---
title: "Money"
url: https://perrotta.dev/2025/11/money/
last_updated: 2025-11-10
---


In English-speaking North America (Canada, USA) we refer to currency in the
following ways:

* $50
* fifty dollars
* 50 CAD, 50 USD – when necessary to disambiguate between Canadian and US
  dollars
* $50 CAD, $50 USD also works, but it's less common

A format that is non-existent: 50$. It feels wrong to place the dollar sign
after the dollar amount.

Now let's switch to Europe[^1]:

* 50€
* fifty euros
* fifty euro (!!)
* 50 EUR

Uncommon: €50.

Some of these differences are annoying:

* Saying "fifty euro" feels utterly wrong (euro is countable!) but it is very
  commonplace, especially in Germany.
* When switching back-and-forth between dollars and euros and using the symbol
  notation, one needs to update prefixing/postfixing the symbol accordingly.

There's also the fact that in North America we use a dot (.) to separate cents
(`$50.42`) whereas in Europe we use a comma (,): `50,33€`.

It is common to see `50€,-` to denote "exactly fifty euros" i.e. `50,00€`. That
convention does not exist in North America. You'll often see `$49,99` or
`$49,90` instead of `$50`. I have never seen `$50.-`.

[^1]: Europe, EU, [EEA](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area),
    Schengen, whatever.