Payed vs Paid
The difference between payed and paid has to do with the acceptance of the word, as well as the meaning of each word. We all know the word paid, which is used to refer to receiving or giving money in exchange for a product or service. Paid is, in fact, the past tense of the verb ‘pay.’ However, some people use another spelling in place of paid and believe it to be correct. Yes, despite not being included in dictionaries of the world, some use the word payed instead of paid. Are these two separate and distinct words or just naiveté of people whose first language is not English? Let us take a closer look.
What does Paid mean?
The word paid means exchanging money for something. The past tense of say is said; this is one way of making the past tense of a word though, there are many different ways of making the past tense of verbs. So, if pay is the present tense of an exercise that stands for making a payment to someone in exchange for his service or a product that he gave us, paid is the past tense of this exchange of money to him. Look at the following example.
I usually pay $1 for my newspaper, so I paid the hawker $30 at the end of the month.
According to this the word paid stand for giving the hawker money for the service of newspapers. Here, newspapers are exchanged for money. So, the past tense for of the word pay, paid, is used.
‘I paid the hawker $30 at the end of the month’
What does Payed mean?
Payed is not the past tense of pay, which means exchanging money for a product. So, if someone writes ‘Sam payed $400 for his suit,’ then the person is using wrong English. There is no doubt about that. Interestingly, most of the people who commit this mistake are non-native speakers of English. This can very well be a result of people being used to making a past tense by adding ‘ed’ to the present tense verb. So, for such people, understating paid as the correct past tense form may be confusing as they are used to making past tense by adding ‘ed’ to the word such as stayed for stay.
Some say that payed is an archaic word that stood for paid, before the word paid was invented. However, payed is not used anymore, and people making use of payed are termed as ignorant.
However, there is another interesting fact about the word payed. In fact, it appears that though payed is not the past tense of the word pay when it speaks about exchanging money for a product, payed is the past tense of the verb pay when pay means letting out a line or a cable loosely. Look at the following example.
He payed out the rope so that his brother could catch the other end of the rope.
In this sentence, payed stands for the meaning of letting out a line or a cable loosely. So, in that sense, it would mean ‘he let out the rope loosely so that his brother could catch the other end of the rope.’ However, nowadays, even for this sense, the past tense form paid is used.
‘He payed out the rope so that his brother could catch the other end of the rope’
What is the difference between Payed and Paid?
• Acceptance:
• While dictionaries all over the world recognize paid as the correct spelling for the past tense of pay, there is no place or country where payed is accepted as the past tense of pay.
• Meaning:
• To give or receive money in exchange for the product or service is what paid stands for.
• Payed has a different meaning which is letting out a line or a cable loosely.
• Past Tense and Past Participle:
• Paid is the past and past participle of pay.
• Payed is the past and the past participle of pay in the special sense that has to do with lines or cables.
• However, nowadays, for every meaning of pay including that to do with lines and cables, the past and past participle form paid is used.
Though payed does not stand for the past tense of the word pay that carries the meaning of exchanging money for a product, it does carry a meaning. However, nowadays even for that special meaning the word paid is used.
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