I posted something about this some time ago, but perhaps it bears repeating. The official guide to the spelling of the euro and the cent in the official languages of euroland is available online and the information is somewhat surprising to me.
For example, in English one apparently would say "one euro, one hundred euro, one cent, one hundred cent". Likewise, one would say "the euro, the many euro, the cent, the many cent". In otherwords, the plural form does not use the "s" ending one would normally expect in English. Indeed there is even a footnote that states: This spelling without an "s" may be seen as departing from usual English practice for currencies. So, "The euro is equal to 100 cent." "The price for this postcard is 35 cent." "The cent is one-hundredth of a euro." "The cent in my pocket jingle against each other." In French, the plurals seem to be formed normally, whether in quantities or with the definite article. Likewise in Danish but not in German; Dutch seems to differ on practice for quantities as compared to use with the definite article. Normally in Spanish and Portugese, but not in Italian. Very strange! I wonder if practice on the street will actually abide by this practice. The argument seems to parallel the arguments sometimes heard about forming plurals of SI units. The home page for the euro is at http://europa.eu.int/euro/html/entry.html and if one selects "One Currency for Europe" (the entry point) a menu page is presented. On this page, select "Spelling-Sign-Glossary" and a shorter menu page is presented. On this page, select "Spelling of the words "euro" and "cent" in the official Community languages - to be used when drawing up Community Legislative acts" and a pdf file opens. Apparently this file cannot be downloaded or, upon opening, saved to file. Jim -- Metric Methods(SM) "Don't be late to metricate!" James R. Frysinger, CAMS http://www.metricmethods.com/ 10 Captiva Row e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Charleston, SC 29407 phone/FAX: 843.225.6789
