Thread: Pay money in or pay money on

Hello everyone,

I know that in English the preposition that follows the verb "to spend" is "on" but I am not sure about the one which follows the verb "to pay" . Here I have an example

How much money do you pay in your employees´phone bills
How much money do you pay on your employees´phone bills

Could you also use "for" instead of "in" and "on"?

Thanks

Originally Posted by Irland90

Hello everyone,

I know that in English the preposition that follows the verb "to spend" is "on" but I am not sure about the one which follows the verb "to pay" . Here I have an example

How much money do you pay in your employees´phone bills
How much money do you pay on your employees´phone bills

Could you also use "for" instead of "in" and "on"?

Thanks

Hi, Irland!

I wouldn't use the prepositions "in" and "on" with pay. Normally, the collocation for pay is "for."

Here's a list of other examples in case you stillhave doubts with it: pay | collocation examples, Usage and Definition | collocation dictionary

(Sorry for the late reply, better late than never they say!)

Originally Posted by Irland90

Hello everyone,

I know that in English the preposition that follows the verb "to spend" is "on" but I am not sure about the one which follows the verb "to pay" . Here I have an example

How much money do you pay in your employees´phone bills
How much money do you pay on your employees´phone bills

Could you also use "for" instead of "in" and "on"?

Thanks

I think the correct one is to say pay something in. We use "for" when you want to enphasize the cause or reason of the payment. E.g.: I paid for the mess I did.
In your case, I would say: How much money you pay for your employees´phone bills. (Some kind of punishment? )

pay money in:
To pay money into a bank account.

Pay for something:
to be punished for doing something bad to someone else, or tosuffer because of a mistake that you made