The current meaning of the word ‘income‘ dates back to the 16th century. It means money that comes into your possession on a regular basis. So it could be money from your job, or money from bank interest, from having tenants in your house or from investments, and so on. Before the 16th century it literally meant to ‘come in’ or to ‘arrive.’

Example of today’s usage:

• Most of my current income is from my job, but I also get around $10000 a year from investments in the stock market.

Note that it only used as a noun and an adjective. Also it is not countable (so we cannot add an ‘s’)

Collocations: When you learn new vocab, make sure that you note collocations too. For this group of words some collocations are:
have to refinance
to function properly, function with, function without
identification card, identifiable features, identifiable by

Check the meanings of the words if you don’t already know them. Check the meanings of the different forms if they seem to be different. You can check them at Time4english by clicking the words (http://www.time4english.com/aamain/lounge/awl.asp).

Complete the sentences below with the correct word and the correct form of the word.

1.Many families have a problem when their ______________ doesn’t keep pace with their expenditure. (income, finance)

2.A recipe is very similar to a _______________.  (function, formula)

3.Children today are so involved with technology that some are socially _______________. (formula, function)

4.If you listen to the ______________ news everyday your ability to hear numbers will improve. (identify, finance)

5.Solving climate change problems requires much more than just _______________ the causes. (identify, income)

Answers (in the wrong order)
2. formula    5. identifying   3. disfunctional / dysfunctional  1. income   4. financial