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In English one can say "one fifteen euros" and mean 115 euros. Is there an equivalent in German? I am aware of the right way to say a monetary amount: (ein)hundert (und) fünfzehn euros. However, I am not aware of further customization.

In English, it is also said "a (one) hundred and fifteen euros" with the meaning "115 euros".

user unknown
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Alexia
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1 Answers1

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Yes and no. It's all about context.

When saying something like "one fifteen" (Eins Fünfzehn) it can be understood as 1.15 . Like in

Das macht dann eins fünfzehn (1.15€)

Zusammen ergibt das eine Summe von zwei fünfzig (2.50€)

(Please note: It's more likely you will hear something like Zwei Euro Fünfzig or Zwei Euro und Fünfzig Cent)

But, when talking casually about higher numbers like 2,500 one can say

Zwei Fünf (two five)

e.g.

Für das Auto gebe ich dir keine drei (3,000€), sondern maximal zwei fünf (2,500€)

EDIT

I would like to add @VolkerLandgraf's comment:

What [the answer] did not explicitly say is that the single separated digit would never be used or understood as a multiple of hundred - depending of context it would mean multiples of one or thousand (or occasionally millions)

He's right, but please note for millions++ it's more common to say "Eins Komma Fünf (1,5) Millionen" for 1.500.000 or "Zwei Komma Drei Vier (2,34) Millionen" for 2.340.000 . Like English's "one point five million".

mtwde
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  • thank you so much! – Alexia Aug 08 '19 at 11:47
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    What @mtwde did not explicitly say is that the single separated digit would never be used or understood as a multiple of hundred - depending of context it would mean multiples of one or thousand (or occasionally millions). – Volker Landgraf Aug 08 '19 at 12:30
  • @VolkerLandgraf thank you very much! – Alexia Aug 08 '19 at 12:57
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    It is quite common to omit the decimal point (or decimal comma in German), especially in the context of (1) money ("eins fünfzehn instead of 1.15 €) (2) length and body height ("er ist eins achtzig groß" instead of 1.80 m or "das Brett ist eins zwanzig lang"). In my opinion "zwei fünf" instead of 2500 € can also be viewed as the omission of a (hidden) decimal point: The measuring unit is thousand, so 2.5 of thousand €. – Paul Frost Aug 09 '19 at 11:26
  • @VolkerLandgraf it might actually happen when counting (particularly banknotes). But in that case, there would be sufficient context to discern what is omitted (keeping the hundred digit, but omitting the "hundert" except for full hundreds). E.g. counting .. 600 - 6 10 - 6 30 - 6 50 - 700.., when adding 10/20/20/50 € notes to a pile. – Chieron Aug 09 '19 at 15:39
  • @Chieron Yes, you're right. But this either occurs when someone is counting just for him/herself or demonstratively for the partner in the current transaction and then - as you stated - context prevents misunderstanding. – Volker Landgraf Aug 09 '19 at 15:51