Money words to know — the 20 most important

🪙Words about coins and notes

• Coin — a round piece of metal money. You can have lots in your pocket.
• Note — a paper-like rectangle of money. Bigger value than coins.
• Penny / pence — the smallest UK money. Written as "p". 1p, 2p, 5p.
• Pound — bigger than pence. Written with the £ sign. 100 pennies = £1.
• Cash — another word for coins and notes you can hold.

🛒Words about buying and shops

• Buy — to give money in exchange for something.
• Sell — what a shopkeeper does. Give you something for your money.
• Price — the number that tells you how much something costs.
• Change — the money the shopkeeper gives you back if you paid more than the price.
• Shop — a place that sells things.

🐷Words about saving and spending

• Spend — to use money to buy something now.
• Save — to keep money for later instead of spending it.
• Share — to give some of your money to someone else.
• Pocket money — the small amount of money a child gets from grown-ups.
• Treat — a special, nice thing you don't buy every day.

🏦Words about banks and grown-up money

• Bank — a place that keeps money safe and helps people send money to each other.
• Card — a small piece of plastic that grown-ups use to pay in shops instead of cash.
• Wage — the money a grown-up gets paid for doing their job.
• Work — a job that helps people, where you get paid.
• Charity — a group of people who collect money and use it to help others.

🎯A word-spotting game

📚Want to know more words?

Once you know these 20 words, you can read most stories and conversations about money.

If you hear a new word and don't know what it means, ask a grown-up. Most grown-ups will be happy to explain. There are no silly money questions.

When you're a bit older (age 8 or 9), you'll start meeting words like:

• Interest — the small extra money a bank pays you for keeping your money there
• Tax — money grown-ups pay to the government for shared things like schools and the NHS
• Bills — what grown-ups have to pay for gas, water, and lots of other things

Don't worry about those yet. The 20 above are plenty for now.

NCFor teachers: curriculum links

• England — PSHE Association KS1 L7 (introducing money)
• England — English KS1 (vocabulary development)
• England — Maths Y1/Y2 Money (vocabulary of money)
• Wales — Curriculum for Wales Progression Step 1-2 (Languages AoLE, Maths & Numeracy AoLE)
• Scotland — Curriculum for Excellence MNU 1-09a
• NI — Mathematics KS1, Language and Literacy KS1

Full mapping in the curriculum map.