Money Vocabulary in English: Lend, Borrow, Owe

Katie asks a simple question: how many coins do you have in your pocket right now? The answer comes back fast — "None. None whatsoever." — followed by an admission that men with pockets full of coins and keys are a mystery. A minute later there's a more awkward confession about being given too much change: "it pains me to do so", but the money always goes back. That's the shape of this episode: everyday money vocabulary, tested on real people who don't always look good answering.

What you'll hear in this episode

The unit works in four stages, twice over. First you hear questions with a word missing — "Is there anything you can't (…?…), that you want?" — and try to guess it before the complete question is read out. Then we study each word for meaning and pronunciation, with a beep to repeat after. Then Katie puts the same questions to a speaker and you find out whether your answers match.

In the first conversation, Kim answers. She'd like to be able to travel more and can't really afford it; the most valuable thing she owns turns out to be a laptop owned jointly with her partner, "so we fight over it". Asked whether she wastes money, she pushes back on the question itself: "if you spend money on, having a good time, then that’s money well spent."

The second conversation is with Tom, and it's a bleaker view of credit. "Credit cards scare me", he says, because of the interest rates, and he describes the letters that used to arrive daily from banks: "Get another credit card! Borrow more money!" One of the speakers admits to still paying back student loans, to borrowing money from a girlfriend the morning before, and to collecting two parking fines in the same day after moving the car to avoid a second ticket. There's also a nice moment of real, unrehearsed conversation when the question about owing friends money turns back on Katie: "Do I owe you money?"

Quick facts

Episode	2.15 – Money
Pack	Vocabulary and Pronunciation 2
Level	2
Duration	18 minutes 35 seconds
Voices	Katie, Kim, Tom
Audio	Free
Workbook	Included in the all-in-one pack (€39)

What you'll learn

The listen-and-guess format trains something specific: predicting vocabulary from context. When you hear "Which thing you own is (…?…) the most money?", the grammar around the gap tells you a lot before you ever hear the word.

The pronunciation work is precise. We drill the linking in "can afford" — the /n/ of can joining the /ə/ of afford — and then the same effect in the negative, where the /t/ of can't connects to the /ə/ of afford. This is exactly the join that makes fast speech hard to unpick: the difference between I can afford it and I can't afford it is a very small sound carrying a very large meaning. You'll also work on the vowel in worth /wɜːθ/ and the diphthongs in coins /kɔɪ/ and loan /əʊ/.

The conversations then give you the words doing real work: lend and borrow in opposite directions in the same answer, pay back and pay off side by side, and in credit used naturally about a bank account. You'll also hear how English speakers hedge when a question is uncomfortable — "Well I don't know, if I want to be honest about this one" — and how they refuse to give details.

The vocabulary

to waste /weɪst/ (verb) – use in a way that doesn't give any result, not use wisely — the word Kim argues with
to afford /əfɔːd/ (verb) – to have enough money for, to be able to buy
worth /wɜːθ/ (adjective) – value
a note (UK) / a bill (US) /nəʊt/ /bɪl/ (noun) – paper money
a coin /kɔɪn/ (noun) – round, metal money
cash /kæʃ/ (noun) – notes and coins, not credit cards etc.
the change /tʃeɪndʒ/ (noun) – the difference between the money you give and the price of something, the money you get back
to lend /lend/ (verb) – to give someone something for a period of time, temporarily not permanently
a loan /ləʊn/ (noun) – an amount of money a person borrows or lends
to borrow /bɒrəʊ/ (verb) – to get money from someone (or for example from a bank) to use for a period of time, after which you must return it
to pay back /peɪ bæk/ (phrasal verb) – to return money you have borrowed
in credit /ɪn kredɪt/ (phrase) – to have money in your bank account
to charge /tʃɑːdʒ/ (verb) – to ask a certain price for an item or service
to owe /əʊ/ (verb) – to have borrowed money from someone and not paid it back yet

The audio also teaches a fine — money you pay because you broke a rule.

In the workbook

The Unit 15 workbook comes with this episode inside the all-in-one pack. It opens with the full vocabulary glossary above, with phonemic transcriptions, so you can check the sounds you drilled against the written form.

Then three practice exercises. Practice 1 is a gap-fill paragraph in the voice of someone who is bad with money — an account that is never in credit, a loan from the bank, money owed to a sister — and you supply the missing words. Practice 2 is the trap exercise: choosing between lent and borrowed, and between charge and change, which are the two mistakes learners make most often with this set. Practice 3 is pronunciation: match change, lend and owe to the word on the right with the same underlined sound. Full answers are included at the back, so you can mark your own work.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Questions

Is the audio scripted?

The conversations with Kim and Tom are unscripted — that's why you get hesitations, laughter and Tom asking Katie whether he owes her money. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

What level is this episode?

Level 2, from the Vocabulary and Pronunciation 2 pack.

Do I need the workbook to follow the episode?

No. The audio explains and drills every word on its own. The workbook is where you check the phonemics and test whether the words stuck.

What's the difference between lend and borrow?

You lend money to someone; you borrow money from someone. Both directions appear in the same answers in the second conversation, which is the fastest way to hear the difference.

How long is it?

18 minutes 35 seconds.

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