Cost an arm and a leg: meaning and use
Describe a high price in conversation. Practice cost and paid, past and present forms, and more neutral ways to discuss money.
Spend, take and cost: talk about time and money
Describe what you spend, how much something costs, and how long a task takes. Practice the patterns and past forms.
You are offline. You can keep reading and writing. Reconnect to check answers or save your place.
Learn
Read the examples, then check each idea as you go.
You spend money on a purchase and spend time on an activity. A purchase costs money. A task takes time. Start by checking who or what the sentence is about, then choose the pattern that expresses your meaning.
Start with the person spending money
Use spend when a person gives money to buy or pay for something. Put the amount after spend. Add on + the purchase when you want to say what the money is for.
A company or another organization can also spend money. In these everyday patterns, the spender is the subject: the person or organization before the verb. A bag itself does not spend the money used to buy it.
I spend twelve dollars on lunch each week.
The club spends money on new equipment.
Start with the thing that has a price
Use cost when the subject is the thing or activity you must pay for. Put the price after cost. You can add the payer before the price: cost me ten dollars.
Use costs for one item in the present and cost for several items. Cost can also be a noun: the cost of a ticket is the amount needed to buy it. A price statement does not by itself say that someone has bought the item.
The bag costs fifteen dollars.
These tickets cost six dollars each.
Keep spend on and pay for together
When you name a purchase after an amount, learn spend on as a pattern. Pay uses a different pattern: pay an amount for something. Both can describe the same purchase from the buyer's side.
Do not carry the preposition from one verb to the other in these patterns. Cost normally gives the amount directly, without on or for before the price.
I spent eight dollars on the meal.
I paid eight dollars for the meal.
The meal cost eight dollars.
Describe the activity after spend time
Use spend + a length of time + an -ing verb to say how someone uses that time. The length can be ten minutes, an hour or all morning. The activity comes after the time.
This pattern describes time used. It does not promise that the task was finished. You can also use spend time on + a task noun, such as a report or homework.
I spent an hour cleaning the kitchen.
She spends twenty minutes on her homework.
Say who you spend time with and where
Use with after the time to name the people you are with. Use a place phrase when you want to say where the time is spent. The sentence does not always need an -ing activity.
A day, an evening, the weekend or the night can name the time. Choose a place phrase that fits the place, such as at home, at the library or in a city.
We spent the afternoon with our cousins.
I spent the evening at home.
Use take for the time a task needs
A journey or task can take a length of time. This tells you how long the journey or task needs. Use takes for a single present task and take for a plural subject.
You can start with it and put the action after the time: it takes + time + to + verb. In this pattern, to introduces the action. This differs from the -ing action after spend time.
The walk takes twenty minutes.
It takes twenty minutes to walk there.
Name the person who needs the time
Put me, you, him, her, us or them after takes when the time depends on the person doing the task. The time follows that person, then to + the action.
A person can also be the subject of take in a time sentence. The choice between spend and take is therefore not simply person versus thing. Spend describes using time; take describes the time needed or used to complete the named action.
It takes me thirty minutes to get ready.
I take thirty minutes to get ready.
Use spent, took and cost for the past
The past of spend is spent, and the past of take is took. For the ordinary price meaning, the past of cost stays cost. These forms do not change with I, she or they.
After did or didn't, use the basic forms spend, take and cost. Do not add another past form after did. Costed belongs to a different use, calculating a price, rather than the price statements practiced here.
We spent ten dollars at the market yesterday.
The trip took an hour and cost five dollars.
Did the trip take an hour?
Ask about the amount or the time
Use how much to ask for a price or an amount of money. Use how long to ask for a length of time. With spend, how much time is also possible when you state the noun time.
Keep do, does or did and the basic verb in the question. Choose the subject too: ask what a thing costs, what a person spends or how long an action takes.
How much does the bus ticket cost?
How long did you spend at the museum?
How long does it take to get to the museum?
Practice
Try the questions in order. Use a hint when you need one, then read the explanation after checking.
Use it in your own words
Describe a real or imagined visit to a shop, park or museum in four or five sentences. Include money spent on something, the price of an item or ticket, the time the journey took, and time spent doing an activity or with someone.
Write in English, then compare your writing with the checklist. This activity uses self-review, so it does not give a score.
Check your writing
Read an example response
I went to a museum with my cousin. The bus trip took twenty minutes. My ticket cost eight dollars. I spent three dollars on a drink. We spent two hours looking at the old maps.
Test
Answer without hints. Your result shows which questions to review; you can change your answers and try again.
Sign in to keep your place and checked results in your notebook.
