Buy versus Bye versus By

What is the Difference Between Bye and By?

When to Use Bye

Bye is short for the word goodbye, which is a way to say farewell. A person who is saying farewell to a woman named Felicia, for instance, might say “Bye, Felicia.”


Bye can also refer to an uncontested round in a tournament, wherein a competitor may advance without having to win a match. This meaning came from lawn tennis, and is now widely used in the world of sports.

When to Use By

By is an adverb and a preposition.

As an adverb, by means past, as a bullet might fly past someone’s head.

For example,

I saw a penny on the sidewalk, but I walked right on by without picking it up.

As I drove, lights and signs flashed by out of nowhere, and I ignored them all.

As a preposition, by indicates who performed an action. A form could have been completed by the human resources director, for instance, or a man could have been kicked in the face by his wife.

For example,

The guitar solo on Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” was played by Eddie Van Halen.

I was stopped by a police officer for speeding, but she let me off with just a warning.

When to Use Buy

A third homophone to bye and by is the word buy, which can function as a verb or a noun.


As a verb, to buy something means to purchase it.

As a noun, buy refers to the item that one purchased.


Summary

Is it by or bye? The terms are not interchangeable, so be sure you know which is which before using either in your own writing.

Bye is a shortened form of goodbye.
By is a preposition and an adverb.
[Buy is used when

talking about purchases.

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