How to write and talk about money

Talk about price and writing them down

by Kasra Sharifan | Jul 20, 2019 | Listening, Speaking, Writing

When you go shopping, or want to pay for a ticket, or you find yourself in the local bank, how do you say prices? How do you write them? It is also a common subject in IELTS listening test. There are 3 important currencies from English-speaking countries.

Pound(£)

It is the unit of currency used in the UK and the smaller currency is “Penny” / “(p)”. (the plural form of penny is “pence”)

£2.00: two pounds
£3.49: three pounds, forty-nine (pence)

The abbreviation of pound from the UK (formally known as the Great Britain) is GBP

2,300 GBP: two thousand, three hundred pounds

Euro(€)

The unit of currency used in the countries of the European Union is “euro”. The smaller currency is “Cent(¢)”.

€68.00: sixty-eight euros
€25.99: twenty-five euros, ninety-nine (cents)

The abbreviation of euro is EUR.

16,000 EUR: sixteen thousand euros

Dollar($)

It is the unit of currency used in many countries, the most important of which is the United States of America. The smaller currency is “Cent(¢)”.

$68: sixty-eight dollars
$25.99: twenty-five dollars, ninety-nine (cents)

The abbreviation of American dollar is USD.

8,000 USD: eight thousand dollars

Other abbreviations are: Australian dollar (AUD), Canadian dollar (CAD), New Zealand dollar (NZD), etc.

Note: The currency symbols like €, £, $ come before the number whereas market abbreviations like EUR, GBP, USD come after that. E.g. $20.00 or 20.00 USD

About the Author

CEO and Co-founder of Juice Academy

Mehdi Safavi is a Cambridge certified English teacher (CELTA Grade A), IDP-trained IELTS expert, Sussex Downs College TESOL with 17+ years of teaching & teacher training experience. More about him →

10 Comments

Safi on December 20, 2020 at 5:27 am

I took my IELTS test yesterday. In IELTS listening, I wrote $ after the number like 200$.
Will my answer be considered wrong?
- Mehdi Safavi on December 20, 2020 at 6:25 am
  
  I have bad news, Safi. In IELTS, in almost every case, the dollar sign is already given in the question, so if you write it again on the answer sheet, your answer will be marked wrong whether you write it to the left or right.
Azeem on December 24, 2020 at 7:34 pm

So if the dollar sign or any other currency sign is already mentioned… we don’t need to write the symbol?
Can we just write the number?
- Mehdi Safavi on December 24, 2020 at 7:43 pm
  
  If the sign is already written before the blank, you must not write the sign again. Only the number.
Vivien on January 13, 2021 at 11:36 pm

What if the signs are not given, can we write in symbols or in words?
- Mehdi Safavi on February 10, 2021 at 7:27 am
  
  It’s faster and safer to use the symbols.
Ariana on February 15, 2021 at 7:49 pm

What if the signs are not given but other answers have the pound symbol, should I put the symbol before the number? Thank you
- Mehdi Safavi on February 18, 2021 at 12:30 pm
  
  If the currency sign is not given immediately before the blank, you must write the sign.
fuad on May 6, 2021 at 9:37 pm

Can I write 200 K instead of 200,000 or 200 thousand?
- Mehdi Safavi on May 7, 2021 at 2:45 am
  
  Yes you can. But why make things complicated? 🙂