live up to: meaning and explanation
to live up to something is a useful phrasal verb to talk about your reaction to something, specifically to say whether it was better or worse than you were expecting or hoping.
There are a few ways you can use this (and similar) expressions, depending on how you feel:
The film didn’t live up to my expectations = the film was worse than I was expecting
The film lived up to my expectations = the film was as good as I was expecting
The film exceeded my expectations = the film was better than I was expecting.
You can also use this phrasal verb to ask someone what they thought of something, and how their opinion compared to their expectations. e.g. How was the meal last night? Did it live up to your expectations?
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: English (RP)
Dictation #2
Accent: Northern England
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Dictation #3
Accent: North America
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the concert the other day? Did it your ?
About the sentence
…the other day…
The other day is a really useful time expression which you can use when you want to talk about something that happened recently, but it isn’t important (or you don’t know) when exactly. e.g. Something strange happened to me the other day…
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I was expecting good result in my fourth year of bacheolars but it didn’t live up to my expectations
Good example Amen, sorry to hear about your fourth year results!
Small correction: it should be “in the fourth year of my bachelor’s”, but it would actually sound more natural if you said, “in the fourth year of my degree”. We usually refer to a bachelor’s degree as a degree, and then a master’s degree as a master’s (e.g. you might say, “I’m planning on doing a master’s next year”).
Awesome listening practice this is close to c1 level test
Thanks Milton, glad you like it!
My country has always suffered from different natural disasters such as earthquakes, volcano eruptions, floods, tsunami, fire, etc. I wish this year wouldn’t have any natural disaster and it will live up my expectations.
Hi Veronica, really good example.
Be careful with ‘wish’ – in English, we don’t use this verb to talk about the future. For that, you would normally use ‘hope’.
‘Wish’ is used to express things that you want to change but can’t – it’s a way of talking about regrets.
Because we can change the future (and you can’t regret something that hasn’t happened yet), it doesn’t make sense to use wish when talking about the future.
So in your example, you could say: “I really hope this year we don’t have any natural disasters”. I hope so too.
Well done!
Actually I have the example not from my recent experience 🙂 I love the cartoon “How to train your dragon” very much! To everyone who knows me well it’s not a surprise I’m waiting for the new part (not sure if “part” is appropriately used). Hope it will live up to my expectations! 🙂
I watched the first one the other day, it’s great!
Unfortunately, sequels to good films often don’t live up to expectations. Hopefully the next How to Train Your Dragon will be an exception 🙂
By the way, instead of ‘part’ you could say the next film, new film, or next instalment (that’s a bit more formal).
Well, last year I was dating a handsome guy, but the more I know him, the less I I like him because he was such a self-centered person, show-off and much of what he used to talk about was nonsense for me. Shortly after, I realised that he didn’t live up to my expectations so I decided to split up.
Many of my friends who come to visit Bogota find the city more exciting and lively than they were expecting. When I ask them what they think of the city they tell me: “this city really has lived up to my expectations”. That make me feel great because that means they are very likely to come back some day, meet each other and have fun.