Destined for
Today I’m going to show you how to say something is intended to reach a particular place. The way we’re going to do this is with the phrasal verb “destined for” and it’s almost always used in the passive voice.
So we say a thing is (or was) destined for…and then we put where that thing is intended to go, where it’s supposed to go.
Here’s an easy example. If you’re on a plane from Bogotá to Madrid, and you’re in the air, you can say “this plane is destined for Madrid.” That’s because the plane’s intended destination, the place it’s supposed to be going, is Madrid.
“Destined for” is often used in the past tense, when something did not reach its intended destination. So you can say, “The plane was destined for Madrid, but had to return to Bogotá due to a sick passenger.”
The plane did not make it to Madrid. Madrid was its destination, that’s where it was supposed to go. But there was a sick passenger, the plane had to turn around and go back, and the passengers had to take a different flight. So we say that first flight was destined for Madrid—but it didn’t get there.
In today’s story, we learned about something else that did not reach its destination. And that would be all the treasure on board the San José , a Spanish ship. The ship was sailing in the Caribbean; it was carrying gold, jewelry, and other valuables, all destined for Spain, to help the king in his war.
The treasure may have been destined for Spain, that may be where it was going, but it did not reach its destination. Instead , it sank to the bottom of the Caribbean.
A couple years ago, I went on a short road trip from Chicago to the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River carries a lot of cargo. So if you look on the river, you’ll see barges full of petroleum, iron, steel, grain, wood, chemicals, everything.
And the government operates a series of locks along the river. The locks make sure the river level is deep enough to accommodate these barges along the full length of the river. And you can go watch the boats come into the locks, you get a nice up-close view. I thought it was fun.
Anyway, the biggest boats on the river all use the same electronic tracking system. So from the cabin of the locks, you can see on a screen which boats are coming, how far away they are, where they originated, what they are carrying, and what port they’re destined for.
So a ship might come in and it might be destined for Dubuque, Iowa. That’s where it’s supposed to go, that’s its destination. The next ship might have a longer journey; it might be destined for Memphis, Tennessee. And so on.
There were three giant pandas in the zoo in Washington, D.C. They were on loan from the government of China. After being extended several times, the loan agreement ended and it came time for the pandas to go home and live out their golden years in China.
One day in early November, the pandas were packed up and put on a plane, destined for a panda reserve in Chengdu, in southern China. The pandas were destined for Chengdu. That’s where they were going, and they did reach their destination.
One more thing. There’s an idiomatic expression with “destined for” and that is “destined for greatness.” You use this when you think someone will achieve great things in the future. Bob Dylan, the singer, said in an interview that he always knew he was destined for greatness. He always knew he would be great. And he was.
People said that Sam Bankman-Fried was destined for greatness. Everyone thought he was going to do great, world-changing things in the future. But, as we saw, he did not reach his destination .
See you next time!
That brings us to the end of Plain English for today, Monday, December 11, 2023. Remember the full lesson is at PlainEnglish.com/632. In the video today, I’m going to show you how to represent one side of an argument. So if you’re telling a story about two people who are making two different sides of an argument, how can you represent the different positions they take? That’s on today’s video at PlainEnglish.com/632.
And we will be back here on Thursday with another lesson. See you then.
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