# Norwegian: Crowns or Kroner?



## Heleatunda

I’m translating a small Norwegian article into English, and the author mentions that he purchased something for kr. 3,25.  So I’m wondering, should I write that as 3.25 crowns or 3.25 kroner?  A lot of sources I’ve seen have kept it as kroner, but they are mostly informal.


----------



## Ben Jamin

The official form used by Norwegians while speaking about the Norwegian currency in English is kroner. Crowns is confusing, and mostly used by people that are not familiar with the official translation. By the way, there was once a coin in Britain called crown, if I am not mistaken, but this was not a name of currency.


----------



## raumar

Unless this is a literary text, you could also use the international currency abbreviation, and write NOK 3.25.


----------



## entangledbank

I have only ever seen kroner in modern uses in English. Crowns is still sometimes used for the Czech koruny, but not for the Scandinavian ones.


----------



## winenous

Agree with the above. I have heard kroner translated as crowns, but I think mainly by Norwegians trying to be helpful.

Yes, the crown was a British coin, worth 5 shillings or a quarter of a pound.


----------



## HorationN

Heleatunda said:


> I’m translating a small Norwegian article into English, and the author mentions that he purchased something for kr. 3,25.  So I’m wondering, should I write that as 3.25 crowns or 3.25 kroner?  A lot of sources I’ve seen have kept it as kroner, but they are mostly informal.


use this format for currency notation:
NOK 3.25


----------



## Sepia

One should not translate "krone"/"kroner" - You don't translate "lira", "yen", "peso", or "dollar" either.


----------



## Ben Jamin

Sepia said:


> One should not translate "krone"/"kroner" - You don't translate "lira", "yen", "peso", or "dollar" either.


It is valid only of English. In other languages it is common to translate currency names if they have a translatable meaning (e.g. pound, krone, gulden, etc.). For example "pound sterling" in Spanish is "libra esterlina".


----------



## Sepia

Ben Jamin said:


> It is valid only of English. In other languages it is common to translate currency names if they have a translatable meaning (e.g. pound, krone, gulden, etc.). For example "pound sterling" in Spanish is "libra esterlina".



They probably all have translatable meanings, but in Spanish even banking/currency exchange media exchange some and some not. It is extremely inconsequent.


----------



## PoulBA

si, coronas danesas, por ejemplo. Equally, I always say Danish crowns, and engelske pund. When dollar refers to the currencies of a number of English speaking countries it's dollar, but when speaking of the old Maria Theresa dollar, for example, I translate. In German, thaler; in Danish, daler.


----------



## Sepia

PoulBA said:


> si, coronas danesas, por ejemplo. Equally, I always say Danish crowns, and engelske pund. When dollar refers to the currencies of a number of English speaking countries it's dollar, but when speaking of the old Maria Theresa dollar, for example, I translate. In German, thaler; in Danish, daler.



It is a name of a currency so "kroner" is correct. Swedish kroner - SEK, Danish kroner - DKK, Norwegian kroner - NOK.
Before we had the Euro you didn't say "Italian pounds" either, I suppose. You said "lIre" - you even said it in the Italian plural of lira.


----------

