charge

You can use the word "charge" when buying something with a credit card:

• They charged their purchases with a credit card. (This sentence uses "charge" as a verb.)
• Can I charge this? (Can I use my credit card to make a purchase?)
• Do you have a charge card? (This question uses "charge" as an adjective.)
• Sheila charged everything with her MasterCard.

credit card / charge card

You can also use the word "charge" when asking about the price of something, or when describing any amount of money that’s involved in a purchase:

• How much are they charging for admission?
• How much do you charge for a repair?
• Dan found an extra charge on his bill, but he didn’t know what it was for. (This sentence uses "charge" as a noun.")
• There’s no charge for using this website. It’s free.

Another meaning for "charge" is when something or someone moves forward very quickly:

• Two armies charged at each other on a battlefield and the result was a bloodbath.
• Our company is charging forward with plans for a new line of products.
• A rhinoceros charged at full speed towards a couple of tourists taking pictures of it.

a rhinoceros

When a battery runs low on power, it needs to be charged. We also use the word "charge" when describing electricity:

• I can feel some sort of an electric charge coming from my laptop. What’s wrong with it?
• Is there a place where I can charge my cell phone?
• Her phone is fully charged. (The battery is at its capacity–entirely green.)
• Doug needs to charge the batteries for his camera.
• The dead battery in Nicoletta’s car needs to be recharged.

Put the preposition "in" before "charge" and you get "in charge." Use this when assigning responsibility:

• Who’s in charge of making decisions in your office?
• Parents in charge of a lot of children are constantly busy.
• The manager in charge of the store apologized to the customer who was treated unfairly.

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November 26, 2012