To spend means to pay money for something, or to use time doing a particular activity. Past form: spent. Example: She spends at least an hour each day reading in English.
What Does Spend Mean?
Spend comes from Old English spendan, itself borrowed from Latin expendere — meaning "to weigh out" or "to pay out" (from ex- "out" + pendere "to weigh or hang"). The same Latin root gives us expend, expenditure, expense, and expensive. The word has been in continuous use in English since before the 12th century.
In modern English, spend carries two closely related meanings. The first — and most frequent — is financial: to hand over or use up money in exchange for goods or services. The second is temporal: to pass or use a period of time in a particular way. Both meanings share the core idea of using up a finite resource, whether that resource is money or time.
Because spend covers both money and time, it is one of the most versatile and high-frequency verbs in everyday English. Mastering its forms, collocations, and typical structures will improve your fluency across a wide range of real-life situations — from shopping and budgeting to describing your daily routine.
Example Sentences
| Sentence | Level & Usage note |
|---|---|
| I spend about £30 a week on food. | A2 — spend + amount + on + noun (money sense) |
| She spends at least an hour each day reading in English. | B1 — spend + time + gerund (time sense) |
| We spent the whole weekend at the seaside. | B1 — past simple; spend + time expression + location |
| The government has spent billions on infrastructure projects over the past decade. | B2 — present perfect; formal/financial register |
| She could not justify spending such a large sum on a single item when colleagues were facing redundancy. | C1 — gerund as subject complement; nuanced moral register |
Collocations
| Collocation | Example |
|---|---|
| spend money on | They spend a lot of money on eating out. |
| spend time doing | He spends his evenings practising the guitar. |
| spend the night | We spent the night in a small hotel near the station. |
| spend a fortune | She spent a fortune on the wedding dress. |
| well spent | That was an afternoon well spent — I learnt so much. |
| money well spent | The course was expensive but it was money well spent. |
| spend wisely | Learn to spend wisely and you will never go into debt. |
| spend on a budget | You can travel Europe and spend on a budget if you plan ahead. |
| government spending | Government spending on education rose by 4% last year. |
| big spender | He is known as a big spender — always buying rounds for everyone. |
Usage Notes
Key Structures for Spend
- spend + money + on + noun: She spent £200 on new trainers.
- spend + time expression + -ing: He spent three hours fixing the car.
- spend + time expression + noun phrase (location): We spent the summer in Cornwall.
- spend + time expression + with + person: I like to spend time with my family at weekends.
When spend refers to time, it is followed by a gerund (-ing form), not a to-infinitive. Do not write "she spent two hours to cook" — this is incorrect. The correct form is "she spent two hours cooking".
The noun spending is uncountable and refers to the act or amount of expenditure: household spending, public spending, consumer spending. The informal noun spend (as in "What is the marketing spend?") is common in British business English.
Common Mistakes
Watch Out For
I spended all my money on clothes. (incorrect past tense)
I spent all my money on clothes. (spend is irregular: spend → spent → spent)
She spent two hours to study for the exam. (to-infinitive after time expression)
She spent two hours studying for the exam. (gerund after time expression)
He spends money in books every month. (wrong preposition)
He spends money on books every month. (use on, not in)