Pay versus pay off

[BobRitter]

Learn With Oliver:
Él trabaja muy duro para pagar sus deudas.
He works very hard to pay off his debts.

"He works very hard to pay his debts" seem better. How do we get from "pay" to "pay off" with pagar. The 2 sentences have quite different meaning. At least in English.

Como siempre, gracias. Bob

[JPablo]

Well "to pay" would just be "pagar", "to pay off" one could say "saldar (la deuda)" "liquidar" "pagar completamente"...

Oxford to the rescue, you can see other connotations here as well,

https://es.oxforddictionaries.com/translate/english-spanish/pay_off

[BobRitter]

Gracias JPablo.
Como yo pensó. Saldar parece ser el mejor opción por "to pay off".

Crecí en la valle San Fernando.