Is payed a real word

Last Update: Jan 03, 2023

This is a question our experts keep getting from time to time. Now, we have got the complete detailed explanation and answer for everyone, who is interested!

Asked by: Elmore Kohler

Score: 4.5/5
(49 votes)

The correct past tense of the verb pay is paid, as long as the word is used in the financial or transactional sense. If the verb pay is used in a nautical sense, the correct form is payed.

Is it payed attention or paid attention?

The correct expression is paid attention, not payed attention.

How is payed used in a sentence?

Did pay or did paid?

So your first sentence with «did pay» is the correct one. You did pay the balance. You did paid the balance. «Pay» is a main verb, and «did» (the past of do and does) is an auxiliary verb.

Is payed a Scrabble word?

Yes, payed is in the scrabble dictionary.

43 related questions found

Asked by: Elmore Kohler

Score: 4.5/5
(49 votes)

The correct past tense of the verb pay is paid, as long as the word is used in the financial or transactional sense. If the verb pay is used in a nautical sense, the correct form is payed.

Is it payed attention or paid attention?

The correct expression is paid attention, not payed attention.

How is payed used in a sentence?

Did pay or did paid?

So your first sentence with «did pay» is the correct one. You did pay the balance. You did paid the balance. «Pay» is a main verb, and «did» (the past of do and does) is an auxiliary verb.

Is payed a Scrabble word?

Yes, payed is in the scrabble dictionary.

43 related questions found

What is the proper way to talk about the verb “to pay” in the past tense? Is it paid or payed?

• The infinitive “to pay” has many meanings, most relating to offering something (most commonly money) to someone else, commonly in return for services or goods.
• As an irregular verb, “pay” becomes “paid” in most instances rather than adding an “-ed” to the base word.
• However, there is another form of “to pay” relating to many nautical activities which follows the same conjugation rules except for the past tense, which becomes “payed” rather than “paid.”

When dealing with regular verbs, forming the past tense generally consists of adding “-ed” to the end of the base form or perhaps simply “-d” if the word already ends with an e. For instance, “jump” becomes “jumped,” and “smile” becomes “smiled.” 

However, there are frequent exceptions to the rule in the English language. It is notorious for absorbing verbs from other languages, often bringing along the conjugation rules for the word. The result is irregular verbs, which do not fit the same mold as most English verb transitions and even transition differently from one another. 

“Pay” is an irregular verb with a past tense spelling of “paid.” However, this word is unusual because it has a secret – a twin form of the expression with an alternate conjugation for the past tense, meaning something completely different.

What Does “Pay” Mean?

Most people understand the word “pay” as it relates to commerce. In this situation, it means offering currency, goods, or services in return for something else. 

• Kalahan dropped a pouch of gold coins on the merchant’s counter to pay for his new sword. 

If Kalahan continues to serve as a monster-slaying mercenary, he will need the best equipment for the job. In this example, he uses gold as his currency, trading it to a vendor for a new blade. 

However, you can offer something in some situations without expecting anything in return. 

• The entire village gathered to pay their respects when the honorable sage passed away. 

Here, there is no transaction taking place, but the villagers are offering their time and appreciation for this man as a form of tribute. 

• The bright sun shone outside, making it hard for Billie Joe to pay attention to his teacher, as his mind kept wandering to all the adventures he could be having instead. 

Another offering without a direct return, “paying attention,” refers to offering your focus and consideration to someone. While this targeted concentration could provide benefits since the teacher is providing a lesson, that is not always the case. After all, Billie is paying attention to the beautiful day outside and not gaining anything but a sense of longing. 

• The detective snapped the silver handcuffs around the criminal’s wrists, then took him to jail to pay for his crimes. 

In this case, the greater part of this payment is not currency, but intangible incarceration time, depending on the jury’s verdict. 

Sometimes, “pay” refers to money received in exchange for services like completing a job. 

• Once the sailors had their pay, they immediately headed for the nearest pub to make the best use of it. 

How to Conjugate the Infinitive “To Pay”

The base form of “pay” is the infinitive “to pay,” which changes depending on how we use it, generally to compensate for tense, number, and person. Here is the basic conjugation of the verb: 

 Person                                                                                         Past                                                                                              Present                                                                          Future

I                                                                                                       paid                                                                                                pay                                                                                will pay

You                                                                                                 paid                                                                                                pay                                                                               will pay

He/She/It                                                                                    paid                                                                                                pays                                                                             will pay

We                                                                                                 paid                                                                                                 pay                                                                               will pay

They                                                                                             paid                                                                                                 pay                                                                               will pay

You (all)                                                                                      paid                                                                                                 pay                                                                                will pay

The pattern is the same other than the present form of the third-person pronouns. In more complex tenses, the past progressive form is generally “was paying,” and the past perfect form is “has paid,” with a few exceptions for subject/verb agreement. 

Therefore, if someone changed the past tense to “payed,” which may be forgiven considering that is the basic rule of thumb in a regular verb, you would expect this to be a simple misspelling, right? 

Maybe. Or maybe not.  

When “Payed” Is a Correct Verb Form

If used when trying to spell the past tense of “to pay” with the above definitions, along with a few similar variations, “payed” would indeed be considered a misspelled word. However, “to pay” has another, less commonly used meaning that, in most cases, is nautical in nature. If that word makes you scratch your head, it means relating to sailors, boats, and similar concerns related to the sea. 

When used this way, the definition often relates to applying a waterproof seal to something, commonly a ship’s deck. It is also appropriate when referring to a gradual slacking of a rope or chain or offering them a bit at a time. 

• Marlowe could not see the bottom of the pit, so he tied a rope around his waist and gave the coil to Matthew; as he climbed down, his friend payed out that rope.

Because Matthew is letting his friend’s descent guide the amount of rope he is releasing, this is considering paying out the rope. It is interesting to note that the only time you can detect a difference between this form of “pay” and the common usage is in the past tense. 

Otherwise, it would appear thus: 

• “Matthew, pay out the rope to me as I climb down, okay?”

Here is another example of the past tense of these traditionally nautical meanings in play: 

• Because the crew did not paye the deck, it soon began to crack and splinter when exposed to the sea and rain. 

Remember, in this case, “pay” means to waterproof the surface, using tar, pitch, or some other sealant to protect it. 

Final Thoughts

Most of the time, if you see “payed” used to express the past tense, it is likely a spelling mistake. These writers are likely trying to convey a transaction and have followed the basic rule for regular verbs, adding “-ed” to the base form. As “pay” is an irregular verb, the past tense form in that scenario should be “paid” instead. 

That being said, “payed” is not always improper, as when referring to a gradual drawing out of rope or the act of waterproof sealing a deck or similar surface. In fact, this instance is often improperly attributed to the form “paid” for its past tense, as that conjugation is far more common and doesn’t “look” wrong to most people. In most cases, this is widely accepted even though it is technically incorrect. 

The two forms play out identically in any other tense, making these considerations irrelevant. 

Further reading: Led or Lead? Began or Begun? Pleaded or Pled?

Is paid attention or payed attention as confusing to you as it is to us? Well then, join us as we endeavor to sort this confusion out for good in this article.

You see, English is an enriched language but also a mighty confusing one. So we don’t blame you if homophones often confuse you and you can’t seem to decide the correct one.

Take paid attention or payed attention for example they both sound the same but do they also mean the same?

No, the two homophones do not mean the same and there’s a vast difference between their meanings. If you have trouble perfecting your vocabulary, try our workbooks or printable worksheets for help. They’re a splendid practice resource for children and will help polish their language skills too.

But for now, let’s turn out attention to the dilemma at hand: paid attention or payed attention? Let’s learn about the difference.

Paid Attention or Payed Attention? – The Difference

Many people say that payed is a correct one but we must explain that isn’t really. The past tense of the very “Pay” is essentially “paid”.

The only times we can consider “payed” somewhat acceptable is when someone uses it in a nautical sense.

So the next time someone asks you if payed is a real word, you can tell them it’s not. This also rules out the fact that “payed attention” is incorrect in comparison to “paid attention”.

The correct past tense of the verb “pay” is paid and whenever we have to use it in conjunction with attention, we will write it as “paid attention.”

Paid Attention – What it means

The phrase paid attention means that you listened to the entire message of a speaker. It refers to the fact that you heard them throughout their speech without losing focus. This phrase originated back in the 1730s.

The language experts of Great Britain at that time devised this phrase but it wasn’t till the 1750s when people truly adopted it. Once published writing became more popular, people began picking up phrases and their correct usage.

Payed Attention – Correct or Incorrect?

Now we come to the part that has been quizzing most of us. Some say that payed is not a real English Language word while others say it is appropriate to use payed in certain instances.

The truth behind those rooting for the correct of payed is that it is actually acceptable in metaphorical language but still not correct.

Metaphorical means in theory and when someone does use payed attention theoretically, they refer to the act of sealing attention from others.

Let us explain this a little more clearly to you.  Let’s assume that one of us is writing an article or a story and we use metaphorical language in it.

Only in that instance, we may write something like, “She stood on the stage, the eyes of the students were already on her, but she payed attention across the school with her captivating speech.”

Usually, we never encounter anybody using payed even metaphorically but in extremely rare cases, writers tend to use metaphors to bend rules.

Paid vs. Payed

The good news for you is that you really don’t need to worry about payed. In fact, you don’t need to make an effort to remember it if you don’t belong to the sea life.

You will simply stick to “paid attention” in all your writing pieces. But if you are a pirate or someone who works or intends to work on a ship, then you may have to remember payed.

Remember we mentioned the nautical usage of this irregular word? Let’s dive a little more into the depths of it.

Payed: The sealing of a deck of a ship for preventing leaks or straightening out a rope gradually.

While our regular paid means:

Paid: To either give money to someone for a service or commodity or to receive a misfortune or loss.

To make it easier for yourself, you must remember that ‘pay’ is merely an irregular verb if you use it in relation to money, revenge or loss, etc.

An irregular verb means that it is not following a conjugation pattern. Does this sound complicated to you? Well, then let’s sort it out below.

Instead of pay, payed or has payed, you will merely write pay, paid, or has paid. This is the crux of what it’s all about.

Oh, and another simple trick is to remember to use “paid” always when there is no involvement of a boat.

Pay and its Multiple Meanings

Perhaps the confusion behind paid attention or payed attention is largely due to the fact that the verb “pay” has multiple meanings.

Originally a Latin word, pay refers to a variety of things to do. However, the most primary meaning of this word is a transaction, when one pays another for something. It could be a payment in cash, in commodities, in intangible emotions etc.

Let’s explain this in detail below:

1. Pay in Payment

We all recognize pay primarily as a form of payment, usually in cash. But in unique situations, payment can also be in the form of barter. If we stick to this definition, we would use “paid” as its past tense always.

For example:

I paid a hundred dollars for these sneakers but they’re extremely comfortable.

2. Pay- Misfortune or Revenge

You may also use “pay” when referring to misfortune or revenge. The irregular verb in such an instance could refer to the act of making someone pay for their wrong actions.

Hence, even for the past tense of pay in this context, you will use “paid“.

For example:

The victim made sure the perpetrator paid for his actions.

3. Pay-In Attention

This point brings us back to our original question: is it paid attention or payed attention? Once again we will emphasize that “paid attention” is always the correct form except for the very rare nautical usage.

For example:

I paid attention in all the Math classes, which is why I have passed with flying colors.

As we said, the only time we may consider using “payed” is if it is in a nautical sense.

For example, we could use it to refer to waterproofing joints by painting them with resin and tar. We can also use “payed” when describing a ship falling off leeward.

The third nautical meaning of “payed” refers to letting out a chain or rope by slackening it.

Samples of Nautical ‘Payed’

1. Payed the Deck

The primary definition of payed refers to the sealing process of the deck of a ship to prevent leaks. It’s an important seafaring process that seamen have to carry out to secure their wooden decks.

This is not the kind of task that individuals attempt on a regular basis unless they work on a ship permanently. Only if you have this rare job, you may consider using the verb.

For example:

1. We payed the deck for the captain and he paid us a hefty fee.
2. The seaman on board payed the hull yesterday as punishment for disobeying the captain’s orders.
3. The captain had the deck payed to make it more seaworthy.

2. Payed the Rope

The other nautical definition for payed is straightening the rope. If you are familiar with ships, then you probably are aware that seamen have to slowly straighten a rope. They usually refer to this process as ‘paying the rope’.

When they have to describe the same thing in the past tense, they used “payed the rope“.

Let’s take a look at some sample sentences:

1. To raise the sail, the sailor first payed out the rope.
2. We wanted to lower the anchor so we first payed out the rope.
3. Our sailors wanted to climb down so we payed out the rope first.

These examples are a great help, aren’t they? Surely we have sorted out the confusion for you by now.

But if there’s still a wee bit of confusion remaining, all you need to remember is that as long as you’re away from the sea, use “paid“.

Payed vs. Paid

One fact remains clear: the correct past tense of “pay” is paid. With the exception of nautical usage, we cannot use “payed” in any other sentences.

So if you say, “I payed my debts in full”, you’d be writing the incorrect form of the verb. The correct form will always be, “I paid my debt in full”.

Final Thoughts

Paid attention is always the correct phrase to use, except for the times we are expressing a nautical situation. The verb pay means a transaction of a sort, and can be in several forms. These include debts, respect, attention, gratitude, and money etc.

While the nautical “payed” means the act of sealing a wooden deck for protection against leaks or straightening the rope of a ship.

Past Tense of Allow

Present Tense:	Allow
Past Tense:	Allowed
Past Participle:	Allowed
Present Participle:	allowing

What tense is is allowed?

Allow verb forms

Infinitive	Present Participle	Past Tense
allow	allowing	allowed

What is the verb form of Allow?

Regular verb: allow – allowed – allowed.

What is the past tense of Earn?

Earned

Is payed a real word?

The correct past tense of the verb pay is paid, as long as the word is used in the financial or transactional sense. If the verb pay is used in a nautical sense, the correct form is payed.

What type of verb is earn?

1[transitive] to get money for work that you do earn something He earns about $40,000 a year.

What is the word earn?

(Entry 1 of 2) transitive verb. 1a : to receive as return for effort and especially for work done or services rendered. b : to bring in by way of return bonds earning 10 percent interest.

What part of speech is earn?

part of speech: verb. inflections: earns, earning, earned.

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Which word is similar to earning?

In this page you can discover 69 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for earn, like: reap, gain by labor, bring-home, make, pull down, procure, be the breadwinner, acquire, bring-home-the-bacon, merit and gain by service.

What is the easiest way to make money?

Top ways to make money online and offline

1. No-risk matched betting. Hands down the quickest way to make a lot of money (well, without breaking the law).
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How can I make $500 a day?

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1. Take part in research (up to $150/hour)
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How can I make 5000 dollars a day?

Table of Contents

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Is 1000 a week enough to live on?

An income of $1000 per week – or $52,000 per year – will have a take-home of only $42,200 in Arizona – filing single, no other deductions. And then your after-tax income can be determined, and that’ll give you an idea of how much money you have to live on. Kai Herrmann, 45 wonderful years of living in the US.

Do you get taxed more for having 2 jobs?

So when you ask ‘do I pay more tax on a second job? ‘, the answer is no. You combine the income from both jobs, and pay tax on the whole. The Personal Tax Allowance 2019/20 – the annual tax-free income limit for everyone – only counts for the job you earn the most from.

Do you get taxed more for having 2 jobs UK?

The tax on a second job is often paid through a BR tax code. BR stands for Basic Rate, which is set at 20%. However, it is possible that your extra income could push your total earnings for a year into a higher tax bracket (if earning over £46,351) – meaning you may have to pay more tax.

Can you take a second job while on furlough?

Can I work for someone else while on furlough? Technically you can get another job while on furlough – as long as your boss doesn’t mind. Being on furlough means you are still employed by your employer, which means you could be in breach of contract if you do accept a new role.

Can I have 2 jobs UK?

By law, you can’t be asked by your employer to work more than an average of 48 hours per week in a single job. However, if you’re over 18 you can choose to work more hours than this and you might need to if you wish to take on a second job. Read more on maximum weekly working hours on GOV.UK.

Will my employer know if I get a second job UK?

Your employers will see you’ve declared that you have another job, but you don’t have to tell them how much you’re earning. Your yearly tax-free personal allowance will usually only be used against your main job and tax will be deducted accordingly, although you can ask HMRC to split the allowance between jobs.

Do I need to tell my employer I have a second job UK?

Your employers will see you have another job, but you don’t have to tell them where you’re working or how much you’re earning. However, you can ask for your allowance to be split between jobs. You’ll also have to make National Insurance contributions on both jobs if you’re paid over a certain amount.

Is it worth having 2 jobs?

Of course, there are some obvious benefits to having more than one job. The first of these is the fact that a second (or even third) job means a higher income – extra cash that can be used to pay off debts, add to savings accounts or simply pay the bills with.

How much tax do I pay for a second job?

You don’t pay extra tax for having a second job. You pay the same amount of tax whether you earn $1000 a week from a single job or across multiple jobs. When you do your tax return, we add all your income together and calculate the tax you need to pay based on your combined income.

How does having two jobs affect taxes?

Tax rates increase, the more you earn. It could change your tax bracket if you get a second job, and your income increases even a little. Suppose you’re single, and you’re on course to earn $40,000 from your first job. This puts you in a 12% tax bracket.

Should I get a second job to pay off debt?

Getting a second job can be a useful option to help you get debt under control, but it may not always be realistic or the right move. If you want to make a bigger dent in your debt, but you’re already making ends meet just fine, you’ll need to weigh the extra stress of getting another job.