pagar

Pagar is the verb you reach for every time money changes hands — at a bar, on a card terminal, on a tax return, in an argument about whose turn it is. Morphologically it is a perfectly regular -ar verb in every tense except those that require a written u after g before e to keep the hard /g/ sound (pagué, paguemos, no pagues). That single spelling habit is the only thing standing between you and a clean paradigm. Beyond conjugation, pagar carries a small but dense network of prepositional patterns — pagar a alguien (pay someone), pagar por algo (pay for something), pagar con tarjeta (pay with a card) — and lives inside dozens of high-frequency expressions, from pagar a medias (to split the bill) to me la vas a pagar (you're going to pay for this).

This page lays out the full paradigm with the spelling-change forms highlighted, then walks through the prepositional grammar, the everyday idioms, and the small set of transfer errors English speakers make when they assume pagar maps cleanly onto English pay.

Non-finite forms

All non-finite forms are fully regular. The participle pagado doubles as the everyday adjective for paid (una factura pagada — a paid invoice; unas vacaciones pagadas — paid holidays).

Indicative — simple tenses

Presente

Fully regular. No spelling change needed — every present-indicative ending begins with o or a, where g keeps the hard sound naturally.

Pretérito perfecto simple

The yo form pagué is the textbook spelling change. Without the u, the letter g before é would be pronounced /x/, which would change the word entirely. Every -gar verb has the same change in the yo preterite: llegar → llegué, jugar → jugué, apagar → apagué, colgar → colgué, rogar → rogué. The u is silent — it does not add a syllable, it is purely orthographic.

Pretérito imperfecto

Fully regular. No spelling change needed — endings start with a. Used for habitual or background past payment (antes pagábamos el alquiler en efectivo — we used to pay rent in cash).

Futuro simple

Fully regular — endings attach to the full infinitive pagar-, so the g sits before an a and needs no spelling guard.

Condicional

Indicative — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto compuesto

In peninsular Spanish, this is the default for payments completed today or whose relevance is still in play. Ya he pagado la luz este mes (I've already paid the electric bill this month) is the natural Spain phrasing; the simple preterite ya pagué sounds slightly off here.

Pretérito pluscuamperfecto

Futuro compuesto

Condicional compuesto

Subjunctive — simple tenses

Presente de subjuntivo

Every present subjunctive form takes -gu- because every ending begins with e. Paguéis keeps the standard accent on the é. This is the same spelling logic as the yo preterite, applied across the whole paradigm.

Imperfecto de subjuntivo (-ra / -se)

Both -ra and -se forms are valid; -ra dominates in everyday Spain, -se survives in writing and formal registers. No spelling change here — the endings begin with a.

Subjunctive — compound tenses

Pretérito perfecto de subjuntivo

Pluscuamperfecto de subjuntivo

Imperative

Note the spelling: affirmative tú paga and vosotros pagad keep plain g (the endings start with a), but every other form — pulled from the subjunctive — requires -gu-. In very casual Spain speech you'll hear vosotros affirmative drop the -d (pagar todos), but pagad is the standard prescriptive form.

Prepositions: pagar a, pagar por, pagar con

Pagar takes three different prepositions depending on what you're highlighting. Each has its own role and they don't substitute for one another.

The last row is the one English speakers find counterintuitive. In English, pay takes for before the thing being paid: I paid for dinner. In Spanish, when the object is the bill or the item itself, you simply use pagar with a direct object, no preposition: pagué la cena, paga la cuenta, ¿quién paga el café? You only need por when you're emphasizing the price or the exchange (¿cuánto pagaste por esa chaqueta? — how much did you pay for that jacket?).

Pagar vs gastar

A frequent point of confusion for English speakers is the difference between pagar and gastar — both can translate as spend in English, but they aren't interchangeable.

• Pagar is the transaction: handing money over for a specific item or to a specific person.
• Gastar is the consumption: how much money disappears from your wallet over a period or category.

So you pagas the bill at the restaurant, but you gastas a lot on eating out this month. He pagado treinta euros por la cena (I paid thirty euros for dinner) vs gasto demasiado en cenas fuera (I spend too much on eating out).

High-frequency expressions with pagar

Pagar a escote is a peninsular favourite for when a group of friends splits the bill equally without itemizing — much more idiomatic than any literal translation of split equally. Pagar a tocateja is colloquial Spain for paying cash, right now, no waiting — useful at a market or in any negotiation.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Pagar is regular in every tense except those where a silent written u must be inserted to keep the hard /g/ sound before e.
• The spelling-change forms are: yo preterite (pagué), the entire present subjunctive (pague, pagues, pague, paguemos, paguéis, paguen), and all imperatives drawn from the subjunctive (negative tú, all usted/ustedes, nosotros).
• Use pagar a for the person being paid, pagar por for the price, pagar con/en for the method, and no preposition when the object is the bill or item itself.
• Pagar (the transaction) is not the same as gastar (the overall expenditure) — both can map to English spend.
• Pagar a medias / a escote / a tocateja / a plazos are the prepositional patterns you'll hear constantly in Spain when money comes up.