British Business English Idioms About Money - Set One

1. What will you learn in this course?: Hello, my name is Sarah Rocha Coelho, and I am a British native English speaker and an English teacher with more than 22 years of experience helping people unlock new levels of fluency. This class will teach you five British Business English idioms related to money. Number one: to cost a pretty penny. Two: to pinch pennies. Three: the penny drops. Four: in, for a penny in for a pound. And five: spend a penny. The class is perfect for you if you are an Intermediate level or above and you want to learn and use British Business English idioms. Here's what we will do in the class. First of all, I will give you an example of the idiom being used in context. Then I will ask you to think about what you think the idiom means and choose which definition you think fits from a list of options. We will look at some more examples together. And then at the end, I will give you a speaking prompt so you can practice using the idiom. The class project will ask you to choose to either do some writing or speaking practice with the five idioms. I'll see you in class! 2. Cost a pretty penny: Okay, So here's the first idiom to cost a pretty penny. Here's an example. Did you see her dress? It had real gold on it. That must have cost a pretty penny. So what do you think this idiom means? Here are some choices. One, to handle money physically, to be very expensive. Three to spend very carefully, or four to steal money. Pause the video if you need to and have a think about which fits best as a definition for this idiom. If you chose number two, Congratulations, you've got it right. To cost a pretty penny does indeed mean that something is very expensive. It is informal, but we would still use it in a business context. And it is a negative connotation. It's almost saying that something is too much, really expensive. For example, making sure every employee got a new computer cost a pretty penny. Another idiom that means exactly the same as to cost an arm and a leg. So you could say, wow, all those new computers that's must have cost an arm and a leg. Here is another example. Someone says, Wow, you're going to redo all the groceries. That will cost a pretty penny. Sure. Well, another example, our department spent, how much I'm printing. Wow, that's a pretty penny. We often use this idiom to express shock. And as a way of expressing it wasn't worth it, it was just too much money. Another example, it cost a pretty penny to get the website custom development done, but it was worth it. So in this example is an example of justification. So we use this idiom as well to say, Look, I know it's a lot of money, but I think it was money well-spent. So justification. Look at this sentence. Nice. Sports car, it must be worth a pretty penny. The word worth collocates with pretty penny. And in this instance, it is a positive meaning. It's saying yes, it's a lot of money, but wow, that's real values of positive. If you say something is worth a pretty penny, you are affirming that you think, even though it's expensive, it's really worth it versus cost a pretty penny. You're criticizing that maybe it's too much money. Over to you for some impromptu speaking. I will give you a prompt. And I really suggest that you record yourself speaking your response, trying to get in as much detail as possible. Try to get a beginning, a middle, and an end. And of course use the idiom. So here's your prompt. Describe an indulgence that cost a pretty penny. An indulgence is something that you don't need. It's extra, but you'll love it. It's something that you love to have or to do. So if I were to give you my example of me answering this, I might say something like an indulgence that I really love is Starbucks. I know that their coffees cost a pretty penny by the time you've paid for the soy milk and the syrup and all those extras. It really is a pretty penny, but I think it's worth it because I love it as an indulgence. And I love going there every once in awhile. Even though it's an indulgence that really does cost a pretty penny. So there's my example. Go ahead and record yours. Make sure you do that. And then once you've finished, I'll see you in the next lesson where we'll look at another idiom. 3. Pinch pennies: Okay, Our second idiom to pinch pennies, for example, when my hours were reduced it work, I had to pinch pennies a little. What do you think? This means? There's four options, choose one of them. So one, to handle money physically, to be very expensive, three to spend very carefully, or four to steal money. What do you think? If you chose number three, then you are correct. To pinch pennies does indeed mean to be very careful about spending or to spend as little money as possible. For example, we had to pinch pennies on our wedding by only inviting a few people. We also have penny pinching. We can use it in that form, meaning the same thing. For example, we had to do a lot of penny pinching. You could say we had to pinch pennies or you could say we had to do a lot of penny pinching. Then last of all, we have a penny pinch her, which is someone who is being very careful with their money. For example, stop being a penny picture. Let's go out for dinner. Penny pinch or has a negative connotation that someone is being too controlling with their money. Mostly pinching pennies as within the frugal or thrifty realm where you are being careful frugal and thrifty means you're careful with many positive. But in the neutral zone, it also could be very negative to mean that you're being miserly. You are not being generous. Miserly means not generous or tight, as we would say, very informally in Scotland. That said, a piece of Scottish slag there. But the person is being miserly and not generous. And that would be the negative connotation that sometimes goes with pinch pennies. So let's look at that. So here's an example. Many entrepreneurs have to do a lot of penny pinching when they first start their business until the first profits come in. So that would be within the realm of neutral to positive, where they're controlling their money. But that's quite a good thing. If we look at this example, the restaurant employees were upset when they're free coffee was taken away as they felt it was really miserly and penny pinching behavior. So in this example, the penny pinching as not generous, so it's a negative thing. Okay, let's talk about your speaking prompt. Here is your prompt for this idiom. Describe a time when it was helpful to do some penny pinching. Go ahead and do that, record yourself speaking and then I'll see you in the next lesson. 4. The penny drops: Here's idiom number three, the penny drops. For example, many entrepreneurs started a business after the penny dropped, that there was a gap in the market for a service they could provide. What do you think this one means? To lose money, to realize something, to spend very carefully, or to find money. What do you think? If you've got number two to realize something, you got it right, well done. The penny drops means to finally understand or realize something after a long time. For example, the penny finally dropped when I saw the architect's drawing and understood how big the new office would be. So in this example, the person couldn't understand what the office would be light until they saw the drawing. And then they understood the penny dropped. American English equivalent would be the light bulb went on. Or you could talk about a light bulb moment, a moment of realizing an understanding. So let's look at it in context. What do you mean they aren't renewing the contract? The penny only just dropped for me too. It's shocking, isn't it? Okay, So here's your speaking prompt for this idiom. When did the penny dropped that improving your English would help your career? Go ahead and record yourself speaking in response to that prompt. And then I'll see you in the next lesson. 5. In for a penny, in for a pound: Here's idiom number four. In for a penny, in for a pound. And an example, it is easy to have an infra penny in for a pound attitude to work. But having time off is essential to what do you think this one means? To spend a lot of money to decide something, to be 100% committed to find money. What do you think? If you went with number three, then you are correct, well done. So in for a penny, in for a pound means to be fully committed to completing something even if it is more difficult than first thought. Here's another example. When I agreed to check this report, I thought it was only a few pages long haul while in for a penny in for a pound. I will get it done soon. Another one in context. It looks like 200 people have confirmed their attending the event. Hundreds. Wow. That's a double what we thought. Should I book a bigger venue? Yes, please. Do you know what they say? In for a penny in for a pound? This example, she's saying, You know what? We have no other option other than to fully commit to this. Because so many people have booked, we need to expand the venue. We need to just continue committing. Okay, here's your prompt for this idiom. Describe a time when you were in for a penny in for a pound with a project. So you need to think about a situation where you were really fully committed 100% to getting the project done. Go ahead and record yourself responding to that prompt, and then I'll see you in the next lesson. 6. To spend a penny: Here's our last idiom to spend a penny, and here is an example. I see the others haven't arrived for the meeting yet. Excuse me. I'm just going to spend a penny. So what do you think this means? To spend a lot of money to decide something, to be 100% committed or to go to the toilet. Surprisingly, it is the last one to go to the toilet. Now this is a little bit different from the other idioms because you're probably not going to use this. But I think it's still useful to understand what it means because you might hear other people using it. So to spend a penny means to go to the toilet. But it's very old fashioned. It's quite informal, but it's not impolite. So you might hear it perhaps in a business context, maybe, but it's old-fashioned, maybe not more common would be use of facilities or go to the toilet. Use of facilities is probably the most polite. Now the last one here, the informal one, nip to the loo. That is incredibly British. Would you say that turned American person? They probably won't understand what you're talking about. That is just in the United Kingdom and it's very informal, but it's something that everybody says that is the most common way of saying that in an informal manner. But if you are wanting to be a little bit more polite, you could tell you're going to spend a penny or use the facilities. Okay. I'm not going to have you talk about this because like I said, it's quite different. It's just something useful hopefully for you to know. But those are our five idioms. Well done, you made it. You look at the conclusion video. We'll do a wrap-up of everything. 7. Conclusion: Congratulations, we made it to the end of our five idioms. This conclusion video will serve as a way that you can come back to this course on refresh your memory every so often and just see if you've remembered these idioms. Suggest that you pause this video and look at each idiom and say it out loud, and then explain what the idiom means. And then I'll go through with you the meaning of them. So to cost a pretty penny means to be very expensive. To pinch pennies means to budget carefully. The penny drops means suddenly realized something in for a penny, in for a pound means to be completely committed. To spend a penny means to go to the toilet. Remembering, this is very old-fashioned and informal. Your class project, do this speaking prompts and upload them. Or alternatively, write a sentence with each idiom. Make sure that you check out and supporting material that goes along with this class. And please do, give me feedback. I welcome feedback and would be really grateful if you have a moment to leave a review key. That's it. Well done. Thanks and bye for now.