The two words both exist. Paid is the past tense of the verb pay when it involves financial transactions. Payed is the past tense of the verb pay when it is used to mean sealing a part of a boat to prevent leakage.
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Example sentences
Rather than reading the definitions, the best way to know when to use paid or payed is seeing what kind of context each word is used in. Below are some example sentences that can help you know when to use paid versus when to use payed.
Paid
- The company paid my medical bills when I got injured at work last Thursday.
- Kara paid off the last of her student debt with her savings.
- Do you get paid biweekly or monthly at your current company?
- The babysitter was paid extra to read bedtime stories to the two young children.
- The founder paid over $5,000 to have a statue of the company mascot built in the lobby.
- Jerry paid his electricity bill late and had to pay a late fine.
- That job at the construction site paid about $18 an hour before taxes.
- I paid a visit to my grandma in the hospital and remembered to bring her favorite flowers.
- Laura paid for all the bullying she did in high school by losing her reputation when she was exposed.
- I could tell you paid attention to the details when you knitted that design on your sweater.
Payed
- The sailor payed the gap between the planks to ensure no water leaked into the boat.
- The seams of the hull have to be payed with tar just in case water seeps in.
- To prevent leakage, make sure the deck of the boat is payed with pitch.
- The boatsman payed the grooves on the boat by using tar to fill them.
- The henchman complained that he payed the boat all day and night but no one noticed his efforts.
- Have you ever payed the deck of a ship before?
- Father guided me when I payed the small boat of ours last summer.
- We called the sailor who payed the deck last year to pay it again this year.
- The hull was payed with high-grade hot pitch that cost the crew a hefty amount of money.
- The boat will depart when the deck and hull are all payed and dry.
Here is an easy way to remember whether to use paid or payed. When the past tense of pay is used to mean something other than sealing the seams of a boat, then use paid instead of payed.
Practice questions
- You’ve paid/payed for all the crimes you’ve committed with your long sentence in jail.
- The plantation worker was paid/paid in flour and sugar instead of money.
- Can you tell the sailors paid/payed the ship’s deck last night by the smell of drying tar?
- The job paid/payed well until the recession, which caused the company to go into extreme debt.
- Jessica paid/payed her boss a visit in the hospital and brought him his favorite cookies along with the latest updates on the company.
- Can you check if the boat was properly paid/payed before we go out sailing in it?
- Arthur paid/payed his respects to the late chairman and placed white irises on his grave.
- We paid/payed our rent to the landlord a day late, resulting in a late fee of $50.
- The local library paid/payed $11 per hour, which was more than how much the libraries from the other cities paid.
- The boatsman paid/payed the mid-sized ship all by himself with hot pitch which took over a whole day to dry.
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Answers to practice questions:
- paid
- paid
- payed
- paid
- paid
- payed
- paid
- paid
- paid
- payed
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