That'll be one pound 20 please.
Oh yes uh um there you go.
Oh that's 30p
Whenever I travel to a different country, one of the things I find the most frustrating
is that I don’t understand how the money works. I end up turning coins over, peering at them and
eventually asking the shop assistant for help, and I know lots of other tourists do the same. In the
future, I’m going to make sure that I research the currency before I arrive in another country and
today’s tutorial is to help you do just that. Before we jump in I want to thank our sponsor
Lingoda, who are giving their students a chance to study for free but more about that later.
First of all, we’re going to discuss some money vocabulary that will be useful when buying things
in England, and then I’m going to show you the British coins and notes
and talk through the value of each one. Bargain. A ‘bargain’ is something which
is bought for less money than you would expect. It’s good value for money. “This
t-shirt was a bargain! It was only a fiver.” Currency . Currency’ is the word we use
to describe a system of money in general use in a particular country.
“Britain’s national currency is the pound sterling. What is your country’s currency?”
Card . ‘Card’ is the word we use to describe paying with one of these (show card). It’s
an umbrella term which includes debit cards (when you are paying with money from your bank account)
and credit cards, which is when you pay with the bank’s money. “I’d like to pay by card please.”
Next, we have cash. ‘Cash’ is the word we use to describe physical
money. “I’m sorry, our card machine is broken so we can only take cash at the moment.”
Coin . A ‘coin’ is a metal disc of money. The plural of ‘coin’ is ‘coins’. “I need
a coin to scratch my scratch card.” “I like to give the grandkids a few
coins for their piggy bank when I see them.” Notes. A ‘note’ is the paper, or nowadays,
plastic sheet of money. “I only have a £20 note. Do you have enough change?”
That brings me on to ‘Change’. Change is the noun we use to describe the money returned
after paying something with more money than it costs.
“It costs £6 so if I pay with a £10 note, I’ll get £4 change.” The word ‘change’ can
also be used to refer to any kind of money in coin form. “I’m 10p short. Do you have any change?”
Next ‘Contactless’. Contactless is the word we use to describe paying with a card by tapping it,
rather than by putting in the machine. “Not all stores can take contactless payments.”
Next we have the word cheap. If something is ‘cheap’ that means it doesn’t cost much money. Of course,
‘cheap’ is a subjective word, meaning it really depends on the context. £350 is cheap for a car,
but not for a bottle of water. “These were so cheap! So I bought 8 of them.”
Opposite to that we have the word expensive . If something is ‘expensive’, that means it costs a lot of money.
Again, ‘expensive’ is a subjective word, so it depends on the context.
“Buying snacks and drinks from the cinema is so expensive.”
So now let’s talk about the different coins and notes we use in the UK and the value of each one.
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Both plans require a €49 (US$59) deposit and each plan will be paid in three monthly installments.
I do have a code to give you a 10 euro discount off that deposit:
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But hurry up because places in the Sprint are limited!
The sprint is starting soon, I’ve put the dates in the description below
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Our notes are slowly being changed over from an old paper note to a new plastic or ‘polymer’ note.
At the time of filming, the £5, £10, and £20 notes have all been replaced by the new design
but the £50 note will be changing in 2021. Each note has a photograph of the Queen on the front,
and a transparent window to prevent fraudulent, or fake, notes being used.
The largest note we have is the £50 note. The £50 note is red in colour and the new note will
display a photo of Alan Turing, a British man who devised code-breaking machines during the Second
World War and is widely recognised as being one of the pioneers of computers. If you would like
to learn more about Alan Turing, you can watch the film ‘The Imitation Game’ starring Benedict
Cumberbatch. Watching films and television series in English is a great way to practice
and improve your English listening. The £20 note is purple in colour. It
has a photo of the Queen on one side and British artist JMW Turner on the other.
The £10 note is orange and features a portrait of the famous British author, Jane Austen.
Lastly, the £5 note is blue and features a picture of Sir Winston Churchill,
who was the British Prime Minister in the 1940s and 1950s. The £5 note is our lowest value note.
Now, let’s move on to the coins. If you look carefully at any British coin, you can see the
year it was made written on the edge. The largest value coin is £2. They are
circular; gold around the edge and silver in the middle. If you’re looking
at your coins in a rush, you can look at the edge of the coin and see that it says ‘two pounds’.
The next coin is the £1 coin which is a gold circular disc. £1 is worth 100 pence.
Now let’s look at the 50 pence coin. It has 7 sides and is silver in colour.
It’s the biggest coin we have and one of the most easily recognised. While
the official term is ’50 pence’, you might hear English speakers saying ‘50p’ for short.
Getting smaller in value, here is the 20 pence coin. It’s similar in shape to the 50p, it has 7
sides and is silver but it is much smaller. Next, we have the 10 pence coin, or
10p. It is a large, silver, circular disc. The 5p coin is the smallest in size but not in
value. It’s silver and circular and the number 5 can be seen quite largely on one side, which
could give you a big clue if you needed to find 5p quickly.
Next we have the bronze coins, which are the lowest in value.
The two pence coin is a fairly large bronze disc.
And lastly, the smallest value of coin is the 1 pence coin, sometimes called ‘1p’ or ‘a penny’.
It’s bronze, round and slightly larger in size than the 5p coin.
So there we have a guide to British Money! There is also ‘Scottish Sterling’, which
looks a little bit different but is still legal currency in England, but if you are exchanging
currency to take away on holiday, you will most likely receive the notes I’ve shown you today.
Don't forget about that Llingoda sprint which is starting soon
all the details are in the description box below, and if you have a spare few minutes
then why not check out another video? Until next time take care.