bezahlen

== German == === Etymology === From Middle High German bezaln. By surface analysis, be +‎ zahlen. Compare Dutch betalen, Danish betale etc. === Pronunciation === IPA(key): /bəˈtsaːlən/, [bəˈt͡saː.lən], [-l̩n], (southern also) [b̥e-], [-lɛn] Hyphenation: be‧zah‧len === Verb === bezahlen (weak, third-person singular present bezahlt, past tense bezahlte, past participle bezahlt, auxiliary haben) to pay, give money Synonym: zahlen (see usage notes below) (intransitive) to pay, to balance a bill Ich möchte bitte bezahlen. ― I want to pay please. (transitive) to pay a sum of money [with dative ‘to someone’] Sie bezahlt 30 Euro. ― She pays 30 euro. Sie bezahlt mir 30 Euro. ― She pays me 30 euro. (transitive) to pay for an item [with dative ‘on behalf of someone’] Er hat das Bier bezahlt. ― He paid for the beer. Er hat mir das Bier bezahlt. ― He paid for my beer. (intransitive) to pay [with für (+ accusative) ‘for an item’] Er hat für das Bier bezahlt. ― He paid for the beer. (transitive) to pay someone [with für (+ accusative) ‘for a service’] Die Firma bezahlt mich gut. ― The company pays me well. Die Firma bezahlt mich für meine Arbeit. ― The company pays me for my work. (figurative) to pay (suffer consequences); syntactic constructions as above Du wirst bezahlen! ― You will pay! Dafür wirst du bezahlen! ― You will pay for that! Den Fehler musste er teuer bezahlen. ― He had to pay dearly for that mistake. ==== Usage notes ==== The unprefixed form zahlen is more common than bezahlen in senses 1.1 and 1.2, less common in senses 1.3 and 1.4, not common at all in senses 1.5 and 2. The transitive construction in 1.3 is generally predominant over that with für in 1.4. However, the opposite is true when the object is a pronoun or pronominal adverb. For example, it is more usual to say: Muss man dafür bezahlen? (“Do you have to pay for this?”), than: Muss man das bezahlen? (This difference in frequency is probably due to the possible confusion with 1.2.) ==== Conjugation ==== ==== Hyponyms ==== ==== Derived terms ==== === Further reading === “bezahlen” in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache “bezahlen” in Uni Leipzig: Wortschatz-Lexikon “bezahlen” in Duden online “bezahlen” in OpenThesaurus.de