2

"That's the idea that if you make the consumer uncomfortable enough and then tell them that for money we'll make you less uncomfortable, then you will give us money."

It is an excerpt from an NPR News article about how mobile phone game companies make customers make additional purchases in the games themselves.

My question is, in the sentence above, what does "for money" mean? more specifically, what does "for" mean here? And could you give me other examples of the same use of for ?

Improve this question
4
  • There must be a better way to write the sentence in concern!
    – Maulik V
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 10:53
  • Sense eight in Collins dictionary.
    – user230
    Commented Oct 9, 2014 at 11:05
  • @MaulikV NPR is a radio station and this is a transcript!
    – Lambie
    Commented Sep 21, 2021 at 22:23
  • 1
    @user230 No, it's closest to sense 16 from the same link, not 8. Here, "for" denotes the price of something, or what specifically is required or offered in exchange for something. Normally it's an amount of money, but it can simply be "money", or anything like labour or promotion.
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Sep 22, 2021 at 1:20

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
2

Ditto @ShantanuChandra. I add that it isn't necessarily an "exchange". There's a common slogan, "You can't get X for love or money", meaning, people won't give you X in exchange for money, nor will they give it to you because they like or love you.

BTW I think that sentence is a little awkward because it shifts in referring to the consumer from "them" to "you". I would have written it, "That's the idea that if you make the consumer uncomfortable enough and then tell them that for money we'll make you less uncomfortable, then THEY will give us money." The "we'll make you less uncomfortable" is part of an indirect quote, so as it is addressing the consumer, "you" refers to the consumer. Fine. But "then you will give us money" is not part of the quote. I don't think the intent is that the company says to the consumer, "We'll do this and then you will give us money", but rather that the company tells the consumer that it will make him less uncomfortable, end of quote, and then the result of this is that the consumer gives the company money.

Improve this answer
1
  • I found the article here, wnpr.org/post/…. It's quite clear that the editor there agrees with you about the "[they]".
    – Damkerng T.
    Commented Oct 10, 2014 at 14:14
1

"for money" simply means "in exchange of more money".

eg:

I will give you 5 mangoes for each banana that you give me.

Each banana is for $1.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    You would not say "is for," either "Each banana is $1" or "A banana for $1." I actually cannot think of a way to use each along with for in this sense, at least not in a simple sentence.
    – KRyan
    Commented Jun 7, 2015 at 15:37
0

First of all, this is a quote from spoken language. It's a news article that quotes someone speaking.

Zynga, the creator of Farmville, calls this fun pain, according to Shokrizade. "That's the idea that, if you make the consumer uncomfortable enough, and then tell them that for money we'll make you less uncomfortable, then [they] will give us money," he says.

It's fine. I am telling you for money that this is accurate. [joke]

The speaker also could have said:

and then tell them for money that we'll make you less uncomfortable, then [they] etc.

  • to tell someone something for money
  • to tell someone for money that something
Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

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