English Café: Economic or Economical

Advanced Details: “economic or economical?”

Economic and economical are adjectives.

We use economic to mean “related to trade, industry or money”:

• The economic forecast for next year is not good.
• The Thailand Prime Minister spoke mostly about economic policy.

We use economical to mean “not using a lot of money”:

• Hybrid cars are very economical. (They do not cost a lot of money to run.)
• Solar energy for your home is expensive in the short term but it is more economical in the long term.

If you want an adjective related to the economy, economic is your word. If you want a word to describe something that saves money, like buying used equipment, use economical.