Re: OT: the euro & 01.01.02 (was NATLANG/FONT:)

Am 20.12.01, Dan Jones yscrifef:

> >Are they using this to name the coin, or the denomination? In
> >other words, if you find a penny in the street (and bother to
> >pick it up) do you say "I found a penny" or "I found a pee"?
>
> Depends on the person. A younger person may say "I found one pee (coin)".
> "pee" is only ever found after numbers..
I take it an older person would more likely say "I found a
penny"?

> >If I show you a coin and ask "what's this worth?", do you say
> >"it's worth 20 pence" or "it's worth 20 pee"? If I ask you
> >"what is it?", do you say "it's a 5 pence" or "it's a 5 pee"?
>
> 'S worth twenny pee, guv'ner. And that there's five pee.
>
> You wouldn't say either it's "a 5 pence" or "it's a 5 pee"- the article
> isn't necessary unless you add "coin" or "piece" after it.
Thanks for the answers! It seems rightpondian English is moving
/ has moved to calling the coins by the amount of money they're
worth rather than the name of the coin.

We tend to differentiate the denomination of money from the type
of coin; so we'd say "I've found a penny" / "it's worth one
cent"; "that's a nickel" / "it's worth five cents".

We can also put "piece" after denominations to name coins, like
"one cent piece", "two cent piece", etc.; except for coins of $1
and up. Except if you put "gold" between the denomination and
"piece", like "twenty dollar gold piece".

> >Bethes gwaz vaz ha leal.
>
> Been meaning to say- what does this mean?
Be thou a good servant and true.

> Dan
Padraic.
--
De nuevo!

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