Learn English – 2 for 5 (bucks) vs 5 (bucks) for 2

spoken-english

I heard a Burger King promotion on a radio, saying:

Beautiful! 2 for 5! // It means 2 hamburgers, 5 bucks

To me, '2 for 5' sounds like you pay 2 hamburgers to buy 5 bucks, which is illogical.

I would think '5 for 2' makes more sense, meaning you pay 5 bucks for 2 hamburgers.

Question:

  1. Any reason behind the usage of '2 for 5', instead of '5 for 2'?

  2. Can '5 for 2' make sense as well? Can we say "5 bucks for 2 hamburgers" or "5 for 2"?

Best Answer

You seem to understand most of the implications, but the verb you are adding to the front leads to a different meaning than what was intended. Specifically, you expand "2 for 5" as

Pay 2 dollars for 5 hamburgers

However, the intended meaning of the phrase is

Buy 2 hamburgers for 5 dollars

When "X for Y" is used to describe a sale or deal that I've seen in the US, the meaning is "Get X in exchange for Y" in some fashion, with X being what you get not what you give.

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