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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.

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I believe Chinese in the UK call pound 块 as well. So 10.50 pounds could be 10块半/10块5. Note that 10块5 is not 10.05 pounds but 10.50 pounds –  user58955 Nov 19 '13 at 0:12

5 Answers 5

up vote 9 down vote accepted

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.

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Wouldn't it be 十磅半/十块半 if your talking about a 0.5 value? –  50-3 Nov 18 '13 at 22:35
@50-3 That's fine too. Added. –  deutschZuid Nov 18 '13 at 22:42
Truthfully, most of the Chinese students would say "十点五镑". In your answer, (1) is also said by some people, but (2) and (4) are very rarely heard. –  shuangwhywhy Nov 19 '13 at 3:07
If anyone says "十镑半", I understand it, but if he says "十镑五毛", I would understand it as £10.05 –  shuangwhywhy Nov 19 '13 at 3:10
At least no Chinese in the US would call 5 cents 5毛... 5毛is always 50 cents and 5 cents should be called 5分... I find it very hard to believe that Chinese in the UK would call 5 pence 5毛 –  user58955 Nov 20 '13 at 4:36

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)

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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.

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

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Since this is a late answer, please have the courtesy to read other answers first before answering. If you agree with an answer and have nothing further to add, a thumbs up on the answer will suffice instead of repeating the same. When you have gained enough reputation, you will be able to leave a comment. –  杨以轩 Nov 20 '13 at 5:47
@QuestionOverflow - I actually reviewed this against the other answers already provided and because it was different I decided to leave it. It's hard to make a single new entry into a complete answer. –  xiaohouzi79 Nov 20 '13 at 22:10

The official Chinese language 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".


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).


Official Chinese translation of British monetary system:

英镑 or 镑 - pound

便士 - penny

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