Hire vs Rent vs Let - English In A Minute

76,549 views ・ 2020-03-30

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Hi, everyone! We’re going to talk about
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three verbs with very similar meanings today:
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'hire', 'rent' and 'let'. I’m mainly going to
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explain how we use these verbs in British
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English. But I will also mention
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some American usage too.
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Both 'rent' and 'hire' mean
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‘to pay for the use of something’.
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However, in British English
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we normally use the verb 'rent' to talk about
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a long-term arrangement.
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For example, you can 'rent a house',
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'flat' or 'TV'.
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When talking about a short-term arrangement,
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we normally use the verb 'hire'. For example,
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you could 'hire a car', 'a bike' or 'a suit'.
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The difference in American English is
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that the verb 'rent' can be used for both long
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and short-term arrangements.
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The verb 'hire' has a completely different meaning.
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It’s used to mean ‘to employ somebody.’
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Finally, we have the verb 'let'.
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You might hear this word in the phrase
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'room to let', for example,
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which means that
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‘the room is available to rent’.
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Thanks for joining us everybody. Bye.
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