'MONEY makes the WORLD go round' - Mr Duncan explains / Lesson 9 #englishaddictwithmrduncan

This lesson is about something we all need.

But not everyone has.

And even those who have it quite often want a little bit more.

It is the thing that many people believe brings happiness, but quite often provides nothing but misery.

Of course, we are talking all about ‘money’.

They say that money makes the world go round.

This particular phrase refers to the fact that we all need to survive.

And to do that, we must eat and drink.

We also need somewhere to live, and perhaps now and again we might want to buy something to cheer us up.

All of the needs I've just mentioned have one thing in common.

They all must be paid for.

You might say that the world moves on the need for money.

The area concerned with earning and spending money is often referred to as ‘financial’.

One person might concentrate on their financial needs.

How much money does one need to survive?

How much money can I earn?

Do I have enough money?

And if not, where can I get that extra money from?

We often refer to finance as the core of all things related to money.

Banking is also often referred to when discussing money.

Some people will save their money in a bank.

Some of us might need to borrow money from a bank.

We often use colour as a way of describing one's current money situation.

If you have enough money to live on, or if there is plenty of money in your bank account, then we might say you are ‘in the black’.

Then we have the opposite, which means you owe money to the bank.

We often refer to this as being ‘in debt’.

A person might refer to this particular situation as being ‘in the red’.

There are many ways of describing money in our day to day lives.

You can have ‘cash’, ‘dosh’, ‘moolah’, ‘bread’,

‘readies’, ‘greenbacks’, ‘dough’ and ‘lolly’.

The British pound is often referred to as ‘quid’.

A £10 note is often referred to as a ‘tenner’, and a £5 note is often referred to as a ‘fiver’.

You canearn money by working for it.

Maybe you own a business and you make money through that.

Some people save their money and only spend it when they need to.

If you only have enough money to survive, we might say you are ‘living from hand to mouth’.

A good way to remind ourselves that money does not come easily is to say that ‘it does not grow on trees’.

Sadly, there is no money tree growing in my garden.

And the hard fact is that money does not grow on trees.

A child asking their parents for a new expensive toy might lead to one of them saying, ‘we're not made of money’.

Sometimes we can't have what we want.

Especially when there is a high price to pay for it.

The word ‘expensive’ means of high value.

The cost is high.

The opposite of expensive is ‘cheap’.

That thing does not cost much money. It is good value.

It is cheap.

As you may have already noticed, there are many slang terms for money.

Although these days more and more people don't actually carry money with them.

Thanks to electronic banking and contactless payment methods,

it is now possible to use money without actually having any cash in your pocket.

Someone with lots of money is often referred to as a wealthy person.

They might be described as being ‘loaded’.

They have lots of money.

A person who has no money or very little money might be described as ‘skint’, ‘poor’, ‘impoverished’ or ‘broke’.

It would be fair to say that many people have just enough money to survive.

They are not poor, but then they are not wealthy.

You might say that person is ‘getting by’ with what they have.

There is an interesting phrase in English that describes a person who is surviving and earning enough money to live.

We can say they are... ‘making ends meet’.

To make ends meet means to have enough money to feed oneself and also pay the bills.

Of course, a person might not be able to make ends meet.

This means they cannot afford to live on the money they have.

They cannot make ends meet.

You might describe money as a type of necessary evil,

in that we all need it, even though it often brings unhappiness and lots of stress, especially when it comes to earning that money.

Some people are very generous with their money.

They will often donate or give their money to others.

Some people don't like to spend money at all.

You might describe that type of person as ‘tight-fisted’, ‘mean’, ‘stingy’, or a ‘miser’.

The general thought is that the more money you have, then the happier you will be in life.

Of course, this is not always true.

Sometimes having a large quantity of something makes you forget what its value is.

The same can be said about money.

The subject of money can be quite a delicate thing to discuss, as some people feel embarrassed to discuss their financial situation.

It is not easy to talk about money, especially amongst people you don't know very well.

Finally, there is a very interesting phrase in English that goes ‘A fool and their money are easily parted’.

This expression reminds us that quite often we might be tempted into buying something we don't actually need.

Sometimes the secret of survival in this world is knowing when to spend your hard earned money, and when to keep it in your pocket.