Are both correct to say here: I had a complicated case so I paid a little more. VS

[B45]

Are both correct to say here:

I had a complicated case so I paid a little more.

VS

I had a complicated case so I had to pay a little more.

Talking about a cosmetic procedure.

 

[MikeNewYork]

They are both OK. I prefer the second. It makes it clear that the extra payment was required.

 

[Matthew Wai]

I think the first might suggest that the speaker paid a little more of his/her own accord, but I am not a teacher.

 

[Eckaslike]

I agree Matthew. It sounds to me that they may have chosen to pay more to have exactly what they wanted. e.g.. By choosing to use a more well known surgeon.

The second sentence sounds as though they were told they needed the extra work, and so they had little, or no, choice other than to pay for it in order to get the complete job done.

 

[Matthew Wai]

may

I think the first and the second B inside brackets above should be replaced with b and /b respectively in order to put the word in boldface, but I am not a teacher.

 

[Rover_KE]

Perhaps Eckaslike tried to bold a word but got it wrong, and tidied it up whilst Matthew was posting the above.

 

[Eckaslike]

Yes Rover_KE, that was exactly right.

I was posting from a mobile phone which decided to post the message twice. It also didn't highlight the word "may" properly, which I then rectified by removing the bold completely. I also had to delete the duplicate posting.

Unfortunately a poor combination of dodgy phone signal and fat fingers!

 

[Barb_D]

I think the first and the second B inside brackets above should be replaced with b and /b respectively in order to put the word in boldface, but I am not a teacher.

Matthew, the "I am not a teacher" is required when answering ENGLISH questions.

On matters of the world such as this case of HTML coding it is not only not necessary, but rather silly. Do we expect English teachers to know coding more than other people?

 

[Matthew Wai]

Barb_D, 'but I am not a teacher' suggested that poor English might have been used in the post irrelevant to English learning, as Rover_KE subsequently showed that 'to bold (something)' could have been used instead of 'to put (something) in boldface'.

 

[Barb_D]

There is nothing wrong with either form.

When you are making suggestions about how the world works (not English), you can skip the phrase in your response. Teachers don't know everything about everything. Your lack of English credentials do not make you other thoughts less valid so "but I am not a teacher" just doesn't apply. If you wish to add a phrase about not expressing yourself fluently, that's fine but IMO unnecessary.