Pay off means to bring good results, or to pay back all the money you owe (a debt, a loan). Effort, a risk or a decision can pay off: Hard work pays off. With debts, the meaning is literal: to pay off a loan is to repay all of it.
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effort / practice / a risk + pays off; pay off + a loan / a debt / a mortgage; pay it off
- All those early morning runs paid off, and I finished the half marathon in under two hours.
- Moving to a smaller company was a risk, but it paid off: I learned far more there.
- It took my parents twenty years to pay off the mortgage on their flat.
What changed
First versionLast month I finally closed my car loan.
RevisionLast month I finally paid off my car loan.
In English, you do not “close” a loan when you make the last payment. You pay it off: pay off a loan, a debt, a mortgage. Note also that money borrowed from a bank is usually called a “loan”, not a “credit”.
“Pay back” means to return money to the person who lent it: I'll pay you back on Friday. “Pay off” means to clear a debt completely, often in instalments and to a bank: We paid off the loan in five years. For effort that brings results, use “pay off”: All that practice paid off.
Your turn
Maria practised speaking every day for a year, and it really ___: she passed her interview in English.
Show the answer
paid off — A year of practice brought a result, as Maria passed her interview, so “paid off” is right. “Paid back” is about returning money, and it is usually followed by the person who got it back: paid me back.
Write about an effort of yours that paid off. Say what exactly you did and what result you got.
Reading one English article every evening paid off: after six months, I could follow business news without a dictionary.
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