TO PAY FOR

Happy Friday everyone and welcome back to the Daily Vitamin.

Which one of these sentences is INcorrect?
i) If you pay the dinner, I'll pay the cinema tickets.
ii) If you pay for the dinner, I'll pay for the cinema tickets.

Sentence (i) is INCORRECT because when we use the verb to pay to mean to buy, we MUST include the verb particle for, like in sentence (ii).

The structure of the verb pay for is: PAY (SOMEONE) FOR SOMETHING

We don't always directly include the someone in the sentence, but it is understood.

Example 1: My friend Jay is very tight (tacaño). He never pays for anything. It's a wonder he still has friends.

Example 2: If you pay for the food, I'll buy the drinks.

However, we can use to pay without for when we talk about paying the bill or paying taxes, because in these cases we are not buying anything.

Example 3:
Nancy: I want to pay for the dinner, honey.
Carlos: Okay. This time I'll let you pay the bill. But tomorrow, I'll pay for lunch.

Example 4: If you don't pay your taxes on time, you will have to pay a fine.

⇒ To get some writing practice, I encourage you to write your own sentence with today's verb. You can post your sentence to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing ASAP.

Enjoy the rest of your day and have an excellent weekend!