nickel

There are two spellings for this word and both are ok: nickle or nickel. The more common spelling these days seems to be nickel. There aren't so many idioms or sayings with associated with this coin but I will cover those I found.

Don't take any wooden nickels.

This is a saying used when someone leaves meaning be careful. It is pretty old fashioned and to be honest I have never heard it used in my life! It means: 　気をつけて。 It comes from counterfeit coins being used in the 19th century made of wood, so you are telling someone to be careful not to get any fake money.

nickel-and-dime

This means very ordinary and not important, it is not such a common usage.

That town is full of nickel-and-dime shops.

Meaning it is full or ordinary shops that are not interesting.

to nickel and dime (someone)

This is probably the most common nickel idiom and it is one of my pet peeves. I HATE it when companies or stores do this to me. This means to charge someone many small amounts for something or to charge you a small amount of money as an extra fee.

For example;

I went to an onsen in Tsuwano and the fee was really low but then I had to pay extra for towels, soap, shampoo, etc. They nickel and dimed me~! But in Korea, when I went to a jimjilbang(bath and sauna place) they charge a higher entry fee but everything is included: towels, robe, shampoo, etc. I prefer the second system, how about you?

Also, recently airlines are nickel and diming us, especially in the U.S. The airfare is cheap but then there are a million extra fees! Fuel surcharges, taxes, airport taxes, baggage fees, pay for your in-flight meal and drinks, pay for the headphones, etc.

Dime

Hey everybody, today we will go over some idioms that use the word, dime.

A dime is a 10 cent coin in the US though sometimes we also say dime in Canada.

Probably the most recent slang term or idiom using dime is:

A dime bag which is a small amount of illegal drugs sold for 10 dollars. This is most useful when watching movies or crime dramas.

An older idiom is to drop the dime on someone. This means that you snitched on someone. Again, it is useful when watching crime dramas though it's a pretty old idiom and not so common anymore.

To snitch on someone, means you told the police (parents, teachers, etc.) about something bad someone did and they got caught and got in trouble.

"Mickey dropped a dime on Donald and he's in the Big House(prison) now!"

I think the idiom to drop the dime on someone comes from the fact that before when you made a phone call you had to pay a dime. So you would drop a dime into the phone to make a phonecall. For more information check out this link:

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=DROP+A+DIME

At the drop of a dime, be careful this is a completely different idiom! It is still fairly common and it means you will do something instantly, without hesitation. We use this idiom to talk about OTHER PEOPLE and usually for NEGATIVE THINGS.

"Don't make Jimmy angry he'll kill you at the drop of a dime!"
(kill you without stopping to think about it)

"My girlfriend gets angry at the drop of a dime, it's driving me crazy."
(gets angry easily)

A dime a dozen, this idiom is pretty useful it means that something is common and easy to find, not so valuable, easy to replace, etc.

"Cute girls are a dime a dozen in LA."
(cute girls are everywhere in LA)

A: "Sorry, I lost your magazine."

B: "Don't worry about it, they're a dime a dozen."
(very common, not so valuable)

The last idiom I want to talk about is; on a dime. This has two meanings:

1- At a precise point, precisely.

"My new car can stop on a dime."
(can stop at an exact point)

"This motorcycle can turn on a dime."
(can turn very precisely)

2- Cheaply, inexpensively, without spending a lot of money.

"This book is great! It can tell you how to live on a dime."
(how to live without spending a lot of money)

"I'm tired of traveling on a dime! Let's take a more luxurious trip."
(traveling cheaply)

That's all for now, hope you enjoyed the lesson and be sure to live a comment in the comments section!

Phil

Money!!!

Ok here's another quick lesson. In English, we have many casual words to talk about money. You can hear them in movies and on the street. Here are some of the most common ones:

10 bucks: This is used in Canada and the US, 1 buck=1dollar. A long time ago, people didn't use paper money or coins in North America so much. Most people were hunters and 1 buck skin(a male deer's skin) was the standard used when giving prices at general stores.

Mostly in the US, but also in Canada, we have these expressions:

a quarter=25 cents

a dime=10 cents

a nickel=5 cents

a penny=1 cent

There are also a few words for big money, the ones I have heard the most are a grand which means one thousand dollars(1000$). This was later shortened into 10Gs, meaning 10 grand or 10000$.

In Canada, you have:

a loonie=a 1 dollar coin(from the picture of the loon on it)

a toonie=a 2 dollar coin

I don't know much about the UK but this I know:

1 pound=1 quid

I heard a quid used to be a certain amount of tobacco but am not sure if that is where this expression came from.

1 pence=1 P

Which is pretty simple pence starts with P!

Ok that is it for now, more next week...

Phil