety of Arabic spoken in the 100 to 200 km-wide Eastern Mediterranean coastal strip...
speakers.
Attempts to artificially Arabize the pronunciation according to the standardized Arabic phonology
Arabic phonology
While many languages have numerous dialects that differ in pronunciation, the Arabic language is more properly described as a continuum of varieties. This article deals primarily with Modern Standard Arabic, which is the standard variety shared by educated speakers throughout Arabic-speaking regions...
would be more conforming to Arabic transliteration
Arabic transliteration
Different approaches and methods for the romanization of Arabic exist. They vary in the way that they address the inherent problems of rendering written and spoken Arabic in the Latin alphabet; they also use different symbols for Arabic phonemes that do not exist in English or other European...
s such as which would be theoretically pronounced /ˈjuːruː, ˈʔuːruː, ʔuːˈrubbaː/ for , respectively.
See also Arabic diglossia to understand why the pronunciation differs from region to region.
Chinese
In Chinese, the euro is known as: , from the Chinese word for Europe , and the word yuán meaning coin. This follows the same pattern as the word for the American dollar . For cents, the word: is used. However, in Hong Kong it is often referred to as 欧罗 (ouluo) to distinguish it from the Australian dollar (澳元 aoyuan), because in Cantonese 欧元 and 澳元 have similar pronunciations.Croatian
In CroatianCroatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
the euro and cent are called euro and cent (occasionally the word eurocent is used instead of cent to distinguish the euro denomination versus its foreign counterparts).
Plural forms are, like in many Slavic languages, somewhat complex. The general plural form of euro is euri, but the paucal or identically written (but not identically pronounced) genitive plural eura is used with all numbers, thus 27 eura. The numbers ending in 1 (e.g. 21 or 101) take the nominative singular, the exception being numbers ending in 11 (e.g. 11 or 111). The examples are: 21 euro, 101 euro, 11 eura, and 111 eura respectively.
The general plural form of cent is centi and it is used with most numbers. The numbers ending in 1, except for those ending in 11, take the nominative singular cent, while those ending in 2, 3 and 4 except 12 to 14 take the paucal centa. The examples are: 1 cent, 4 centa, 7 centi, 10 centi, 11 centi, 12 centi, 22 centa, 27 centi, 31 cent, 101 cent, 102 centa, 111 centi.
Both euro and cent in Croatian
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
are of masculine gender.
Pronunciation follows Rules of Croatian language
Croatian language
Croatian is the collective name for the standard language and dialects spoken by Croats, principally in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Serbian province of Vojvodina and other neighbouring countries...
. Euro is pronounced ˈɛuro. Cent is pronounced [ˈtsɛnt]
Esperanto
In EsperantoEsperanto
is the most widely spoken constructed international auxiliary language. Its name derives from Doktoro Esperanto , the pseudonym under which L. L. Zamenhof published the first book detailing Esperanto, the Unua Libro, in 1887...
, the currency is called "eŭro", similar to the Esperanto word for the continent "Eŭropo." A cent is cendo, as is commonly used for subunits of all centimalized currency (cents, centimes, etc.). The o ending in euro conveniently accords with the standard -o noun ending in Esperanto, but rather than sound out e and u separately, Esperanto speakers elected to use the diphthong
Diphthong
A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
eŭ making the Esperanto name of the currency not identical with what is written on the currency. Plurals are formed in accordance with Esperanto rules, eŭroj and cendoj. The words are also declined as any Esperanto noun (eŭro/eŭroj in the nominative, eŭron/eŭrojn in the accusative). Esperanto speakers are unlikely to call a cent cento, since cento means a group of 100, rather than a hundredth. The alternative word would be centono, literally, "one-hundredth part".
Hebrew
When euro coins and banknotes were introduced, the question of the spelling and pronunciation of the currency's name in Hebrew arose. The official name of the currency established by the Academy of the Hebrew LanguageAcademy of the Hebrew Language
The Academy of the Hebrew Language was established by the Israeli government in 1953 as the "supreme institution for scholarship on the Hebrew language."-History:...
and the Bank of Israel
Bank of Israel
The Bank of Israel is the central bank of Israel. It is located in Kiryat HaMemshala in Israel's capital city of Jerusalem, with a branch office in Tel Aviv. The current governor is Stanley Fischer.-History:...
is ˈeʁo, derived from eˈʁopa = Europe).
An unofficial spelling and pronunciation ˈjuʁo, derived from the English pronunciation of the currency's name, is also used.
Although in Hebrew currency names are usually declined for singular and plural, both forms of the Euro name are used for the singular and plural alike.
Icelandic
In IcelandicIcelandic language
Icelandic is a North Germanic language, the main language of Iceland. Its closest relative is Faroese.Icelandic is an Indo-European language belonging to the North Germanic or Nordic branch of the Germanic languages. Historically, it was the westernmost of the Indo-European languages prior to the...
the euro is called evra, a feminine noun derived from the Icelandic name of Europe, Evrópa; this makes Icelandic (with Faroese and Maltese) one of only three European languages in which the word for the euro is feminine. The plural is formed regularly: evrur. The cents are often called sent which is a neuter word and has the same form in the nominative
Nominative case
The nominative case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or the predicate noun or predicate adjective, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments...
plural. However, a more common usage is to write, say, 20 cents as 0,20 evrur.
Japanese
In Japanese the euro is called "yūro" (ユーロ), using the katakanaKatakana
is a Japanese syllabary, one component of the Japanese writing system along with hiragana, kanji, and in some cases the Latin alphabet . The word katakana means "fragmentary kana", as the katakana scripts are derived from components of more complex kanji. Each kana represents one mora...
syllabary employed for foreign words. The word for Europe in Japanese is "yōroppa" (ヨーロッパ), probably borrowed from the Portuguese
Japanese words of Portuguese origin
Many Japanese words of Portuguese origin entered the Japanese language when Portuguese Jesuit priests introduced Christian ideas, Western science, technology and new products to the Japanese during the Muromachi period ....
Europa (ˈew.ɾɔpɐ), or from the Dutch
Japanese words of Dutch origin
Japanese words of Dutch origin started to develop when the Dutch East India Company initiated trading in Japan from the factory of Hirado in 1609...
"Europa". The cent uses the same word employed for all currencies using cents. This is rendered "sento" (or セント in the katakana script). Japanese has no plurals so both "yūro" and "sento" are used as the singular and plural.
Norwegian
In NorwegianNorwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
there could be a problem concerning the spelling, since euro is masculine
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
and would normally take a plural -er ending in Bokmål
Bokmål
Bokmål is one of two official Norwegian written standard languages, the other being Nynorsk. Bokmål is used by 85–90% of the population in Norway, and is the standard most commonly taught to foreign students of the Norwegian language....
and -ar in Nynorsk
Nynorsk
Nynorsk or New Norwegian is one of two official written standards for the Norwegian language, the other being Bokmål. The standard language was created by Ivar Aasen during the mid-19th century, to provide a Norwegian alternative to the Danish language which was commonly written in Norway at the...
. But since words for foreign currencies (like dollar and yen) normally do not have the endings -er or -ar in Norwegian the Norwegian Language Council
Norwegian Language Council
The Norwegian Language Council was the regulation authority for the Norwegian language. It has been superseded by The Language Council of Norway .The council had 38 members, and created lists of acceptable word forms...
reached a decision in 1996 that the proper declension of the word euro should be
in Bokmål:
- en euro – euroen – euro – euroene
in Nynorsk:
- ein euro – euroen – euro – euroane
The declensions are respectively: The two first in Singular
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
, and the two last in Plural
Plural
In linguistics, plurality or [a] plural is a concept of quantity representing a value of more-than-one. Typically applied to nouns, a plural word or marker is used to distinguish a value other than the default quantity of a noun, which is typically one...
, while the first of each category are indefinite
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
, the last of each category are definite
Article (grammar)
An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. Articles specify the grammatical definiteness of the noun, in some languages extending to volume or numerical scope. The articles in the English language are the and a/an, and some...
nouns. The word cent is an old loan word in Norwegian – and it is conjugated the same way:
in Bokmål:
- en cent – centen – cent – centene
in Nynorsk:
- ein cent – centen – cent – centane
The pronunciation of the two words in Norwegian are ˈæʉɾu and [ˈsɛnt].
Romansh
In Romansh, the words are euro and cent; these are regular masculine nouns forming their plurals with -s, as euros and cents, respectively.Russian
Russia currently borders two eurozone members, Finland and Estonia. The first one supplies much of the euro inflow in Russia in trade exchange and tourism, especially to Saint PetersburgSaint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
. In Russian, just like in the Bulgarian language
Bulgarian language
Bulgarian is an Indo-European language, a member of the Slavic linguistic group.Bulgarian, along with the closely related Macedonian language, demonstrates several linguistic characteristics that set it apart from all other Slavic languages such as the elimination of case declension, the...
, euro is spelt евро both in the singular and the plural, while cent is цент (sg.) and центы (pl.), though there are many colloquial semi-ironic forms such as евры 'yevry' or еврики 'yevriki' (there's no plural form for euro in Russian), копейки
Kopek
Kopek or Köpek may refer to:*A Kopek, 1/100th of a Ruble*A Kopek, 1/100th of a Ukrainian hryvnia*Kopek , an Irish rock band*Sa'd al-Din Köpek , court administrator under Seljuq Sultans of Rum...
for cents and others. Just as in Italian, although евро could have been declined as a regular neuter noun, it was made indeclinable; the same form is used in the singular and the plural. Cents are sometimes transliterated as цент 'tsent' – singular, центы 'tsenty' – plural. Numerative form is цент for 1 cent (as well as amounts that end in 1 except for the ones ending in 11 – e.g. 51 цент but 11 центов), центa, the genitive singular, for 2 to 4 cents (as well as any other amounts ending in 2, 3 or 4, except for the ones ending in 12, 13, 14 – e.g. 54 центa but 12 центoв) and центoв, genitive plural, for the rest – 88 центoв. Sometimes eвроцент (also romanized as 'yevrotsent' or 'evrocent') is used to distinguish euro-cents from the American cents. (If евро had been treated as a regular neuter noun instead of being indeclinable, it would have the forms евра (regular plural or genitive singular) and евр (genitive plural).)
Serbian
In SerbianSerbian language
Serbian is a form of Serbo-Croatian, a South Slavic language, spoken by Serbs in Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia and neighbouring countries....
the euro and cent are called evro (Cyrillic
Serbian Cyrillic alphabet
The Serbian Cyrillic alphabet is an adaptation of the Cyrillic script for the Serbian language, developed in 1818 by Serbian linguist Vuk Karadžić. It is one of the two standard modern alphabets used to write the Serbian language, the other being Latin...
: евро) ˈɛvro and cent (Cyrillic: цент) tsɛnt. Evro is spelt with a v because it is derived from the name Европа/Evropa (Europe).
Both evro and cent are masculine nouns. They are inflected according to regular rules of the language:
- When not accompanied by a number, plural quantities are in whatever grammatical case is appropriate to the context: the nominative plurals are evri (Cyrillic: еври) and centi (Cyrillic: центи).
- When accompanied by a number ending with the digit 1 (except the combination 11) the singular form is used: 21 evro (Cyrillic: 21 евро), 101 cent (Cyrillic: 101 цент).
- When accompanied by a "small number", i.e. one ending with the digit 2, 3 or 4 (except the combinations 12, 13, 14), the paucal form is used: 22 evra (Cyrillic: 22 евра), 102 centa (Cyrillic: 102 цента).
- When accompanied by a "large number", i.e. one ending with a digit outside the 1–4 range (or one ending with any of the combination 11, 12, 13, 14) the genitive plural is used: 111 evra (Cyrillic: 111 евра), 25 centi (Cyrillic: 25 центи) or rarely 25 centa (Cyrillic: 25 цента).
The genitive plural centi is produced in an old-fashioned way that is today mostly reserved for measurement units. The alternative centa follows the vastly more common pattern of other masculine nouns but is very rarely heard in practice.
Turkish
Turkey and Northern CyprusTurkish Republic of Northern Cyprus
Northern Cyprus or North Cyprus , officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus , is a self-declared state that comprises the northeastern part of the island of Cyprus...
continue to use the Turkish lira
Turkish lira
The Turkish lira is the currency of Turkey and the de facto independent state of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The lira is subdivided into 100 kuruş...
as their official currency, but the euro is popularly used, particularly by individuals wanting to convert their savings into a more stable currency. Euro has colloquially been pronounced in the English fashion since its inception.
In response to criticism of the widespread English pronunciation of euro, the Turkish Language Association
Turkish Language Association
The Turkish Language Association is the official regulatory body of the Turkish language, founded on July 12, 1932 and headquartered in Ankara, Turkey...
officially introduced avro into Turkish
Turkish language
Turkish is a language spoken as a native language by over 83 million people worldwide, making it the most commonly spoken of the Turkic languages. Its speakers are located predominantly in Turkey and Northern Cyprus with smaller groups in Iraq, Greece, Bulgaria, the Republic of Macedonia, Kosovo,...
("av" being the first syllable of the Turkish word for Europe, Avrupa) in 1998. A concerted campaign by the Turkish Language Association has begun to blossom in recent years, with most sections of the Turkish media now using the new word. It has yet to enter widespread colloquial use, however.