If you mean a person who is cheap in the sense of being parsimonious, miserly, or tight with their money, as in a cheapskate, then the word thrifty answers your question in my opinion.
Rover

Student or Learner
Dear teachers,
The word cheap (person) bears a negative meaning. Could you please kindly explain are there any positive words that bear the same meaning?
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.
Jiang
If you mean a person who is cheap in the sense of being parsimonious, miserly, or tight with their money, as in a cheapskate, then the word thrifty answers your question in my opinion.
Rover
Last edited by Rover_KE; 05-Jul-2012 at 08:22.
Dear Barb_D,
I think the phrase is cheap person.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Thank you in advance.
Jiang
Remember - if you don't use correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing, anything you write will be incorrect.
Hello.
Please let me ask a question here.
Does 'cheap' collocate with 'person'?
"He is a very cheap person."
I've never read/heard a sentence like this.
I do know "Don't be so cheap (- meaning 'stingy' or 'mean'." is OK, but I don't think "Don't be such a cheap person." would work. Oh...hang on....It could work if the 'cheap' is used in the sense of 'having a low status' or 'not deserving respect'. Am I correct?
(Edit) collocates...![]()
Last edited by tzfujimino; 08-Jul-2012 at 14:45.
No, it doesn't work with "low status" or "not deserving respect". Although we don't often actually say "Don't be such a cheap person", that is what is meant by "Don't be so cheap". It's just a shorter (and more natural) way of saying it. If someone said "Don't be such a cheap person", it would still mean "Don't be so stingy". I think it sounds unnatural because of the use of the word "person". We rarely use constructions with "person" like that.
- Don't be such a nasty person. (Unnatural)
- Dont be so nasty. (Natural)
- Don't be such a mean person. (Unnatural)
- Don't be so mean. (Natural)
What you might hear after "cheap" would be another negative word, such as "b*stard" or "git". "Don't be such a cheap git" would not sound unnatural.
Remember - if you don't use correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing, anything you write will be incorrect.
Does the following seem negative to you? I think it's neutral, so maybe it could be used as a polite version of "He's cheap".
He's just careful with the money.
Please note that I'm not a teacher.
Remember - if you don't use correct capitalisation, punctuation and spacing, anything you write will be incorrect.
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