A fiver and a tenner

Finn:  Hi, I’m Finn.
 
Feifei:  And I’m Feifei.
 
Finn:  And you’re listening to Question and Answer of the Week.
 
Feifei:  在这个节目中我们将会回答你在英语学习过程中遇到的种种难题。
 
Finn:  This week, we’re talking about money.
 
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I am always confused about the expression of the amount of money people are talking about. Usually I don’t understand how much money people are talking about.
 
Feifei:  来自北京的 Bin 觉得用英语表达一个钱数挺难的。 
 
Finn:    Ok – money, now understanding amounts of money is a really important part of learning a foreign language.
 
Feifei:    You’re right there Finn. 要想用英语来准确地表达一个钱数确实是一件不容的事情，我们不论是在商店买东西询问价钱或是在听一则经济新闻报道的时候经常被很多数字搞得头晕眼花。There’s a big difference between a million and a billion
pounds!
 
Finn:  There certainly is – and this is exactly one of the problems that Chinese learners have to deal with. There aren’t words for ‘million’ or ‘billion’ in Chinese. Have a listen to these news reports.
 
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The government has allocated 235 million pounds… about 500 million pounds a year…fisherman 5 million pounds to scrap their boats… the welfare budget about 20 billion pounds a year… it involves 20 billion pounds of investment… and over a billion pounds to do that… the price of toys is important, this market is worth 2.2 billion pounds annually.  
 
Feifei:  听完上面这些不同的报道，我们反复听到了这两个词：million 一百万；billion 十亿。
 Finn:  I’m sure most of you know these words, but when you start saying things like 14 billion, or 2.2 billion, which we heard there, it gets a little bit more tricky, doesn’t it?
 
Feifei:  Yes – one billion 10亿这个词并不复杂，但是当我们说2.2 billion 22亿，14.5 billion 145亿，在说这些数字的时候我们需要来动动算术脑筋。
 
Finn:  That's right. And actually, Feifei I have a lot of sympathy for Chinese people facing this problem, because I have the same problem when I'm understanding big numbers in Chinese 什么一万，一百万，一亿，十三亿那些之类的!
 
Feifei:  Well I think this is one we just have to practise! 不论你对一门外语掌握的有多好，再或是你对数字有多敏感，还是你用母语数数儿有多快。
 
Finn:  I think so. Feifei, I think we should move on now. Another time people might have difficulty understanding amounts in English is when talking about costs.
 
Feifei:  花费和价钱。在英国货币单位  unit of currency 是英镑  the pound.
 
Finn:  One pound is divided into 100 pence.
 
Feifei:  一镑里有100便士  pence, 便士  pence 这个在书写和口语中词通常被简称为  p.
 
Finn:  Now, if you’re in a shop or cafe, you might hear a conversation a little bit like this:
 
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How much is that, please?
That's seven pounds seventy pence.
 
Finn:  Ok – there should be no problems there. Seven pounds seventy pence.
 
Feifei:  七镑七十便士。

 
Finn:  But you’re just as likely to hear this:
 
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How much is that, please? That's seven pounds seventy.
 
Finn:  Seven pounds seventy.
 
Feifei:  这个说法和上面是一样的，只不过少了  pence 这个词，但是意思是完全一样的。
 
Finn:  Listen to this: 
 Insert
 
How much is that, please?
That's seven seventy.
 
Feifei:  上面这位男士既没有说 pounds 也没有说  pence. 那么应该不难判断上面的数字到底是多少了，不过你也可能觉得这个数字是£770, 但通常你可以根据一个语境来判断数字。
 
Finn:  Well Feifei I don't know about you but I would be shocked if a couple of coffees cost me seven hundred and seventy pounds! 七百七十镑，no way!
 
Feifei:  Oh yes, even in expensive London. So Finn, any other things we need to be aware of when talking about amounts of money in English?
 
Finn:  There is one last area to look at before we go, which is slang.
 
Feifei:  Slang 俚语  – you mean words like quid?
 
Finn:  Quid, yes exactly. Now listen to these other words:
 
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I'd say a quid and maybe a grand. A tenner, a fiver, a score.
 
Feifei:  在英语中有很多用来表示钱的俚语说法，就像汉语里我们用块来代替元，在英语里经常会用 quid 来表示  pound. 
 
Finn:  Yes, and how about these other amounts: a fiver?
 
Feifei:  Five pounds.
 
Finn:  A tenner.
 
Feifei:  Ten pounds.
 
Finn:  A score. 
 
Feifei:  Twenty pounds.
 
Finn:  And a grand.
 
Feifei:  A thousand pounds. 这个词在英国的使用率非常高，很普遍。
 
Finn:  And there are some great slang words for money in general.
 
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That would be dough, dosh and moolah. Wonga, as well, yeah wonga.
 
Finn:  Words like dosh, moolah, wonga and dough. 
 Feifei:  还有很多可以用来表示钱的词，比方说  dosh, moolah, dough, and you know what Finn?
 
Finn:  What’s that?
 
Feifei:  We haven’t even mentioned how to talk about amounts of money in American dollars!
 
Finn:  Oh well, we haven't have we – maybe that will have to be another programme. But, there’s a slang word for dollars which I’m sure lots of you know. I bet you don’t know it Feifei?
 
Feifei:  Let me see. Bucks?
 
Finn:  Bucks, you're right, well done.
 
Feifei:  Well I won the bet – now you have to give me, hmmm, 100 bucks!
 
Finn:  100 bucks? No we didn’t agree that, come on!
 
Feifei:  Ok then, a tenner.
 
Finn:  A tenner. No way.
 
Feifei:  Ok, a fiver, five quid?
 
Finn:  Five quid, hang on a minute.
 
Feifei:  在我等  Finn 很艰难的从他的口袋里给我掏出5镑钱的时候，我们一起复习一下用一门外语来表达钱数的困难点：第一，不同的计数习惯；第二，在表达花费和价格的时候又不同的口语习惯表达；第三，用来表示钱的俚语词汇。
 
Finn:  I hope you’ve enjoyed the programme and learned a few things about how to express and understand amounts of money in English. And thank you to Li Bin for his question. 

 
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Thank you so much for answering my question. Thank you.
 
Finn:  Now, if you have any other questions about the English language please send them to: 
 
Feifei:  questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk 同时也欢迎登陆我们的网站 www.bbcchina.com.cn 
 
Finn:  Bye for now.
 
Feifei:  Bye. 

This week's question comes from Li Bin in Beijing, who has problems understanding amounts of money in English.

There are a number of different reasons why Chinese learners of English might have problems understanding amounts of money.

1) Big numbers
The counting system in English is different to Chinese. Big numbers like million and billion have no direct equivalent in Chinese so when talking about numbers like 2.2 billion (2,200,000,000) it means you might need to do a little mental arithmetic.

2) Costs and prices
In Britain costs and prices are expressed in pounds and pence. For example, a meal in a restaurant might cost £7.70. When this is written there is no problem, but when you hear someone say this price you might hear one of three things:

a) Seven pounds seventy pence
b) Seven pounds seventy
c) Seven seventy

Make sure you don't confuse seven seventy with 770 (seven hundred and seventy).

3) Slang
Are you familiar with these slang expressions?

A quid – one pound
A fiver – five pounds
A tenner – ten pounds
A grand – 1,000 pounds
A buck – one dollar
Dough, cash, moolah – all these are slang terms for money.

Thank you to Li Bin for his question. If you have a question about the English language, send us an email to questions.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. Your name and answer to the question could appear on our website.

Glossary 词汇

million
一百万

billion
十亿

equivalent
相同（的词）

mental arithmetic
心算，默算

pound
英镑

pence
便士

slang
俚语