--- title: Borrowing and debt — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Borrowing and debt», a lesson of the adult life course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: Debt is money that has been borrowed and is still owed. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/) / Borrowing and debt # Borrowing and debt Lesson 8 of the adult life course of Mova's primary school: 22 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/0/) — Debt is money that has been borrowed and is still owed. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/1/) — Most adults have some, like a mortgage or a car loan, and planned debt can be fine. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/2/) — Borrowing always has a price called interest, so the total paid back is more than the price tag. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/3/) — Debt becomes a problem when the repayments are more than the family can afford. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/4/) — Lenders make borrowing look easy: "Cash in minutes!", "Buy now, pay later!". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/5/) — The easiest money is usually the most expensive kind. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/6/) — Example: in a flat in Dublin, a letter arrives with red writing across the top: "Final demand." Dad goes pale, then picks up the phone and rings a free debt charity. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/7/) — By the end of the call there is a plan, and he says, "Right. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/8/) — We can do this." - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/9/) — Debt is common and can be sorted. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/10/) — Sorting it is the grown-ups' job, not the child's, and asking for help early is the sensible move. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/12/) — A credit card bill shows what was spent that month; paying all of it means no interest, paying part makes the debt grow. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/13/) — The minimum payment barely covers the interest, so paying only the minimum keeps a debt going for years. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/14/) — A loan means borrowing a set amount and paying it back in fixed amounts plus interest, so the total cost is more than the price. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/15/) — Interest is the price of using someone else's money, and a small charge every year adds up to a lot over many years. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/16/) — A payday loan is a small short-term loan with very high interest, and people can get trapped borrowing again to repay it. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/17/) — Buy now pay later splits a purchase into instalments; it is still borrowing, with charges if a payment is late. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/18/) — A credit score is a rating of how reliably someone pays; missing payments lowers it and makes borrowing harder and dearer. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/19/) — A final demand is a warning that a bill is very overdue and stronger action will follow, so acting early is easier. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/20/) — Bailiffs can collect money owed only after a court decision and many warnings, under strict rules, and cannot take essentials. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/21/) — Debt advice charities give free, private help to make a plan for paying debts back at a pace the family can manage. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/8-borrowing-and-debt/22/) — Lending money to friends can cause arguments, so many grown-ups only lend what they could afford to lose. - ← previous: [Cards, banks and apps](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/7-cards-banks-and-apps/) - next →: [When money is tight](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/9-when-money-is-tight/) - ↑ back to [Adult life](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/adult-life/)