How to "spend" money in German

False Friend: “spenden” – this German word actually does NOT mean “to spend” but rather “to donate”.

So you can say “Kleider spenden”, and “Blut spenden” in German. You can also, of course, say “Geld spenden” and “Zeit spenden”, but it would mean that money and time are ‘donated’ (presumably to a good cause) rather than ‘spent’ on something.

The German word for “to spend” (in terms of money) would be “ausgeben” and (in terms of time) “verbringen”.


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