Money and Banking
Senior 6 · English
Money and Banking
Lesson 3 of 4
25 min
Let's begin
Banking English is precise. A help page must state rules without sounding personal, a customer must say how sure she is that a payment is wrong, and a form must count the countable and measure the rest. This lesson collects the grammar that does those jobs: modals for deduction, conditions, the passive voice and quantifiers, followed by the spelling traps in money vocabulary.
An imagined bank's help page, written for this course. Read it, then answer the questions below it.
Isoko Bank · Savings accounts: your questions answered
When is interest paid? Interest is calculated on your daily balance and is paid into your account at the end of each month. If your balance falls below Frw 5,000, no interest is paid for that month.
How many withdrawals can I make? You can make up to four withdrawals a month free of charge, provided that your account is in credit. A fee of Frw 300 will be charged for each further withdrawal.
I have noticed a payment I don't recognise. What should I do? Contact us at once. A payment you don't recognise might be a fee you have forgotten, but it could also be fraud. Your card may have been copied, so it will be blocked while we investigate.
Can I get advice before I borrow? Yes. A great deal of useful information is published on our website, and a few of our staff have been trained as money advisers. Much of the advice is free.
Definition
Terms in this lesson
Unit 4 used may, might and could for possible future events. Here the same verbs, with must and can't, are used to deduce: to reach a conclusion about the present or the past from evidence.
| How sure? | About now | About the past |
|---|---|---|
| sure it is true | It must be the monthly fee: it's always Frw 1,000. | She must have paid already: her balance has gone down. |
| possibly true | It may / might / could be a fraud. | The card may / might / could have been copied. |
| sure it is NOT true | It can't be my salary: that comes on the 30th. | He can't (or couldn't) have withdrawn it: he was in hospital. |
Form: modal + base verb for the present (must be); modal + have + past participle for the past (must have paid).
Worked example
Reasoning about a bank statement
Keza's statement shows a payment of Frw 300 on 18 June that she does not recognise. She knows: the free withdrawal limit is four a month; she has made five withdrawals in June; the hotel pays her salary on the 30th; she still has her card.
How to use modal verbs of deduction, English In A Minute, from BBC Learning English's YouTube channel (about 1 minute, 2020). Note which modal the presenter uses when she is sure something is true, and which when she is sure it is not.
The passive puts the thing that receives the action first. Banks, governments and reports use it when the doer is obvious, unknown or less important than the action.
| Tense | Passive form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| present simple | am / is / are + past participle | Interest is paid monthly. |
| present continuous | is / are being + past participle | Your new card is being printed. |
| present perfect | has / have been + past participle | Your loan has been approved. |
| past simple | was / were + past participle | The account was opened in March. |
| future with will | will be + past participle | You will be contacted within two days. |
| modal | modal + be + past participle | The form must be signed by the customer. |
Reporting what people expect: news and reports often use It is expected that … or X is expected to …: Inflation is expected to fall means "experts expect inflation to fall".
Worked example
Turning a letter into a formal notice
Active: We will charge a fee of Frw 300 for each further withdrawal. We calculate interest on your daily balance. Staff must check every customer's identity card.
Passive: A fee of Frw 300 will be charged for each further withdrawal. Interest is calculated on your daily balance. Every customer's identity card must be checked by staff.
Rules that are always true use the zero conditional: if + present simple, present simple in the result, often passive. Conditions use a small set of linkers.
| Linker | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| if | whenever this happens | If your balance falls below Frw 5,000, no interest is paid. |
| provided (that), as long as | only if | Withdrawals are free provided that the account is in credit. |
| unless | if … not | Unless you report a lost card at once, you may lose your money. |
| otherwise | if not (begins a new clause) | Keep your PIN secret; otherwise, your account is at risk. |
| in the event of + noun | if there is (formal) | In the event of loss, call the bank immediately. |
Many money words are uncountable: they have no plural and take a singular verb. Choose the quantifier to match the noun.
| Uncountable | Countable | Plural only |
|---|---|---|
| money, cash, change, income, interest, information, advice, credit, equipment | a coin, a note, an account, a loan, a fee, a payment, a customer | savings, earnings, goods, finances |
| With uncountable nouns | With plural countable nouns | With both |
|---|---|---|
| much, little, a little, a great deal of, an amount of | many, few, a few, several, a number of | some, any, a lot of, plenty of, enough, no, more, most |
| a great deal of information | a number of customers | plenty of cash · plenty of notes |
Few or a few? Little or a little? A few and a little are positive ("some, enough"); few and little are negative ("not enough"). She has a little money saved, so she can cope. She has little money saved, so she is worried.
Tip
The "a" test for countable nouns. If you can put a or one in front of a noun, it is countable and takes many and few: a loan → many loans. If you can't (an advice, a money), it is uncountable: use much, little or a piece of: a piece of advice.
Warning
| Trap | Words | Remember |
|---|---|---|
| same sound, different word | principal (the sum borrowed; the head of a school) · principle (a rule or belief) | The principal is the main sum; a principle is a rule. |
| same sound, different word | loan (money lent) · lone (alone) | a loan is a l-oa-n: money "on" loan |
| silent letters | receipt /rɪˈsiːt/ · mortgage /ˈmɔːɡɪdʒ/ · debt /det/ | unit 1 met silent b; p and t are silent here too |
| -ance words | balance, finance, insurance, allowance, maintenance | no rule: learn them as a group |
| double letters | account, commission, guarantee (one r) | "commission" has two pairs |
| British spelling | cheque (a written order to a bank) · check (to make sure) | American English uses check for both |
| -able or -ible | payable, affordable, reliable · eligible, responsible, credible | -able usually follows a complete word (pay, afford, rely) |
Say it: interest has two syllables in normal speech, /ˈɪntrəst/; finance may be stressed FI-nance or fi-NANCE; debt and doubt rhyme with get and out.
Practice
Sources and credits
