Learning English: Avoid these mistakes talking about money

Hello. My name is Emma; and in today's lesson, we are going to talk about some

common mistakes English learners make when they talk about money. These are

some mistakes I've actually heard my students make during class, or during

conversation circles that I run on www.teacheremma.com. If you're ever

interested in practicing more English, you can actually come to

www.teacheremma.com, where we... we talk about different conversation topics,

like money. So, these are all real examples of mistakes I have heard. So,

let's look at some of them. Okay. So, the first mistake I often hear people

make when they talk about money has to do with whether money is a countable

noun or an uncountable noun. So, let's look at some examples, and try to figure

out: Can we count money? And by "money", I mean the word "money". Can we say:

"One money, two monies, three monies"? Is this correct in English? No. So, in

English, we can't use an "s" on the word "money". It is uncountable. Some of you

might say: "But I can count money." In English, we count dollars, we count

cents, we count euros, we count pesos, we count bills, but "money" is a

category. We do not use countable when we're talking about money. So, this is

not correct in English. What about the words: "much money", "many money", "a

lot of money"? Are there any mistakes here? Yes, there is a mistake. One of

these is incorrect. Can you guess which one it is? Can we say: "much money"? "I

don't have much money"? This is okay. So... and the reason is money is

uncountable; we can use "much" with uncountable nouns. Can we say: "many

money"? "I have many money"? No. So, this is incorrect. We do not say: "many

money". If you get confused with: "many" and "much", what I recommend you do is

just use: "a lot". You can use "a lot" with countable or uncountable nouns. So,

this is correct. You can say: "A lot of money". And, again, notice there is

never an "s" on "money". Even if we are talking about a lot of money, there is

no "s", because it is uncountable.

Now, I already mentioned there are forms of money we can count; we can count

dollars. So, if I'm counting dollars, I can put an "s". I can say: "I have two

dollars", "I have five dollars", "I have 50 million dollars". I don't have 50

million dollars, but I wish I did. We can add an "s" for "cents". So, "cents"

is less than a dollar. For example: This number would be eight dollars and 25

cents. So, we add an "s" to the word "cents" when there's more than one,

because "cents" is countable. It's the same with "euros". If we're talking

about being in Europe, in a country where we use euros, you can add an "s";

or "pesos", or other types of currencies — we can add an "s" when we talk about

money. Now, what about pronunciation? I often hear different English learners

make a mistake with how they say the word: "money". This part of the word is

a strong "e" sound, so you really need to pronounce this... this word. Or,

sorry. This part of the word. I notice some of my Brazilian students don't

pronounce the "e" strong enough. So, when you pronounce this word, you really

need to say "e": "money". So, why don't you take a moment to practice that?

Let's say: "I have a lot of money". And, again, it's two parts: "mon-ey",

"money". All right. So, now let's look at some other common mistakes people

make when they talk about money.

Okay. So, now, I wanted to look at some pronunciation mistakes I hear when

people talk about things related to money. So, often when we talk about

money, people often talk about how they use their money. One common thing people

need is housing. So, when people buy a house, and they don't have enough money

to buy the house, they go to the bank, and they get a "mortgage". I hear many

learners make mistakes in the pronunciation of this word. So, the word

is: "mortgage". There is a "t" in this word, but we don't pronounce the "t".

So, even though there's a "t" in the spelling, when we pronounce it, we say:

"morgage". And the stress is on the first part; on the "mor". "Mortgage".

Another word that many learners make mistakes with is this word: "bought".

"Bought" is the past tense of the verb: "to buy". So, when we're talking about

what we buy, and we're talking about the past, we say: "bought". Why do people

have trouble with the pronunciation of this word? It's because of the

"o-u-g-h". There are different ways to pronounce "o-u-g-h" in English. The

spelling is confusing. We pronounce "o-u-g-h" in different ways, depending

on the word. In this word, it's actually pronounced like an "aw" sound, like the

same sound you would hear in the word: "jaw" — "aw". So, I would pronounce this

as: "bawt". So, here is the spelling; here is the pronunciation. It's very

different from what you might think, looking at the spelling. So, when you

pronounce this word, don't pronounce a "g", don't pronounce an "h" — it's

pronounced like: "bawt". Another way you can remember this is it's like: "robot"

— "bot". "The robot bought some... another robot". I don't know. It's not a

great sentence, but you get the understanding. Okay.

The next word is: "budget". "Budget" is a word we use when we talk about money,

especially when we are trying to be careful with our money. People make a

"budget". A "budget" is a plan on how you will spend your money. Maybe you

spend five dollars every day on coffee. Maybe, in your monthly budget, you spend

100 dollars on transportation. Maybe you spend 1,000 dollars on rent. So, when

we're talking about how much money we plan to use for different things, we're

talking about a "budget". So, the pronunciation is very different from the

spelling. In the spelling of this, you have a "d", and a "g". When we say this

word, we don't really pronounce the "d" sound, and the "g" becomes a "j". So, we

say: "bujet". I hear many people say: "buget". That's not how we pronounce it;

we say: "budget". Finally, another word I hear many learners make mistakes with

is this word: "cheque". "Cheque" has two spellings in English. You can spell it:

"c-h-e-q-u-e" or you can spell it: "c-h-e-c-k". The pronunciation is the

same, whether you spell it this way or this way. Some students call this a

"cheqa" because they see this "q-u-e". But this is actually only one syllable.

We say: "check". Okay, so that's some of the pronunciation mistakes I hear a lot.

Now, let's look at an important word that I want you to use that some

learners might make a mistake with, and that word is: "bill". So, "bill" is an

important word we often use when we talk about money. In English, there are

different meanings for the word: "bill". "Bill" can be a name, like: "Bill

Clinton". "Bill" can be a type of money. So, we have coins. So, a coin is like

this. And then we have "bill", which is the paper money. So, in the US, they

have presidents on their bills; in Canada, we have a lot of strange things

on our bills. We have the Queen of England, we sometimes have animals,

sometimes we have people playing hockey. So, we have different things on our

bills, but we can call this a "bill". And, again, "bill" is something you can

count. Maybe in your wallet you have five bills — that means you have five

pieces of paper money. Another meaning of the word "bill" is a "bill" can be

what you owe for something you bought. So, for example: Every month, at the end

of the month, I get a bunch of bills. I don't like the end of the month, because

I get a bill for my rent, I get a bill for electricity, for heating, for the

internet, for the phone, for cable... So, I get many bills at the end of the

month, and they tell me how much money I need to pay. So, this kind of "bill"

does not make me happy; this "bill" makes me happy. So, there's two

different meanings of "bills". Well, more than two. If you want to remember

this word, I like to think of Bill Clinton, because Bill Clinton seems like

a man who has a lot of bills, and he probably has a lot of these kinds of

bills as well. So, you can remember this word by thinking of: "Bill Clinton has a

lot of bills". All right. So, now we're going to look at some other common

mistakes people make when talking about money.

Okay. So, the next mistake I've heard learners make before is actually a

little bit of a funny one, and that has to do with the understanding of

different learners for this expression: "make a killing". In English, "make a

killing" does not mean murder or to kill someone. When we "make a killing", it

means we make lots of money. So, if you have a great job and you work very hard,

and maybe you invest some money — maybe you "make a killing". Again, that means

you make a lot of money. It has nothing to do with killing in... in real life.

Okay. So, the next mistake I hear is often made by people who speak French,

and that has to do with the word: "earn" and "win". When we talk about "salary",

we're talking about the money we make from our work. So, when you have a job,

a lot of jobs give you a salary; you might get a monthly salary. So, "salary"

is the amount of money you get from work. In English, we use the verb:

"earn". We "earn" a salary; we do not "win" a salary. So, for people who speak

French, be careful because sometimes I hear French speakers say: "win a

salary". It's actually: "earn a salary". We can also "earn" money. So, you have a

choice; you can talk about earning a salary or earning money. Now, the next

mistake I often hear learners make has to do with the difference between

"money" and "currency". One of my students asked me about this today:

"What's the difference, Emma, between 'money' and 'currency'?" Well, when we

talk about "currency", we usually use this word in specific situations. We use

this word when we are talking about other countries' money. So, when I'm

talking about money in my everyday life, I'm talking about Canadian dollars, so I

just use the word: "money". I'm not thinking about other types of money. But

if I go travelling to England, for example, I'm going to talk about British

currency; or if I go travelling to Europe, and I need to change my money

from Canadian dollars into euros — that's when I use the word: "currency".

So, we use it a lot in business or when we're talking about money from other

countries. So, now, let's look at a couple more common mistakes people make

when talking about money.

Okay. So, I wanted to teach you two words, and then I'm going to show you

another mistake. The words have to do with money and people. There are

different types of people In the world; and when we talk about money, we can

actually talk about; "spenders" and "savers". A "spender" is a person... and

how do I know it's a person? Because it ends in "er". And, usually, "er" means a

person. So, a "spender" is a person who likes to spend money freely. It's fun

being friends with a "spender". They like to go shopping, they like to buy

new things, they like to go out to restaurants. So, that's a "spender". We

also have this word: "saver". A "saver" is the opposite of a "spender". A

"saver" is a person who likes to save their money. So, what I want you to do

right now is just think: Are you a spender, or are you a saver, or are you

somewhere in the middle? These are great words to use when you're talking about

money and personality. Okay. The next and final part of this video, I just

wanted to talk about one more mistake I sometimes hear, and it has to do with an

idiom. So, idioms are used a lot in English, and it's very important, when

we use an idiom, to use it correctly. If we make a mistake, it sounds very

strange. So, I have here an idiom we use to describe something that is very

expensive. We can say: "It costs an arm and a leg". If something "costs an arm

and a leg", it means it's very expensive. When I went to university, it

cost me an arm and a leg — that means university cost a lot of money; it was

very expensive. Now, sometimes I hear learners try to use this, but they

actually make a mistake. They say: "It costs a leg and an arm". So, that sounds

very strange to a native speaker of English. So, this is not correct. If you

use this expression, be careful to say: "arm" first; "leg" second. All right.

So, we've covered a lot of different words we use to talk about money, and a

lot of different mistakes I often hear learners of English making when they

talk about money. Now what I'd like to do is invite you to come check out our

website at www.engvid.com. There, you can actually take a quiz to practice

what you learned here today. You can also ring the bell and subscribe to my

YouTube channel. By doing so, you can get notifications for new videos on

different topics, like pronunciation, reading, writing, grammar, and so much

more. I'd also like to invite you to come check out my website at

www.teacheremma.com. There, you can find some free resources, along with some

information about how to join my club. So, thank you so much for watching; and

until next time, take care.