Formas del verbo
Forma base
/peɪ/
Past Simple
/peɪd/
Past Participle
/peɪd/
Frases de ejemplo
Forma base · pay
- I pay my bills online at the start of each month.
Past Simple · paid
- She paid for everyone's lunch yesterday.
- We paid it together earlier this week.
- She paid without any hesitation.
- They paid it again the following morning.
Past Participle · paid
- The invoice has already been paid.
- I have already paid it more than once.
- She has just paid the very same thing.
- By the time we arrived, they had paid everything.
Colocaciones comunes
pay attention
to listen or watch carefully
pay a visit
to visit someone
pay the bill
to settle what is owed
Tiempos clave
| Presente Simple | Pasado Simple | Presente Perfecto |
|---|---|---|
I pay he / she / it pays | I paid | I have paid |
| Presente Continuo:I am paying · he / she / it is paying | ||
Guía gramatical
The verb "pay" follows the ABB pattern: the past simple and past participle share one form ("paid"), while the base form ("pay") is different. ABB is the most common pattern among English irregular verbs — roughly half of all irregulars fall here, so mastering this group pays dividends across the whole language.
Use the past simple "paid" to talk about a completed action or event at a definite moment in the past. It stands alone as the main verb — no auxiliary is needed. Common accompanying time expressions include yesterday, last week, ago, and when: "She paid the whole report by herself." The action is seen as finished and anchored to a specific past time.
The past participle "paid" always works together with an auxiliary verb. It appears in: (1) the present perfect with have/has — "I have paid this several times before"; (2) the past perfect with had — "By the time we called, they had already paid"; (3) passive voice — "The decision was paid by the board." Never use "paid" as a standalone past-tense verb without an auxiliary.
Memory tip: because "paid" and "paid" are the same, you only need to memorise one past form. Many ABB verbs follow recognisable sound shifts — a large group ends in -ought (bring→brought, buy→bought, catch→caught, fight→fought, seek→sought, teach→taught, think→thought), and another group shows a vowel shift plus -t (feel→felt, keep→kept, leave→left, mean→meant, sleep→slept). Identifying which sub-group "pay" belongs to can make the form easier to remember long-term.
Mini test
¿Qué oración es correcta?
Patrón de conjugación
El pasado simple y el participio pasado comparten la misma forma.