Afford I Time Work Verb Bre əˈfɔːd əˈfɔːrd

• can we afford a new car?
• none of them could afford £50 for a ticket.
• she felt she couldn't afford any more time off work.
• i’d give up work if i could afford it.

afford

1. to have enough money or time to be able to buy or to do something
• Can we afford a new car?
• None of them could afford £50 for a ticket.
• She felt she couldn't afford any more time off work.
• I’d give up work if I could afford it.
• We can't afford to go abroad this summer.
• She never took a taxi, even though she could afford to.
• He couldn't afford the money to go on the trip.
2. if you say that you can’t afford to do something, you mean that you should not do it because it will cause problems for you if you do
• We cannot afford to ignore this warning.
• They could ill afford to lose any more staff.
• We cannot afford any more delays.
3. to provide somebody with something
• The tree affords some shelter from the sun.
• The legislation aims to afford protection to employees.
• The programme affords young people the chance to gain work experience.

Extra Examples

• I couldn’t possibly afford to eat in that restaurant.
• She can well afford to pay for herself.
• We can afford to go to Miami this year.
• an amount which we could ill afford to pay

Verb Forms

• present simple I / you / we / they afford
• he / she / it affords
• past simple afforded
• past participle afforded
• -ing form affording

Word Origin

• late Old English geforthian, from ge- (prefix implying completeness) + forthian ‘to further’, from forth. The original sense was ‘promote, perform, accomplish’, later ‘manage, be in a position to do’.