penny
part of speech
noun (penny, pennies, pence)
meaning for a pupil
1) A penny is a coin. In the US and Canada a penny is 1 cent; in Britain a penny is 1p and 100 pence make 1 pound. tree →
2) «Not a penny» means no money at all. tree →
3) «The penny dropped» means someone finally understood. tree →
sense in the lessons
In maths: a coin of small value; counting coins and their value; changing pennies to dollars or pence to pounds. In everyday life: saving pennies in a piggy bank. In stories and sayings: «a penny for your thoughts», «in for a penny, in for a pound», «a penny saved is a penny earned».
examples
- He has 25 pennies. tree →
- How many pennies make a dime? tree →
- She saved 50 pennies. tree →
- Each sweet costs 5 pence. tree →
- A hundred pennies make one dollar. tree →
- He didn't have a penny left. tree →
- After a minute, the penny dropped and she laughed. tree →
- A penny for your thoughts? tree →
- But I have only fifty pennies. tree →
note
One penny = 1 cent; 100 pennies = 1 dollar. Plural «pennies» counts coins; «pence» is the British amount. Trap: change pennies to dollars by dividing by 100. 10 pennies = 1 dime; 5 pennies = 1 nickel. In Ireland and Australia, the old penny is no longer used (euro cents and Australian cents). Canada no longer makes pennies, so prices are rounded to 5 cents when paying cash.
In the corpora
- yìbǎi fēn («ee-BYE FUN») means a hundred marks, full marks; fēn also means minute and penny.
- "Spend a penny" is an old British way to say use the toilet; public toilets once cost a penny.
- "Spend a penny", "powder my nose" and "freshen up" can all mean go to the toilet.
- In the USA a penny is 1 cent, a nickel 5 cents, a dime 10 cents and a quarter 25 cents.
- A penny is worth 1 cent, a nickel 5 cents, a dime 10 cents and a quarter 25 cents.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «penny» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.