Learn English – {pay / give} compliment

politenessword-choice

Many times people use pay and give interchangeably with the compliment. Could you please tell me which one is correct?

He paid her a compliment.

or

He gave her a compliment.

Best Answer

pay compliment is an idiom and pay is used in the sense of to give someone a compliment, consequently, both examples are correct in that they convey the same idea.

Another way to express it would be:

He complimented her.

The last example uses compliment as a verb.