When I buy something and pay $5 for it, what would I say?
I bought it at $5.
or
I bought it for $5.
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
Usually, for a normal everyday situation, you'd use for
I bought the pen for $5.
However, at can be used when the price is volatile, for example in case of (electronic) commodity trading or an auction.
The price started to go up so I bought five lots of April corn contract at 17.574.
answered Oct 16, 2013 at 18:55
-
This. When the price you got for it is not necessarily the price offered to the next guy, use "at"; otherwise, emphasize the exchange of X for $Y.– KeithSCommented Oct 16, 2013 at 19:00
-
1@KeithS, but if you were just lucky and got a discount, you'd be more likely to use ‘for’: “They were really $20 each, but I got them for $15”. And when talking about stock market dealings, I think I'd always use ‘at’ (though I'm quite ignorant about everything that goes on in stock exchanges, I admit). Commented Oct 16, 2013 at 19:02
In general, you'd use "at" if the price is something that fluctates from the vendor over time, and you timed your purchase to get that price. Examples would be gasoline or a stock share.
You use "for" to express the sentiment that the given price is just what it happened to be when you bought it. You also might use this if you shopped around, and specifically picked the vendor that was selling the item for that price.
