SPEAK ABOUT MONEY IN FRENCH - 12 EXPRESSIONS + SLANG WORDS

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SPEAK ABOUT MONEY IN FRENCH - 12 EXPRESSIONS + SLANG WORDS

In this video, I explain 12 expressions that talk about money in French. There are many expressions about money in French, and it can be interesting in your learning of French to know them. I have also added as a bonus some slang words, still on the theme of money.

You will find 11 other slang words about money in French on this link.

Video Transcript

Hello everyone, I hope you are well and ready for a new video in French. Today, we are going to talk about money. We will see together 12 expressions about money, about the cost of things, about wealth in French. At the end of the video, I'll also give you a little bonus with ten words to talk about money in slang. Before you start, make sure you activate the French subtitles. As I tell you in all my videos, it will help you to understand the video better and especially, to better remember the new vocabulary words we are going to see. If you're new to the channel, don't forget to subscribe to receive all the videos. Let's start right away with the first expression: it costs an arm and a leg.

An arm in French is that. So when we say that something costs an arm, we mean that something costs a lot. Here are two examples that will help you better understand this expression. - I'd like to buy some airpods, but they really cost an arm. - Really? How much do they cost? - It's 150 euros a pair. - Oh yes, it's true. That's really, really expensive. Here is a second example. I dream of going to Japan, but the plane tickets cost a lot.

It's 1,000 euros for a round trip. It's really too expensive for me. It costs an arm and a leg. It's a colloquial expression. It's for use with your friends or family. There are two other very colloquial expressions that mean exactly the same thing as ça coûte un bras. It costs an arm and a leg. And, it costs an arm and a leg. Both of these expressions also mean that it is very expensive. The next expression is: it's overpriced. When we say something is expensive, it means that it is very, very expensive.

It's the same as "it costs an arm and a leg" except that "it's overpriced" is a more formal expression. You can also say it's overpriced for an object or service, something that costs more than the actual value of the thing or service. It is too expensive for what it is. Here are two examples. I would love to buy the latest iPhone, but it's really overpriced. It's way too expensive for a phone.

Here is another example. I dream of going to the Maldives, but the plane tickets are really expensive. I can't afford it. Still in formal language. There is another expression that means the same thing as "it's overpriced", it's the expression "it costs a fortune".

The next expression is pocket money. Pocket money in French is what you have in your pants or in your coat. Pocket money is an expression used to talk about a small amount of money that is usually given to children or teenagers. Often, it is the parents who will give this amount of money but it can also be the grandparents, an uncle, an aunt. This small amount of money can be used by the children and teenagers to go to the movies, to the restaurant, to buy clothes, for example, it is a sum of money to be used for leisure activities.

Here are two examples to better understand the term pocket money. Every month, my parents give me 10 euros of pocket money. With this money, I can go to the movies or to a restaurant with my friends. Here is a second example. I saved my pocket money for six months to buy a new phone.

Usually, parents or grandparents will give pocket money every week or month, but it can also be once in a while.

The next expression is "good accounts make good friends". It is an expression used in French to say that you should always be careful to pay back the money you owe to your friends or to pay things in a fair way, in a balanced way. To avoid losing your friends or losing the good relationship you have with them, you must always be careful to make sure that everyone pays the same so that you don't have a friend who may be wronged and be a little angry with you if he or she pays, for example, more than you. Here is an example to help you understand. In France, if you have a coffee with a friend and you pay for it, he may insist on paying you back. You may say "Ah, but it's only one euro! It doesn't matter" and he may answer "yes, yes, I insist, I want to pay you back; good accounts make good friends". The next expression is "did you win the lottery?"

When we are surprised by the expenses that someone makes, the big expenses, the big purchases that he is going to make, we can say to him: Did you win the lottery? This shows that we are very surprised by all his expensive expenses, that we want to ask him how he gets all this money. We wonder if he won the lottery. Here are some examples. - This is the third dress you've bought this month. - Did you win the lottery? Here's a second example in dialogue form. -I just bought a new car.

- Did I? But you told me you didn't have any money saved up. Did you win the lottery? - Unfortunately, no. I had to take out a loan.

The next phrase is "cheap". When we say something is cheap, it means it's really cheap. You have to spend little money. For example, I can say: I always buy bread at the bakery down the street. It's really cheap and really delicious.

The baguette costs only 90 cents. Here is another example. - Do you know a cheap hotel in Paris? - Yes, I know one just around the corner from my house. It's very nice and the rooms are really cheap.

Let's look at the expression "it is given". When we say that something is given, we don't mean that it is free, that it was a gift. We just mean that it is so cheap, so inexpensive, that we feel it is given.

For example, I can say: cinema tickets are 2 euros instead of 7 euros at the moment, it's really cheap. You have to go there right away. Here is another example. There is a sale in my favorite store right now. Everything is less than 70 %. The clothes are going to be practically given away. We also say that something is not cheap when we say that something is not cheap it means that it is a little more expensive than we thought.

It's not overpriced, it doesn't cost a fortune, but it still costs a little money. Here is an example. The tickets for Shakira's concert, at 80 euros, it's not cheap. I have to think about whether I really want to put all that money into a concert ticket. The next expression is "throwing money away". When we say that someone is throwing money away, we mean that he is really spendy, that he spends a lot of money and that he wastes money as if he was throwing it away.

Here's an example. Did you get a new phone again? This is the third one this year. The others worked fine. You should be careful with your money, you're really throwing it away.

The next expression is to be armored. He is armored or she is armored, or I am armored. It's a slang expression, in very colloquial language to say that someone is rich, armored means rich. Here are two examples to help you understand.

Jeff Bezos is loaded, that's a fact. He has over $200 billion.

Shall we go to a little restaurant tonight? We already went yesterday, this is starting to add up. Oh come on, we're loaded, we can afford it. We have enough money.

The next expression is: to be up to your neck in debt. The neck in French is this part of the body. To be up to your neck in debt means that you are in debt, that you have debts, that you owe money.

We add up to the neck because we want to emphasize the seriousness of the situation, we are really in a very difficult situation. We add up to the neck because it's as if we were suffocated by debt. Here are two examples. - Your apartment is really beautiful and really big. - Thank you very much, but I had to go up to my neck in debt to buy it. The second example of being up to my neck in debt I saw in the press this week, I'll put an excerpt from this article.

This old man, after having been swindled, is up to his neck in debt, he even had to sell his house to pay his debts. It's not a very happy expression, it's a pretty sad expression. The next expression is "being broke". If I say I'm broke this month, it means I have no money left, I have zero euros in my account. Here are two examples. - Shall we go to a movie tonight? - I can't go. I'm broke. I've already spent all the pocket money my parents gave me for this month.

- It's barely the 12th of the month and I'm already broke. - Have you been shopping too much again? - Yes, I admit it.

Another expression that means to be broke is to be broke. If I'm broke, it means I'm broke, I have no money left.

The last expression we will see today is "to make the accounts" or "to make its accounts". When we do our accounts, it allows us to see, to calculate where we are financially. Either to prepare the month to come, to see the expenses we will have and the money we will need for these expenses, or to make the balance sheet of the past month.

To check that you haven't spent too much, that your accounts are balanced, on your bank account. Here are two examples. I have just done the accounts, we have spent almost nothing last month, we have plenty of money left on our bank account. Here is a second example. I would love to buy a new TV, but first I have to do my accounts to see if I have enough money to buy it, to see if I can afford it.

We can also say that we do the accounts together. Let me explain. For example, if we go on vacation with friends and I paid for the train tickets. My friend Antoine paid for all the bills at the restaurant and my friend Noémie paid for the hotel. At the end of the vacation, we'll do the accounts, we'll calculate, we'll check that everyone has paid the same thing.

Once we have done the accounts, we can say, for example, Elizabeth, you owe 50 euros to Noémie so that everyone has paid the same thing and we are balanced. Let's move on to the little bonuses. We'll look at 10 slang words that are synonyms for money. They all mean money. There are more words. I'll give you the most common ones. If you know of any others, put them in the comments. It will add to the vocabulary of the community.

I will tell you each time the synonym of money in French, with a little contextualization so that you understand. De la thune. I don't have any more money this month, sorry, I can't come to the movies. Knitwear. Did you take the knitting to the races? Money. Oh no, I forgot my wallet. It had all my money in it. Money. I make enough money to go on vacation twice a year.

I have a good salary. I have money. I don't have any money this month, my bank account shows 0 euro. Money. I earned a lot of money this month on the Vinted app, I sold a lot of clothes. Sorrel. I spent all my dough on this new car, I have nothing now. Money. I'm working just to earn some money, because I'm not too interested in my job, my daily tasks. Money. With all the money you won in the lottery, you can buy a villa by the sea. And finally, the last synonym for money in slang is moula.

This is a very fashionable word at the moment among young people and especially among rappers. We can say that rappers want to make money. They often want to earn a lot of money. That's it for today. I hope you enjoyed this video, that you learned some new things. If you did, don't forget to put a like on it and if you are new, don't forget to subscribe to the channel to receive all the videos. See you soon.

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