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 [email protected]. Your name and answer to the question could appear on our website.
Glossary 詞匯
million
一百萬
billion
十億
equivalent
相同（的詞）
mental arithmetic
心算，默算
pound
英鎊
pence
便士
slang
俚語
