Cost or Costs?
Hi,

I'm studying with a book and in one exercise it has the following phrase as an answer:
"It cost twelve pounds to have my suit cleaned"

And the answer I thought was the correct one is:
"It costs twelve pounds to have my suit cleaned"

So, my question is, when do I have to use this "s" at the end? I always thought that everytime I use "it" I should use costs, because of simple conjugation (I/You/They cost; He/She/It costs).. Am I right or Am I missing something?

Thx

Question

Cost or Costs?
Hi,

I'm studying with a book and in one exercise it has the following phrase as an answer:
"It cost twelve pounds to have my suit cleaned"

And the answer I thought was the correct one is:
"It costs twelve pounds to have my suit cleaned"

So, my question is, when do I have to use this "s" at the end? I always thought that everytime I use "it" I should use costs, because of simple conjugation (I/You/They cost; He/She/It costs).. Am I right or Am I missing something?

Thx

Answer

"It cost 12 pounds to have my suit cleaned" - this would be speaking about the past. So if you already got your suit cleaned and brought it home you would tell someone " It cost 12 pounds to have my suit cleaned"

"It costs 12 pounds to have my suit cleaned" - that would be the present tense conjugation. You would say this to someone, lets say if you were at the cleaners dropping off you suit "Hey, it costs 12 pounds to have my suit cleaned" - present tense

Answer

Perhaps what you are missing is the fact that 'cost' (like 'put' and 'let') has the same form in the past simple and past participle as it does in the infinitive. While other verbs go 'write/wrote/written', for example, the verb 'cost' simply goes 'cost/cost/cost'.

So the sentence  "It cost twelve pounds to have my suit cleaned" is  correct, because it's in the past simple tense.