Money Slang in English: Quid, Dosh, Skint and in the Red

Katie asks Tom how much cash he has in his pocket. "Absolutely nothing," he says. That's the honest starting point for this episode: two people sitting outside, agreeing that money "becomes very important if you don't have any", and working through the informal English we use to say we have plenty of it or none at all. There's even a dog: "There's a small dog eating a plastic bottle, over there...so please excuse the noise." Real English, recorded in a real park.

What you'll hear in this episode

There are two unscripted conversations, each followed by a meaning and pronunciation task. In the first, Katie describes an expression and Tom has to guess it. She wants a very British word for money beginning with d — dosh — and then the everyday word for a pound: a quid. Tom offers "We have hundreds of ways to talk about money," which is more or less true, and adds a fiver and a tenner. Katie stops to make a point learners get wrong constantly: "So notice that we don't say five quids. It's always singular."

Then the rich expressions. Asked what he'd be with five hundred quid in his pocket, Tom says "I'd be loaded." Filthy rich follows, and the two of them discuss why it feels unkind — "It means someone's got too much money", plus "And they don't deserve it." Guessing money to burn, Tom first tries "Coming out of his ears?" Katie's memory trick for rolling in it is a bed covered in banknotes.

The second conversation, recorded "trying to shelter from the sun and the wind", turns to having nothing: broke, skint, in the red and its opposite in the black. When Katie prompts for the colour expression, Tom starts to suggest something ruder — "You can be in something else" — and Katie explains that one "means in a bad situation", not just an empty account. The unit closes with money talks, a nightclub queue, a restaurant reservation, and an eighties song stuck in Katie's head: "Money talks, money talks, dirty cash I want you".

Quick facts

Episode	2.15
Pack	Colloquial 2
Level	2
Duration	17 minutes 17 seconds
Recorded	In a park, under a tree
Workbook	Included in the all-in-one pack (€39)

What you'll learn

The guessing-game format means you hear each expression before it's explained, so you're listening for meaning from context rather than reading a list. That's the skill this episode trains.

You'll also pick up things a wordlist can't teach you. Register, for one: the workbook grades every expression from 1 to 3, and the conversation shows why. Dosh and skint are marked 2 — fine with people you know well. Tom's alternative to in the red is exactly the kind of thing the grade-3 warning exists for.

Grammar inside the slang, for another. Quid stays singular after a number, so ten quid is right and ten quids is wrong — the workbook makes you correct that mistake yourself. Broke is an adjective, not the past participle broken. And you'll notice how these phrases attach to intensifiers: absolutely rolling in it, absolutely broke, totally broke.

Finally, listen for how the speakers hedge and soften. "Yes, you could say that", "I think perhaps more British", "maybe you're not this" — the connective tissue of natural conversation, and the part learners usually skip.

Vocabulary from the workbook

dosh (UK) (2) – money, very informal. Katie's clue is simply "I'm looking for one that begins with d."
a quid (UK) (1) – an English pound. Katie ends the first conversation with "I don't even have a quid, in my pocket."
to be rolling in it (2) – to be rich; the bed covered in banknotes.
filthy rich (2) – to be very rich, with a hint of resentment.
to have money to burn (1) – to be rich; more money than you need.
money talks (1) – if you have a lot of money, you have more power.
to be skint (2) – to have no money, or very little money.
to be broke (1) – to have no money.
to be in the red (1) – to owe money to the bank; your bank account has minus amounts of money.
in the black (1) – to have money in your account.

What's in the workbook

The PDF workbook for this unit is part of the paid all-in-one pack, and it gives you the episode in writing plus practice. You get the full transcript of both conversations, so you can go back and see exactly what was said — including the hesitations and the interruptions. You get the glossary above, with the 1–2–3 politeness grading and its blunt advice about your mother-in-law.

Then two exercises. Practice Exercise 1 is a gap-fill dialogue: John asks Steve to lend him some __, needs three hundred _, and Steve protests that he's not ___ in it. Practice Exercise 2 gives you six sentences with mistakes to correct — dirty rich, money speaks, ten quids, totally broken, cash to burn — the errors learners actually make with these phrases. Answers for both are included at the back.

The workbook for this episode, and for every other episode, comes with the complete pack for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Is the audio scripted?

The two conversations are completely unscripted — that's why there's a dog eating a plastic bottle in the background. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Which expressions are safe to use with anyone?

The glossary marks a quid, money to burn, money talks, to be broke, in the red and in the black as level 1 — usable in speech with most people in most situations. Dosh, skint, filthy rich and rolling in it are level 2: keep them for people you know well.

What's the difference between skint and broke?

Both mean you have no money. In the conversation, Tom describes skint as "I think perhaps more British" — broke travels further.

Why is it five quid and not five quids?

Because quid doesn't take a plural -s after a number. Katie flags it in the recording, and Practice Exercise 2 makes you fix it.

Can I follow this if I'm not at level 2 yet?

The expressions themselves are short and high-frequency. Use the meaning and pronunciation tasks to repeat after the beep, and read along with the transcript if the conversations move too quickly.

Get this episode

To save the audio, right-click the MP3 link and choose Save link as.

Listen on