When you are in a foreign restaurant (or even USA or the UK), at times you could get confused, about what you need to tell the waiter to pay for what you have ordered. Is it a bill, a check, or a receipt?
It is quite simple:
We ask for a bill to find out how much we need to pay and what we pay for. Similarly, the word check is used in America. This is the bill that they bring us in the restaurant. And, a receipt is given to us when we pay for a product or service. The receipt shows that you paid for it.
Bill
As mentioned above, we need a bill to know how much we need to pay and what we pay for. We could be billed at a restaurant, billed at a hotel, and we also pay bills for the use of water, electricity, and so on:
Let's split our bill in half.
We need to ask for a bill, or we’ll never leave this place!
Also, the work bill is generally used in British English. In American English, a “bill” could also be a term for “money”:
I only have fifty-dollar bills, so I can’t give you any change!
Check
The word check is generally used in American English and, as the word bill, it is a piece of paper that shows how much we need to pay in a restaurant or a café:
I would like a check for the whole table.
Receipt
A receipt is basically a piece of paper that is given when we pay for some product or service. The receipt shows that you paid for it and you can take it to keep track of your spendings:
- I would like to take the receipt.
- The receipt is already in the bag, sir.
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