English Word Skills Exercises for B2 – Money idioms

1. Complete the sentences with the correct words.

1   How much did you pay for that jacket? What a …………………………-off!

2   If I weren’t so …………………………, I could afford to come out tonight.

3   Vic used to be ………………………… off before his business failed and he lost everything.

4   Do you think it’s possible to be ………………………… up, but still be very happy?

5   You can often buy fruit and vegetables dirt ………………………… at the weekly market.

6   My family aren’t exactly ………………………… in it, but we live quite comfortably.

2. Match the sentence halves.

a   the red for very long.

b   mouth for years, she finally became a successful writer.

c   a fortune through playing the lottery.

d   belt next month or I’ll soon run out of money.

e   the lap of luxury, but it’s unlikely to happen.

f   meet if you spend more than you earn.

g   through the nose for the concert tickets, but it was worth it!

3. Tick the pairs of idioms that have a similar meaning.

1   live hand to mouth / be well off

2   be rolling in it / live in the lap of luxury

3   be hard up / be a rip-off

4   make a killing / make a fortune

5   be broke / be in the red

6   make ends meet / pay through the nose

7   be dirt cheap / tighten one’s belt

4. Complete the text with idioms from exercise 3.

Many common idioms have interesting origins which can help to explain their meanings. For instance, 1………………………… apparently replaced the former ‘be dog cheap’ to indicate something of very little value. 2………………………… comes from the accounting practice of using that colour ink for debts and black for credit. 3………………………… may also come from accounting, when the ‘ends’ or bottoms of the columns for the incomes and expenses were the same amount, or ‘met’, showing that more wasn’t being spent than was earned. 4………………………… comes from prison slang, in which ‘rip’ means ‘steal’, so someone who does this to others is a thief. 5………………………… apparently dates back to a 16th century famine when people were so poor that any food they got was eaten immediately so that no one else could have it. 6………………………… is thought to date from the Great Depression of the 1930s, when hungry Americans lost so much weight that their clothes became loose.

5. Read the Vocab boost! box. Then match the idioms and their literal meanings (1-4) with their actual meanings (a-d).

1   to be born with a silver spoon in your mouth

     Spoons are often given to babies as presents. Silver used to be an expensive metal and it’s probable that richer children were given silver spoons.

2   a cash cow

     This is a metaphor for a dairy now, which produces milk.

3   to live on the breadline

     In America during the Depression, people would wait in line to be given free food, paid for by the government.

4   money for old rope

     The original meaning for this term meant to make money by selling something that has been used an ought to be worthless. It comes from the days of sailing ships, when sailors would cut damaged rope into shorter, undamaged lengths to sell on land. At sea, long ropes are needed, but on land, shorter lengths were still useful and could be sold.

a   to be very poor

b   to make money for very little effort

c   to be privileged

d   business or invention that returns a good level of profit every year

6. Check the meaning of these idioms in a dictionary.

1   feel the pinch

2   cost the earth

3   work for peanuts

4   cost an arm and a leg

5   keep your head above water

6   put your money where your mouth is

Extra exercises

1. Complete the sentences with money idioms formed from the word in brackets.

1   They’ll be ………………………… until they finish paying for their new house. (hard)

2   Despite the country’s supposed wealth, many of the citizens live ………………………… . (hand)

3   What must it feel like to never have to work and live in ………………………… ? (lap)

4   I forgot my phone charger so I had to pay ………………………… for a new one at the airport. (nose)

5   My sister’s a single parent, so she finds it hard to ………………………… . (ends)

6   My bank notifies me if I am ………………………… so that I can make a deposit before I get charged. (red)

2. Complete the definitions with words related to advertising.

1   A l___________ is an image that represents a company.

2   A c___________ is an advert on the radio or the TV.

3   A b___________ is a type of product made by a company.

4   A l___________ is the moment a product is made available to the public for the first time.

5   A s___________ is a memorable phrase often used to draw people’s attention to commercial products.

6   A j___________ is a tune that is easy to remember.

3. Complete the responses with the phrases below.

Another thing is      For one thing      For those reasons

I definitely think      I don’t have any      On top of that

Thinking about it

A   Is it better to buy books online or from a bookshop?

B   1……………………… , I suppose that it’s better to buy them online.

C   2……………………… it’s better to buy them from a bookshop. 3……………………… , you can read the first page to make sure you like the book. 4……………………… that you don’t have to wait for it to arrive to start reading it. 5……………………… we need to support bookshops or they might die out. 6……………………… , I think it’s better to buy books from a bookshop than to buy them online.

D   7……………………… strong opinions about that.