Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[kerstin]

1.
A: How much will you be paid for?
B: 1000 US dollars, under the condition that I will have gotten accepted by the employer.*

Is that a fancy way to say "only if"?

2.
The application fee of the summer working program and the wage of working in the summer will *even out*.

Is that a good way to put it?


Thanks

[redset]

1. Yeah, 'under the condition' or 'on condition' means 'this thing has to be true for the agreement to be kept'. It's a formal way of saying 'only if this is the case'.

(Oh, we say 'how much will you be paid'. You can say 'how much will you be paid for doing this work etc', and you can say 'what will you be paid for'.)

2. Yep, that's fine - you can also say balance out or cancel out. These all have the sense of being equal, that the summer wage will end up equalling the application fee and that it won't have cost you any money overall, but you won't really have made any money when you take the fee into account. You could say 'more than even out' to show that the wage won't just be enough to equal the fee, it will be more than enough and you'll end up with money left over.

[missdaredevil]

The application fee of the summer working program and the wage of working in the summer will probably cancel out or ...
How do I say I might have to shell out more than I will be paid for?

Thanks

[bud]

That's a good way: I might have to shell out more than I will be paid.

Another possibility: My pay might not cover the application fee.

[redset]

You could just say 'won't even out' too - it has a negative implication (like the pay won't even manage to match the cost of the application).