Learn English – The difference between per person and each person

grammaticalityword-usage

What's the difference between the two?

'It costs $50 per person'

'It costs $50 each person'

Best Answer

It costs $50 needs an adverbial modifier if any is considered appropriate.

It usually costs $50.

It costs $50 Thursdays.

It costs $50 a bottle.

Adverbs, and the rare adverbial objective (noun used adverbially), fit the bill.

More commonly, to-infinitive clauses and especially prepositional phrases will be used:

It costs $50 to get there.

It costs $50 on the tram.

It costs $50 for a bottle.

It costs $50 per person.

It costs $50 for each person.

But

*/?It costs $50 each person.

would probably not usually be considered acceptable; it would be an adverbial objective usage, with the preposition 'for' dropped from the prepositional phrase, and this often does not give an acceptable-sounding variant. (This particular example may sound more acceptable in the States than in the UK. 'It costs $50 a person' would however be quite acceptable.)

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