What the song is about

The song is about numbers and money. It counts in tens up to a hundred, then jumps to a thousand and a million. Then it moves into a shop: asking prices, paying, and getting change back. The bridge practises a classic listening trap, the difference between -teen numbers (13 to 19) and -ty numbers (30, 40, 50 and so on).

Useful words and expressions

  • ten, twenty, thirty… a hundred, a thousand, a million: counting in tens and big numbers
  • How much is it? / How much is the ticket?: the basic question for a price
  • It costs five dollars and fifty cents.: how to say a price
  • price, cheap (low price), expensive (high price)
  • pay with cash / pay with card: two ways to pay
  • coin and note (paper money; Americans usually say bill)
  • wallet: where you keep your money
  • receipt: the paper you get after you pay (the p is silent)
  • change: the money you get back. Keep the change! means the seller can keep it.
  • make a deal: agree on something, often a price
  • in return: back, in exchange
  • count it up: add everything together

Grammar

  • Questions with do: Do you pay with cash? Do you pay with card?
  • Questions with is: What is the price? Is it cheap? Is it expensive?
  • have to for things you must do: you always have to pay, the mathematics that you have to learn
  • Imperatives for instructions: Open up your wallet, Give me my receipt, Don't mix them up
  • If + present, present for something that is always true: If I give you ten, you give me five in return.
  • There is / here is to point at things: Here is a coin, there is a note.

Thirteen or thirty?

Listen to the stress. In -teen numbers the stress is at the end, and the ending is long: thirTEEN, fourTEEN, fifTEEN. In -ty numbers the stress is at the start, and the ending is short: THIRty, FORty, FIFty. Note: the lyrics write Thir-TY and For-TY in capitals, but the stress in these numbers is on the first part.

Careful: lyrics bent for the rhyme

  • I am feeling comprehensive does not make sense. It is only there to rhyme with expensive. Comprehensive means "complete" or "covering everything" and is not used for feelings.
  • paying for the rents: normally we say pay the rent, with no -s. The -s is only there to rhyme with cents.
  • Is it a teenager or is it a ten? is wordplay. It means: is it a -teen number or a -ty number (a number of tens)?