Spend . Expend . Cost . Pay

以上四個詞和“消費”、“花費”和“消耗”有關。

●首先，spend主要做及物動詞使用，其賓語可以是“錢”、“時間”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期幾十個電腦共享1MB帶寬的工作環境，何其辛苦!

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

各位瞅仔細了，spend [money] on doing sth.但是spend [time] doing sth.這就是區別。雅思考官各個鷹眼犀利，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構做主語：

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

●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.

政府在戰爭上投入很多資源。

●cost的用法與spend, expend不同。cost的主語一般是花出去的錢、時間和精力的對象。

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.√

(因為這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強調“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.

媽媽幫我付了學開車的錢。

Ray paid some kids to wash his car.

Ray花錢叫幾個小孩來洗他的車。

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6%利息的儲蓄方案

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

William is now paying the price for his early mistakes.

威廉姆現在在為他之前的錯誤買單。

I decide to pay my folks a visit this weekend.