Put (something) ahead of
Today’s English expression is all about priorities: what is important and what is not. And the expression we use to describe priorities is “put ahead of.” So what does it mean to “put something ahead of” something else? It simply means you give one thing a higher priority than other things.
In today’s main lesson, you heard that people who suffer from gaming addiction put video games ahead of other priorities in their lives, such as personal relationships, work, school, exercise, sleep, diet, and other things. They put video games ahead of everything else. And what that means is, they give video games a higher priority. They make video games more important than those other things.
Now it doesn’t mean that people suffering from gaming addiction don’t sleep, don’t eat, don’t have families, don’t work, don’t exercise, whatever. It simply means that they give their gaming a higher priority. When they could be exercising, they’re playing video games. When they could be interacting with friends and family, they’re playing video games. They give video games a higher priority, they dedicate more time to the games, they put video games ahead of those other priorities.
We use this expression when there are multiple things we could be focusing on, but we have to give one thing the highest priority. Work and family are two priorities that are often in tension. You sometimes hear people say they want to put their family ahead of their careers, meaning that they want to make their family time the higher priority. It doesn’t mean they don’t work, just that their family time is more important.
Other people may decide to put their careers ahead of starting a family, if they’re young. Many couples delay having kids until their early or even mid-thirties. They do this so they can put their careers ahead of any family obligations early on. Then, once they’ve achieved certain things at work, their priorities can change.
For kids, school and athletics are sometimes competing priorities. In my house, when I was a kid, we had to put school ahead of sports or other after-school activities. I was certainly encouraged to be active and be involved in a lot of activities. But I had to put studying ahead of those other things. I could do them both, but school work had to be a higher priority.
You may have guessed that I was not a star athlete. But some kids have a good shot at going to the Olympics or being a professional athlete. They sometimes put athletics ahead of studying; it’s really the only way to dedicate the time to get good enough at a sport at a young age. It doesn’t mean that they don’t study. It just means their athletic career is more important; that comes first, and they work private classes and tutors in around their training schedule.
In business, you might have two priorities: get new customers and take care of your existing customers. If you find that a lot of customers are unhappy, you might have to put customer service ahead of new customer acquisition for a while.
Governments have to maintain a lot of critical infrastructure, from the electrical grid to roads to railways. Politicians like to create new projects; they like taking the credit for splashy new things. But sometimes it’s best to put maintenance of existing infrastructure ahead of new projects. That means, maybe it’s best to put more money toward maintaining what we have instead of creating something new. That’s not always the case, but it is sometimes.
JR’s song of the week
JR’s song of the week is “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane. It’s about a hidden place that two people can go and be authentic with each other. One of the band members put it this way: “It’s about being able to draw strength from a place or experience you’ve shared with someone.” He said, “it’s an idea a lot of people can relate to.” One of the lines is, “I knew the pathway like the back of my hand,” which means he knew it very well.
Thank you JR for selecting that song for us this week, “Somewhere Only We Know” by Keane.
See you next time!
And here we are, we finished another week together at Plain English. The good news is, there’s always more coming next week. Every Monday and Thursday, JR and I have never missed a lesson in all these years. We’ve been a few hours late releasing them a couple of times—not recently, but years ago. We’re on a pretty good roll now, you can count on the new lessons being released early morning in the Americas every Monday and Thursday.
It’s February now, so I want to extend a special welcome to all the new members who joined Plain English Plus+ in January this year. We’ve had members join from Mexico, Brazil, Hungary, Taiwan, Japan, China, Spain, Italy, South Korea, India, Argentina, Ukraine, Poland, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Russia, Switzerland, and the United States. And that was just in January!
One thing I really love is how we have members from all over the world who enjoy Plain English Plus+ , and I cannot wait to get to know you better in the forums, on our live calls, and through all your practice examples that I read every week.
Congratulations and welcome once again to all the new Plus+ members from around the world. And if you’re not yet a member of Plain English Plus+, you can always join by visiting PlainEnglish.com/Plus .
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
