Bear the blame

Someone who 'bears the blame' is responsible for something bad that has happened

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Bear the blame

Today’s English expression is to “bear the blame.” When you say someone else “bears the blame” for something, you believe that this person is responsible for something bad that has happened.

“Blame” can be a noun or a verb. When it’s a verb, you say, “I blame JR for making us late.” That means, I believe that JR is responsible for making us late.

But in the expression, “bear the blame,” blame is a noun, and it means “responsibility for something bad.” Blame, as a noun, is a very passive thing; there is no action involved. Notice also that it’s an opinion, and not everyone will have the same opinion. Usually one person is saying that another person is at fault; it’s that other person who “bears the blame.” But this is an opinion.

Imagine I say, “JR bears the blame for making us late.” I mean that it’s JR’s fault that we’re late; JR did things—or didn’t do things—and the result is, we’re late. Notice, JR doesn’t have to agree with this. He doesn’t even have to know that I said it. But in my mind, as the speaker, I think JR is at fault, so I say, “JR bears the blame for making us late.”

So imagine JR and I have an important business meeting to attend at 11:00 a.m. If JR oversleeps and we don’t arrive until 11:45, then I can say that JR bears the blame for making us late. But listen: he doesn’t have to agree. Maybe I said that I’d call him at 9:00 a.m. to wake him up, but I didn’t do that. Then JR might say I bear some of the blame.

And when something bad happens, there can be multiple people at fault. So the full blame doesn’t necessarily belong to just one person. In cases like that, you can say, “JR bears most of the blame, but I admit that I bear some of the blame, too.” You can say, “bear some of the blame, much of the blame, most the blame, all of the blame” whatever.

The other thing about “bear the blame” is that the person you’re talking about either feels bad about it, or should feel bad about it.

Let’s go back to our example. Imagine JR and I are on time and we’re walking to the meeting and JR trips and falls on the sidewalk, injures his wrist, and we have to go to the hospital—that’s an accident. I would never say, “JR bears the blame for making us late.” He doesn’t have to feel bad about that. So if there’s an accident, if there’s no fault, if there’s no reason to feel bad, then don’t use the word “blame.”

We talked about FTXa few weeks ago. Many people, including government prosecutors in multiple countries, they believe Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-30-year-old founder, bears the blame for the collapse of the business and the loss of billions of dollars of customer money. They believe Sam Bankman-Fried’s actions (or inactions) caused a terrible thing. They believe he is responsible and that he should feel bad about it. They believe he bears the blame for the collapse of FTX.

Sam Bankman-Fried has apologized for making some mistakes, but he doesn’t necessarily agree that he bears the blame for the full crisis.

This is a great illustration of how “bear the blame” is more about the opinion of the speaker than about the person named in the sentence. If I believe that Sam Bankman-Fried is at fault, then I would say, “Sam Bankman-Fried bears the blame.” But he has a different opinion—and that’s fine, when he talks, he can say that his rivals at Coindesk bear some of the blame.

Today’s current events lesson was about the earthquake and the sad consequences of bad construction in Turkey. Most of the media attention is on the national government. And the national government, I said, bears much of the blame for the low quality of construction in Turkey.

Notice: this is my opinion! I’m the speaker here at Plain English and when I say, “Turkey’s national government bears much of the blame,” I’m sharing my opinion. It’s safe to say that Turkey’s national government has another opinion.

Notice also I said, “bears much of the blame.” That means, my opinion is, there are other people who also bear some of the blame. Yes, the national government granted a sweeping amnesty, allowing badly-constructed buildings to stay standing.

But in many cases, building contractors decided to construct buildings that were lower quality. And building owners didn’t seem to mind too much when they were saving money on construction. And local governments didn’t do the inspections they should have done.

So does the national government bear the entire blame? Not in my opinion. They bear much of the blame, as I said, but I think a lot of other people have to bear some of the blame for the terrible consequences of this earthquake.

Quote of the Week

Here’s another one of those quotes that … you don’t have to agree with it to appreciate it. Some of you will agree with it! I won’t say whether I agree or not. But remember, I am the one who chooses the quote.

Here it is, by Anthony Burgess. Ready? “Youth thinks itself wise just as drunk men think themselves sober.”

So a drunk man thinks he’s sober because he doesn’t know any better; so, too, a young person thinks he is wise, because he doesn’t know any better. Those are Anthony Burgess’s words, not mine!

“Youth thinks itself wise just as drunk men think themselves sober.”

See you next time!

All right, that’s it for today. Coming up on Thursday: if you never had the pleasure of playing Super Mario Brothers on a Nintendo, you—or your kids—or your grandkids—can now enjoy Super Nintendo World, a new theme park based on a thirty-eight-year-old video game!

Super Mario Brothers came out on September 13, 1985! And now they are constructing Mario Brothers theme parks, almost 38 years later. I have not been, but I did enjoy reading about it, and I think you’ll enjoy hearing about it on Thursday. See you then!

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Story: Turkey earthquake recovery