Shopping & Money — A2 Essential Words

price /praɪs/ noun A2 Shopping

Meaning: The amount of money that you must pay to buy something.

Example: What’s the price of this jacket, please?

Another example: Ticket prices go up in the summer.

Collocations: the price of something · half price · low prices

Synonyms: cost

Word family: price (n) · price (v) · priceless (adj — very valuable) · pricey (adj — informal, expensive)

⚠ Common mistake: Ask ’What’s the price?’ or ’How much is it?’ Don’t say ’How many is the price?’ or ’What price has this?’.

🗣 In spoken American English: ’Half price’ means 50% off. If something is ’pricey’, it costs more than you want to pay.

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

cheap /tʃiːp/ adjective A2 Shopping

Meaning: Costing only a little money; not expensive.

Example: This shirt was cheap — only eight dollars.

Another example: Train tickets are cheaper on Tuesdays.

Collocations: cheap flights · nice and cheap · cheap price

Synonyms: low-cost, inexpensive

Antonyms: expensive, pricey

Word family: cheap (adj) · cheaply (adv) · cheaper (comparative)

⚠ Common mistake: ’Cheap’ describes the price, not the person. For a person who doesn’t like spending, Americans say ’stingy’ in a negative way — ’cheap’ about a person is also negative, so be careful.

🗣 In spoken American English: People say ’Cheap!’ about a person as an insult. About things, it is fine: ’These shoes were cheap.’

Register: neutral about things — rude about people

expensive /ɪkˈspen.sɪv/ adjective A2 Shopping

Meaning: Costing a lot of money; not cheap.

Example: Hotels in New York are expensive in December.

Another example: That watch is too expensive for me.

Collocations: very expensive · too expensive · an expensive car

Synonyms: costly, pricey (informal)

Antonyms: cheap, inexpensive

Word family: expensive (adj) · expense (n) · expensively (adv)

⚠ Common mistake: Don’t say ’The price is expensive’ — prices are ’high’ or ’low’. Things are expensive: ’The car is expensive’, ’The price is high’.

🗣 In spoken American English: To be polite about a gift, people say ’You shouldn’t have!’ instead of ’This looks expensive.’

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

pay /peɪ/ verb A2 Shopping

Meaning: To give money for something you buy, or for work that someone does for you.

Example: I paid twenty dollars for this book.

Another example: Can I pay by card, or do you only take cash?

Collocations: pay for something · pay by card · pay cash

Synonyms: give money for

Word family: pay (v) · paid (past form) · payment (n) · paycheck (n)

⚠ Common mistake: Use ’pay for’ before the thing: ’I paid for the tickets’. Use ’pay’ alone before a person or amount: ’I paid the driver’, ’I paid $20’. Don’t say ’I paid the tickets’ when you mean you bought them.

🗣 In spoken American English: At a restaurant, ’Can I get the check?’ means you want to pay. ’It’s on me’ means ’I will pay for everyone.’

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

cost /kɔːst/ verb and noun A2 Shopping

Meaning: Verb: to have a price of a certain amount of money. Noun: the amount of money needed to buy or do something.

Example: This bike costs $200.

Another example: The cost of living in Boston is high.

Collocations: cost $200 · how much does it cost · the cost of living

Synonyms: price (noun)

Word family: cost (v) · cost (n) · costly (adj)

⚠ Common mistake: After ’cost’, don’t add ’for me’: ’The book cost me $10’ or ’The book cost $10’ — not ’The book cost for me $10’. In the past, it stays ’cost’: ’It cost $10 yesterday’.

🗣 In spoken American English: ’At all costs’ means ’whatever happens’. In shops, people just ask ’How much is it?’ more often than ’How much does it cost?’

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

sell /sel/ verb A2 Shopping

Meaning: To give something to someone who pays you money for it.

Example: They sell fresh bread at the market every morning.

Another example: Tom sold his old car to a friend in Houston.

Collocations: sell something to someone · sell for $50 · sell out (nothing left)

Synonyms: offer for sale

Antonyms: buy

Word family: sell (v) · sold (past form) · sale (n) · seller (n)

⚠ Common mistake: Say ’sell something to someone’: ’He sold his car to Jack’. Don’t say ’sell Jack his car’ is fine too, but never ’buy something to someone’ — ’buy’ takes ’for’: ’I bought it for Jack’.

🗣 In spoken American English: When everything is gone, a store is ’sold out’. A ’sale’ is a special time with lower prices — not the verb.

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

spend /spend/ verb A2 Shopping

Meaning: To use money to buy things. It can also mean to use time for something.

Example: Don’t spend all your money on games, Chris.

Another example: We spent the weekend in Chicago.

Collocations: spend money on something · spend time · spend $50

Synonyms: pay out, use up

Antonyms: save, earn

Word family: spend (v) · spent (past form) · spending (n)

⚠ Common mistake: Use ’spend money on’ a thing: ’I spent $30 on books’. Don’t say ’spend money for books’. The past form is ’spent’, not ’spended’.

🗣 In spoken American English: ’Spend the day’ means to pass the whole day somewhere: ’We spent the day at the beach.’

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

cash /kæʃ/ noun A2 Shopping

Meaning: Money in the form of bills and coins, not a card or a check.

Example: The small café only takes cash.

Another example: I need to get some cash from the bank.

Collocations: pay cash · cash only · in cash

Synonyms: bills and coins

Word family: cash (n) · cash (v) · cashier (n — the person you pay in a store)

⚠ Common mistake: ’Cash’ is uncountable: say ’some cash’, not ’a cash’ or ’cashes’. Don’t mix up ’cash’ and ’cache’ in spelling — a ’cache’ is a hidden store of things.

🗣 In spoken American English: A ’cashier’ is the person at the register. ’Cash back’ at a store means you pay extra by card and get cash in return.

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

discount /ˈdɪs.kaʊnt/ noun A2 Shopping

Meaning: A cut in the price of something, so you pay less than the normal price.

Example: Students get a 10% discount at this store.

Another example: The shoes were on sale with a big discount.

Collocations: 10% discount · get a discount · student discount

Synonyms: price cut, reduction

Word family: discount (n) · discount (v) · discounted (adj)

⚠ Common mistake: Say ’a discount on something’: ’a discount on shoes’. Don’t say ’a discount of the price’ when you mean the lower price for one thing.

🗣 In spoken American English: ’On sale’ and ’discount’ are best friends: a ’50% discount’ means you pay half. Watch for ’up to 50% off’ — ’up to’ means some things are less.

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing

receipt /rɪˈsiːt/ noun A2 Shopping

Meaning: A piece of paper or an email that proves you paid for something, showing what you bought and how much you paid.

Example: Keep your receipt — you may need it to return the shoes.

Another example: The cashier gave me the receipt and my change.

Collocations: keep the receipt · ask for a receipt · email receipt

Synonyms: proof of purchase

Word family: receipt (n) · receive (v)

⚠ Common mistake: Watch the spelling: ’receipt’ has a silent ’p’. Don’t mix it with ’recipe’ — a recipe tells you how to cook a dish.

🗣 In spoken American English: Stores ask ’Would you like your receipt?’ You can answer ’Yes, please’ or ’No, thanks.’ Many stores now email receipts.

Register: neutral — fine in speech and writing