Catalan separates three questions that English often leaves to context: how many units, what is being measured, and how exact the figure is. Vint euros, uns vint euros, and gairebé vint euros all contain the same number, but they make different commitments: exactly twenty, approximately twenty, and just under twenty. This page combines that grammar with the written conventions used for money, metric units, and temperatures.
A quantity needs a unit or a countable noun
A cardinal number can directly modify a count noun: tres entrades, dues maletes, vint euros. A mass noun instead needs a measure, container, or fraction: dos litres d'aigua, tres quilos d'arròs, mig metre de roba. The linking de belongs to the measure construction; English often hides the same relationship in compounds such as “two liters of water.” The mass and count nouns page develops that distinction beyond measurement phrases.
Necessitem dos litres d'aigua i mig quilo de fruita per a l'excursió.
We need two liters of water and half a kilo of fruit for the outing.
La taula fa un metre vint de llarg i setanta centímetres d'ample.
The table is 1.20 meters long and seventy centimeters wide.
He comprat dues entrades de quinze euros cadascuna.
I've bought two tickets at fifteen euros each.
Written-out unit names are ordinary nouns and take plural marking: un quilòmetre / tres quilòmetres, un grau / vint graus. International symbols behave differently: 3 km, not 3 kms; 20 °C, not 20 °Cs. In careful technical and formal prose, put a nonbreaking or thin space between the number and the symbol. The symbol has no final period unless the sentence itself ends there.
| Meaning | Words | Symbolic form |
|---|---|---|
| three kilograms | tres quilograms / tres quilos | 3 kg |
| twelve kilometers | dotze quilòmetres | 12 km |
| twenty degrees Celsius | vint graus Celsius | 20 °C |
| fifteen percent | quinze per cent | 15 % |
Decimal commas and grouped digits
Catalan uses a comma as the decimal separator: 2,5 kg, 1,75 m, 12,50 €. In a long number, careful scientific and institutional typography groups digits in threes with spaces rather than using a point that could be mistaken for a decimal separator: 25 000 habitants. A four-digit whole number is commonly written without grouping: 2026, 3500 m. House styles vary in nontechnical material, so a document must choose one system and keep it consistent.
Read the comma as coma when precision matters. In ordinary conversation, a conventional unit may be compressed: fa un metre setanta-vuit means 1.78 meters tall, and pesa setanta-dos quilos i mig means 72.5 kilograms.
El paquet pesa dos coma tres quilos, així que no arriba al límit.
The parcel weighs 2.3 kilos, so it does not reach the limit.
La Júlia fa un metre setanta-vuit i el seu germà, un metre vuitanta-dos.
Júlia is 1.78 meters tall and her brother is 1.82 meters tall.
The spelling contrast is consequential: 1,500 kg is one and a half kilograms under Catalan decimal notation, not one thousand five hundred. To write the latter unambiguously, use 1500 kg or 1 500 kg according to the document's grouping policy.
Money: euros, cents, and prices
The noun agrees normally: un euro, dos euros; un cèntim, vint cèntims. In running Catalan text, the currency symbol follows the amount and is spaced from it: 24,90 €. This order differs from the familiar English €24.90 presentation, and the decimal mark differs too.
El menú costa dotze euros amb cinquanta cèntims, beguda inclosa.
The set menu costs twelve euros and fifty cents, drink included.
—Quant val l'abonament? —Són trenta-nou euros al mes.
—How much is the pass? —It's thirty-nine euros a month.
M'han cobrat 8,75 € pel trajecte fins a l'estació.
They charged me €8.75 for the trip to the station.
In speech, dotze euros amb cinquanta, dotze euros i cinquanta and the fully explicit dotze euros amb cinquanta cèntims can all be heard. The last version is safest when a figure must be unambiguous. In a contract or invoice, follow the chosen institutional style rather than trying to reproduce conversational compression.
Temperatures and other readings
Say vint graus when the Celsius scale is obvious, or vint graus Celsius when it is not. Negative values use menys: menys cinc graus. Weather statements commonly use fer, while a measured object or system can be a a given temperature.
Demà farà uns trenta graus a l'interior i uns vint-i-cinc a la costa.
Tomorrow it will be about thirty degrees inland and about twenty-five on the coast.
Aquesta nit hem arribat a menys quatre graus.
Tonight we reached minus four degrees.
Conserveu el producte entre 2 °C i 8 °C.
Store the product between 2°C and 8°C. (formal instruction)
The last example illustrates careful interval style: repeat the unit at both ends in ordinary prose when that prevents ambiguity. A technical formula may factor the unit differently according to its style guide.
Four ways to be approximate
Catalan does not have one universal equivalent of English “about.” The choice shows how the real value relates to the stated one.
| Expression | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| uns / unes + numeral | rough estimate around the number | uns vint minuts; unes trenta persones |
| cap a | approximately; tending toward a point | cap a cinquanta euros |
| gairebé / quasi | almost, but below the threshold | gairebé cent pàgines |
| més de | strictly above the threshold | més de cent pàgines |
| prop de / aproximadament | near; neutral or formal estimate | prop de mil assistents |
The article-like form uns / unes agrees with the understood noun, not with the written shape of the numeral: uns trenta llibres but unes trenta revistes. It cannot express “some twenties”; as a unit before a numeral, it turns the numeral into an estimate.
Arribarem d'aquí a uns quaranta minuts, si no hi ha trànsit.
We'll arrive in about forty minutes if there is no traffic.
Hi havia unes dues-centes persones davant del teatre.
There were about two hundred people in front of the theater.
La reparació costarà cap a cinc-cents euros.
The repair will cost around five hundred euros.
Ja hem venut gairebé totes les entrades: en queden menys de vint.
We've already sold almost all the tickets; fewer than twenty remain.
L'informe té més de vuitanta pàgines, però encara no arriba a cent.
The report is over eighty pages long, but it still does not reach one hundred.
A realistic order and estimate
In everyday service encounters, speakers normally combine an exact item count with an approximate total before a scale gives the final reading.
—Poseu-me unes sis pomes, si us plau. —Fan 1,3 kg; són quatre euros amb vint.
—Give me about six apples, please. —They weigh 1.3 kg; that's four euros twenty.
The request approximates the count because apples differ in size. The scale supplies an exact measured value, and the till supplies a price. Replacing every figure with aproximadament would be grammatically possible but socially stiff in this informal exchange.
Regional and register notes
The numerical and SI conventions on this page belong to the shared IEC- and AVL-oriented written standard. Regional speech naturally differs in pronunciation and in preferred everyday formulas; Valencian, Balearic, Northwestern, Northern, and Alguerese speakers do not need separate mathematical systems. (formal) aproximadament is common in reports; (informal) uns / unes and més o menys are natural in conversation. Keep regional number forms coherent with the rest of your variety—for example, standard Valencian may use huitanta where the Central baseline has vuitanta.
Common Mistakes
❌ La caixa pesa 5 kgs.
Incorrect — an SI symbol does not take a plural s.
✅ La caixa pesa 5 kg.
The box weighs 5 kg.
❌ Avui farà 28°C.
Typographically incorrect in formal SI style — leave a space between the value and the unit symbol.
✅ Avui farà 28 °C.
Today it will be 28°C.
❌ El bitllet costa €12.50.
Incorrect Catalan running-text convention — the symbol follows the amount and decimals use a comma.
✅ El bitllet costa 12,50 €.
The ticket costs €12.50.
❌ Vindran uns trenta persones.
Incorrect agreement — uns/unes agrees with the feminine noun persones.
✅ Vindran unes trenta persones.
About thirty people will come.
❌ Hem recorregut tres quilòmetres de distància i mig.
Awkward agreement and placement — the half belongs with the measured unit.
✅ Hem recorregut tres quilòmetres i mig.
We have traveled three and a half kilometers.
Key Takeaways
- Count nouns follow numerals directly; mass nouns normally need a measure: tres ampolles but tres litres d'aigua.
- Written-out units pluralize, while symbols are invariant: dos quilòmetres and 2 km.
- Catalan formal notation uses a decimal comma and a space before unit, currency, temperature, and percentage symbols.
- Uns / unes, cap a, and prop de center an estimate; gairebé stays below a threshold; més de goes above it.
- Agreement still matters inside an approximation: uns vint llibres but unes vint revistes.
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