Hi, there

Let’s say you are buying something and you are paying for it in monthly payments. Which word do you use in this case, “payments” or “installments”? And what would you ask if you wanted to know the limit for how many months you can take to pay off the thing you are buying.

“How many payments/installments can I split it into?”
“How many months can I split my payments into?”
“How many payments/ installments can I spread it out over?”
“How many months can I spread my payments out over?”

What would you say?

Thank you

Question

Hi, there

Let’s say you are buying something and you are paying for it in monthly payments. Which word do you use in this case, “payments” or “installments”? And what would you ask if you wanted to know the limit for how many months you can take to pay off the thing you are buying.

“How many payments/installments can I split it into?”
“How many months can I split my payments into?”
“How many payments/ installments can I spread it out over?”
“How many months can I spread my payments out over?”

What would you say?

Thank you

Answer

Hola, Hernandez, Long time no see. Technically "installments" are the divisions of the money over a certain period of time, and "payments" are when you actually pay those installments. So you can talk about "making a payment", but not "making an installment".

Nevertheless they are often used interchangeably: "You can buy this sofa in five easy payments/installments over a period of one year."

And in your example sentences, I think they are all fine.

Answer

Two native speakers already answered this. I don’t think you’ll get much better answers.