Money

Spain’s currency is the Euro, of course. In English the plural of “euro” is “euro”. So, you’d say “I have 12 euro.” In Spain we say “tengo doce euros.” In other words, the plural of “euro” in Spanish is “euros”. Cents are called “céntimos”. Euro and cent amounts are expressed with the word con. Doce euros con cincuenta y cuatro cénitmos would be “twelve euros and fifty-four cents”. But just as in English where we say “twelve fifty-four”, in Spain we often shorten the phrase and say doce con cincuenta y cuatro.

In Spain, the euro symbol (€) is placed after the amount. E.g. 12€

The functions of the period (i.e. decimal point) and the comma are reversed. The comma (,) separates the whole numbers from the decimals. The period separates each set of three digits of whole numbers. So, twelve euro and fifty-four cents is written 12,54€. One thousand euro is written 1.000€.

La Peseta

Before the Euro came along, Spain’s currency for hundreds of years was the peseta. Even now, nearly ten years after the Euro became the official currency of Spain, you’ll still hear people talking about how much things cost in pesetas. 100 pesetas are roughly 60 cents (in euro, of course). In addition, it used to be common to talk about amounts in terms of “nickles” called “duros” in Spanish. Veinte duros would be 100 pesetas or 0,60€. Whew! Confused yet? I know I am! :)