Pay the bill

Nobody likes bills! You can have lots of kinds of bills - the electricity bill, the gas bill, or a bill after a meal in a restaurant or drinks in a bar.

Examples

• I have so many bills to pay. I need to earn more money!
• When you are ready to leave a restaurant, you can say, "I'd like to pay the bill, please?"
• In some countries, you 'pay the bill' after ordering; and in others, you 'pay the bill' before you leave. What do you do in your country?

Pay respect to

When you pay respect to someone, it can mean to honour them in some way.

Examples

• Offering a cup of tea or coffee is a nice way to pay respect to a visiting guest.
• Pay my respects to your mother, if you see her.
• I'm going to the funeral today to pay my respects to the man who died.

Pay attention (to)

When you ask people to pay attention to something. it means you want them to watch or listen to your message or what you're trying to say.

Examples

• If you can just pay attention for a moment, I can explain how the new software works.
• In the marketing department, we are always trying to think of new ways to get people to pay attention to the brand.
• You can ask someone to pay attention if you want to remind them to be careful: Pay attention when walking down the stairs. They are wet and slippy!

Pay a fine

A fine is usually something you are ordered to pay as a punishment.

Examples

• If people had to pay a fine for littering, we would reduce the amount of rubbish on the street.
• I had to pay a fine today for speeding in my car.
• Did you ever have to pay a fine?

These are some of the collocations you can make with 'pay'. Can you think of any others?