Spend . Expend . Cost . Pay

以上四個(gè)詞和“消費(fèi)”、“花費(fèi)”和“消耗”有關(guān)。

●首先，spend主要做及物動(dòng)詞使用，其賓語可以是“錢”、“時(shí)間”或“精力”。

Every year, she spends a lot of money on clothes.

女孩，您用生命買衣服啊。

We’ve just spent 1.9 million on improving our computer network.

筆者回想起在老東家有一段時(shí)期幾十個(gè)電腦共享1MB帶寬的工作環(huán)境，何其辛苦!

I’ve spent an hour in the station waiting for the train.

各位瞅仔細(xì)了，spend [money] on doing sth.但是spend [time] doing sth.這就是區(qū)別。雅思考官各個(gè)鷹眼犀利，可別范慫。

My sister always spends ages in the bathroom.

我姐姐洗澡總是洗很久很久。

I want to live in a dormitory to spend time with my school friends.

For the past month, he’s spending all the energy trying to find a job.

此外，spend并非大家想象的只能由人或機(jī)構(gòu)做主語：

Her anger soon spent itself (=stopped). 她只生了一會(huì)氣。

●expend的用法和spend差不多，比expend更為正式，可以用于雅思寫作;

You expend so much effort for so little return.

你還真是入不敷出。

Governments expend a lot of resources on war.

政府在戰(zhàn)爭(zhēng)上投入很多資源。

●cost的用法與spend, expend不同。cost的主語一般是花出去的錢、時(shí)間和精力的對(duì)象。

I cost 30 dollars for the board game. X

The board game costs me 30 dollars.√

I spend 30 dollars for the board game.√

One costs more money running a business than buying a house. X

Running a business costs more money than buying a house.√

It costs more money to run a business than to buy a house.√

(因?yàn)檫@句話的主語是不定式to run a business，所以它被放在謂語和賓語后面，主語用it代替)

●pay的用法。pay強(qiáng)調(diào)“付款”，也有pay [money] for sth.這樣一看就懂的用法

You have to pay four dollars for each hamburger.

當(dāng)然pay還有很多其他用法。

Mum paid for my driving lessons./Mum paid me for the driving lessons.

媽媽幫我付了學(xué)開車的錢。

Ray paid some kids to wash his car.

Ray花錢叫幾個(gè)小孩來洗他的車。

Ray paid the kids 10 dollars to wash his car.

Ray花10美元叫這孩子洗他車。

A savings plan that paid six percent interest

一個(gè)6%利息的儲(chǔ)蓄方案

It pays to be honest. (= It is good to be honest)

William is now paying the price for his early mistakes.

威廉姆現(xiàn)在在為他之前的錯(cuò)誤買單。

I decide to pay my folks a visit this weekend.