[Idiom] owe

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Will17

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Hello!!

Which is the right expression: " you owe me" or "you owe me one"?

Thank you!

W
 

bhaisahab

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Nightmare85

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***Neither a teacher nor a native speaker.***

I would choose:
You owe me one.

Usually you owe somebody something.
Leaving out the object makes it sound incomplete (to me), although it might be correct too.

Cheers!
 

emsr2d2

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As usual, context is everything!

If someone does you one favour, you might say immediately afterwards "That's great. I owe you one!"

If someone has been doing favours for you for a long period of time and you finally get the opportunity to do something nice for them, you might say "Let me pay for your lunch. After all, I owe you."
 
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