I’ve decided every week I will give you a useful English phrase, published on my blog every Monday.
Today’s phrase of the week is “you get what you pay for.”
You get what you pay for: what does it mean?
This saying means that in consuming or shopping, high prices are associated with higher-quality items, while low prices are associated with lower-quality items.
In other words, quality is associated with price.
It’s a common phrase and the meaning is simple once you understand it. Here are two example sentences.
Examples
Jesse: “I got these tires on my car a few years ago, and they are still in very good condition.”
Sarah: “That’s good! You get what you pay for I guess.”
John: “I got my iPhone case for $1 and it broke almost right away!”
Jacob: “Sorry to hear that but ‘you get what you pay for‘.”
Action
What do you think of the English for my Dream Phrase of the week?
Is this helpful for you? Are there any other phrases you would like me to explain?
Please leave a note in the comments.
Thank you Ryan!! When I first read your phrase, not only I thought about “money” or “cost” but also about actions in life…Eg: if you don’t work hard on something you’ll probably get a worse result than if you paid a lot of attention, time and efforts on it. Could this be another interpretation for this phrase? Please let me know. Thank you!
Hi Maria,
Usually this phrase is just about money, not really “paying attention” or effort. Good question!
Ryan
Hv heard it before. Got the meaning well. ..thanks
Great! Thanks, Lucy!
Hi.well I have heard it before. Actually we have a similar one in Spanish. And.btw, noce to have phrases like this. Proverbs and sayings are a good source of knowledge. Thanks.
That’s great, thanks 🙂
Thanks so much for giving us those helpful phrases. It is a great chance for improving our skills. I can’t say thank you enough!
You’re welcome Joaquin 🙂
In my country there are many places where you can get differents kinds of goods, some of them are called “street markets” , here the goods have not good quality but the price is cheap. Every time that I get goods in “a street market,” I get what I pay for! The shelf life of these goods are very short!
Exactly, Pilar!
Thanks a lot Ryan.
You are welcome Silvana!
Ryan, thanks for everything. I´m sure your books is gonna be very helpful.
By the way, could you do me a very special favor, please? I´m reading Stephen King´s book “Four Past Midnight” and in it I found this expression: “My aunt´s hat”. What does it mean? I´ve looked the expression up but I haven´t been successful. Thanks beforehand.
Hi Sergio! Can you give a little more context? The only thing I can say now is that the hat belongs to the character’s aunt.
Hi Ryan,
Your Dream Phrase reminded me a Hungarian one when in cheap shopping associated with bad quality. Then people say: “Cheap meat yields watery broth” or ” Good cheap is dear.” I have found these translation of this Hungarian phrase. Many thanks for the idea that you give us a phrase on every Monday.
Hi Kati, Whoa, interesting to see you have a similar-meaning phrase!
Hi Ryan,
it is very useful for my way of learning.
Greetings from Serbia.
Natalija.
Hi Natalija, great! Greetings from America 🙂
Hi Ryan ,it is very useful phrase for me. I know it in my language but in English I know right now. Thanks. I have been waiting for next one. .
Great, thanks Sahai!
Thank you! It’s just what I was looking for for my shopping vocabulary.
Perfect, Yelena!
good morning .. here is my example as a conversation
John; how was your trip
marry: it was wonderful. it was the best trip ever in my life
John: I think it was worth it. you get what you paid
have a nice day
Hi Samar! Thanks for your comment. Very good, here are some minor corrections:
Good morning. Here is my example as a conversation:
John: How was your trip?
Mary: It was wonderful. It was the best trip of my life.
John: I think it was worth it. you get what you paid for.