I saw a French book magasine, but all of the prices were in dollars. But instead of writing the price as $5.00, they had 5$, and so on and so forth. Is that normal?

 

The official abbreviation is USD, so it should be 5 USD or 5 dollars.

 

In Canada that's indeed the official way of displaying a dollar sign in French. Rules appear to be loose in most French-speaking countries, as egueule mentions USD is commonly used in Europe. Canada's currency, however, is the dollar and therefore they have an "official way" of displaying it, after the value numeral (either 5$ or 5.00$ is acceptable). In French Canada 5 USD is rendered as 5$US or 5.00$US

 

Thanks everyone!

 

Indeed in French we put the sign of the currency after the amount: it's the case for every currencies: one British pound = 1£; one euro= 1¤; etc...

Just a little question: don't you think it's more logical? Just teasing you...

 

well, actually I do think that it is more logical, because when talking, whether in French or in English, you say "dollar" after the amount.

Ex.: fifty dollars ($50) = cinquante dollars (50$)

 

In Canada, in English, you'd write "$5" for "five dollars."
In French, it would be "5$" for "five dollars."
I think "5" followed by the dollar sign ($) makes more sense because it reads "five dollars" instead of the English way: "dollars five."

Well... I hope that helped you somewhat. If not... oh well.

 

So what if I wanted to write $3 billion en francais?
Serait-ce...

3 billion$

ou

3$ billion

???

Merci!
C

 

En France où est-ce qu'on place le signe du dollar américain, avant ou après le chiffre ? Je l'ai vu des deux façons donc je me posais la question...

 

En français, peu importe le pays, le symbole monétaire se place après le montant, séparé par une espace : 10 $.

Voici une bonne référence : BDL, Symboles d'unités monétaires.

 

3 milliards $

 

Publicité : You would write "3 milliards de $" ou "3 milliards de dollars". Regarding this whole thread, the rule is simple. In English, sums are written with the dollar/pound/euro/yen sign before the sum, in French it comes after. So €30 in English, 30 € in French.

 

My bet (based on common sense and common use but there must be official rules)
Formal language "3 milliards de dollars"
Normal language "3 milliards $"