Can the verb "purchase" be used with an abstract concept such as language course, considering that money is actually paid so it isn't a free course? Is it okay to use it in a formal email or better to write "enroll in a course"?
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Courses are rarely free, so 'enrol in a course' is fine. 'Purchase a course' isn't ungrammatical, but sounds unidiomatic; I'd use 'pay for a course'.– Edwin AshworthCommented Mar 4, 2018 at 12:48
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1 Answer
"Purchase"is an action taken on anything in an exchange.
"Enroll" is an action specific to classes, not necessarily all things purchased.
If you're writing about the transaction (e.g. to administration), then "purchase" is more relevant than "enroll" per that definition.
If you're writing about the class itself, then whether it is "purchased" or any other property loses its relevance, as the class itself is an entity separate from your purchase, so "enroll", being a specific property of the class, is more relevant.
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Welcome to English Language & Usage. You may have a good answer, but you need to cite sources to verify the information provided. Commented Mar 4, 2018 at 12:13
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1@J.Taylor Aww. Serves me right for not being verbose in a technical question.– user283836Commented Mar 4, 2018 at 12:32
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Verbose is not the point. If citations for information are not provided, then opinion is what is left. Sometimes opinion is fine, but not, generally, with definitions. Commented Mar 4, 2018 at 13:04
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@J.Taylor I'm not going to argue that point. I've updated the answer with appropriate links to the definitions.– user283836Commented Mar 4, 2018 at 13:14
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There is nothing in any way wrong with "purchase a course" provided that coos is not free. "Rarely" makes no difference grammatically and very little semantically. One might "enroll" on or for or even "in" any course. One could only "purchase" a course that wasn't free… Commented Mar 12, 2018 at 20:42