Money, money, money is so funny in a rich man's world.
Vanity Fair. I'm not a rich man,
so I can't afford half of the things in here. Speaking of which, we're talking about money,
and in this lesson what I want to do is teach you a bunch of phrasal verbs that we use to
talk about spending money, saving money, and paying back debts that we use quite commonly.
And I'm going to teach you how to use them, and what they are, and have some fun with
you. Are you ready? Let's go to the board. Okay?
E, it's not funny, I got no money. E is all, see? Got dollar signs for eyes. You might
see that. If you're having a problem, take your screen and enlarge it to full screen,
there's a little button. And we actually have a video on that, go check that out if you
don't know how to use your YouTube. Okay? Anyway, E's got his eyes... He's got dollar
signs for eyes, because he's got money in his hand. And if you're lucky, you have money,
too; but when you don't have money, well, it's time to learn some phrases to help you
So, here's our dollar sign, here, and let's start with having money or saving it. Okay?
If you're lucky... Well, let's start with just having enough. A lot of people just have
enough money. And how do we talk about that in English? Well, what you can say is this:
"I'm getting by". "Getting by" means I don't have a lot of money, and I'm surviving. So
I can't go on big trips or do anything, but I'm not poor and I don't have zero money,
but I have enough to get my food, and pay my rent or my homestay, and pay some other
things for me, maybe my cellphone and my internet, but nothing special; no car, no fancy trips,
no bling, bling, bling or great jewellery. You know what I mean? So, that's "getting by".
It's kind of positive because it means I'm not bad, but it's not fantastic, like:
Let's talk about "scrape by", because this is have just enough. When you're scraping
by, imagine you have this thing here-okay?-and this thing. And there's gum on here, and you
want to get the gum off, you're going to... That's called scraping. And when you scrape,
sometimes you'll take a little bit of the paper off with it, just a little bit, when
you scrape. In Canada, we have winter, and when we have ice on our windows, we scrape
the ice to get rid of it. It's a lot of work, it's not lots of fun. You probably understand
the phrasal verb now, right? When you're scraping by, you just have enough money. But unlike
"getting by", because notice how we have "get", we have you're getting something, you're given
something, which is good, you're getting money, that's why you get by; 'scraping" by means
just a little bit. Just enough. And you feel negative. You don't feel good when you're
scraping by. Every day is heavy and hard, because you almost don't have enough money
to pay for everything. Sorry. You need a job or a better one. Okay.
So, what happens? How do we change this, "scraping by"? Why don't we do something like this,
why don't we save some money? In English, we have two phrasal verbs you can use for
saving money. Notice the up sign: "to save up". When you save up money... Think of it
this way: Doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo, doo. You increase your money. You usually save
your money up for something big, like a car, a vacation, retirement. And retirement is
when you stop working forever. You're older, 65-70, you finish work and you don't want
to work again, you want to play golf, or go baseball, go sailing. You retire. So, you
save up. These are for big purchases. So, it won't be $100. It'll be $1,000, $10,000,
a million dollars. A million dollars. [Laughs] Okay.
We have another one for saving, though, and we call it: "put aside". You might have difficulty
because probably you've never heard of "aside".
This is my side, this is on the other side.
Okay? So when we say "aside", it's like here, on the side. On the side is "aside". Okay?
Sometimes we speak and say: "I want to make an aside", which means I'm going to give you
a direct conversation, but I want to say something a little off to the side. There you go: "aside".
If that didn't clarify it, buy a dictionary. [Laughs] But, you notice I have a little box,
here? It's on the side. When you put aside money, you have money here, you're going to
take a little piece of the money and you're going to put it over here; aside. You go:
"Why? I thought saving up is what I do." Putting money aside is a little different. When you
put money aside, you're saving it for, usually, a shorter period of time for something very
specific. When I'm saving up money for a house, it takes a long time to save that money up,
maybe years. So I save up the money-doo, doo, doo, doo, doo-until it grows; $1, $100, $10,000,
$200,000, $500,000. I save it up and keep going. When I put money aside, I might have $5, and
I will take $1 and I will put it aside over here. You go: "Why?" You know, later on I
want to buy a chocolate bar with this dollar, so I must take it from here and move it over
here, and I will put it in my pocket, and then later on I can buy my chocolate bar.
I don't need to save for years, and days, or months. I'm just saving it for a short
period of time for something very specific. So, maybe you have $100 and you and I are
going out with Mr. E for a drink, and I go:
"Hey, put aside $20. We're going to go for dinner after."
Which means: Spend $80, no problem, but save that $20 for dinner afterwards.
That's what we mean by "putting money aside". Save it for a short period of time for something
specific; while "saving up money" means to save for a long period of time for something
All right. So we've gone from just having enough, and we've saved up our money. Okay?
Now, what are we going to do? Well, usually, you save it, you got to spend it, baby. All
right? So we're going to spend some money. Unfortunately, for most people, when you don't
have a lot of money, spending money is not a positive experience. In fact, there aren't
that many idioms for saying: "I spent money and I'm happy." Yay! Go check it out. People
have a funny relationship with money. It's usually negative. If they have a lot of it,
they're protecting it; and if they don't have enough, they're just scraping by. All right?
So, let's look at when we do spend money. How do people talk about it? Well, we talk
about spending money like this. "Fork". You know how you have a knife and fork? Usually
when you take your fork and you're eating, you put the fork into something, and you put
it in your mouth and it's gone. And the only way you see it again is when it comes out
again like poo0poo. Right? You get poo-poo, which is not good. So, a lot of people see
money, when they have to "fork over" money-okay?-is they're giving that money and it's gone for
good. Even if they want to have the thing, they don't really want to spend the money.
Okay?
"Cough up". When I say: "I have to cough up $10", think of a cat: "Meow, meow." They get
hairballs-[gurgles and coughs]-and they cough it up. If you ever look at the cat, the cat
doesn't go: "Hehe!" It's usually like: "Ugh, that was disgusting." [Laughs] For other people...
For us, when we say: "Oh, man, do I have to cough up another $20?" It means pay, and I
don't want to pay. I don't like the hairball. That's what it's called when a cat... A cat
spits it out, it's a hairball. I don't want to cough up the money.
Finally: "shell", "shell out". Well, shells are for protection. Right? Tortoise, shrimp
has a soft shell, clams and mussels all have shells, but they protect because they want
to keep whatever's inside. A mussel, or a clam, or a shrimp, or a tortoise, or a snail
- they all want to keep themselves safe inside. So they don't like being opened and something
come out. So when you have to shell out money, you literally have to take money and give
it out, and you don't want to; you want to protect it and keep it inside. Yeah, we have
a funny relationship with money. For people who love it so much, we don't like giving
it away. Okay? So we talked about not having enough, saving it, and then after we save
it, like even buying that house, having to spend it and how we think about it.
What do we call it when you actually have to go into your savings to spend something?
Well, that's what we call "using savings", and we have two ways of using our savings,
just like we have two ways of saving up. And one is short term and one is long term, okay?
Kind of similar. When you have to "dip into" your savings, it means to go into your saved
money and take a little bit out for something.
"My car broke down last week, so I had to dip into my savings."
That means I took out some of the money, maybe $100, and I left
the rest of the money. I just took a little bit, and I left the rest. So if I was saving
up, I would save a lot, and then take a little bit, but I would continue to go. So, dipping
into your bank account or your savings account is not great, but it's not bad. Maybe you
dip in for $100, $10, $50 for dinner. You dip into it, and you get out. Think about
going into water. You go in for a dip, you go in, you come back out. That's good. Right?
You dip in the water. Dip for a quick swim, come out. No harm done. Everything's okay.
But when you "break into your savings", this is not good. When I break into my savings,
it's like, mm, trying to swim from Canada to China. Huh? Well, when you break into your
savings it means you have to keep going in the savings and keep taking money out all
the time. Imagine swimming from Canada to China. It's a big, big distance. If you dip
in, you're in for a long time. You're going to have to keep swimming, if you want to survive,
to get to China. So when someone tells you:
"I had to break into my savings because my new place is too much money",
it means all my money that was up here that I was saving,
I have to keep taking it down. I'm breaking into my savings, and I really don't like it
because my savings will disappear. So, the difference between "dip" and "break": When
you dip in, you go into the savings, take $5 out, come out, short; when you break into
your savings, you keep taking it and taking it and taking it until the money goes down.
That's not so cool. All right.
[Sighs]
I talked about savings, I talked about getting into your savings, I've talked about
not having enough money, I've talked about spending money. All these things are good
because this is your money that you're using in some way, but what about when you have
to give money back to somebody you took it from, like the bank or a friend? We call this:
"Paying back a debt". Okay? So, when you have to pay debts, there are two ways to pay off your debts.
One is better than the other. Let's take a look at it.
When I "pay back a debt" it means I have to give money back to you,
but it doesn't necessarily mean I'm going to finish it.
When I'm paying back, like, for a house or a car, it means I borrowed
$1,000, I'm paying back maybe $100 a week, it means I can keep paying again and again
and again, but I am paying it, so the money I gave... Came... I took from you was here,
and as I pay it back, it goes down. Okay? That's why sometimes you break into your savings
to pay down your debts. Right? Or pay back your debts. Both are reduced.
So, "paying back" means reduction. Okay?
"Paying off a debt" means it's finished. I paid off my Visa card. Done. Think of a light
switch. You take off the lights, the lights are off. Right? Finished. No more light. When
you pay off a debt, I paid off my Visa - I don't have to give them any more money, thank
heavens, because I'm just scraping by as it is. You know that I haven't saved up any money
in a while, and I've had to dip into my savings for the last two months. Cool? Notice how
I used all of these phrasal verbs to talk about money, and I never said the word "money"
If you've been paying attention and you've been listening to what I've said, you can
do the same thing that I just did, because not have you just learned-one, two, three,
four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten- eleven phrasal verbs - you know how to use
them and you understand them, so you can speak like a native speaker. And just to test you
on that, we're going to give you a short test in a second or two, and see how well you learned.
[Snaps]
So, I sang that song: "Money, money, money, it's so funny", well, it's actually serious
business, boys and girls. And so serious, I'm going to tell a story. Actually, no, you're
going to help me with the story. We're going to look at what you learned and see if you
understand it, and if you do, you'll know the answers to the story already, and some
of you I think do. So, let's just check it out and take a look. You ready?
Oh, before I do, I just want to go through a quick hint; something I think will help
make your learning faster and easier for you, and that will help you with phrasal verbs
in the future. So, hint: When learning a new verb, look at all its definitions. Sometimes
when you open a dictionary... And I recommend you get an English to English dictionary.
At the beginning, maybe one that translates, but then a dictionary that translates never
really translates everything; it can't. A language is too big, so you need the actual
Once you open your English to English dictionary, there will be definitions, like: "Up" or to...
Let's say "wash", and you'll look: "Wash", and it'll say: "Wash - to clean, or to erase, to clean oneself."
And then it will say: "Wash up" and that means wash up dishes, to clean
up the dishes. "Wash out - it means to be let go". Whoa, and all these phrasal verbs
are there. Okay? Now, if you look at those definitions and go down, you don't have to
try to remember them, but... Read this part with me. You may find a phrasal verb or two,
as I just discussed with "wash" and "wash up". Okay? If you pay attention, you will
notice extra or hidden meanings of the verb in the phrasal verb. When you see "wash",
it means to clean. Okay? But when you say "wash up" it means to clean to make better,
improve. And a "washout" is someone who... Well, it depends, actually. If you wash out
the colour, the colour goes away, so it's not even cleaning; it's getting rid of something
you want. That's crazy, right? But that's a hidden meaning of "wash", because it does
mean to clean, and in doing so, it means something might disappear that you want. Wow. "Wash"
means disappear? No. It's a hidden meaning that only comes out with phrasal verbs, but
that will help you with other uses of "wash" when you see it in the future. And that's
just one example of using a phrasal verb to truly understand a new verb that you're working
on. Cool? Well, let's go to the board and work on the phrasal verbs you've just learned,
and these ones have to do with money. So, finish the story.
"Last week Mr. E's TV stopped working and he needed to __________ __________ $400 for a new one."
[Coughs]
[Coughs]
Okay. Well, there were two, but if you did this:
Because, you know, his TV stopped working. He didn't want to buy the new television;
he liked his old one, but you do what you need to do. So he had to cough up $400 for
a new one. The story's not quite finished yet, so let's go through it.
"He had been __________ __________ for a new car."
A car is a lot of money; $10, $20, $30,000, sometimes
more, if you can afford it. In this case, you know it's a lot of money, so it's not
putting aside money; you'd be saving up money because it would be for a lot of things. So
you want to... "He had been saving up money for a new car." So he was saving up. Okay?
"Mr. E had to __________ __________ his savings to get the money for the new TV."
Hmm.
Well, it's kind of hot, so maybe I'll just go in the pool afterwards, and just take a little...
Did you say "dip into"? See? That's why I like you, you're a good student. That's
right. Like I took a dip into the pool, he had to dip into his savings.
Why? Think about it. When you dip in the pool, you go in, you come back out.
In this case, he needed $400.
He was saving thousands of dollars for his car, so he only needs to go in one time to
take the money out to pay for the television. So he dipped into his savings and took some
money out. He's not going to do it regularly, so he's not breaking the savings; he's just
dipping in and coming back out. It's unfortunate or too bad, but hey, this is life.
Okay? Now let's finish this off.
"It actually cost $500, so the next week he had to __________ __________ on $20 a day."
Hey, yo, E, get me a coffee while you're out? It's all right. They're going to be a second.
Oh, sorry, that's right, you said: "get", that's right, he had to... Because you heard
me, right? "Get by on $20 a day". Remember? "Scraping by" is not have enough money. Clearly,
if E has enough money for a car, he can take more money, but he's getting by on $20 because
it was unexpected it would be $100 more. But he doesn't have a lot of money. $20 a day
is not a lot. Even McDonald's cost 10. [Laughs]
So, let's read the story all together.
"Last week Mr. E's TV stopped working and he needed to cough up $400 for a new one.
He had been saving up money for a new car.
Mr. E had to dip into his savings to get the money for the new TV.
It actually cost $500, so the next week he had to get by on $20 a day. The end."
That's the end of the video, and if you want to learn more phrasal verbs about money, living,
cleaning up, a whole host of things or a lot of things - you know where to go, don't you?
Well, I'm going to send you there. Go to www.eng as in English, vid as in video.com (www.engvid.com),
where you can do the quiz to this particular video, and find other videos on money, and
other phrasal verbs and grammar questions you may have.
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