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When talking about money, for instance as a cashier and you are giving the total, how do you typically do this? In English I will typically say the amount as to separate numbers ($9.16 would be nine sixteen as opposed to saying nine dollars and sixteen cents). Either one is really fine to any English speaker. To a German would either work or would it be awkward to just say "neun sechzehn"?

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2 Answers

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"Neun sechzehn" to me feels slightly weird. That's not to say you can't use it though, it's just a weird combination where I would prefer "Neun Euro sechzehn". I'd say it's mostly used for smaller and "rounder" amounts: "drei achzig", "zwei fuffzig" (colloquial), "eins zwanzig". Any larger amount is usually interjected by "Euro". This may be because "Neun ...zehn" can be misunderstood if not spoken clearly enough or in noisy environments, whereas "zwei ...zig" is unambiguous.

The way I'd usually pronounce different amounts:

  • 1.20€ - eins zwanzig
  • 4.06€ - vier Euro und sechs Cent ("vier sechs" would make no sense)
  • 3.17€ - drei Euro siebzehn
  • 7€ - sieben Euro
  • 23.63€ - dreiundzwanzig Euro dreiundsechzig
  • 50.04€ - fünfzig Euro und vier Cent
  • 0.30€ - 3 Groschen, but only among people I know would still understand it
  • 50€ - 'n Fuffi (mostly Berlin dialect, slang)
  • 100€ - 'n Hunni (mostly Berlin dialect, slang)
  • 3000€ - drei Riesen (slang)
  • 1,000,000€ - eine Mille (slang)

Not mentioning Euro is a very colloquial way of saying it though and many chains are apparently training their employees to always use "x Euro y", sometimes even "x Euro y Eurocent". This observation is mostly based on anecdotal evidence though and may vary by region.

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Not to forget the expression for large amounts of money - 10 grand = 10,000 = Zehn Riesen or 1,000,000 = Eine Mille. And I never heard anyone say Eurocent until this post ;) – Florian Peschka May 26 '11 at 5:52
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Oh, I've heard Eurocent in the local supermarket, especially shortly after the transition. Haven't been in Germany for a while, so can't comment on recent developments. Incorporated your further "units". – deceze May 26 '11 at 5:58
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This is a good answer. I'd like to add that for any Cent amount starting from 20 Cent you could omit the "Euro" without sounding akward. So you would rather say "drei Euro siebzehn" than "drei siebzehn" but "drei vierundreißig" is quite common. I agree that this is for the reason that deceze already gave. – Deve May 26 '11 at 6:00
I don't agree that things like "drei siebzehn" feel weird -- as long as the cent amount is two-digit, I'm perfectly fine with leaving off the "Euro" part. By the way, you forgot the Heiermann ;) – balpha♦ May 26 '11 at 6:19
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Mille meint Tausend, das kommt aus dem Lateinischen. Inzwischen wird es auch manchmal für Million verwendet. Ob dieser Uneindeutigkeit sollte man das Wort gar nicht mehr verwenden und im Zweifel nachfragen, wenn jemand anders es benutzt. – toscho May 26 '11 at 6:57
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Ergänzung zu deceze.

Ich spreche nur dann von Cent, wenn ich an der Kasse noch einen kleinen Betrag herausgeben muss, also wenn ich es mit echten Münzen zu tun habe.

Es fehlen noch 2 Cent.

Eurocent verwende ich überhaupt nicht.

Ansonsten verwende ich Euro genau wie decese:

  • 1,20€ - eins zwanzig
  • 4,06€ - vier Euro und sechs Cent ("vier sechs" would make no sense)
  • 3,17€ - drei Euro siebzehn
  • 7€ - sieben Euro
  • 23,63€ - dreiundzwanzig Euro dreiundsechzig
  • 50,04€ - fünfzig Euro und vier Cent

Bezüglich der speziellen Namen einzelner Münzen

10 Pfennig - 1 Groschen 2 D-Mark - 1 Zwickel 5 D-Mark - 1 Heiermann (reginonal )

hat sich nach der Euroeinführung noch keine klare Zuordnung zu den neuen Münzen herausgebildet. Ich verwende sie nicht im Zusammenhang mit €-Münzen.

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Nicht zu vergessen “Sechser”. Wobei, das habe ich echt schon lange nicht mehr gehört. – Konrad Rudolph May 26 '11 at 6:57
Sechser is probably outdated Berlin dialect. I wouldn't use it, but it's good to know it if you're living in Berlin/Brandenburg. – fzwo May 26 '11 at 8:28
Ich habe inzwischen mehrfach Groschen für die 10-Cent-Münze und Heiermann für die 2-Euro-Münze gehört. Verwende es aber selbst eigentlich nicht. – OregonGhost May 26 '11 at 8:47

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