this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2024
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It's a standard for the Euro-zone.
It is supposed to be read XXXX,XX€, because what is being stated is the amount and then the currency.
I insisted in writing it in the opposite way and it was an accountant that corrected me.
The actual standard for English language (as well as Irish, Maltese and Dutch) is € first: https://style-guide.europa.eu/en/content/-/isg/topic?identifier=7.3.3-rules-for-expressing-monetary-units
For all other languages it's value first.
Luckily no one remembered to put it in the middle yet, which I assume is only because 50€10 looks cursed.
Exceptionally, the symbol for the Cape Verdean escudo (like the Portuguese escudo, to which it was formerly pegged) is placed in the decimal separator position, as in 2$50.
From Wikipedia
Those lucky bastards are the only ones that get to use this handy feature in Dream Berd
sweden does something similarly weird. we don't have a currency symbol (unless you count "kr") so the standard way to write a price is "20:-", which used to be "20kr, 0öre", with the colon as the decimal separator and the line added so you couldn't write in another value, but then we switched decimal separator for currency to "," and ":-" just became the symbol for "money".
you even occasionally see abominations like "19,90:-"...
It's interesting that you have :- as the symbol for money. Where I'm from :- is the symbol for forgetting to give your ASCII smiley a mouth. :-)
We also sometimes use ,- effectively as a symbol for money. I assume it has same origin, would be used as 19,90 ,- too.
Thouhg I think you'd only use it on handwritten stuff, didn't see it in the wild for a long time now that I think about it
I'm going to risk it is tied to the previous standard and has faced resistance to fade.
To a large extent yes. The only exception I know is, like @[email protected] mentioned, Portugal that used the 100$00 format and now uses the 0,5€ format - which is still the closest to the previous standard without looking horrible.
I think the French write 1€50 iirc. At least I think I've seen it at their gas stations? Does indeed look bad.
In spoken language that makes sense to me, but in written materials I find it more helpful to know the unit in which I should be framing the numeric value I'm about to read first. Dunno why - maybe it's just what I'm used to, and I could adapt relatively easily if I was forced to.
But is that true for other units, too? Like miles or kilometers or kilograms or whatever you use
Yes, actually. I frequently read a number, then the unit, then re-read the number. Or I read the unit, then the number, skipping around a bit.
I personally don't have it that bad but I've similar thoughts about written units. I must admit I do prefer everything working the same and as such think the dollar sign in front is extremely cursed.
I also hate how few people use the ISO 8601 date standard which is super intuitive and machine friendly. And no matter what there is no excuse for the mm.dd.yyyy format.
Yeah, that's actually a very good point. Guess I could probably adapt more easily than I was imagining.
There was an effort to approach spoken and writen speech.
Before the introduction of the Euro in my country we would speak and write XXXX$XX, meaning X amount, then declare the currency, followed by X of cents.
Nowadays we just state X,X€. So X amount, with X amount of cents, then state the currency.
Speech followed writing.
We still say "15 Euro 20" while writing "15,20€" and neither has ever changed, I think. My childhood memories of DM aren't that sharp
X,X€? So would that be "twenty, fifteen cents euros?"
In the us, we say "twenty dollars and fifteen cents", and write it as $20.15 which seems like it's the same as your old system. X$.xx in speech
You've read it backwards. Its $15.20 Or to be exact 15.20€. So its spoken 15 Euros, 20.
So, a couple of unlikely things will have to happen for this, but if 1) Britain ever returns to the EU and 2) as a joining condition is forced to adopt the Euro, I can all but guarantee that most people will put the Euro symbol in front where the pound sign used to be, even if expressly told not to. Even those in favour of being in the EU.
Retailers would do whatever they felt like on labels and shelves unless it was enshrined law.
And the penchant for using imperial weights and measures would continue unabated across the lands.
That doesn't happen. The treaties can force a country to join the eurozone once they meet the convergence criteria. But the convergence criteria include being part of ERM II for at least 2 years. Participating in ERM II is not mandatory, so countries can simply choose not to, and thus never meet the criteria for adopting the Euro.
For example, out of the six EU countries currently not in the eurozone, only one is participating in ERM II (Bulgaria).
Edit: and there are always opt-outs too. Denmark for example opted out of the Eurozone.