From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishpay attention (to somebody/something)pay attention (to somebody/something)ATTENTIONto watch, listen to, or think about someone or something carefully I’m sorry, I wasn’t paying attention to what you were saying. They paid no attention to (=ignored) him. → pay
Examples from the Corpus
pay attention (to somebody/something)• I wish you'd learn to pay attention.• Until you start paying attention, that is.• Feminists must pay attention to beliefs about male and female speech, because prejudice is often more powerful than fact.• Organizations in this environment must pay attention to flexibility, quality and asset utilization to remain competitive.• However, the candidate's response can be very revealing and interviewers should pay attention to it.• All I do is pay attention to my body.• Invariably, no one paid attention to them.• I don't think she was paying any attention to what I was saying.• And there they sat without frames, naked in the heat of high noon, waiting to be paid attention to. 