Meaning & use
penny sweet
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Meanings
nouncountableBritishold-fashioned
A small, cheap candy that used to be sold for one penny in British shops.
Grammar: Countable: a penny sweet, two penny sweets. Often used in the plural.
Patterns
- a bag of penny sweets
- buy penny sweets
As a child, she spent her pocket money on penny sweets at the corner shop.
The old jar of penny sweets sat on the counter for years.
He remembered walking home with a paper bag of penny sweets.
nouncountableBritishold-fashioned
A small piece of candy of the kind traditionally sold cheaply by weight in a sweet shop.
Grammar: Used mainly in the plural to mean a mixed selection: a quarter of penny sweets.
Patterns
- a quarter of penny sweets
- a selection of penny sweets
The shop still sells a quarter of penny sweets to tourists.
She chose a mix of penny sweets for the children's party.
Word forms
| plural | penny sweets |
|---|
Common combinations
- a bag of penny sweets
- He bought a bag of penny sweets on the way home.
- a jar of penny sweets
- A glass jar of penny sweets stood beside the till.
- spend money on penny sweets
- The children spent their coins on penny sweets.
- a quarter of penny sweets
- My grandmother would ask for a quarter of penny sweets.
- penny sweet shop
- The old penny sweet shop is now a café.
Synonyms and how they differ
- candy
- The American word for sweets in general; it does not carry the idea of a one-penny price.
- sweet
- The normal British word for a small piece of candy; "penny sweet" is the old-fashioned, price-specific version.
- confection
- A formal word for a sweet food, used in labels and writing rather than everyday speech.
Word family
- sweet noun
- A small piece of candy, especially in British English.
- sweet shop noun
- A British shop that sells candy.
Commonly confused: penny sweet or pennywort? penny sweet or sweet penny?
penny sweet vs pennywort
Pennywort is a plant with round leaves, not a candy; the similar sound can cause confusion.
penny sweet vs sweet penny
This is not a standard English phrase; learners sometimes reverse the words by mistake.
Practice
Which sentence uses "penny sweet" correctly?
Choose one answer.
"Penny sweets" are small cheap candies, so a bag of them makes sense. Option 0 is odd because a single candy is not lunch; option 2 confuses the phrase with a fare; option 3 wrongly treats "penny sweet" as a unit of measurement.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “penny sweet”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.