Hello!! Can you tell me pease When do you use the goods? and When do you use the merchandise?
many thanks in advance
Thinker
Hi,
Goods is more general.
Alan
Hi! To me, both are interchangeable. Please explain what you mean by “goods” is more general? A few examples would be very helpful. Thank you.
I think merchandise means goods that are now for sale. We say, for example that someone delivers goods. Once the goods have been delivered, they are displayed as merchandise. Remember that to have merchandise you need to have some kind of merchant. To have goods, you only need to have a manufacturer.
Oh, okay. I’d like to ask one more question though. What do we use if we are asking this question? Do we say, “Did you get the goods?” or “Did you get the merchandise?” Well, I think we say the first but how about the second sentence?
Both are okay, although you didn’t give me any context to judge from.
However, there is also an idiom “to get the goods”, which means to get the dirty information on someone. If you get the goods on your neighor, for example, you find out about crimes he’s committed, affairs he’s had, things like that. So if you say, “Did you get the goods?” in some situations that means, “Did you find out the bad things about him?”