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jdn. teuer zu stehen kommen

I know it means something like: jdn. viel kosten.

But my question is: What is the grammar behind this verb? How come that the verb "kommen" came with another verb "stehen"?

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  • It means jdn. in ferner Zukunft viel kosten.
    – Janka
    Feb 26, 2023 at 21:33

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This is not an expert opinion, but I consider it a contraction of

Teuer zu Buche stehen kommen

Now "zu Buche stehen" is old-fashioned for "being an entry in a book / ledger" and "kommen" just describes the future aspect of it. All in all it means something like

This will become an expensive entry in your ledger

Additionaly, it is common to reorder an expression so an equivalent version of this saying is

Das kommt dir teuer zu stehen!

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    It's always "Das kommt dich teuer zu stehen!" though. Accusative, not dative.
    – HalvarF
    Feb 26, 2023 at 10:24

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