Meaning & use
pay your way
Last updated
Meanings
phraseidiominformal
To pay for your own costs, instead of letting others pay for you or depending on them.
Grammar: Takes a possessive that matches the subject: she pays her own way.
Patterns
- pay your own way
- pay your way on a trip
Even when she was a student, she always insisted on paying her way.
We each paid our way on the trip and shared nothing.
He doesn't have much money, but he likes to pay his way.
phraseidiombusiness
To earn enough money from a business, project or activity to cover its own costs.
Grammar: Often used about things such as a shop or program: the shop pays its way.
Patterns
- something pays its way
The new cafe is small but pays its way.
The museum must pay its way without government help.
phraseidiom
To use your own earnings to fund your education or travel, such as working while studying.
Grammar: Usually followed by 'through' or 'across': pay your way through college.
Patterns
- pay your way through something
He paid his way through college by working nights at a gas station.
She paid her way around Europe by teaching English.
Word forms
| third person singular | pays his or her way |
|---|---|
| past tense | paid your way |
| past participle | paid your way |
| -ing form | paying your way |
Common combinations
- pay your own way
- I want to pay my own way, so please let me split the bill.
- pay your way through college
- She paid her way through college with weekend jobs.
- pay your way in life
- He has always paid his way in life.
- pay its way
- The project must pay its way within two years.
- expect to pay your way
- On the trip, we expect everyone to pay their way.
Synonyms and how they differ
- be self-supporting
- This is a more formal way to say you provide for yourself financially.
- stand on your own two feet
- This idiom stresses independence of any kind, not just money.
- cover your costs
- This is a plain business phrase that says nothing about independence or character.
- break even
- This describes a business that makes neither profit nor loss, while 'pay its way' says it covers its costs.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: pay your way or pay the way? pay your way or pay for someone?
pay your way vs pay the way
This is not the idiom; the possessive is needed, as in 'pay your way'.
pay your way vs pay for someone
This means paying someone else's cost, the opposite of paying your own way.
Practice
He didn't want charity, so he worked every summer to ____ through university.
Choose one answer.
'Pay his way' is the fixed idiom for funding yourself. The other forms are not natural English.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “pay your way”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.