What is a cheap restaurant? What is an inexpensive restaurant? Do you want a cheap restaurant or an inexpensive one? Comments please. A Polish student of English posed the query.

It depends whether you are American or British.

Cheap and inexpensive are different here, but not like I think they are different in the US.

Cheap is, I think, a pejorative term in America.

I think the words have 2 different connotations in this context-- "inexpensive" can be taken as good quality for less money, and "cheap" could be taken as lesser quality for less money.

hope this helps!

Not completely on point, but cheap would be used to describe the budget traveler who asks for a discount when none is normally offered. Inexpensive would be used to describe the restaurant that already has lower prices.

Hi GS,

"Inexpensive" implies good value at a moderate price. For example, IL Ritrovo in Florence, provides an excellent full dinner with wine for under 100E for two. It is inexpensive for what it provides, but not cheap.

"Cheap" can be either (1) low price or (2)low value.

For example
(1) "Our tickets for Mama Mia cost only $3.00 each. That's cheap".

"We bought a cheap pair of shoes for only $3.00, but they fell apart".

Hope this helps.

You lucky ira...
The cheapest I've ever got was for the "Phanthom" $17.76 each ...

My mother went on a trip to New York with her ladies' group. They saw "The Producers" and "Mama Mia" for $10.00 ea.

???
Even for the group rate it is too good.
How did they got it ?

If this is a student of English, they should just know those words are synonyms. Usage varies by person and occasion. They mean exactly the same thing to me and I'd probably use the word "cheap" most of the time because it is shorter and more common in colloquial language. For that reason, a guidebook might use the word "inexpensive" because it is less colloquial and more what you'd use in a written article. Unless you were trying to catch someone's eye or be a little rougher for effect (eg, the books title "Cheap Sleeps in Paris" etc were meant to be catchy. She's changed them to "Great Sleeps" which I think was a mistake because it's so bland now and can mean anything; I think she did that to include some higher-end places).

I wouldn't want any student to think there is any definitive answer to this or that those words mean two different things.

"Inexpensive" would normally be thought of as more polite than "cheap."

For example, if you said a hotel was cheap it could carry a negative connotation. However, if you said it was inexpensive, it simply would mean that, according to your idea of budget, the hotel didn't cost a lot.

Technically they mean the same thing, but if you are corresponding with someone, you will be viewed more favorably if you use "inexpensive." If you are discussing an item, "inexpensive" would mean it didn't cost much but would in no way indicate it was of poor quality.

Don't call a person "cheap" as this would be an insult (whether true or not).

Ira explained the restaurant idea of cheap and inexpensive very nicely above.