30

Which is the correct form: "ten euro" or "ten euros"?

4 Answers 4

32

The situation is actually a mess. Here are only some of the relevant bits from Wikipedia:

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. [...] 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[.]

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.

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, and because Irish broadcasters took their cue from the Department[citation needed], 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.

Common usage in the rest of the English-speaking world, where the euro is not the local currency, is to use the -s plurals. The media in the UK prefer euros and cents as the plural forms. Broadcasts of currency exchange rates outside of the European Union tend to use the plural in -s, with NPR in the United States and CBC in Canada being two examples.

So, both plural forms are correct. Just go with whichever your audience is more accustomed to.

7
  • 2
    My international colleagues and I all use euro, no s in plural. I will continue to do so regardless of the Guadian or NY Times... Euros sounds to me as bad as Legos
    – mplungjan
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 10:27
  • 3
  • 3
    Still grates on my ears. I grew up in Denmark and I played with Lego - now my son is playing with Lego. I am sure there are "correct" English structures that hurts your ears too ;)
    – mplungjan
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 15:17
  • 3
    Lego is a mass noun (do you say I have forty-nine lego?) This is a different case from Euro which is a count noun that (possibly) has the same form in the plural and singular.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Jan 15, 2014 at 0:55
  • 2
    This just made me realize that in the UK you say 10 pounds (s) and 10 quid (no s). Commented Apr 4, 2014 at 8:37
14

Ten euro, please

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro#Coins_and_banknotes

In Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage.

Hmm However from the same document referred to:

In all EU legal texts, the nominative singular spelling must be 'euro' in all languages ('ευρώ' in Greek alphabet; 'евро' in Cyrillic alphabet). Plural forms and declensions are accepted as long as they do not change the 'eur-' root.

However (again) here is the spelling in the official languages - Only plural in non-English languages

enter image description here

3
  • 1
    as far as I understand, later refers to non-English?
    – vartec
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 10:04
  • Yes. Correct. I see plural in several languages
    – mplungjan
    Commented Feb 21, 2011 at 10:08
  • In Portugal we use "cêntimo"/"cêntimos" for the singular and plural for cents. Funny how it is different in legalese. Commented Jun 26, 2015 at 10:58
6

In this case, in English Euro (or euro) has two accepted plural forms: euros and euro.

In Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are recommended and used; with many local variations such as 'centime' in France. Wikipedia

4

It is clear that, in general, either is correct, but that particular institutions and organisations have their own rules. I am English, but live in Spain, so it seems natural for me to say

  • One euro, two euros.

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .