How to Talk about Money and Coins

When you're learning a new language and you are living or visiting in a new culture, there are few things that can cause you to feel so embarrassed and "stupid" as dialogues that occur in public that deal with money when you're trying to purchase something.

Today let's continue to talk about talking about money and after you read this post, you can go out and practice what you've learned.

This is twenty-five cents.

And this is twenty-five cents:

What's the difference?

This is a quarter...

and this is change for a quarter.

If you are at a restaurant and all you have is a one-dollar bill...

...and you want to give the waiter or waitress a 50 cent tip...you can ask for
change for a dollar.

If you have a quarter and you need a dime, you can ask for change for a quarter.

We have four types of coins commonly in circulation
in the United States:
a penny
a nickle
a dime
a quarter.

We also have a half-dollar, which is less commonly in circulation.

Maybe it will help you to remember the names for the coins if you understand how each one got its name.

The name penny comes from the old English. A penny is worth one cent.

A nickle is so named because it is made of the element nickle.  It is worth five cents.

A dime is worth ten cents. It is so named because of the decimal system, from the old French, meaning one-tenth (here, one-tenth of a dollar).

A quarter is so named because it is worth one quarter (1/4) of a dollar.

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Our next blog post will continue to talk about money! 

If I had one dollar for each blog post that I have about money... how much money would I have???