take for granted: meaning and explanation
to take someone/something for granted = to not appreciate someone/something good in your life because it is so normal.
If you take something for granted, you never think it or about how lucky you are to have it, and you probably assume that you will never lose it.
If you are generally a healthy person, then you probably don't wake up every day thinking about how lucky you are to be healthy, or how wonderful it is to feel good or even just normal. You take your health for granted.
Most of us are probably also guilty of taking our loved ones for granted - they are such a normal part of our lives that it is easy to forget how lucky we are to have them and how, one day, they won't be here.
Have a go at these micro-dictation exercises to hear this expression being used in context – how much can you understand?
Listening exercises
Dictation #1
Accent: Northern England
About the sentence
...you never know...
You never know when/how/what/whether etc is used to say that something is possible or might happen at some point in the future. e.g. I always take a multitool with me wherever I go. You never know when it might be needed.
Dictation #2
Accent: North America
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Dictation #3
Accent: Scotland
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Extra practice
Here are some questions/links to help you learn the new vocabulary:
- Think carefully about your life - what do you take for granted?
- Have you ever experienced anything which stopped you taking someone or something for granted?
I appreciate my boyfriend’s actions toward me. However, It seems to me that sometimes I take them for granted(
It’s a common situation Victoria! Excellent example and perfect English, well done 🙂
I guess you are thinking of light (electricity), right?))
For a long time I’d been taking for granted water and other stuff which many people dream to have. But after watching the documentary film “Home” I began to appriciate even so normal things like drinking water, fresh air, food etc.
Sounds like an interesting documentary – I’ll have a look for it.
Careful with the verb ‘dream’: you can either dream about sth (generally when you are asleep), or dream of sth (which is something you really want to do one day, e.g. I dream of going back to Colombia one day). ‘To dream of sth’ is the one you want, so your example should be: “…which many people dream of having”.
PS – Yes, I was thinking of electricity – definitely something most people take for granted, but an incredible thing when you think about it.