Finance and accounting English can look like a maze of jargon, but the basics are very learnable. A solid grip on these words builds your business English and helps you sound confident with colleagues, clients and reports.
This guide covers 20 essential finance and accounting words in English, split into everyday statements and figures, and investing and borrowing. Each term has a short meaning and a natural example, kept in English so you can use them right away.
| Term | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Assets | Anything of value owned by a person or business. | The company’s assets include real estate, machinery and patents. |
| Liabilities | Debts or obligations owed to others. | Due to several outstanding loans, the firm’s liabilities increased this year. |
| Revenue | Income generated from sales or services. | Last quarter, our revenue from the new product line beat expectations. |
| Expenses | Costs incurred in running a business. | This month’s expenses included a large marketing budget. |
| Profit | Revenue minus expenses. | After all costs, the store reported a profit of $10,000. |
| Balance sheet | A statement showing assets, liabilities and equity. | The year-end balance sheet showed a healthy equity position. |
| Income statement | A summary of revenue, expenses and profit over a period. | The income statement showed strong revenue growth. |
| Cash flow | The movement of money in and out of a business. | Monitoring cash flow kept the business solvent. |
| Depreciation | The decrease in the value of assets over time. | The company factors in depreciation on its equipment. |
| Audit | An examination of financial records for accuracy. | An external firm conducts an audit of our accounts every year. |
Practise finance English with a real teacher. The fastest way to make these words automatic is to use them in conversation. Book a free trial lesson and speak with an experienced native teacher, no credit card required.
| Term | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Interest | The cost of borrowing money, or the return on lending it. | We paid 5% interest a year on the business loan. |
| Diversification | Spreading investments to reduce risk. | Diversification protects a portfolio from market swings. |
| Fiscal year | A 12-month period used for financial reporting. | Our fiscal year ends in September. |
| Stock | A share of ownership in a company. | The company’s stock has been performing well. |
| Amortization | Spreading the cost of an asset or loan over time. | The amortization schedule spreads the cost over 15 years. |
| Bond | A debt security representing a loan to a government or company. | The government issued a new bond to fund infrastructure. |
| Credit rating | A measure of someone’s ability to repay debt. | Paying his bills on time improved John’s credit rating. |
| Recession | A significant decline in a country’s economy. | The 2008 recession affected millions of jobs. |
| Mortgage | A loan used to buy real estate. | Jane took out a 30-year mortgage on her new home. |
| Shares | Units of ownership in a company. | Mark bought 100 shares of the company. |
Learning tip: finance words are easiest to remember in pairs and opposites: assets vs liabilities, revenue vs expenses, stock vs bond. Learn each with the example sentence, then rewrite the sentence with a figure from your own work.
Practise finance English with a real teacher. The fastest way to make these words automatic is to use them in conversation. Book a free trial lesson and speak with an experienced native teacher, no credit card required.
Written and reviewed by the experienced native teachers at Live English, online since 2007.
