Several linguistic issues have resulted from the inclusion of the new word euro into the vocabularies of the languages of the member states of the European Union.

English

Official practice followed in English-language EU legislation is to use the words euro and cent as both singular and plural. [1] This practice originally arose out of legislation intended to ensure that the banknotes were uncluttered with a string of plurals (as the Soviet ruble notes were). Because the s-less plurals had become "enshrined" in EU legislation, the Commission decided to retain those plurals in English in legislation even while allowing natural plurals in other languages, but the European Commission Translation Service (ECTS) strongly recommends that in all material generated by the Commission intended for the general public, the "natural plurals" of each language be used.

As the euro was being adopted in the Republic of Ireland, however, the Ministry for Finance decided to use the word euro as both the singular and plural forms of the currency, and because Irish broadcasters took their cue from the Ministry, the "legislative plurals" tend to also be used on the news and in much Irish advertising. This has the effect of reinforcing the s-less plurals, though many advertisers (particularly those in the United Kingdom) prefer the "natural" plurals: euros and cents. (This is in line with ECTS recommendations.)

Many people in Ireland prefer the -s plurals, and at the time the s-less plurals were introduced, at least some complained that the EU ought not attempt to change English grammar. People who have become accustomed to what they hear on daily television and radio often use the s-less plurals, which they also see written on the notes and coins. While usage in Ireland is disputed, common usage in the rest of the English-speaking world is to use the natural plurals. The media in the UK prefers euros and cents as the plural forms. Broadcasts of currency exchange rates outside of the European Union tend to use the -s plural; with NPR in the United States and the CBC in Canada being two examples.

In Ireland a few people play at using the slang term yoyo, but few actually do so. The transfer of the slang term quid from the punt to the euro, however, is complete, and nearly everyone uses it.

Irish

In Irish, the English words euro and cent are used, as foreign borrowings without change in spelling or pronunciation, and immune to the natural rules of Irish mutation after numbers. The masculine noun eoró (pl eorónna) has been coined from the word Eoraip ('Europe'), and ceint pl. ceinteanna has been in the lexicon since at least 1959. The words eoró and ceint are attested in printed literature, though the foreign borrowings tend to be more frequent, again due to a lack of coordinated language planning.

French, Spanish and Portuguese

In French, Spanish, and Portuguese the official plurals are the same as their natural plurals euros. Although cent/cents is official in France and Belgium, almost all French and French-speaking Belgian people still use the traditional term centime/centimes (French for "cent", used with the old franc) to avoid confusion with the word cent meaning hundred. Likewise, in Spain céntimo is used (although the Spanish peseta had had no subdivisions since the 1980s). In Portugal, the words cêntimo/cêntimos are widely used instead of cent/cents and officially accepted - the older term for cents in escudos was centavo/centavos. The standard pronunciation for "euro" in Portuguese is [euró] to defy the Portuguese tendency to pronunce final 'o' as 'u'. Despite that, the pronunciation [euru] is becoming more common due to the word's daily use.

Finnish

Finnish doesn't have irregular plurals, so euro and sentti are regular and decline accordingly. With singular numerals, the partitive singulars euroa and senttiä are used, e.g. 10 euroa. "The euros" is eurot, "into euros" is euroiksi, "with euros" is euroilla, etc. Sentti is problematic in that its primary meaning is "centimeter". Thus, the recommended abbreviation of sentti is snt, although Finnish merchants generally use a decimal notation (for example 0,35 €).

Dutch

In Dutch, the plural of euro is euro's and that of cent is centen but euro is also used for both singular and plural (as was used for the guilder: één gulden, twee gulden...). The plural forms euro's and centen refer to seperate coins of one euro or cent, respectively, rather than to abstract amounts of money, cf. the English distinction between pence and pennies. The Dutch also tend to make fun of the euro (to express some frustration over losing the guilder?) by using the plural form euri, which makes the plural sound very undignified and ridiculous.

German

Plural

In German, Euro and Cent is used as both singular and plural, in analogy to the former currency Mark and Pfennig, which also had no plural form in German. The plurals Euros and Cents are rather used when designating several coins. This had always been the pratice with the former Austrian currency, the Schilling, where Schillinge was used to refer to a number of coins.

Pronunciation of "Cent"

The word Cent is not well-adapted to German pronunciation. Traditionally, words derived from the Latin centum (hundred) were transposed into German with a Z (as in Zentrum (centre), Zentimeter (centimetre) etc.), which is pronounced as [ts]. Equivalently, German pronunciation rules require C before an e to be pronounced that way (such words are relatively rare and always loanwords). However, since German speakers are familiar with the American unit cent from television, most people pronounce the c in Cent as [s].

Greek

In the Greek language the immutable word ευρώ (pronounced evró) is used as the currency's name. It was decided to use omega rather than omicron as the last letter of the word, partly because a noun ending with omicron would encourage mutability, and partly to stress the origin of the euro in the Greek word Ευρώπη (Europe) which is also spelled with omega. However, there is an uneducated or jocular plural: Ευρά (Evrá.) For the cent, the terms used are λεπτό, pl. λεπτά (leptó, pl. leptá), a name used for small denominations of various ancient and modern Greek currencies, including the drachma (which the euro replaced).

Hungarian

In Hungarian the currency (expected to be introduced in 2010) is named euró and cent, the former with a long ó, as decided by the Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, since Hungarian words cannot end in short o either in writing or in speech (except for one or two interjections), see these international words as examples: fotó, videó, sztereó. The plural is not normally marked in Hungarian after numerals, but both names can take suffixes like euróval, euróért, euróból, etc. ("with a euro", "for a euro", "from a euro", etc.).

As of October 2004, Hungary is struggling along with Lithuania, Latvia, and Slovenia for the euro to be written in their official documents according to their own usage and spelling, in contrast with a 1998 EU decree which would call for a single name all through the Union.

Italian

In Italian the words euro and cent are used without change for plural as stated in government rulings and by the prestigious Accademia della Crusca, the national language academy of Italy. Since Italian has many invariable nouns, it does not strike Italians as strange that euro does not change in the plural. However, there is an uneducated or jocular plural: euri. Centesimo/centesimi is virtually always used in speech rather than the foreign-sounding "cent".

Latvian

In Latvian there are still at least two concurrent usages. Majority say and write 'eiro' (which somewhat resembles the West European 'euro', but has also taken its sound from Eiropa, the Latvian word for Europe). Purists insist that standardised usage is eira - a word that is declinable according to the normal and convenient Latvian pattern. Eirai clearly means for the euro, eirās means in euros, and so forth. In contrast, eiro, like all Latvian words ending in an '-o', is unable to take on inflections therefore it results in ambiguous phrases like "samainīt eiro", which can be interpreted in a variety of ways: to exchange into euros, to exchange euros [for something else], to exchange one euro - and this limits the fluency of communication. The official usage of eira has been affirmed by Terminology Commission of the Latvian Academy of Sciences, with the argument that a potentially frequently used term needs to fit especially well in the structure of grammar. However, some media outlets and banks have preserved a habit of using eiro. Latvian language routinely adapts foreign words by adding declinable endings (like Ņujorka for New York, freska for fresco), although internationalisms ending in '-o' (like foto, auto) are common as well. See also ().

Lithuanian

In Lithuanian the euro and cent are called euras and centas (in common language usually eurocentas, to distinguish from the cents of the current Lithuanian currency, Litas), while plural forms are eurai and centai (eurocentai). The Lithuanian language routinely adopts foreign words by adding standardised endings, resulting in words like kompiuteris or Tonis Bleiras. Lithuania is expected to join the eurozone in 2007.

Slovenian

In Slovenian the euro and cent are called evro and cent, while plural forms are 2 evra/centa, 3 evri/centi and 10 evrov/centov. Slovenian language often adopts foreign words by substituting u after vowel with v (cf. Evropa for Europe or avtomobil for automobile). Slovenia is expected to join the eurozone in 2007.

Bulgarian

In Bulgarian the euro and cent will have to be spelled in Cyrillic letters. This will necessitate a design change in euro banknotes.

Romanian

In Romanian the euro and cent are called euro and cent (plural cenţi). Although the official plural of euro is also euro, a variant that is getting quite common is euroi, following the Romanian plural for masculine nouns that is obtained by adding an "i" at the end of the word.