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There seems to be many combinations for how to say e.g. 1.59 in Chinese currency:

一块五毛九分 (yīkuài wǔmáo jiǔfēn)
一块五毛九 (yīkuài wǔmáo jiǔ)
一块五角九分 (yīkuài wǔjiǎo jiǔfēn)
一块五角九 (yīkuài wǔjiǎo jiǔ)
一块五十九分 (yīkuài wǔshíjiǔfēn)
一块五十九 (yīkuài wǔshíjiǔ)

一元五毛九分 (yīyuán wǔmáo jiǔfēn)
一元五毛九 (yīyuán wǔmáo jiǔ)
一元五角九分 (yīyuán wǔjiǎo jiǔfēn)
一元五角九 (yīyuán wǔjiǎo jiǔ)
一元五十九分 (yīyuán wǔshíjiǔfēn)
一元五十九 (yīyuán wǔshíjiǔ)

I'm not sure if some of these are incorrect, e.g., I recall seeing 快/毛 or 元/角 used together, but not 快/角 nor 元/毛. This might just be inexperience, or there might be a reason for it. In any case, I think 一元五角九 seems weird, but I'm not sure why.

I put each of them into Baidu, and for 一块五毛九, someone had written 六块五毛九, so it seems fine, but I didn't find much beyond that. Personally, I'd probably say 一块五十九.

Question: Are all these ways of saying 1.59 correct?

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    块 colloquial term for 元 , 毛 colloquial for 角, 快/角, 元/毛 would mean mixing standard with colloquial, therefore unlikely
    – user6065
    Jun 20, 2018 at 5:33

1 Answer 1

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元、角 are formal and 块、毛 are their colloquial counterparts respectively. Mix and match is much less common but not unheard of.

Omitting the last unit word is also an informal usage.

一块五十九分 is extremely uncommon if not wrong at all, but understandable. 一块五十九 is not understandable to Chinese ears without clarification.

Therefore,

Formal:
一元五角九分

Colloquial:
一块五毛九分
一块五毛九

Colloquial mixed with formal fragments, less common:
一元五角九
一块五角九分
一块五角九
一元五毛九分
一元五毛九

Unnatural but can be understood:
一块五十九分
一元五十九分

Ungrammatical and cannot be understood without clarification:
一块五十九
一元五十九

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