# "A buck fifty" vs. "a dollar fifty"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-buck-fifty-vs-a-dollar-fifty/690899>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [June 16, 2014, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-buck-fifty-vs-a-dollar-fifty/690899 "2014-06-16T12:21:15Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-buck-fifty-vs-a-dollar-fifty/690899/21 "2014-06-18T06:43:54Z")

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> [@Procrustus](#):
>
> Well, you did use the word “acceptable.”

Okay, I see that. I mean acceptable [pragmatically](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pragmatics). My suspicion is that a cashier in a store like like **StayseaDee** ’s avoids _buck_ not just for auditory reasons. And while DataX says it wouldn’t have offended his customers, I think that our unconscious tendency would be to never even consider it in that kind of store. It’s not that it’s slang, I believe, as much as it’s sociologically coded.

I’m working on a project for refugees who are hoping to start small businesses, and my job is the language part–how to make sure language doesn’t become a barrier to success.

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**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\
**Post date:** [June 18, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/a-buck-fifty-vs-a-dollar-fifty/690899/22 "2014-06-18T15:05:17Z")

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So this was a serious a question after all.

I would say that “bucks” and its cousin “grand” to be too relaxed for serious places of business.

Let’s say your purchase came out to an even $40.00.

At an upscale retail establishment, I would be quite surprised if the clerk said, “That’ll be forty bucks.” I wouldn’t take offense (obviously) nor call for a manager but it would be seem a bit out of place. You’d probably expect something like, “That’s forty dollars even”.

Further down the retail line, maybe you’d hear it at a grocery or convenience store if the clerk were trying too hard to appear folksy. “That’s forty bucks, please.”

For an actual sales transaction, I would expect the use of “bucks” maybe from a street vendor or perhaps at a yard sale. (“That old unicycle? I’ll let you have it for thirty bucks.”)

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