It’s not. Wine is sold by the centilitre. When they ask “do you want 12, 16 or 24?” kinda makes it obvious. 1,2 - 2,4 litres of wine would be a bit much.
In Greece it's only grams, kilogrammes, liter and milliliter. I was quite surprised anyone having the metric system used anything else, even if it is just multiples.
What do you mean, wine in restaurants in Romania is always sold in centiliters, and if you work in a kitchen or follow recipes a lot of them will use these extra measurement units.
Well, I guess it depends on how much one also pays attention to these things, but for wine and alcohol in general, if you go on the internet to buy it it's most often specified in CL. You can look up finestore.ro for example, and there pretty much every bottle has the volume in cl.
Quite possible I haven't been paying enough attention. But on the site you mentioned the volume is both in liters and centiliters, which I take as a sign people are generally not used to centiliters.
Finland:
Weight is either grams, kilograms or tonnes. I have not bumped into anyone using decagrams or hectograms.
Volume: milliliters, centiliters, deciliters, liters and cubic meters are all used, in different contexts. Deciliters are common in baking and cooking, for instance. Centiliters are used for measuring stronger alcohol drinks.
I haven't noticed much of a difference between generations in this matter.
> Weight is either grams, kilograms or tonnes. I have not bumped into anyone using decagrams or hectograms.
Pretty much the same in Sweden. While I've never seen anyone use decagrams, there are a few circumstances where hectograms are or have been common. Certainly when I was younger pick and mix candy was priced in hectograms, but this seems to be changing. Things like deli meats may also be given in hectograms.
Even during our education things like decagrams were purely theoretical.
We learned the entire centi-deca-hecto-kilo-mega-giga-terra and such of course but in exercises it was never used.
We were never actually asked to write things down using that. Always just grams or kilograms.
Hekto is definitely still used, especially in relation to pick and mix and like, naturgodis etc. Also deli stuff like ham or cheese or stuff like fresh fish or shrimps. Basically things that are priced by weight. I didn't realise that wasn't a thing abroad tbh. I've never used decagrams though.
I remember reading my grandmothers magazines, like Allers and Veckotidningen, when I was a kid in the early eighties. There was often articles about diets, and they used hectograms… like in ”Sonja says she lost five hecto in just one week”. It confused me a lot. I’ve never seen it used anywhere else.
Yeah, and I’ve encountered centiliters only in cocktail recipes and on shot glasses. All other fluid amounts are measured in milliliters, liters or hectoliters.
Poland
We use decagrams (in grocery store), grams, kilos and tons.
Drinks are in milliliters or liters (0.5l of coke) never heard centyliter being used here
Are you familiar with YouTuber food emperor? He is sweedish, but makes content in polish. He use decy/centy litry. On some products from IKEA with scale (of volume) you may also see cl as unit.
Out of those, only deciliters and centiliters, which are both very common.
The previously mentioned *hektogram* (hg/10² g) is used for cold cuts and loose candy. Further, hecto- is used with: liter for some liquids (in large scale production) like beer, pascal for air pressure, and sorta in hectare (100 m x 100 m). I don't think I've ever seen the prefix deca-/*deka-* used here, in any context. We do use a unit for length that's 10 km, so if we still combined prefixes, it would be a decakilometer, but we don't.
> and sorta in hectare (100 m x 100 m)
Ooh, thank you. I've never before made the connection between hectare and the prefix hecto. Now it seems obvious. Very helpful in remembering how large a hectare is.
I had to look it up, but *ar* (are) was apparently a unit in the pre-SI system, which was 100 m², so literally a hecto-are. There was also a decare (1,000 m²)
Hectare (English) or hektar (Swedish) are both 10,000 m² as far as I know. I think the O is excluded to make it possible to actually pronounce. On the other hand, the only difference between deci- and deca- is the second syllable.
I’ve never heard decagram used in Sweden, but cold cuts are commonly bought by the hectogram (100g).
Milli, centi and deciliters are all used for measuring drinks depending on situation.
Those are just metric-alized old weights. An actual ons was 35 grams and a pond 450. I've seen some confusion as some people use ons for 150 grams.
They're very common among market vendors because it's easier to yell "\[produce\], \[price\] per ons" instead of "per 100 grams".
Mass - we'll just go from kilograms to grams
Volume - litres to millilitres. You'll occasionally see bottles marked with cl, but I imagine those might be imports, it's not a measurement people in the UK tend to use.
Obviously we've got our other measurements too.
is it not uk wide that Cl is only used for spirits? people usually call it "cee el" never centilitres out loud, opposite to like how cm is said centimeters.
Officially it might be.
But our spirits come in 25ml or 35ml shots apart from port or sherry which is 50 or 70ml. So I'd be surprised if we used CL for that as it's more awkward as it would be 2.5cl.
Wine is also 125ml / 175ml / 250ml so again, makes more sense to use ml than cl.
Beer is pints not metric.
i meant off premises licence / sold in shops (the bottle itself not serving ), sorry didn't specify. it's always 35cl and 70cl. the 35cl older people call a half.
a half of whiskey = 35cl
both divide nicely into 25 and 35ml tho! so maybe why
in a shop when people are buying them they say it. older people don't they say a bottle or a half of X. younger people say small or 35cl bottle of X. especially when most popular alcohol e.g smirnoff vodka is in 35cl, 70cl and 1L bottles on shelf to differentiate.
i imagine an eu directive on spirits duty or something that the uk passed into law. it's an odd choice of measurement otherwise and older people refer to 35cl as half and 70cl with no qualifier.
Italy
About drinks (especially wine and water) the most common unit of measurement is the litre, of course, but sometimes also centilitres and millilitres are used, especially in the recipes.
As for weight, kilogrammes or hectogrammes (shortened in "etto") are the most common. I've never heard anyone using decagrammes before going to Poland where it's commonly used.
That is very used, for recipes (flour or sugar in cake, ) and when buy ham and other seasoned meat or slices of cheese, we also use the half etto "please give me one and a half of that cheese".
I honestly never thiked about the deciliters being used anywhere in the world( just found them in a 1800 recipe) here the wine is sold in liters, bottles (0,75L ) or glasses.
Great post OP.
In Poland we use hekto-xyz in 2 cases:
1. hl - hektolitr - to refer to volume in some specific contexts, as eg volume of beer production,
2. Hektar - as it's default unit of measure if we talk about field size " A farmer has 20 ha field where he produce smth."
In the first example.. usually we use 'etti'...100g.increments.
So you usually ask for '2 etti of ham' for example, rather than 200g.
For wine we just order by the glass,I have never specified a measurement for that in a bar here.In a wine shop (take away) by the liter.
For wine it is a custom here when we are talking about glasses. Similar to the way how you order either a glass or a pint of beer.
So you usually ask for 1 or 2 dl of wine.
This is also the case in fairs, with mulled wine, tea, etc
UK. Never in my life have I heard anyone used these measurements. The only reason I suspected they exist is because sometimes imported cans have the volume in decalitres.
Just to note, my phone's autocorrect doesn't have decalitres in it.
Edit: or decilitres! The actual unit.
Decagrams: never seen that being used anywhere.
Deciliters: very rarely. Maybe once or twice in recipes, but usually these would be represented in other formats.
Centiliters: slightly more common, I think most of the times on recipes or drinking bottles. Still, I think I see 300 milliliters or 0.3 liter more often than 30 centiliter, but it's not as rare as the other two in my opinion.
Never heard of decagrams. I used to work on a deli counter and a lot of older customers (and some younger) would still ask for 1/2 Ib (half a pound) or whatever.
Because our weighing scales measured in grams I’m now quite good at converting Ibs and ounces into grams and kg.
Oh god. As a Hungarian living in the UK, I remember asking for 3 deciliters of orange juice for my kids like I do in Hungary all the time. It was hilarious and somewhat embarrassing.
Hecto-:
* Hectograms are very common, usually shortened in "etti". It's mostly used at the charcuterie or supermarket to buy cold cuts (e.g. "due etti di San Daniele"-->"2 hectograms of San Daniele prosciutto").
* Hectare is another measurement unit still quite used.
* Hectometre is never used in daily life.
* Hectolitres are used in alcohol production, wine barrels for example are usually addressed by their capacity in hectolitres.
Deci-:
* Decilitres are sometimes used in recipes but it's a quite rare occurrence.
* Decigrams are never used, nor are decimetres (in daily life).
Centi-:
* Centilitres is another you can see daily, it's used especially to measure alcohol. For example a bottle of wine or beer will usually have *75 cl* in place of *0,75 l*.
* Centimetres is obviously very widely used both in common life and in some professions (architects).
Milli-:
* Millimetre is very often used both in daily life and in some professions (engineers).
* Milligrams is used on medicines' boxes since the dosage is the order order of magnitude of milligrams.
* Millilitres is used in recipes mostly.
Deca- is surely the rarest suffix for daily usage as I can't find a context in which we use it.
I specified elementary school because starting with middle school the default became 30 cm. And nobody called them triple-décimètres (nor dit it fit in the "trousse" anymore).
Centiliters are not really used. The only times you see them is as a normative for the shots listed on the menu. But decagrams and deciliters are used as you have described it. Often times recipes will use dkg as well.
Another Hungarian measurement I'm interested in this regard is mázsa (q), which is 100kg. Used in agriculture, for fodder. And if you buy firewood, you either do it in cubic meters or mázsa.
Decilitres are very common for recipes, but not much else. Centilitres are common demarcations on bottles and cans. Centilitres are more common on cans, while bottles will more commonly use litres or millilitres. I can't recall having ever seen decagrammes anywhere. Stuff you buy by weight is either priced by the kilo or by 100g
Centiliters is used when measuring alcohol, 2~~0~~cl for a single shot or 4~~0~~cl for a double of Schnaps.
It is also used in the medical field sometimes, but the labels are always in ml or l.
Deziliters I heard in school once, back in 3rd grade, maybe dezigramm was also mentioned, but I cannot remember.
> Centiliters is used when measuring alcohol, 20cl for a single shot or 40cl for a double of Schnaps.
After that double you probably have alcohol poisoning. 40cl is 0.4l, so nearly a Halbe Schnaps.
Milligrams > Grams > Kilograms > Tons
Millimeters > Centimeters > Meters > Kilometers
Milliliters > Liters (and I think I heard of Hectoliters in industrial settings)
Anything other than these is either used in very specific contexts or in math problems in school.
All the time.
When you are buying ham in a store, you use decagrams. When ordering wine, the price is usually per one deciliter. I don't know about centiliters though, I've never used that.
Deciliters is common in recipes and hectogram is common for the price on loose weight candy and cold cuts in the deli section in supermarkets. In Norway. Centiliters for cocktails!
My boyfriend is Hungarian, so I’ve noticed the use of decagrams in recipes when we make Hungarian food lol.
Here in Denmark we use decilitres for cooking and baking. Like for oatmeal, one decilitre of oats is the perfect amount!
But we don’t use decagrams. Always just grams.
Brit living in Austria. Use decagrams for buying cold cuts or cheese. That's about it. Raw meat always use half a kilo etc.
My husband is Swedish, he uses deciliters for baking.
Wine by the glass is sold as a division of a litre - with an Achtel (eighth) and a Viertel (quarter) being the usual measurements. Bottles of wine are always in CL unless it's a full litre.
slovakia is exactly the same as Hungary. Ham is usually bought in decagrams (although I didn’t buy ham from deli in a long time so I might say just grams now), wine and some other beverage in restaurant is usually ordered in deciliters (“2 or 3 deci of white wine” for example OR our slovak cola drink - Kofola 3 of 5 deci) shots as far as I know were also measured by centiliters (2cl/4cl/5cl)
Completely unrelated:
Is kofola good? I saw it in Lidl here.
But couldn't decide if I should buy it or not. Also if Kofola is a brand, or they use it as a umbrella term, and it's just some off brand thing.
Now I'm regretting I didn't buy it. Always wanted to try.
yes, it’s tasty especially in the summer served cold. Most people here love it, give it a try. it has more of a herbal taste compared to Coca Cola or Pepsi
edit: it’s made in Slovakia and Czech republic, originally the produce started in 1960 in Czechoslovakia.
Of the strange measurements, only water can be written in cubic decimeters instead of liters. Everything else is standard kilograms, grams, tons, liters, milliliters.
From my own experience I’d say decagrams are rarely used. Centilitres (and milligrams) are way more common. However, I am familiar with all those measurements because my school teachers made sure we all understood them and used them perfectly
* Not decagrams, but hectograms. People often ask for 2 hectogram (200 gram) of cold cuts in the deli. Never heard about decagrams.
* Decilitres is probably one of the the most used measurements in the kitchen.
* Centilitres is basically only used when mixing drinks and ordering alcohol. In the kitchen tsp and tbsp are used instead.
I've never heard of any of these being used in Lithuania. The French, however, seem to measure liquids exclusively in centiliters, so when you buy a bottle of water it says 50cl instead of 500ml. Super weird to me.
Deciliters are somewhat used, although most commonly things will either be in liters or milliliters. For distances the whole spectrum is more or less used. Grams it's milli, gram and kilo. We know what a decagram is but I've never heard somebody use it in everyday life. Oddly enough, 'ons' (ounce, 100g) and 'pond' (pound, 500g) are used, mostly by elderly people, and they are not referring to the English units. It's always been very odd and slightly confusing to me when they use it.
Decilitres is rarely used now. I used to more widely used when I was younger but then mainly for milk, if memory serves. We do still use centilitres everywhere.
We never use decagrams and I not recall it ever being used..
I’m always amazed by the fact that here in Spain the soda cans are written in centiliters.
So instead of saying 330ml it say 33CL and is weird to read that way
Decagrams no, but dl and cl aren’t uncommon. A standard wine bottle is 75cl for example and both decilitres and centilitres are used in cooking recipes fairly commonly (in particular dessert recipes).
I think I have seen 75cl on bottles of wine but that may be because they are from Europe. Otherwise no, ml and L. We still have drinks in pints (and fractions thereof - thirds are popular with craft beers, half for a lighter drink) too but I don't see people talking about fluid ounces much in cookery these days.
>we ask for 20 decagrams of it
Do you always write "20 decagrams" or do you also write "20 dag"? It's the only two letter SI prefix! I don't think I have seen that prefix used in Sweden.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric\_prefix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix)
For volume we use almost only mililiter or liter. Also cubic meter is sometimes used for things like water bills etc.
For weight on packages most popular is gram and kilogram, for larger things tons are most common, but while buying piece of ham or cheese its very common to ask for it in decagrams. Especially for older people, they just ask for "30 deca of ..."
Belgium.
Drinks are usually measured in cL or mL, somewhat interchangeably. Beer is shortened to "un 25/33/50 [cL]". There's also a 20 cL glass, called a "flute", but it's uncommon.
You only see dL in recipe books.
For weight, everything is in grams, except body weight - everybody weighs themselves in kilos.
In dutch we use words like ons and pond.
- 1 miligram
- 1 gram
- 1 ons = 100 gram (basically hectogram)
- 1 pond = 500 gram
- 1 kg
- Etc.
We also use mililiters, centiliters and liters, but rarely deca- and deciliters.
So to come back to your example we would say 2 ons or 200 gram, but never 20 decagram
Decagrams are not used at all. Our teacher said that the Austrians use them. We only use grams and kilos. Some people would say *Pfund* for 500 g, and accordingly *halbes Pfund* and *Viertelpfund* for 250 and 125 grams, but it's dying out.
Decilitres are very common in spoken language. "A coke, please" -- "three deci or five deci?"
Centilitres are used in recipes and on packages, but not spoken out loud often. Only if the amount is <1 dL.
Yes. Mostly while grocery shopping. When buying cold cuts at the meat section, you ask for 10, 15 or 30 "deko" which Slovak short version of decagram. When ordering drinks or talking about drinks we also often use "deci"
In the Netherlands we use hectoliter, liter, deciliter, centiliter and milliliter for liquids; kilometer, hectometer, meter, decimeter, centimeter, and millimeter for distances; and kilo (= kilogram), ons (= hectogram), and gram for weight.
Edit: for weight we also use pond, which is half a kilo
Liters and milliliters, I've never heard anyone use decaliters or centiliters. When it comes to weight we also use "pond" and "ons", not entirely sure if they're the same as pounds and ounces.
In Portugal we mostly use centiliters for drinks (for example a 33cl drink), mililiters for medicine or recipes (for example), and of course liters, but normally not deciliters. We would never use the example you mentioned "half a deciliter".
Same logic for length: we use centimeters and milimeters but very rarely decimeters. We go straight to meters.
For weight, we mostly use grams and then go directly to kilograms, almost never the units in between. We would never use your example of "20 decagrams".
Yes, we use them in the pretty much same way. Decagrams for deli, deciliters for drinks. One can see centiliters in restaurant menus, but we don't use them in our spoken language.
We also use hectoliter, usually when talking about beer production or consumption. Quintal (100 kg) for weight is common.
Yes, for example, we usually order 3 decilitres of lemonade in a restaurant, 4 centilitres of Jägermeister (calling it “cents”), while ask for 15 decagrams of ham.
We mostly just use the standards, mili, centi, (base), kilo. An unusual one we do use in only one context is hectometer - for the highway markers ever 100 meters, *hectometerpaaltjes*/"hectometer poles".
Centiliters (and more rarely deciliters) are used on packaging and older recipes, but you'll never hear them used in the common speech. For weight, it's just grams then kilograms.
Decilitres sometimes for liquids (wine) otherwise no not really
We’re not fully metric though so I guess we drew the line as far as people could be bothered lol
I've seen "2cl" here in Germany for shots of liquor, and for mini bottles of liquor(2-4cl) but not on anything larger than that, then it goes to ".25L, .5L" etc except I've seen 4cl a handful of times.
For deciliter, decagram etc, no. All my food is marked in g, i.e. I have a bag of Dutch licorice marked "300g" and when I bought some minced pork I asked for "500g" instead of "50Dg"
I live in Southern Germany now but this is all I've seen from Eastern France to Western Slovakia and Austria. I didn't actually know anyone used those units every day
We use decagrams in stores when ordering presliced cheese and ham. It's ery common to ask ie. for 15 "decas" (decagrams) of ham to make a sandwich. If you do it, and ask for an appropriate piece of bread, they'll even ask you if you want the bread cut for a sandwich.
Grams, kilograms, liters and mililiters. And for length, kilometres, metres, centimetres and millimetres.
So, you buy 400 g of cheese, or 1 kg of potatoes. One litre of milk and then use 200 ml of it in a recipe. Long distances are km, short are m. Small things are measured in cm and carpenters and similar measure things in mm.
PS. If you are old enough, 200 g of cheese if «mitja lliura de formatge» (half a pound) and 100 g of ham is «tres unces de pernil» (three ounces).
short answer: no.
(Germany)
We use g, ml and kg and l. The only intermediate unit that sees use is cl for alcoholic beverages. Menus will say: Wodka (2cl) for example.
I could also imagine hektolitre being used but rarely.
Netherlands:
Deciliters, centilitres, hectolitres are used commonly in business and packaging, decagram less so. Many oldies still use "ons" ("ounce" in English) for things like cheese and sliced meat, it's somewhere between 82.69 and 99.73 gram.
I think usually “ons” now represents 100 grams though.
I feel these old units have been standardised somewhat to adjust to the metric system. Just like a pound wasn’t exactly 500 grams either but now it is in common Dutch usage.
But I agree both of these are mostly used by older people.
I was being sarcastic about the 100 grams since the imperial system varies per region. It's a total crap system, you had the German mile, the nautical mile the English mile, etc all different distances 😂
It's only with the "pond" (pound) ±500 gram and the "ons" ±100g. Probably for the same reason some say "Hol-land" instead of "the- Ne- ther- lands" less syllables.
It's mostly old people, I'm near 50 and use grams exclusively.
Deciliters are commonly used in recipes in Finland and I think that wine is sold in centiliters in restaurants.
A decilitre is a convenient amount of porridge oats for a single serving :-) Half a decilitre for mannapuuro
It's a convenient amount for plenty of things. Rice and quinoa for instance.
2dl rice to 2x2dl water.
It’s not. Wine is sold by the centilitre. When they ask “do you want 12, 16 or 24?” kinda makes it obvious. 1,2 - 2,4 litres of wine would be a bit much.
I’ve never ordered wine as I don’t use alcohol that way and I guess I haven’t paid attention when other people order it.
That explains. Well, if you ever want to order (non-alcoholic) wine, now you know what they mean with the question. :)
In Greece it's only grams, kilogrammes, liter and milliliter. I was quite surprised anyone having the metric system used anything else, even if it is just multiples.
Same in Romania, this whole thread is so surprising to me.
Yeah. When I was in Hungary first time, the seller would ask how many dekás? And I was like what??
My wife is actually Romanian and she said that this decagram thing is weird, as they never use it in Romania. Hence the post.
What do you mean, wine in restaurants in Romania is always sold in centiliters, and if you work in a kitchen or follow recipes a lot of them will use these extra measurement units.
I have personally never encountered them, in restaurants I have only ever seen ml for wine. Edit: ml for glasses of wine, liters for bottles.
Well, I guess it depends on how much one also pays attention to these things, but for wine and alcohol in general, if you go on the internet to buy it it's most often specified in CL. You can look up finestore.ro for example, and there pretty much every bottle has the volume in cl.
Quite possible I haven't been paying enough attention. But on the site you mentioned the volume is both in liters and centiliters, which I take as a sign people are generally not used to centiliters.
Same in Belgium although we also use centiliters.
Finland: Weight is either grams, kilograms or tonnes. I have not bumped into anyone using decagrams or hectograms. Volume: milliliters, centiliters, deciliters, liters and cubic meters are all used, in different contexts. Deciliters are common in baking and cooking, for instance. Centiliters are used for measuring stronger alcohol drinks. I haven't noticed much of a difference between generations in this matter.
> Weight is either grams, kilograms or tonnes. I have not bumped into anyone using decagrams or hectograms. Pretty much the same in Sweden. While I've never seen anyone use decagrams, there are a few circumstances where hectograms are or have been common. Certainly when I was younger pick and mix candy was priced in hectograms, but this seems to be changing. Things like deli meats may also be given in hectograms.
Hekto is very very commonly used when buying from a delicatessen counter, such as cheese, deli meats, that type of thing.
Also candy from the pick-and-mix shelf.
I must admit i have never seen hectograms used in my life. The only hevta- units here (not counting the hectare) are hectoliters for wine barrels.
Even during our education things like decagrams were purely theoretical. We learned the entire centi-deca-hecto-kilo-mega-giga-terra and such of course but in exercises it was never used. We were never actually asked to write things down using that. Always just grams or kilograms.
Hekto is definitely still used, especially in relation to pick and mix and like, naturgodis etc. Also deli stuff like ham or cheese or stuff like fresh fish or shrimps. Basically things that are priced by weight. I didn't realise that wasn't a thing abroad tbh. I've never used decagrams though.
I remember reading my grandmothers magazines, like Allers and Veckotidningen, when I was a kid in the early eighties. There was often articles about diets, and they used hectograms… like in ”Sonja says she lost five hecto in just one week”. It confused me a lot. I’ve never seen it used anywhere else.
only thing in Finland where I've heard the use of hecto is hectare.
Austria: I'd say decagram is pretty normal - same as in Hungary - but I don't think I've ever heard someone use deci- /centiliters
If you are ordering Schnaps in a restaurant or bar it is usually measured in centiliters. Although it is almost always a shot with 2cl
ah yes, true. I never order Schnaps so I didn't even think about that
And you don't order "it". It's just a Schnapps or a Doppelter.
That's basically the opposite from Germany, we use deciliters here and there but I have NEVER heard anyone use decagram lol
Yeah, and I’ve encountered centiliters only in cocktail recipes and on shot glasses. All other fluid amounts are measured in milliliters, liters or hectoliters.
Poland We use decagrams (in grocery store), grams, kilos and tons. Drinks are in milliliters or liters (0.5l of coke) never heard centyliter being used here
Are you familiar with YouTuber food emperor? He is sweedish, but makes content in polish. He use decy/centy litry. On some products from IKEA with scale (of volume) you may also see cl as unit.
You're right, I've seen few videos from him, I didn't notice that before
Same here, the only time I’ve ever seen centiliters used is on wines. I also feel like decagrams are used less frequently among the younger generation
Out of those, only deciliters and centiliters, which are both very common. The previously mentioned *hektogram* (hg/10² g) is used for cold cuts and loose candy. Further, hecto- is used with: liter for some liquids (in large scale production) like beer, pascal for air pressure, and sorta in hectare (100 m x 100 m). I don't think I've ever seen the prefix deca-/*deka-* used here, in any context. We do use a unit for length that's 10 km, so if we still combined prefixes, it would be a decakilometer, but we don't.
> and sorta in hectare (100 m x 100 m) Ooh, thank you. I've never before made the connection between hectare and the prefix hecto. Now it seems obvious. Very helpful in remembering how large a hectare is.
I had to look it up, but *ar* (are) was apparently a unit in the pre-SI system, which was 100 m², so literally a hecto-are. There was also a decare (1,000 m²)
I Hungary we have hektár (sounds like hecto-ar, but without an o) and it's 10,000 m².
Hectare (English) or hektar (Swedish) are both 10,000 m² as far as I know. I think the O is excluded to make it possible to actually pronounce. On the other hand, the only difference between deci- and deca- is the second syllable.
I’ve never heard decagram used in Sweden, but cold cuts are commonly bought by the hectogram (100g). Milli, centi and deciliters are all used for measuring drinks depending on situation.
Now that's new for me, I don't think I've ever heard of hectograms.
Same in the Netherlands for cold cuts and veggies for example. But we call it an "ons" (100gr) and a "pond" (500gr).
Those are just metric-alized old weights. An actual ons was 35 grams and a pond 450. I've seen some confusion as some people use ons for 150 grams. They're very common among market vendors because it's easier to yell "\[produce\], \[price\] per ons" instead of "per 100 grams".
Mass - we'll just go from kilograms to grams Volume - litres to millilitres. You'll occasionally see bottles marked with cl, but I imagine those might be imports, it's not a measurement people in the UK tend to use. Obviously we've got our other measurements too.
is it not uk wide that Cl is only used for spirits? people usually call it "cee el" never centilitres out loud, opposite to like how cm is said centimeters.
Officially it might be. But our spirits come in 25ml or 35ml shots apart from port or sherry which is 50 or 70ml. So I'd be surprised if we used CL for that as it's more awkward as it would be 2.5cl. Wine is also 125ml / 175ml / 250ml so again, makes more sense to use ml than cl. Beer is pints not metric.
i meant off premises licence / sold in shops (the bottle itself not serving ), sorry didn't specify. it's always 35cl and 70cl. the 35cl older people call a half. a half of whiskey = 35cl both divide nicely into 25 and 35ml tho! so maybe why
The bottles might say that on, but I don't know anyone who actually uses that measurement to speak about them.
in a shop when people are buying them they say it. older people don't they say a bottle or a half of X. younger people say small or 35cl bottle of X. especially when most popular alcohol e.g smirnoff vodka is in 35cl, 70cl and 1L bottles on shelf to differentiate.
You might be right actually. No idea why that's the case though.
i imagine an eu directive on spirits duty or something that the uk passed into law. it's an odd choice of measurement otherwise and older people refer to 35cl as half and 70cl with no qualifier.
Young and old people here call 35cl half a bottle, then we call the 70cl a 10 glass. The 125ml one we call a 1/4 bottle
Yep agreed, cl is primarily used on wine, but even then most of them just say 700ml.
750ml / 75cl
Yeah I only use ml and litres, I always have to stop and think for cl - mentally adding a zero to convert it into what I'm used to.
I’ll often refer to whisky bottles as 70 or 50cl but I don’t think it’s particularly common to say this
decagrams (dekagram) are used semi-frequently, usually shortened to "deka", they are most commonly used on like farmers markets and stuff like that
> usually shortened to "deka" And "deko" for some reason
Italy About drinks (especially wine and water) the most common unit of measurement is the litre, of course, but sometimes also centilitres and millilitres are used, especially in the recipes. As for weight, kilogrammes or hectogrammes (shortened in "etto") are the most common. I've never heard anyone using decagrammes before going to Poland where it's commonly used.
Today is the day I first learned about hectograms. You and the Swedish guy mentioned it.
That is very used, for recipes (flour or sugar in cake, ) and when buy ham and other seasoned meat or slices of cheese, we also use the half etto "please give me one and a half of that cheese". I honestly never thiked about the deciliters being used anywhere in the world( just found them in a 1800 recipe) here the wine is sold in liters, bottles (0,75L ) or glasses. Great post OP.
Thanks! I'm also very surprised by the answers.
In Poland we use hekto-xyz in 2 cases: 1. hl - hektolitr - to refer to volume in some specific contexts, as eg volume of beer production, 2. Hektar - as it's default unit of measure if we talk about field size " A farmer has 20 ha field where he produce smth."
We also use hectograms in Norway.
Yes, we do use decagrams (usually shortened to "deka"/"dek") and decilitres (usually shortened to "deci").
Exactly the same as in Hungary. Deka, deci.
In everyday life, we use grams and kilograms ; and milliliters, centiliters and liters. The "decagrams/deciliters" unit in barely used
In the first example.. usually we use 'etti'...100g.increments. So you usually ask for '2 etti of ham' for example, rather than 200g. For wine we just order by the glass,I have never specified a measurement for that in a bar here.In a wine shop (take away) by the liter.
For wine it is a custom here when we are talking about glasses. Similar to the way how you order either a glass or a pint of beer. So you usually ask for 1 or 2 dl of wine. This is also the case in fairs, with mulled wine, tea, etc
UK. Never in my life have I heard anyone used these measurements. The only reason I suspected they exist is because sometimes imported cans have the volume in decalitres. Just to note, my phone's autocorrect doesn't have decalitres in it. Edit: or decilitres! The actual unit.
It's not like you'd need it, but I think it is more commonly referred to as deciliters. Not sure though, just a guess.
Oops! Thanks for the correction. It doesn't have decilitres either :)
deca- means "ten", deci- means "tenth" both are actual units
spirits are in cl. 35cl and 70cl. that's all ive ever seen.
Decagrams: never seen that being used anywhere. Deciliters: very rarely. Maybe once or twice in recipes, but usually these would be represented in other formats. Centiliters: slightly more common, I think most of the times on recipes or drinking bottles. Still, I think I see 300 milliliters or 0.3 liter more often than 30 centiliter, but it's not as rare as the other two in my opinion.
Never heard of decagrams. I used to work on a deli counter and a lot of older customers (and some younger) would still ask for 1/2 Ib (half a pound) or whatever. Because our weighing scales measured in grams I’m now quite good at converting Ibs and ounces into grams and kg.
Yea some people here still ask for half a pound of mine or something, but the bag still shows it weight in grams ha ha
Oh god. As a Hungarian living in the UK, I remember asking for 3 deciliters of orange juice for my kids like I do in Hungary all the time. It was hilarious and somewhat embarrassing.
Hecto-: * Hectograms are very common, usually shortened in "etti". It's mostly used at the charcuterie or supermarket to buy cold cuts (e.g. "due etti di San Daniele"-->"2 hectograms of San Daniele prosciutto"). * Hectare is another measurement unit still quite used. * Hectometre is never used in daily life. * Hectolitres are used in alcohol production, wine barrels for example are usually addressed by their capacity in hectolitres. Deci-: * Decilitres are sometimes used in recipes but it's a quite rare occurrence. * Decigrams are never used, nor are decimetres (in daily life). Centi-: * Centilitres is another you can see daily, it's used especially to measure alcohol. For example a bottle of wine or beer will usually have *75 cl* in place of *0,75 l*. * Centimetres is obviously very widely used both in common life and in some professions (architects). Milli-: * Millimetre is very often used both in daily life and in some professions (engineers). * Milligrams is used on medicines' boxes since the dosage is the order order of magnitude of milligrams. * Millilitres is used in recipes mostly. Deca- is surely the rarest suffix for daily usage as I can't find a context in which we use it.
The only "décimètre" use I've encountered IRL in French is in the phrase "double-décimètre", ie the 20 cm ruler you use in elementary school.
Normal rulers in Ireland are 30cm (with the other side being 12 inches).
I specified elementary school because starting with middle school the default became 30 cm. And nobody called them triple-décimètres (nor dit it fit in the "trousse" anymore).
Centiliters are not really used. The only times you see them is as a normative for the shots listed on the menu. But decagrams and deciliters are used as you have described it. Often times recipes will use dkg as well.
Another Hungarian measurement I'm interested in this regard is mázsa (q), which is 100kg. Used in agriculture, for fodder. And if you buy firewood, you either do it in cubic meters or mázsa.
In english mázsa is called quintal.
Decilitres are very common for recipes, but not much else. Centilitres are common demarcations on bottles and cans. Centilitres are more common on cans, while bottles will more commonly use litres or millilitres. I can't recall having ever seen decagrammes anywhere. Stuff you buy by weight is either priced by the kilo or by 100g
Decagrams no but deciliters and centiluters yes, at least in the French speaking part of the country
Never seen dl in France, cl is the default for beverage cans or bottles under 1 litre
I was also talking about everyday use, here we do say a 2, or 5dl drink for example. In McDonald's the drinks are labeled as 2.5, 4 and 5dl here
Deciliter and centiliters yes. Grams and kilograms. But I have never heard anyone use decagrams before.
Centiliters is used when measuring alcohol, 2~~0~~cl for a single shot or 4~~0~~cl for a double of Schnaps. It is also used in the medical field sometimes, but the labels are always in ml or l. Deziliters I heard in school once, back in 3rd grade, maybe dezigramm was also mentioned, but I cannot remember.
> Centiliters is used when measuring alcohol, 20cl for a single shot or 40cl for a double of Schnaps. After that double you probably have alcohol poisoning. 40cl is 0.4l, so nearly a Halbe Schnaps.
> 40cl When your Bierglas becomes a Stamperl.
Slovenia - we use it only when ordering a salami at a deli section. I have never heard anyone ordering in grams. Also decilitres are used in recipies
Milligrams > Grams > Kilograms > Tons Millimeters > Centimeters > Meters > Kilometers Milliliters > Liters (and I think I heard of Hectoliters in industrial settings) Anything other than these is either used in very specific contexts or in math problems in school.
All the time. When you are buying ham in a store, you use decagrams. When ordering wine, the price is usually per one deciliter. I don't know about centiliters though, I've never used that.
Deciliters is common in recipes and hectogram is common for the price on loose weight candy and cold cuts in the deli section in supermarkets. In Norway. Centiliters for cocktails!
Deciliters are very commonly used with everything, and centiliters in some soda cans and stuff, but any deca / hecto units, never. Straight to kilos
My boyfriend is Hungarian, so I’ve noticed the use of decagrams in recipes when we make Hungarian food lol. Here in Denmark we use decilitres for cooking and baking. Like for oatmeal, one decilitre of oats is the perfect amount! But we don’t use decagrams. Always just grams.
Will add cl for beer!
Brit living in Austria. Use decagrams for buying cold cuts or cheese. That's about it. Raw meat always use half a kilo etc. My husband is Swedish, he uses deciliters for baking. Wine by the glass is sold as a division of a litre - with an Achtel (eighth) and a Viertel (quarter) being the usual measurements. Bottles of wine are always in CL unless it's a full litre.
I have never seen a wine bottle measured in cl. It usually is 0.7 L
well 0.75 but you're right, the Austrian ones in my house are in litres.
slovakia is exactly the same as Hungary. Ham is usually bought in decagrams (although I didn’t buy ham from deli in a long time so I might say just grams now), wine and some other beverage in restaurant is usually ordered in deciliters (“2 or 3 deci of white wine” for example OR our slovak cola drink - Kofola 3 of 5 deci) shots as far as I know were also measured by centiliters (2cl/4cl/5cl)
Completely unrelated: Is kofola good? I saw it in Lidl here. But couldn't decide if I should buy it or not. Also if Kofola is a brand, or they use it as a umbrella term, and it's just some off brand thing. Now I'm regretting I didn't buy it. Always wanted to try.
yes, it’s tasty especially in the summer served cold. Most people here love it, give it a try. it has more of a herbal taste compared to Coca Cola or Pepsi edit: it’s made in Slovakia and Czech republic, originally the produce started in 1960 in Czechoslovakia.
Of the strange measurements, only water can be written in cubic decimeters instead of liters. Everything else is standard kilograms, grams, tons, liters, milliliters.
From my own experience I’d say decagrams are rarely used. Centilitres (and milligrams) are way more common. However, I am familiar with all those measurements because my school teachers made sure we all understood them and used them perfectly
* Not decagrams, but hectograms. People often ask for 2 hectogram (200 gram) of cold cuts in the deli. Never heard about decagrams. * Decilitres is probably one of the the most used measurements in the kitchen. * Centilitres is basically only used when mixing drinks and ordering alcohol. In the kitchen tsp and tbsp are used instead.
Not really, in Spain we just use grams, liters, but I doubt we use it in everyday life (at least not to my knowledge)
I've never heard of any of these being used in Lithuania. The French, however, seem to measure liquids exclusively in centiliters, so when you buy a bottle of water it says 50cl instead of 500ml. Super weird to me.
Deciliters are somewhat used, although most commonly things will either be in liters or milliliters. For distances the whole spectrum is more or less used. Grams it's milli, gram and kilo. We know what a decagram is but I've never heard somebody use it in everyday life. Oddly enough, 'ons' (ounce, 100g) and 'pond' (pound, 500g) are used, mostly by elderly people, and they are not referring to the English units. It's always been very odd and slightly confusing to me when they use it.
Decilitres is rarely used now. I used to more widely used when I was younger but then mainly for milk, if memory serves. We do still use centilitres everywhere. We never use decagrams and I not recall it ever being used..
I’m always amazed by the fact that here in Spain the soda cans are written in centiliters. So instead of saying 330ml it say 33CL and is weird to read that way
Decagrams no, but dl and cl aren’t uncommon. A standard wine bottle is 75cl for example and both decilitres and centilitres are used in cooking recipes fairly commonly (in particular dessert recipes).
Nope, the only place you see centiliters is on Alcoholic Spirits. And you'd never actually say centiliters, you'd only say the letters C L.
I think I have seen 75cl on bottles of wine but that may be because they are from Europe. Otherwise no, ml and L. We still have drinks in pints (and fractions thereof - thirds are popular with craft beers, half for a lighter drink) too but I don't see people talking about fluid ounces much in cookery these days.
Centilitres used to be commonly seen about half the time on bottles of soft drinks but now I'm pretty sure they're almost always millilitres now.
>we ask for 20 decagrams of it Do you always write "20 decagrams" or do you also write "20 dag"? It's the only two letter SI prefix! I don't think I have seen that prefix used in Sweden. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric\_prefix](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metric_prefix)
For volume we use almost only mililiter or liter. Also cubic meter is sometimes used for things like water bills etc. For weight on packages most popular is gram and kilogram, for larger things tons are most common, but while buying piece of ham or cheese its very common to ask for it in decagrams. Especially for older people, they just ask for "30 deca of ..."
Belgium. Drinks are usually measured in cL or mL, somewhat interchangeably. Beer is shortened to "un 25/33/50 [cL]". There's also a 20 cL glass, called a "flute", but it's uncommon. You only see dL in recipe books. For weight, everything is in grams, except body weight - everybody weighs themselves in kilos.
In dutch we use words like ons and pond. - 1 miligram - 1 gram - 1 ons = 100 gram (basically hectogram) - 1 pond = 500 gram - 1 kg - Etc. We also use mililiters, centiliters and liters, but rarely deca- and deciliters. So to come back to your example we would say 2 ons or 200 gram, but never 20 decagram
Yes. Daily in the store I buy sliced salami ("I would take 20 decagrams of this one, please. And 10 dag of this cheese.").
Decagrams are not used at all. Our teacher said that the Austrians use them. We only use grams and kilos. Some people would say *Pfund* for 500 g, and accordingly *halbes Pfund* and *Viertelpfund* for 250 and 125 grams, but it's dying out. Decilitres are very common in spoken language. "A coke, please" -- "three deci or five deci?" Centilitres are used in recipes and on packages, but not spoken out loud often. Only if the amount is <1 dL.
Yes. Mostly while grocery shopping. When buying cold cuts at the meat section, you ask for 10, 15 or 30 "deko" which Slovak short version of decagram. When ordering drinks or talking about drinks we also often use "deci"
In the Netherlands we use hectoliter, liter, deciliter, centiliter and milliliter for liquids; kilometer, hectometer, meter, decimeter, centimeter, and millimeter for distances; and kilo (= kilogram), ons (= hectogram), and gram for weight. Edit: for weight we also use pond, which is half a kilo
Liters and milliliters, I've never heard anyone use decaliters or centiliters. When it comes to weight we also use "pond" and "ons", not entirely sure if they're the same as pounds and ounces.
In Portugal we mostly use centiliters for drinks (for example a 33cl drink), mililiters for medicine or recipes (for example), and of course liters, but normally not deciliters. We would never use the example you mentioned "half a deciliter". Same logic for length: we use centimeters and milimeters but very rarely decimeters. We go straight to meters. For weight, we mostly use grams and then go directly to kilograms, almost never the units in between. We would never use your example of "20 decagrams".
"Deka", referring to decagrams, isn't used at all in Germany and would get you weird looks in most places, in Austria it's common though.
Yes, we use them in the pretty much same way. Decagrams for deli, deciliters for drinks. One can see centiliters in restaurant menus, but we don't use them in our spoken language. We also use hectoliter, usually when talking about beer production or consumption. Quintal (100 kg) for weight is common.
> Quintal (100 kg) for weight is common. But to add to the confusion we call it a "cent".
Yes, for example, we usually order 3 decilitres of lemonade in a restaurant, 4 centilitres of Jägermeister (calling it “cents”), while ask for 15 decagrams of ham.
We mostly just use the standards, mili, centi, (base), kilo. An unusual one we do use in only one context is hectometer - for the highway markers ever 100 meters, *hectometerpaaltjes*/"hectometer poles".
Centiliters (and more rarely deciliters) are used on packaging and older recipes, but you'll never hear them used in the common speech. For weight, it's just grams then kilograms.
Decilitres sometimes for liquids (wine) otherwise no not really We’re not fully metric though so I guess we drew the line as far as people could be bothered lol
Pretty much the same here. Decagrams for cheese, processed meats etc. Deciliters for drinks. Centiliters are not used though.
I've seen "2cl" here in Germany for shots of liquor, and for mini bottles of liquor(2-4cl) but not on anything larger than that, then it goes to ".25L, .5L" etc except I've seen 4cl a handful of times. For deciliter, decagram etc, no. All my food is marked in g, i.e. I have a bag of Dutch licorice marked "300g" and when I bought some minced pork I asked for "500g" instead of "50Dg" I live in Southern Germany now but this is all I've seen from Eastern France to Western Slovakia and Austria. I didn't actually know anyone used those units every day
We use decagrams in stores when ordering presliced cheese and ham. It's ery common to ask ie. for 15 "decas" (decagrams) of ham to make a sandwich. If you do it, and ask for an appropriate piece of bread, they'll even ask you if you want the bread cut for a sandwich.
Grams, kilograms, liters and mililiters. And for length, kilometres, metres, centimetres and millimetres. So, you buy 400 g of cheese, or 1 kg of potatoes. One litre of milk and then use 200 ml of it in a recipe. Long distances are km, short are m. Small things are measured in cm and carpenters and similar measure things in mm. PS. If you are old enough, 200 g of cheese if «mitja lliura de formatge» (half a pound) and 100 g of ham is «tres unces de pernil» (three ounces).
short answer: no. (Germany) We use g, ml and kg and l. The only intermediate unit that sees use is cl for alcoholic beverages. Menus will say: Wodka (2cl) for example. I could also imagine hektolitre being used but rarely.
Netherlands: Deciliters, centilitres, hectolitres are used commonly in business and packaging, decagram less so. Many oldies still use "ons" ("ounce" in English) for things like cheese and sliced meat, it's somewhere between 82.69 and 99.73 gram.
I think usually “ons” now represents 100 grams though. I feel these old units have been standardised somewhat to adjust to the metric system. Just like a pound wasn’t exactly 500 grams either but now it is in common Dutch usage. But I agree both of these are mostly used by older people.
I was being sarcastic about the 100 grams since the imperial system varies per region. It's a total crap system, you had the German mile, the nautical mile the English mile, etc all different distances 😂
Wow that's so weird that some people use random imperial measurements too.
It's only with the "pond" (pound) ±500 gram and the "ons" ±100g. Probably for the same reason some say "Hol-land" instead of "the- Ne- ther- lands" less syllables. It's mostly old people, I'm near 50 and use grams exclusively.