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La ganancia por docena es el doble del costo.

La ganancia por docena es el doble del costo.
The profit per dozen is double the cost.
From Lesson 297:Fractions and multipliers (la mitad, el doble)·Spanish (Latin America)

Questions & Answers about La ganancia por docena es el doble del costo.

Why do we say del costo instead of just translating "double the cost" directly?
In Spanish, terms like el doble (double) and el triple (triple) act as nouns. To connect two nouns, you need the preposition de (of). You are literally saying "the double of the cost". Since costo is masculine, de and el combine to make del.
La ganancia is feminine. Why do we use the masculine el doble here instead of making it feminine to match?
El doble doesn't act as an adjective here; it is a fixed masculine noun that means "the double" or "twice the amount". Because it is its own noun, it keeps its masculine gender and doesn't change to match la ganancia.
Why is por used for "per" in por docena?
Using por to express rates, units, and frequencies is one of its standard rules. Whenever you want to say "per" something—like por hora (per hour), por persona (per person), or por docena (per dozen)—you will always use por rather than para.
Could I just say dos veces el costo instead of el doble?
You can say dos veces el costo (two times the cost), and native speakers will understand you perfectly. However, for exact proportions like "double" or "triple", using the specific noun forms el doble de and el triple de is much more common and sounds more natural in everyday Spanish.

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