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I am seeing both 20$ and $20 usages. (20 is nonessential to this question.)

What is the difference between them?

MrHen
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Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин
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    The $ is usually put before the number to discourage forging. It's much harder to change $20 to $320 than with changing 20$ to 320$. – John Smith Feb 04 '11 at 15:34
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    @John Smith: that explanation doesn't fly, as it is extremely easy to change $20 to $200, but you can't change 20$ to 200$. Besides, if your theory were true, that would mean that accountants from many other countries are somehow stupider than their American and British colleagues. – RegDwigнt Feb 04 '11 at 15:55
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    @RegDwight There is usually a period at the other end so my explanation still holds. – John Smith Feb 04 '11 at 17:17
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    It would actually be pretty useful in discouraging forging of numbers if we padded all the whole number with dollar signs... $362$ ! – sova Feb 04 '11 at 21:50
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    @sova, In banking documents the digits are duplicated by spelled writing and blank spaces are striken out from any side - in the left, in the right, in the top and and in the bottom. I would like to restrict the question by electronic (Email, internet forum posts) texts – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 04 '11 at 22:57
  • I understood that the $ placement is language dependent as it was demonstrated in answers about different usage of euro sign in France and $ in French (Canada) vs. English(Canada). Though, the main question was rather about denoting foreign currency, using the same $, in English texts – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 05 '11 at 14:17
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    @RegDwight you can not only change $20 to $200 but also 20$ to 220$ which is better because you even get more money ;). SO I don't think fraud prevention is a valid reason, if it was, we should write $20$, I think it's more of a custom, a preferred usage. Although it makes more sense to me to write any units after the number as in 20$, the same way you read it, twenty dollars, not dollars twenty. – Petruza Feb 05 '11 at 16:00
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    @RegDwight How about $20.00? :) – badp Sep 08 '11 at 23:06
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    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not about the English language as such, the dollar symbol and its meaning is not in discussion, but the question is focussed on its physical position. – Mari-Lou A Dec 22 '15 at 00:16

10 Answers10

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In English, the dollar sign is placed before the amount, so the correct order is $20, as others have noted.

However, when you see people using 20$, it's likely they're being influenced by a few different things:

  1. Many other countries (and the Canadian province of Quebec) put the currency symbol after the amount
  2. In spoken English the word dollars follows the amount, e.g. twenty dollars
  3. The sign for cents is placed after the amount: 25¢

Because of these inconsistencies, writing 20$ is a very common mistake. I've been known to do it myself.

JSBձոգչ
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It is the convention of some countries to put their currency symbol before the number, while others put it after the number.

At least one country has put it in the middle.

So you could assume, in the absence of any context, that the 20$ is a different currency to $20.

Ed Guiness
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    Just as a matter of interest, which country puts its currency symbol in the middle of numbers? :-) – Tragicomic Feb 04 '11 at 13:14
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    @Tragicomic "...before they were abolished, the signs for the Portuguese escudo and the French franc were placed in the decimal position (i.e., 50$00 or 12₣34)" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_sign – Ed Guiness Feb 04 '11 at 13:17
  • Is there any actual currency that's commonly written 20$? I think a better explanation is the inconsistencies mentioned in my answer. – JSBձոգչ Feb 04 '11 at 14:53
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    @JSBangs: An amount of Portuguese escudos without a fractionary part could be written like that: 20$. Fractionary parts were kind of rare (at least during my lifetime), because there was only one coin of a non-integral denomination, 2$50. That was enough to buy... a mint. – R. Martinho Fernandes Feb 04 '11 at 15:53
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    @JSBangs @Ed In French-speaking Canada, the dollar sign is often written after the number. 50$ or 50.00$. In English, it's always before the number. – ghoppe Feb 04 '11 at 16:30
  • @Martinho Fernandes, I worked as programmer in banks of Portugal and fractional part could not be ommitted at any occasion in any documents. There was hyperinflation in Portugal in the 1970-80s but Portugal still had centavos and even half-centavo in circulation till the introduction of euro. – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 05 '11 at 03:52
  • @Martinho Fernandes, writing fractional parts is not the biggest inconvenience. Portuguses (and portuguesas) have 6-8 names which they have to write out in all documents without omissions, each time, for example when they sign papers and most papers require repeating the complete name many times – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 05 '11 at 05:53
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    @vgv8: As a Portuguese myself, I'll have to correct you there. There was no such thing as half-centavos for more than ten years before the introduction of the euro. Like I said before the only non-integral coin was 2$50. Most Portuguese have one or two given names and two family names; the law forbids more than two given names and more than four surnames. So, Portuguese have 2-6 names, not 6-8. – R. Martinho Fernandes Feb 05 '11 at 14:38
  • @Martinho Fernandes, I am sorry to forget some details. Do I remember incorrectly about 6 names in written used by Portugueses? Could you remind the term of portuguese currency unit/coin less than centavo (100 "terms" = 1 centavo)? I desperately cannot recall and find it by googling – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 06 '11 at 06:54
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    @vgv8: you're confusing the fraction with the unit. The currency was called the escudo (1 escudo = 1$00), and 1/100 of a escudo was called a centavo (1 centavo = 0$01). – R. Martinho Fernandes Feb 07 '11 at 09:58
  • Just now I listening a song-tribute to Antoine Marie Jean-Baptiste Roger de Saint-Exupéry, the author of little Prince" I noticed the same with French names – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 14 '11 at 02:36
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    @Ed Guiness: that is still valid in France, with the Euro. You would write 5€30 for instance. – nico May 21 '11 at 15:58
  • This is not about countries. It's about languages. In English, you put the dollar sign before the amount. $10 and the sign for other currencies as well. So, you write $10 but you SAY: ten dollars, if reading it. – Lambie Nov 02 '21 at 17:38
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In American English, the currency symbol is placed before the amount; the same is true for British English.
It is $20, not 20$.

apaderno
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    Not true. when in American English you write the euro (like 20€ ) you put it on the end. – John Alexiou Feb 04 '11 at 17:44
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    @ja72: [citation needed]. As an American, I've always seen and written the Euro's currency symbol before the amount -- €20. The Wikipedia article also uses the symbol-first style. In fact, "20€" looks strange and incorrect to me. – josh3736 Feb 04 '11 at 18:45
  • @josh3736, you seem to me more like Euro-American than American :) – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 04 '11 at 22:50
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    @ja72, @josh3736: There is no standard regarding euro sign placement; it varies by language and it's entirely conventional. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euro_sign#Usage – CesarGon Feb 04 '11 at 23:59
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    @CesarGon: You're absolutely correct. But in the context of American English -- which is what we're talking about here -- the convention is definitely symbol-first. – josh3736 Feb 05 '11 at 19:30
  • @josh3736: I don't dispute that. As I said, each language applies its own convention. – CesarGon Feb 05 '11 at 19:36
  • I do a "booze-cruise" across the Channel to France a few times a year, and it seems to me the French usually put the currency symbol after the amount. But I find it interesting that on their homepage, Pidou Supermarkets show their in-store "exchange rate" as £1.00 = 1.15€ right next to a rolling display showing, for example, 6 bottles for €11.50 – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '11 at 16:15
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The location of the currency depends on the language in which it appears.

For instance, English texts should use "€ 20" while French ones should use "20 €".

Eric O. Lebigot
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As others have mentioned in passing, those are not the only two possibilities. In France at least, you sometimes find prices written as 19€95, as an alternative to 19,95€ (and yes, the decimal separator there is the comma).

F'x
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    In France they write it that way because they are writing French and not English. It's the language that is important here, not the currency. – Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 Feb 04 '11 at 15:41
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    @long-pseudonym: I most certainly agree; I was only pointing out that some languages have a third alternative – F'x Feb 04 '11 at 17:42
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    Btw, it's enough to type the first three characters to address someone. So @Mr. would presumably work. – ShreevatsaR Feb 07 '11 at 20:19
5

20$ is French-Canadian and $20 is English-Canadian/American.

French Canadian Dollar in Wiki

Marthaª
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Philippe Lavoie
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For dollars, the correct way is $20. When I see 20$ it means the writer was thinking "twenty dollars" (not "dollars twenty") and accordingly it is natural to type 20$ and if the writer is feeling lazy she will not backspace to correct it. Laziness is more common in casual contexts.

H2ONaCl
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$20 is conventional, but to throw a wrench in the whole thing: if it is casual correspondence, either way is OK.

horatio
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  • Do you mean that $20 and 20$ are casual writing? I would expect 20 USD be used in formal documents and even in casual correspondence in order to avoid ambiguity. It is confusing to me when an Argentian writes in English-written text the $20 or the 20$. Is it Argentian Peso or USD? – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 04 '11 at 22:33
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    Casual, formal, email, printed, doesn't matter: if the language is English, $20 is the only correct way to use the dollar sign. 20$ is always incorrect in English. – Marthaª Feb 05 '11 at 05:00
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    And who asked about dollar sign? $ is the currency sign, denoting a multitude of different currencies. It doesn't tell anything which one. BTW, the dollar sign, initially called peso sign, does not identify currency either – Gennady Vanin Геннадий Ванин Feb 05 '11 at 14:06
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    @vgv8, re "And who asked about the dollar sign?": You did. The name of the $ symbol is "dollar sign". It is not a generic currency symbol. (There is a generic currency symbol defined, but I've never seen it used: ¤.) Yes, there are multiple currencies that use the dollar sign, but that's irrelevant to English usage. – Marthaª Feb 07 '11 at 20:17
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    "$20" is, in fact, not english at all. – horatio Feb 08 '11 at 15:31
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Why all the overcomplication? The difference is that, in English, $20 is the correct way to use the dollar sign, while 20$ is an incorrect way to use the dollar sign. That's all there is to it.

Other languages and currencies are irrelevant to the question. Heck, how the cent sign is used is irrelevant to the question, even though it is arguably the same currency and definitely the same language.

Marthaª
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I think that part of putting the symbol preceding the number is to help differentiate between dollars and cents. The dollar symbol always precedes, while the cent symbol always follows. If both were to followed, this could potentially become confusing, as a roughly written S with a vertical strike could be mistaken for a c with a vertical strike.

Maz
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  • This line of reasoning is from the realm of wild speculation, and worse still, I'm not even following it. Numbers themselves can be easily mistaken for other numbers, and often are. Yet nothing has been done about that. Besides, again, you suggest that accountants from other countries are dumber or more careless than their American and British colleagues. – RegDwigнt Nov 25 '12 at 14:41