You can't rip apart that word into "auf" and "passen" and then individually translate them literally. The result seems nonsensical. I would say "aufpassen" is literally "be attentive" / "be watchful".

Edit: "to pay attention" is literally "Aufmerksamkeit zollen"

> You can't rip apart that word into "auf" and "passen" and then individually translate them literally.

Sure, just like you can't separate "pay attention". Both are idiomatic. But you can separate "aufpassen" into "Paß auf". (For the benefit of non-German lurkers, "Paß auf" is a command to pay attention.)

Replying to your powershell comment from 30d back-- you won't use aliases, you'd type g-ci <tab> for get-ChildItem

I would translate "aufpassen" more with "to attend" or "to watch over".

The literal analogue to "pass on" or "fit on" is "anpassen"; "auf" generally means "over", "on/to the top of".

"jemandem Aufmerksamkeit schenken", "Aufmerksamkeit auf etwas richten"