Come true

Come true

“Come true” is an expression we use with two words, primarily: dreams and predictions.

If a prediction comes true, it means that the events you predicted happened. If a dream comes true, then what you dreamed about has become reality. In both cases, you think about an outcome in advance. You don’t know if it will happen when you think about it. But if it happens, it comes true.

When I say dreams, I don’t mean your dreams at night. Like, recently I dreamed I was in Portugal and didn’t eat any of the local food. I literally went to a grocery store, (in my dream) bought chicken breast and rice, and ate that the whole time I was in Portugal. It was a strange dream. But that’s not the kind of dream that can come true.

Instead, I mean a dream like a desire. If you want to know my dream job—other than running Plain English —it would be owning a small bookstore. I could be surrounded by the latest books. I’d always know what was coming out. I could open the shop late, 10 a.m. I could get to know my customers. That sounds great, right? It would be a dream job for me. Let’s see if that dream comes true. Let’s see if that dream becomes a reality.

Next month, the NFL, America’s football league, will hold its draft. The draft is when the professional teams choose young, amateur players to join their teams. Most new players come from university teams. And those players all dream of playing professional football. And late next month, NFL teams will call about 200 names on live television. For the players they choose, it’s a dream come true.

So that’s “come true” with a dream. It’s similar with a prediction. But a prediction can be good, bad, or neutral.

There was no shortage of predictions when COVID-19 was sweeping the globe. Do you remember those predictions? Here are a few predictions that did not come true. People (at least in western cultures) would continue to wear masks, even after the pandemic ended. There are some exceptions. But that prediction did not come true.

Nobody will want to go on a cruise again. Remember that prediction? That prediction didn’t come true either.

Cities would empty out; New York, Paris, and London would be ghost towns as people left for wide-open spaces in the country.

While it’s true many people left the city, other people moved in. So that prediction didn’t come true. Economists predicted a long recession; that prediction didn’t come true. A few economies did have recessions, but most were mild and short.

Do you remember the Titan? That was the submersible that imploded in the North Atlantic Ocean. We talked about it in Lessons 588 and 589. OceanGate was an extreme tourism company that took people on dives to the Titanic site. OceanGate took excessive risks. They were frequently and sharply criticized by others in the industry.

A lot of experts—a lot of experts with experience building deep-sea vessels—they predicted that something terrible would happen to OceanGate and the Titan. And that prediction, unfortunately, came true last summer when the vessel imploded under water, killing everyone on board. That tragic prediction came true.

The Academy Awards were last week. Who took home the Oscar for Best Picture? I have no idea. I recorded this in late February. But there’s a popular tradition in the weeks ahead of the Academy Awards: writing long articles predicting the winners. I read an article that said “Oppenheimer” would win Best Picture, that Paul Giamatti would win Best Actor for his work in “The Holdovers”, and that Emma Stone would win Best Actress for her work in “Poor Things.”

How many of those predictions came true? Only you know; I don’t know how many of those predictions came true. I don’t know how many proved to be accurate.

See you next time!

Speaking of Oscar predictions. I recently saw “Anatomy of a Fall.” It was really, really good. It’s a French drama, you might even call it a thriller. Sandra Hüller plays the main character and she is excellent. A lot of people like to watch the Oscar nominees and winners around this time. If you haven’t seen “Anatomy of a Fall,” put it on your list. It’s more than two hours, but well worth the time. It’s a great story.

And that’s it for Plain English today, Lesson 658 is in the books. We’ll be back on Thursday with number 659. And remember, in Thursday’s Story, we’ll talk about the ways COVID-19 has changed the world. It’s kind of like the opposite of what we did earlier today. See you on Thursday.