Attends. Je vais payer pour ça.

Sentence Discussions French
#1
English Translation

Wait. I will pay for this.

I thought the French verb “payer” was English “to pay for” and therefore did not require “pour” after, like the verb attendre for “to wait for”?

#2

Hi @paris2020,

Well, as often, it depends … :slight_smile:

True, “payer” can be used without “pour”:

  • Je dois payer mes factures.

  • Il est obligatoire de payer ses impôts.

  • Un Lannister paie toujours ses dettes.

That said, “payer pour” can/will also be used in some cases.

I’d say that “payer pour [item]” puts the emphasis on a specific [item] (or a specific set of items).

I think the example sentence is actually quite good in this case. I don’t know if you’ve ever been grocery shopping with a friend, but I could see this sentence being used in this context:

You go to the checkout and your friend hands over his card to the cashier. At this point, you could say:

  • Attends. Je vais payer.
    → If you say that, you’re paying for everything you and your friend bought.

  • Attends. Je vais payer pour ça.
    → Maybe you picked up an item you really wanted to buy and so you feel that you should be the one who pays for it. (Or say you and your friend bought 20 items and you feel it’s only fair that the bill be split. You could pick 10 items and say “Attends. Je vais payer pour ça.” (i.e You’ll pay for these 10 items you selected and your friend will pay for the other 10 items.)

Another example:

  • T’as payé 100 euros pour ça?? (T’as = spoken shortened version of “Tu as”.)
    You paid $100 for THIS??

A friend may say this to you, if they think that whatever it is you bought, is definitely not worth 100 euros. Again, focusing on one item [or set of items].

And then “payer pour” can also used figuratively:

  • Un jour ou l’autre, il devra payer pour ses erreurs.
    → We’re not actually talking about money here, and using “payer” without “pour” wouldn’t work in this case.
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