In the face of

Use "in the face of" when someone is confronting a situation

Today's story: Venezuelan crisis
Explore more: Lesson #63
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In the face of

Today I’d like to show you how to use the expression “in the face of.” Earlier on today’s episode, you heard that in the face of poverty in Venezuela, many are leaving the country for good. You use “in the face of” when you want to say that a person is confronting, or facing, a situation.

In the face of a tough situation at home, many Venezuelans are leaving the country. When confronted with, or when facing, the situation at home, they are going to Colombia or Ecuador. Here are a few more examples:

In the face of declining sales, the famous American retailer Toys R Us closed all its stores. That means, when confronted with, or when facing, declining sales, Toys R Us responded by closing its stores. In the face of fewer readers, many small newspapers are going to an online-only format. Here are a few examples from past Plain English episodes. In the face of corruption allegations and declining support, the president of Peru resigned. In the face of the “fake-news” scandal, Facebook revised what it shows you in your news feed. In the face of a tragic accident, Uber had to re-think its self-driving initiative.

Let’s turn these back around to the way you first heard them. The president of Peru was confronted with, or was facing, declining political support. As a result, he resigned. So we say, In the face of corruption allegations and declining support, the president resigned. You remember that Mark Zuckerberg had to testify before the US Congress about all the fake news and garbage that was showing up in people’s news feeds during the most recent US elections. Facebook was facing a lot of public criticism for showing this so-called fake news. So we can say, in the face of the fake-news scandal, Facebook revised what it shows you in your news feed.


I think you get the idea now. I hope you learned something on today’s program. Remember that you can look at the show notes and the transcript for that video on Comparte Por Una Vida. It’s a great story, everything they’re doing. I’ll also post a link for how to get involved and help out if that’s of interest.

I’ve heard from a number of people that they like the variety of topics, which is great to hear. I try to find things that are topical and generally interesting to me. If it’s not interesting to me, then it’s hard for me to make it interesting for you. If any particular topic catches your eye, you can always read more about it in English. That’s because I send out a summary email of every episode and in that email are links to the articles I read when preparing the show. So if you want to read more about a topic, just open the email, click the links and you’ll see exactly what I was reading when I prepared the program. If that’s something you’d like to be a part of, then it’s really easy to sign up. Just go to PlainEnglish.com/mail and enter your details.

That’s all for today. Have a great weekend. Remember on Monday we’ll have another of our World Cup special episodes, with the regular episodes next Wednesday and Friday. JR, the producer, and I both thank you for being with us.

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Story: Venezuelan crisis