Voted Best Answer
Jul 24, 2012 - 04:20 PM
We use Payer without any preposition most of the time: to pay for something = payer quelque chose
I'm going to pay for the tickets = Je vais payer les tickets
Have you paid for the coffees? = Est-ce que vous avez payé les cafés?
But in some cases it's possible to add pour:
How much have you paid for this skirt? = Combien vous avez payé cette jupe? or pour cette jupe?
You can say: I paid 20 euros for these pants = J'ai payé ce pantalon 20 euros or J'ai payé 20 euros pour ce pantalon.
here in the second case it adds some emphasis, you use it to make an effect (here about the price/quality maybe...)
There are always several ways of saying things, for example you can say:
I've paid Paul for the tickets = J'ai payé les tickets à Paul or J'ai payé Paul pour les tickets
Here the second one is quite informal..
Ok, so to sum up I would recommend the user to use "payer" without pour.
I'm going to pay for the tickets = Je vais payer les tickets
Have you paid for the coffees? = Est-ce que vous avez payé les cafés?
But in some cases it's possible to add pour:
How much have you paid for this skirt? = Combien vous avez payé cette jupe? or pour cette jupe?
You can say: I paid 20 euros for these pants = J'ai payé ce pantalon 20 euros or J'ai payé 20 euros pour ce pantalon.
here in the second case it adds some emphasis, you use it to make an effect (here about the price/quality maybe...)
There are always several ways of saying things, for example you can say:
I've paid Paul for the tickets = J'ai payé les tickets à Paul or J'ai payé Paul pour les tickets
Here the second one is quite informal..
Ok, so to sum up I would recommend the user to use "payer" without pour.