Borrow, Rent or Lease?

The questions from the previous post were:

① Why do we borrow a book from a library but rent a movie from the video store?

② What is the difference between rent and lease?

Question ① is the easiest to answer. 

• When we borrow something, it is not in exchange for money.
• When we rent something, we have to pay for it.

So, you borrow a book from a library, but you rent a movie from the video store.  In both cases, it is only for a short time.  You do not (or should not) keep the thing you are renting or borrowing.

Question ② is a little more difficult to answer.

• Both renting and leasing require us to pay money, they are the same in that way. The differences are:
• When we rent something, we do not own it, the owner gives us permission to use the thing for a fixed period of time only.
• When we lease something, ownership is also transferred to us for a fixed period of time.

So, the DVD from the video store belongs to the video store. It is not yours but you are allowed to use it for a short time. However, if you lease a car it belongs to you until the lease agreement, or contract, comes to an end.

I hope this helps clear things up for you!