Amount in words converter - English and Polish (słownie)

Writing the amount in words protects against altered or misread figures: if the digits and the words differ, the words usually prevail. That is why it appears on:

• Checks - in the US and UK the amount line reads e.g. “One thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56/100 dollars”.
• Polish invoices - the total in words (słownie) is not strictly required by the VAT Act, but it is a firmly established custom and many clients expect it.
• Contracts and promissory notes - loan, sale and rental agreements in Poland typically state the price as “1 234,56 zł (słownie: …)”. On a promissory note (weksel) the amount in words is standard.
• Bank and cash documents - cash receipts (KP/KW) and some bank forms still have a “słownie” field.

If you issue invoices or sign contracts in Poland as a foreigner, the Polish version is the one to use; the English line is handy for bilingual documents.

• Numbers 21-99 are hyphenated: twenty-one, forty-five, ninety-nine.
• No “and” inside the number (US check style): 101 is one hundred one; the word “and” only separates the whole amount from the cents.
• Large numbers use the short scale: thousand, million (10⁶), billion (10⁹). The maximum is 999,999,999,999.99.
• Currency names follow English usage: zloty / zlotys and grosz / groszy, dollar / dollars, euro / euros, pound / pounds and penny / pence.
• Without a currency, decimals are read digit by digit: 12.56 is “twelve point five six”.

Example: 1234.56 PLN becomes “One thousand two hundred thirty-four zlotys and 56/100” or, with cents in words, “… zlotys and fifty-six groszy”.

Polish numerals change their form after a number, which is what makes writing them by hand tricky. The converter applies all the rules automatically:

Note that 12-14 take the “many” form (dwanaście złotych) even though they end in 2-4, and that 21, 101 or 1001 use “złotych”, not “złoty”. Polish invoices most often show the grosze as a fraction, “56/100”, and starting with a capital letter is the usual style. You can also drop “jeden” before “tysiąc” - both forms are correct.

Always write the amount in words for the gross total (amount due), not the net value. Check that the figure in digits and in words match exactly, including the grosze. When using a dot as a thousands separator in Polish style (1.234,56), the converter reads it correctly; in English input a single comma followed by three digits, such as 1,234, is treated as a thousands separator. Need to prepare the whole document? The Polish invoice generator adds the amount in words in Polish and English automatically, and the VAT calculator helps you work out the gross total first.