Shadowing Practice: Everyday English: Spending Money - Learn English Speaking with Video
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Hi I'm Sarah and I'm Jack.
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Welcome to Everyday English.
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Today we're going to be talking about a pretty important topic, spending money.
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If you're going to be spending money here in Australia you're going to be using these, dollars.
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The Aussie dollar or Australian dollar is the official Australian currency, although here we just call them dollars.
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The smaller unit of currency is cents.
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One dollar is made up of 100 cents.
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One way to spend money is using cash, which in Australia comes in notes and coins.
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Let's have a look at the different denominations that Australia's currency comes in.
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Let's start with the coins.
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We've got $2, $1, $0 .50,
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$0 .20, $0 .10, and $0 .05.
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And then there are the notes.
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We've got $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100.
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Although, I don't see too many of these.
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Do you, Jack?
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No, I'm afraid not.
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Now, you can get cash out or withdraw cash from the bank or from an ATM, which stands for Automatic Teller Machine.
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But, of course, it's pretty common for people to pay without cash using a credit card
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or a debit card or even your phone.
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We sometimes call that a cashless transaction or just paying by card.
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Let's have a look at a scenario involving spending money.
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Hi Charlotte, how are you?
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Yeah, good thanks Sarah.
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What can I get for you today?
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How much are your sandwiches?
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Sandwiches are $5 .50.
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And what about the pies?
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$4 .60.
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Alright, I'll grab a pie and a can of lemonade.
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Yeah, no problem.
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That's just $9 .80.
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Do you have anything smaller?
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I don't have much change.
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Oh, sorry, sir, I don't have any loose change.
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I just went to the ATM and all I have is 50s.
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Do you take carp?
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Yeah, no problem.
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Credit or saving?
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Uh, credit.
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All good.
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Thanks so much.
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Have a good day.
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You too.
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You might have noticed there that when people talked about prices, they often drop the words dollars and cents.
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For example, instead of saying $5 .50, we could say 5 .50 or $5 .50.
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You have to listen carefully to the pronunciation of numbers because sometimes they can sound quite similar.
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For example, 50 and 15.
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It can be hard to hear the difference between the T and the teen.
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There's also 13 and 30, 14 and 40, 16 and 60,
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17 and 70, 18 and 80, and 19 and 90.
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So we've talked about buying smaller things with cash and cards, but how about spending money on bigger things like cars and houses?
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For bigger purchases like homes or cars, you might have to take out a loan from a bank.
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Loan is a noun and it means something that's given out temporarily, in this case money, with the expectation that it will be given back later.
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The verb is lend, and the past tense of lend is lent.
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If you take out a loan, you become a borrower.
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You borrow the bank's money.
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And you have to repay it, or make repayments.
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A loan that's for a house is called a home loan, or a mortgage.
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If you take out a loan, you will have to pay interest.
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That means the amount of money you owe will increase by a certain percentage.
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A percentage is a unit of measurement that means a part of 100.
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So, for example, 50 % means half.
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On a home loan, you might have to pay 5 % interest, which means the amount you owe will increase by 5 % every year.
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Banks will also charge interest on credit cards, which let you spend money that you don't actually have as long as you pay it back later.
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Let's have a look at some more words that are associated with spending.
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There's buy, as in, I buy lots of clothes.
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The past tense is bought.
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I bought a nice dress.
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Purchase, which is another word for buy.
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I need to make a big purchase.
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I purchased a house.
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You can also sell, which means to exchange something for money.
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For example, I need to sell my house.
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The past tense is sold.
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I sold my house.
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There's transaction, which means buying or selling something.
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For example, I like to keep a record of my transactions.
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There's price, which is the amount of money you have to pay for something.
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And cost, which means the amount paid to produce something.
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Although these two words are often used to mean the same thing.
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For example, what's the price of this item?
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What does this item cost?
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There's expensive, which means has a high price or cost and cheap or inexpensive, which means it has a low cost.
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And sometimes you can find something on sale, which means the price has been lowered temporarily.
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Well, that's just about it from us for now.
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But before we go, here are some questions for you to think about.
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What do you usually spend money on?
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How do you pay for it?
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Have you taken out a loan before?
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How long did it take you to pay it back?
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And how much interest did you pay?
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Well, we're off.
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We'll see you next time.
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Bye.
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We'll be right back.
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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson
This B1 speaking lesson is built on the video “Everyday English: Spending Money”. The speaker keeps coming back to these words: loan, dollar, example, spending, cash. This video has 95 sentences and 831 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:00. The speaker talks at a steady 138 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 86% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start. 16 of its 95 sentences are questions, so it is good practice for question intonation and short answers.
Key vocabulary in this video
The 15 most advanced words in the video, with pronunciation and meaning:
| Word | Pronunciation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| lend verb | /ˈlɛnd/ | To allow to be used by someone temporarily, on condition that it or its equivalent will be returned. |
| tense noun | /tɛns/ | The property of indicating the point in time at which an action or state of being occurs or exists. |
| transaction noun | /tɹænˈzækʃən/ | The act of conducting or carrying out (business, negotiations, plans). |
| temporarily adverb | /ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/ | For a limited period of time; not permanently. |
| sandwich noun | /ˈsæn(d).wɪd͡ʒ/ | A dish or foodstuff where at least one piece, but typically two or more pieces, of bread serves as the wrapper or container of some other food. |
| coin noun | /ˈkoɪ̯n/ | A piece of currency, usually metallic and in the shape of a disc, but sometimes polygonal, or with a hole in the middle. |
| borrower noun | /ˈbɑɹoʊɚ/ | One who borrows. |
| cashless adjective | Operating without the need for cash, such as by accepting nondigital, noncash forms of payment (e.g., chit, cheques, money orders) or (in the 21st century… | |
| denomination noun | /dɪˌnɒmɪˈneɪʃən/ | The act of naming or designating. |
| repayment noun | The act of repaying. | |
| pronunciation noun | /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/ | The formal or informal way in which a word is made to sound when spoken. |
| inexpensive adjective | /ˌɪnɪkˈspɛnsɪv/ | Involving little expense; reasonable in price; cheap. |
| noun noun | /naʊn/ | A word that functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as person, animal, place, word, thing, phenomenon, substance, quality, or idea… |
| debit noun | /ˈdɛb.ɪt/ | In bookkeeping, an entry in the left hand column of an account. |
| repay verb | /ɹiˈpeɪ/ | Synonym of pay back in all senses. |
Phrasal verbs you will hear
| Word | Meaning |
|---|---|
| take out verb | To remove. |
| cash out verb | To reconcile at the end of a shift; to compare receipts of items sold to records of credit card, check and cash placed into the drawer, verifying that correct… |
| give back verb | To return, restore (a thing to its original owner or location etc.). |
| give out verb | To utter, publish; to announce, proclaim, report. |
Sentences worth repeating
Short, complete lines from the video that you can reuse in everyday conversation:
- What can I get for you today?
- How much are your sandwiches?
- Do you have anything smaller?
- What do you usually spend money on?
- How do you pay for it?
Grammar in this video
The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:
| Structure | In the video |
|---|---|
| Passive voice be + past participle — the focus is on what happens, not who does it | is made · will be given · is lent |
| Relative clauses who / which + clause — extra information about a person or thing | interest, which means · Purchase, which is · sell, which means |
| Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now | we've talked · has been lowered · Have you taken |
| Possibility with “might / may” might/may + verb — something that is possible but not certain | might have |
Pronunciation to watch
The speaker uses 17 contractions and reduced forms, such as don't, I'm, we've. Say them the short way, as you hear them.
- The “th” sounds: cloth /klɒθ/, withdraw /wɪðˈdɹɔ/
- The “sh” and “zh” sounds: transaction /tɹænˈzækʃən/, denomination /dɪˌnɒmɪˈneɪʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/, measurement /ˈmɛʒ.ə.mənt/
- Long words — get the stress right: temporarily /ˌtɛmpəˈɹɛɹəli/, denomination /dɪˌnɒmɪˈneɪʃən/, pronunciation /pɹəˌnʌn.siˈeɪ.ʃən/, inexpensive /ˌɪnɪkˈspɛnsɪv/, expectation /ˌɛk.spɛkˈteɪ.ʃən/
How to practise with this video
- Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
- Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
- Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like lend, tense, transaction.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.