--- title: What money is and why people accept it — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «What money is and why people accept it», a lesson of the money course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: A £5 note is only a bit of paper or plastic, yet the sweet shop takes it for five £1 bags of sweets, because the shopkeeper knows the --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/) [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/) / [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/) / What money is and why people accept it # What money is and why people accept it Lesson 1 of the money course of Mova's primary school: 12 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/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/). - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/1/) — A £5 note is only a bit of paper or plastic, yet the sweet shop takes it for five £1 bags of sweets, because the shopkeeper knows the next shop, the baker and the bus driver will all take it from her too. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/2/) — A shiny button or a brilliant yo-yo is not money, because nobody has agreed to treat it as money; money works only while people trust it. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/3/) — Money does three jobs: it buys things, it keeps its value so you can save it for later, and it tells you what things cost so you can compare them. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/4/) — Money on its own is worth nothing to eat or play with; it is a tool for trading, and it is only useful when other people have things to sell. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/6/) — A note or coin is worth what it says because people trust that everyone else will accept it too. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/7/) — Without money you would have to find someone who has what you want and also wants exactly what you have. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/8/) — Money has three jobs: you spend it, you save it for later, and you use it to compare prices. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/9/) — Money can be cash (coins and notes) or digital money (numbers kept by a bank and spent with a card or phone); both buy the same things. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/10/) — If a country prints far too much money while there are no more things to buy, prices go up and nobody is richer. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/11/) — Old coins and notes can stop being accepted in shops; some banks still swap them, and collectors may want rare ones. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/13/) — Long ago a British note could be swapped at the bank for gold; today money is not backed by gold but by the government and people's trust. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/1-what-money-is-and-why-people-accept-it/15/) — Money is only useful when someone has something to sell; a pile of coins on a desert island buys nothing. - next →: [Coins and notes: pounds and pence, dollars and cents](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/2-coins-and-notes-pounds-and-pence-dollars-and-cents/) - ↑ back to [Money](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/money/)