Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment [ 21 ]

21- ] Spelling & Vocabulary Enrichment .

Possession , giving and lending .

A-] Possession :

- All his ‘possessions’ were destroyed in the terrible fire . [ everything he owned]

- Don’t leave any of your ‘belongings’ here ; we’ve had a few thefts recently .

[ smaller things e.g. bag , camera , coat ; always plural ]

-‘Estate’ in the singular can mean a big area of private land and the buildings on it , or all of someone’s wealth upon death .

- She owns a huge ‘estate’ in England . [ land , etc. ]

-After his death , his ‘estate’ was calculated at £ 5 million . [ all his wealth ]

- ‘Property’ [ uncountable] is used in a general sense for houses , land , etc.

- He’s only fourteen ; he’s too young to own ‘property’ .

- A ‘property’ [countable] is a building [e.g. house , office-block ] or land .

- She owns some valuable ‘properties’ in the town-center .

B-] Words for people connected with ownership :

- The ‘proprietor’ of this restaurant is a friend of mine . [ formal ; used for shops , businesses etc. ; ‘owner’ is less formal ]

- The ‘landlord / lady’ has put the rent up . [ owner of rented property ]

- Do you own this house ? No we’re just ‘tenants’ . [ we rent it ]

C-] Giving :

- The river ‘provides’ the village ‘with’ water / ‘provides’ water ‘for’ the village .

[ or supplies ]

- Would you like to ‘contribute/ donate’ something to the children’s hospital fund?

- Salah Ltd . ‘supplies’ our school ‘with’ paper and other items . [ often for ‘selling’ contexts ]

- It gives me pleasure to ‘present’ you ‘with’ this clock from us all .

- The school restaurant ‘caters for’ 500 people every day . [ looks after the needs of them ]

- That uncle of mine that died ‘left’ £ 30,000 to an orphanage .

- When she died she ‘donated’ all her books to the public library . [ for large gifts to institutions ]

- You’ve been ‘allocated’ Room 24 . Here’s your key .

D-] Lending , etc.

- We’ve decided to ‘hire / rent’ a car . Can you recommend a good ‘car-hire/ car-rental’ firm ? [ rent and hire are both commonly used ]

- We’d like to ‘rent’ a flat for six months . [ not hire ]

-We’ve ‘hired’ the lecture-room for a day .[ not rent ; short , temporary arrangements ]

- Thar tape-recorder you ‘lent’ me last week , could I ‘borrow’ it again ?

- I’m trying to get a ‘loan’ from the bank to buy a boat .

Money – buying , selling and paying .

A-] Personal finance :

-Sometimes in a ‘shop’ they ask you : ‘How do you want to pay ?’

You can answer : ‘Cash’ l ‘By cheque’ . / By credit card’ .

- In a ‘bank’ you usually have a ‘current account’ , which is one where you ‘pay in your salary’ and then ‘withdraw’ money to ‘pay your everyday bills’ . The band sends you a regular ‘bank statement’ telling you how much money has gone in and out of your account .

- You may also have a ‘saving account’ where you ‘deposit’ any extra money that you have and only ‘take money out’ when you want to ‘spend’ it ‘on’ something special .

- If you spend more than you have in your account you can have an ‘overdraft’ . The bank allows you to spend more and ‘charges’ you ‘interest’ .

- If your account is ‘overdrawn’ [ you have taken more out of your account than you had in it ] you are ‘in the red’ [ as opposed to ‘in the black’ or ‘in credit].

- Sometimes the bank may ‘lend’ you money – this is called a ‘bank loan’ .

- If the bank [ or building society ] lends you money to buy a house , the money is called a ‘mortgage’ .

-When you ‘buy’ [ or ‘purchase’ more formally ] something in a shop , you usually ‘pay’ for it ‘outright’ but sometimes you buy ‘on credit’ .

-Sometimes you may be offered a ‘discount’ or a ‘reduction’ on something you buy . For example , you might ‘get £10 off’ perhaps because you are a student . You are offered a discount if you buy ‘in bulk’ .

- It is not usual to ‘haggle’ about prices in a British shop .

- If you want to return something which you have bought to a shop , you may be given a ‘refund’ , i.e. your money will be returned , provided you have a ‘receipt’ .

- The money that you pay for services , e.g. to a school or a lawyer , is usually called a ‘fee’ or ‘fees’ .

- The money paid for a journey is a ‘fare’ .

- If you buy something that you feel was very ‘good value’ , it’s a ‘bargain’ .

- If you feel that it is definitely ‘not worth’ what you paid for it , then you can call it a ‘rip-off’ . [ very colloquial ]

B-] Public finance :

- The government collects money from citizens through ‘taxes’ . ‘Income taxes’ is the tax collected on ‘wages’ and ‘salaries’ . ‘Inheritance tax’ is collected on what people inherit from others .

- ‘Customs or ‘excise duties’ have to be paid on goods imported from other countries .

- VAT or ‘value added tax’ is a tax paid on most goods and services when they are bought or purchased .

Companies pay ‘corporation tax’ on their profits .

-If you pay too much tax , you should be given some money back , a ‘tax rebate’ .

- The government also sometimes pays out money to people in need , e.g. ‘unemployment benefit’ [ also known as ‘the dole’ , informal ] ‘disability allowances’ and ‘student loans’ [ money lent to help pay for studying] . Recipients ‘draw a pension’ , ‘unemployment benefit’ or are ‘on the dole’ or ‘on social security’ .

- Every country has its own special ‘currency’ .

- Every day the ‘rates of exchange’ are published and you can discover , for example , how many dollars there are currently to the pound sterling .

- A company may sell ‘shares’ to members of the public who are then said to have ‘invested’ in the company . They should be paid a regular ‘dividend’ on their ‘investment’ , depending on the ‘profit’ or 'loss’ made by the company .