Money

[Patf]

Could someone explain the difference between the various french words for money ie espece, argent, monnaie etc. How would you say "we've run out of money"?  "can I pay you in cash?" And any other useful phrases. Hopefully - Pat.

[Teamedup]

Add to that list

Fric, Sou and Liquide

To be polite I would use the following:

If I wanted to pay in cash, I would say : espece

If I wanted change or to give change, I would say: monnaie

And if I hadn't got any money in general I would say : argent

If I wanted to withdraw money, say from the bank, I would say: argent or perhaps argent liquide

 

 

[Loiseau]

...and there's "devises", which is foreign currency.

"we've run out of money" = "on n'a plus d'argent"
or "on n'a plus d'argent sur nous" (we haven't any more money on us)

"can I pay you in cash?" = "Est-ce que je peux vous payer en espèces?"
or "Est-ce que je peux vous payer en liquide?"

"We're broke" = "On est fauché." !

 

Angela

[Patf]

Thanks - it's complicated n'est-ce pas? Pat.

[Teamedup]

 LOL I'd forgotten how complicated it all is.

[Punch]

"Pognon" is a good one used around here. Literally means "dough" , so " je n'ai plus de pognon"  I haven't any dough left

 

Paul

[Coco]

And bals is another one, although I don't know whether it may be balles!  When we lived in the UK and had a gardener here he used to quote prices in "bals", which another French (fluent English) speaker translated to us as being like "quid".  However, someone used it to me today and as she is 75 and often talks in "old money" I don't know whether she was referring to "old" francs, "new" francs or euros, so I don't have a clue how much she wants to flog her chair for!!!  It still sounded too expensive, whichever currency!

[Punch]

[quote]And bals is another one, although I don't know whether it may be balles! When we lived in the UK and had a gardener here he used to quote prices in "bals", which another French (fluent English) speak...[/quote]

Yes, I think that "balles" refers to francs. Many older people talk in configurations of balles. "dix mille balles (£1000)" .

 

 Paul

[chicfille]

You're right Punch, "balles" refers to Francs and cannot be transposed to Euros or any other currency. My (thirtysomething) French husband talks in francs/balles, and the older generation can still be heard using "anciens francs" or "centimes", especially when talking house prices, just to confuse the poor immigrant even further.

[Musicmonkey<ADDRESS><STRONG>Musicmonkey<STRONG><ADDRESS>]

Also look out for une brique which is 10,000 francs!  you could quite easily hear this particularly from the older generation.