owing money to someone

Meanings

1. 1phrasefixed phrase

   Having to give someone back money that you borrowed or still have to pay.

   Grammar: Used after be or as a description of a situation: 'She is owing money to someone' sounds odd, so say 'She owes money to someone'.

   Patterns

   • be owing money to someone
   • owe money to someone
   • still owing money to someone

   After losing his job, he spent months owing money to several friends.

   The company is owing money to the tax office and cannot pay its staff.

   If you keep owing money to someone, it can damage the friendship.

2. 2phrasefixed phrase

   The state of having unpaid debts that must be returned to a person or organization.

   Grammar: Often used as a noun-like subject or after prepositions such as about or because of: 'Owing money to someone is stressful.'

   Patterns

   • owing money to someone is ...
   • about owing money to someone
   • because of owing money to someone

   Owing money to someone you know can feel more embarrassing than owing a bank.

   She was worried about owing money to someone who might tell other people.

   He avoided the subject of owing money to someone for as long as he could.

Common combinations

owe money to someone

I still owe money to my brother from last summer.

owing money on a loan

They are still owing money on a loan they took out years ago.

owing money to the bank

After the repairs, the family was owing money to the bank.

end up owing money to someone

If you keep borrowing, you will end up owing money to someone.

stop owing money to someone

He finally stopped owing money to someone after he sold his car.

Synonyms and how they differ

in debt

A more general phrase meaning you owe money overall, not necessarily to one particular person.

behind on payments

Focuses on being late with regular payments rather than simply having a debt.

borrowing

Describes taking money now and promising to return it later, while 'owing' describes the situation after you have taken it.

Opposites

Word family

owe verb

To have to pay money back to someone.

owing adjective

Still to be paid, as in 'the amount owing'.

debt noun

Money that you owe to a person or organization.

debtor noun

A person or company that owes money.

Commonly confused: owing money to someone or owning money? owing money to someone or loan?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “owing money to someone”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

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