The Past of Pay is Paid

The Past of Pay is Paid The Past of Pay is Paid The Past of Pay is Paid By Maeve Maddox A reader expresses dismay at lapses in the spelling of the past form of the verb pay:    An article in the Burlington (VT) Free Press today had  this heading:   Isle La Motte to vote on spending repayed funds. [W]hen did repayed become an acceptable word?   The answer, of course, is that it hasn’t. Note: a Free Press reader pointed out the misspelling on the paper’s site: repayed Who buyed your English classes? and the misspelled word was promptly corrected. Our DWT reader offers another, more unfortunate example: My friends son received a report card from his teacher that read:   Tate payed attention in class.   Language changes and irregular verbs morph into regular verbs with -ed endings, but some words are in such frequent use that the older forms endure. It’s difficult to understand how someone educated as a teacher or a journalist could fail to master such a basic irregular spelling as paid. The OED does include the spelling â€Å"payed† as a form used â€Å"chiefly in the nautical sense†: pay: v. To smear or cover (a wooden surface or join, esp. the seams of a ship) with pitch, tar, or other substance, so as to make watertight or resistant to damage. Also (occas.) with over. Merriam-Webster lists â€Å"payed† as a past form used for another nautical expression: pay: to slacken (as a rope) and allow to run out For the everyday sense of pay as remuneration, the past tense is paid. Two other common verbs ending in -ay that also change the y to i in the past are say and lay: say/said/have said lay/laid/have laid Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Spelling category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Coordinating vs. Subordinating Conjunctions26 Feel-Good Words