Spend, Cost, Take, Expense, Pay

在英文中,如果要使用『花費』這個詞,通常會有好幾個詞可供選擇,例如『spend』、『cost』、『take』、『expense』、『pay』等,以下是這幾個字的用法。

1. Spend:

(1)通常使用spend時會以人當主詞,當要表達花費金錢來買你想買的東西或花費時          間、精力來做某事時都可以用此字。

公式:人 + spend + time/ money + (on)  + V-ing / N

Ex:Businessmen spend enormous amounts (on) advertising their products.
Engineers spend much time and energy developing brilliant solutions.
We spend about $500 a week on food.

(2)另外,如果當你花一段時間待在一個地方時亦可用此字。

Ex:We spend the night in a hotel.

△注意:spend money/ time on doing something
I spent$50 for this jacket.*
I spent $50 on this jacket.

另外,pay for (付費) 和 spend(花費)的差別是,用pay 的時候,是你一定要付的。而用spend 的時候你可以選擇的。

2. Cost:

當使用這個字的時候,通常不會用人來當主詞。而cost可當動詞或名詞。

(1)當名詞時,是指開銷,表示某樣東西所花費的錢數,例如,生活費,成本。

⊙用法:The cost of + N/ V-ing

Ex:Many old people cannot afford the cost of heating their homes.
The students are given £50 a year to cover the cost of books and stationary.

(2)當動詞時,It 或其他事物都可用來當主詞。

⊙用法:It / 事物 + cost + 人+錢+to V

Ex:How much do these shoes cost? They cost £30.
It cost me $100 to buy this notebook.

△注意:不能用cost來表達花時間。

3. Take:

當要表達花時間來完成某件事的時候,可用take 這個字。通常這個字和cost 一樣不會用人當主詞。

⊙用法:It/事物 + take + 人+時間+to V

Ex:Since the roads are very bad, the journey took us a long time.
It took her all afternoon to finish it.

△注意:如果用It 當主詞時,碰到時間用take,碰到錢用cost。

4. Expense:

使用expense這個字的時候,是指消耗、消費在時間、金錢或精力等的花費。Expense是名詞,複數時是expenses。

Ex:I don’t know how the government can justify the expense of the project.
Her company sent her to Paris and paid all her expenses.

△注意:expense 和 cost 是同義字有時可互用。

Ex:The expenses of the trip = The cost of the trip

【整理】

花費表示方式對照表

時間 I spend (on); (it) takes
金錢 I spend (on); (it) costs; I pay(付費)

 

Hits: 2022