Lend itself
The phrase I want to share with you today is “lend itself.” It’s tricky, since lending is like, to give something to another person only temporarily. You expect it back. If I lend you a book, I expect you to return it to me in good condition. But when something “lends itself,” it means something totally different.
You want to use “lends itself” when you’re talking about how something is used, or whether it’s good for a particular use. This is a tough one to explain, so let’s see if we can work through some examples. The first example is the one you heard. Online dating lends itself to split-second judgments based on looks alone. This means that online dating is often used just to make split-second judgments on other people based on appearances. So we say that online dating lends itself to instant judgments based on appearance. That’s how it’s used. But—and this is important—it’s not always used that way. So this is about saying if something is often used a particular way, or if something is well-suited to be used in a particular way.
The internet lends itself to anonymity. Think about that for a second. It’s very hard to be anonymous in real life, but it’s easy to be anonymous on the internet. The internet, then, lends itself to being anonymous. Now obviously, that’s not everyone on the internet. So it’s just one way for it to be used. The internet lends itself to anonymity.
I think we need some more examples. Podcasts lend themselves well to language learning. Podcasts are often used for language learning—certainly not exclusively. But it’s a great way to practice a language—I think we can all agree on that, right? What else do podcasts lend themselves to? I think podcasts lend themselves to experimentation—there are tens of thousands of podcasts and they’re relatively easy to produce. It’s not easy to produce a good one—JR can tell you that much. But it is easy to start a podcast, so podcasts lend themselves well to experimentation. You can experiment with a new topic, a new format, and in a few months, you’ll know if you have many listeners or not.
What else, what else? How about this: modern technology doesn’t necessarily lend itself well to traditional romance. If you want to open a hand-written note, then a text message doesn’t sit well. If you want a romantic dinner, then a FaceTime conversation just isn’t going to do. Modern technology doesn’t lend itself well to traditional romance.
All right, I hope you learned something today. I sure did, so thanks to all of you who wrote to me on WhatsApp. The WhatsApp number is +1 312 967 8757. If you want to send an email, I’m [email protected]; JR is [email protected]. He loves hearing from you guys too. Don’t forget tomorrow, check back in your podcast app—Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify—for a special additional episode about today’s main topic—how the internet has changed the search for a mate.
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
