Prone to

If you're "prone to" something, you are likely to experience it (or suffer from it)

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Prone to

Today’s expression is “prone to.” That simply means, “likely to do” or “likely to have” or “likely to suffer from” something. Smaller aircraft are more prone to crashes than larger aircraft. Smaller aircraft are more likely to suffer from crashes than larger aircraft. The elderly are more prone to falling than younger people. That makes sense, right? The elderly are more likely to fall than younger people. Some individuals might be prone to certain things. Because of your medical history, you might be prone to heart disease. You might be more likely to suffer from heart disease than is the average person.

Windows computers are prone to viruses, whereas Apple computers are not.

That person is “accident-prone.” Have you known someone like that? This week, he suffered a burn while cooking. Last week, he dropped something heavy on his foot. A month or two ago, he backed his car into a mailbox. Once last year, he fell off a ladder. He’s prone to accidents, or he’s accident-prone. More than anyone else, he seems to suffer from accidents.

A certain member of the staff of this program is prone to losing his wallet. I’m not going to name names; it’s not important who it is. But he is prone to losing his wallet. It has happened more than once. Again, I’m not naming names.

JR’s song of the week

JR’s song of the week is next! Today is the day after Christmas, so you probably still have Christmas or holiday lights up. Here in Chicago, the Lincoln Park Zoo has great Christmas lights up, as do the streets in Lincoln Square, near my house, and all up and down Michigan Avenue. And the song of the week is “Christmas Lights” by Coldplay. It’s a good holiday song and the words are easy to understand. I highly recommend you check this out, and thanks again to JR for selecting this song. “Christmas Lights” by Coldplay.

By the way, the first person to tell me where that song takes place will get a free month of Plain English Plus+. If you listen to the song lyrics, there is a hint about where singer is. Send me an email to [email protected] and tell me where that place is. City and country, please.


That’s all for today. Thank you so much for joining us. Once more, I hope you had a very nice Christmas and are getting a chance to enjoy a few days off here at the end of the year. We’ll be back on Monday for the last episode of Plain English in 2019. See you then!

If you’re serious about improving your English in 2020, then I encourage you to check out Plain English Plus+. One of the best features of Plain English Plus+ is our video lessons. With each episode—twice a week—we highlight one little piece of grammar or English usage and we show you how to use it in a video lesson. And if you think it’s just sitting back and watching—it’s not. You get to write your own sentences right from inside the video. These videos show you the ways to connect ideas, develop your thoughts, and sound more professional in your writing and speaking. If this sounds like what you need in your life, in your career, then come check us out at PlainEnglish.com/Plus.

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Story: Autopilot for landing planes