0

Last month, I got my cellphone bill and it cost too much.

Does the highlighted part make sense and sound natural in English?

Improve this question
2
  • The question that it would cause me to ask myself is "cost too much for what?"
    – Mick
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 19:50
  • 2
    You could say "the cellphone cost too much", but you aren't buying the cellphone bill. So I would not use cost as you wrote it. Perhaps "Last month, I got my cellphone bill and it was too much." or ""Last month, I got my cellphone bill and my plan cost too much."
    – user3169
    Commented Oct 30, 2016 at 20:18

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

X cost(s) y means X has a price of Y. When used in the past tense, it can mean that Y was already spent and you now have X, and it can also just mean X had a price of Y in the past.

It may seem odd to use cost to refer to things that vary month to month, such as bills, but this is OK, people say this all the time.

But without modals or time expressions it does imply you already paid your bill, so saying "Next month's bill cost too much" is bad, but "Next month's bill will cost too much" is OK.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .