Word Usage – ‘Spare Time’ or ‘Spend Time’: Which Is Correct?

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I wonder how these two verbs differ in meaning?
I know that You spare time for your loved ones, but You spend time with your loved ones.
However, it is difficult to distinguish between them in an example like the following one:

  • I need to have a word with you please. Could you ……… a few minutes?
    a. spare
    b. spend

I have encountered "spare" in above sentence many times, but I need to know the logic behind that! Why "spend" does not work here, while semantically and based on dictionary definitions it should work?
Please do me a favor and explain that to me.

Best Answer

You ask someone else is they can spare the time for something.

Excuse me, could you please spare a few moments of your time?

If you refer to yourself

I can spare some time to talk to you

it makes you sound self-important or condescending.

In the context of your loved ones, again it makes it seem that they are unimportant, if you say you can spare some time to be with them. So

I like to spend time with my loved ones.

You can also ask someone to spend some time with you, if you want to be friendly:

I'd really like it if you could spend some time with me.

If you can spare some time, you make the time available.
If you spend time, you are using the time that you have.

To complicate it slightly further, you might have some spare time that you can spend doing something.

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