Du solltest deine Miete im Voraus zahlen.

Sentence Discussions German
#1
English Translation

You should pay your rent in advance.

Why is “bezahlen” here wrong? “Du solltest deine Miete im Voraus bezahlen”

#2

There’s this Stack Exchange post, which mentions:

Bezahlen may be used to indicate completion:

So maybe in this case, bezahlen stresses that the rent needs to be fully paid in advance?

To me (I’m not a native speaker though), the two feel interchangeable in this case. If there’s a difference between zahlen and bezahlen, it’ll be very subtle. It won’t fundamentally change the meaning of the sentence.

#3

The lines are blurry and often they are interchangeable, but there are clear tendecies, and situations where I would use only one over the other.

I general I’d say:

  • You use “zahlen” when it’s something you owe, such as fees, rent, debts, taxes, etc. and where you use “to pay” in english.
  • You use “bezahlen” when it’s for something you received or bought, such as items or services, and where you use “to pay for” in english.

See also the usage notes section here: zahlen - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

So in the case of rent, I’d say “zahlen” is the better choice.

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#4

After thinking a bit more about it, yes, the completion aspect does also play a role.

“bezahlen” can be used when it’s a one-time payment, i.e. when it’s kind of transactional, whereas “zahlen” is for open-ended payments.

With rent, you could use “bezahlen”, because being given the right to use something can be seen as a “service” you pay for, and because, if it’s monthly for example, you could say you “bezahlen” for the current month, and then you’re even until the next month comes and another transaction is due.

#5

I agree. In this sentence, the difference is a nuance. Native-level speakers may intuitively feel that the one or the other word, very subtly, sounds a bit off, depending on the situation. But as speaker of a foreign language, you’re absolutely forgiven if you use these two words interchangeably. The pragmatic answer is: Don’t worry about the difference, at least in this sentence.

The sentence “Ich möchte das zahlen” (pointing at some item) would definitely sound wrong. Here, you’d definitely say “bezahlen”.

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