How would I say £10.50?

Question

I'm not sure if it is simply said, "10 英镑 50"？ In the UK we often drop the pence at the end and just state the decimal amount (10 pounds 50), but not sure if in Chinese it works the same. Any help appreciated.

Answer 1

The standard way of stating this would be: 十英镑五十便士. Of course, as you might have suspected, there are other informal/colloquial ways of saying it. Here are some that I personally would not find odd:

1. 十镑五/十块五
2. 十块五毛 (based on the fact the pound/penny uses the same decimalized system as renminbi)
3. 十点五(英)镑
4. 十磅半/十块半

If anyone has any other suggestions, don't hesitate to leave a comment.

Answer 2

I'm going to make the assumption that this is an informal interaction and a vocal conversation

First would be declaring the 10 pounds which can be 十镑 (Shí bàng) which would translate to £10 or 十块 (Shí kuài) which would translate to 10 units of the relevant currency in this case pounds. 块 is a colloquial word and in my experience more commonly used to measure currency then the proper words such as 镑

Second thing we need to declare is the .50 so we can use 半 (Bàn) which means a half value of a single unit of the previous value in this case a single unit of 十镑/十块 would be 一镑/一块 so a half of that would be your .50 value in £10.50 or we can say 五/五毛 (Wǔ/Wǔmáo) which means 5 or 5 1/10 units of currency.

So to say £10.50 you can say:

• 十镑五毛 (Shí bàng wǔmáo) "£10.50" <- Semi-Formal
• 十块五/毛 (Shí kuài wǔ/máo) "Ten pounds 50" <- Informal, colloquial *毛 not required but can be used
• 十块半 (Shí kuài bàn) " Ten and a half pounds" <- Informal, more colloquial only applicable for half values

the 毛 can be dropped when your not using .05 in informal settings but if you are you need to add 毛半 example: 九块九毛半 (Jiǔ kuài jiǔ máo bàn) "$9.95" (not up to date on UK currency so not sure if applicable)

Answer 3

We frequently have to talk about quantities of money in 人民币 vs 英镑 in the office. We always say 十块五英镑 and 十块五人民币 when we want to be clear. So I would go with just 十块五 if the currency is obvious, or 十块五 + currency when you want to be super clear.

Answer 4

Should be 10 英镑50便(biàn)士(shì)。 “ 便士” means “ penny”

Answer 5

The official Chinese language "£10.50" is "十英镑五十便士" (literal meaning: ten pounds and fifty pence). However, native Chinese speakers would probably call it "十块五" in common or "十块五英镑" for emphasis. Some native Chinese speakers may also call it "十点五镑"(literal meaning: ten point five pounds), or rarely call it "十块五毛".

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Chinese monetary system:

元(official) or 块(colloquial) stands for "dollar" (i.e. the main currency unit).

角(official) or 毛(colloquial) stands for "dime" (i.e. one tenth of the main currency unit).

分 stands for "cent" (i.e. one hundredth of the main currency unit).

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Official Chinese translation of British monetary system:

英镑 or 镑 - pound

便士 - penny

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By the way, £10.05 can be colloquially called 10块5分英镑. The official name is 10英镑5便士.