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.
Written conventions for the euro in the languages of EU member states Euro conventions € Language Euro Eurocent Pronunciations (in IPA) Basque6,00 €euro6 euro zentimoa 6 zentimo Bulgarianевро6 евроцентевроцентстотинка6 цента6 евроцента 6 стотинки Catalaneuro6 euroscèntim10 cèntims Croatianeuri10 eurax1, xx1 eurobut x11, xx11 eura centeurocent10 centix1 centbut x11 centi(x)2, (x)3, (x)4 centabut(x)12, (x)13, (x)14 centiCzech2, 3, 4 eura5 eurcent2, 3, 4, centy5 centů Danish6 euro6 cent Dutch€ 6,00 (BE, NL) English€6.00 (IE, MT)6,00 € (EU)10 cent ;phonetically [ˈjɚ.ʌ̹ʊ̯] in American English Estonian6,00 € 1 euro6 eurotsent1 sent6 sentiFinnish6 euroasentti10 senttiä French6,00 €6 euroscentime10 centimes Galician6,00 €6 euroscéntimo6 céntimos German 6,00 € (BE, DE)€ 6,00 (AT) Euro6 EuroCent6 Cent Greek6,00 € (GR, CY)ευρώ6 ευρώλεπτό (GR)σεντ (CY)10 λεπτά10 σεντ Hungarian6,00 €euró6 eurócent6 cent Irish€ 6.00euro6 euro Italian6,00 €centesimo6 centesimi Latvianeiro6 eirocents1 cents6 centi10 centu21 cents Lithuanianeuras1 euras 6 eurai 10 eurų 21 eurascentas6 centai 10 centų 21 centas ˈt͡sʲɛntɐs Luxembourgish€ 6,00Euro6 EuroCentime6 CentimenMaltese€ 6.00ewro6 ewroċenteżmu6 ċenteżmi11 to 19-il ċenteżmufrom 20 onwards ċenteżmu Polish6,00 €euro6 eurocent6 centówx2, x3, x4 centyexcept x12, x13, x14 centów Portuguese6 euroscêntimo6 cêntimos Romanian6 euro cent eurocent6 cenți 10 eurocenți , , Slovak1 euro2, 3, 4 eurá5, 6, 7... eurcent2, 3, 4 centy5 centov Sloveneevro1 evro2 evra3, 4 evri5+ evrov1 cent2 centa3, 4 centi5+ centov Spanisheuro6 euroscéntimo6 céntimos Swedisheuro6 eurocent6 cent (FI), (SE) (FI) (SE) Turkish€ 6,00avro6 avrosent6 sent
Languages of the European Union
Bulgarian
Bulgarian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. The first series of euro banknotes displayed the word euro only in the Latin and Greek alphabets. Following Bulgaria's accession to the European Union in 2007, the Europa series added the Cyrillic spelling ЕВРО. Bulgarian euro coins, introduced in 2026, likewise bear ЕВРО on their national (obverse) side.
In Bulgarian, the currency is normally called , and less commonly , from ("Europe"). The standard plural is also , with the word remaining uninflected, although the colloquial plural is also used. The definite form is ("the euro").
The euro cent is commonly referred to in Bulgarian as , while the full formal term is . The traditional term , plural , may also be used. Unlike , both and are fully inflected. For , the definite form is , the plural is , and the numerative form used after numerals is , as in .
The traditional term (), plural (), may also be used for euro cents and appears on the national side of Bulgarian euro coins. The term has been used for Bulgarian fractional currency units since the 19th century and was also the name of one hundredth of a lev. It derives from (sto, "hundred"), paralleling the derivation of cent from Latin ("hundred").
Before Bulgaria's accession to the European Union, the ECB and the European Commission initially favoured the spelling ЕУРО for the Bulgarian name of the currency, arguing for a standardized form across the EU. Bulgaria maintained that ЕВРО should be retained to reflect Bulgarian phonetic orthography and the established pronunciation of the word.
The dispute was resolved in Bulgaria's favour at the 2007 EU Summit in Lisbon, allowing the Cyrillic spelling евро to be used in official EU documents. Since 13 December 2007, EU institutions, including the ECB, have used евро as the official Bulgarian spelling of the single European currency.
Among other Slavic languages written in Cyrillic, Macedonian, Russian and Serbian also use the spelling евро.
Croatian In Croatian the euro and cent are called and (occasionally the word is used instead of 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 , but the paucal or identically written (but not identically pronounced) genitive plural is used with all numbers, thus . 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: , , , and respectively.
The general plural form of cent is and it is used with most numbers. The numbers ending in 1, except for those ending in 11, take the nominative singular , while those ending in 2, 3 and 4 except 12, 13 or 14 take the paucal . The examples are: , , , , , , , , , , , .
Both and in Croatian are of masculine gender.
Pronunciation follows the rules of Croatian. is pronounced , while is pronounced .
Czech In Czech, the words and are spelt the same as in English and pronounced per Czech phonology , . Occasionally the word eurocent is used instead of 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 the EU (Evropská unie).
The Czech declension uses different form of plural for various numerals: for 2, 3 and 4, it is plain nominative and , while for numbers above 5, genitive (a vestige of partitive) eur and centů is used.
For compound numerals, there are two variants: either genitive plural is used (, ) or the form is determined by the unit part of the numeral (, ). The partitive genitive is used only when the whole numeral phrase is in nominative or accusative phrases, otherwise the expected case is used: (7 euros-genitive), but (with seven-instrumental euro-instrumental). Moreover, these otherwise common declensions are often ignored and non-declined is used for every value (), even though this form is proscribed.
In Czech is of neuter gender and inflected like město, while is masculine and inflected like hrad.
Danish The word is included in the 2002 version of Retskrivningsordbogen, the authoritative source for the Danish 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. . However, some words, such as , and , are also pronounced with [eʊ̯].Den Danske Ordbog
Dutch Plural: In Dutch, 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 vijf 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 phonemically. This can be pronounced the same phonetically, but commonly also as , , and others depending on the dialect and speaker (see Dutch phonology).
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 () (or even the double plural euries ()), 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" ("redhead") or "roskes" ("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.Euro: valutateken voor of achter het bedrag?, Nederlandse Taalunie, retrieved 21 December 2006. This was also the case with the florin sign (ƒ).
English In the English-language version of European Union legislation, the unit euro, without an s, is used for both singular and plural. However, the plural euros is also in everyday use. Many style guides, such as those from the Associated Press and The Economist, specify the plural euros, and major dictionaries describe it as the most common form.
Official practice for English-language 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's English Style Guide (a handbook for authors and translators working for the European Commission) previously recommended the use of regular plurals where appropriate, but as of May 2019, states that no s should be used. 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.The old text is quoted here:
In Ireland As the euro was being adopted in Ireland, the Department of Finance decided to use the word euro as both the singular and plural forms of the currency. The national broadcaster, RTÉ, and some other media outlets followed suit. However, euros is also acceptable. The print media frequently uses "euro" for plural amounts, although use of "euros" is also common.
Slang terms: As in the Netherlands, slang terms that were previously applied to punts have been carried over to the euro currency. For example, quid (same in singular and plural), which once referred to an Irish pound (and in the UK still refers to a British pound) is used as a synonym for euro. Also, fiver and tenner, which once referred to five and ten pounds respectively, now refer to five and ten euro either in the sense of the specific €5 and €10 banknotes, or in the broader sense of an equivalent sum of money.
In English-speaking countries outside the EU In the United Kingdom, despite not using the euro as its currency, the terms "euros" and "cents" are more common than the plurals without the "s". The use of "s" for euros and cents is recommended by the Oxford English Dictionary.