General Chat

A "thruppenny bit" was the twelve-sided coin, but if we were talking about the cost of something, we said thruppence!

I still have a couple stashed away for posterity.

ArgyllGran - Thruppence = Thruppenny!
I obviously say 'Thruppenny' the Scottish way! :-D
It was where I started school. :-)

The "d" was for "denarius" or "denarii", even though we said "penny" or "pence", which makes it even more complicated.

Three pennies - if talking about three penny coins.
Threepence / thruppence - if talking about the amount of money.

Pence or D. depends whether you were spending it or taking it ;-)

Languages have been given to us to make our meaning clear & not to mess around with dishonest doubt.

Sharron, my Mum used to say that.
What irks me these day is when someone says P instead of pence, after all we never said D in the old pre decimal days.

The way I said it, depended on where I was living at the time, but I would never have said 'Three-penny'! :-D :-D :-D

'Word Of Mouth' on BBC Radio 4 can be interesting.

Very irritating I agree. I used to say Thrupney or Thruppenny bit for the coin. I once said to grandchild " If a Herring and half cost three hapence how much will 2 cost" They had no idea what I was talking about. :-D :-D.


One thing that irritated me was when someone said 2 times instead of twice but D said you say 3 times not thrice so I shut up. :-D :-D

Don’t you mean the Free P Opera?

or the Three P Opera' LOL

At least they're not calling it the "Three Pence Opera".

I know I'm a grumpy old woman, but it really annoys me when people talk about "one pence."

I think I always said thrupny.

Daft ha'porths!

I've always said 'threpnee' but 'three penny' :-0 kiddiwinks of today eh

On Radio 4 extra, they're advertising - at least 3 times a day - an upcoming programme about Ella Fitzgerald singing 'Mac The Knife', from 'The Threepenny Opera'.

What is irking me is their pronunciation of the 'Threepenny' bit from 'The Threepenny Opera'
They're calling it 'The Three-penny Opera', instead of 'The 'Thruppenny' Opera' :-|
It sort of devalues it!