零用钱(língyòngqián) - pocket money in Mandarin

零用钱 (língyòngqián) is pocket money, the small regular sum parents hand over for everyday spending. It builds from three pieces: 零 (líng), "small, fragmentary", 用 (yòng), "to use", and 钱 (qián), "money" - together, literally "small-use money".

It is the word a GCSE dialogue about family and allowances reaches for, and it behaves like any other noun: 我的零用钱 (wǒ de língyòngqián) is "my pocket money", and it takes 多少 (duōshao, "how much") the same way 钱 (qián) does on its own - 你有多少零用钱 (nǐ yǒu duōshao língyòngqián), "how much pocket money do you have?".

Do not shorten it to 零钱 (língqián) by mistake - that near-homophone means "loose change, small coins", not an allowance. The 用 (yòng) in the middle is doing real work: it is money set aside for using, not just spare coins rattling in a pocket.