A subsidy is money paid by a government or a big organization to keep a price down or to help an industry survive. It is the money itself, and it is countable: one subsidy, several subsidies. Farmers get subsidies; there are fuel subsidies, housing subsidies, childcare subsidies, subsidies for solar panels and for electric cars. Taiwanese students meet the idea constantly at home — 老農津貼, 電價補貼, 育兒津貼 — even if the English word feels academic. The point of a subsidy is that a price you see is not the real price. Someone has stepped in between the true cost and your wallet. That is why subsidies are argued about so much: they are popular with the people who receive them, expensive for everyone else, and very hard to remove once people are used to the low price. In trade disputes, countries accuse each other of subsidies that make competition unfair. Note the difference from close words: a subsidy supports a price or an industry, a grant is a lump of money given for a specific project, and a benefit or allowance is money paid to a person because of their situation. English keeps these fairly separate even though Chinese often uses 補助 for all of them. Common partners: receive a subsidy, cut subsidies, government subsidies, farm subsidies.