Stand to
Today’s English expression is “stand to.” And you had to be listening carefully to hear it earlier because this is an easy one to miss.
In April, Twitter’s stock price was about $40 per share. Then, Elon Musk offered to pay $54.20 per share . But that was just an offer. Twitter got to decide if it would accept the offer or not. Well what do you think? If you have one share of Twitter and its current value is $40—you could sell it now for $40—and then someone comes along and offers you $54.20, what would you do? Shareholders stood to gain 35 percent just by saying “yes.” So guess what: they said yes.
The shareholders stood to gain a lot of money. This is “stand to” in the past tense. If you “stand to gain” or if you “stand to win” then you are expected to gain, or win, from some type of event or a situation. If you “stand to lose” then you are expected to lose from an event or a situation. When I say “expected,” I mean, there is a high probability of winning or losing.
Twitter’s shareholders stood to gain from accepting Musk’s offer. They were expected to gain $14.20 for every one of their $40 shares. There was a high probability that they would gain, so they stood to gain.
We typically use “stand to” with only three words. Stand to gain and stand to win, on one side, and stand to lose on the other side. If you were listening carefully, you may have noticed I used it a little differently. I said Twitter’s shareholders stood to make a lot of money—in that sense, it’s like they stood to gain.
Are you going back to the movies? In some ways, many of you are. Big-budget releases like Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World Dominion brought people out to the theaters. But non-blockbuster movies are having a harder time, even with star power. I saw an article that says the movie “Amsterdam” stands to lose $100 million.
That means, the movie is expected to lose $100 million. Promoters were hoping for a big first weekend, but it wasn’t as big as they thought. And now, after doing the projections, they believe the movie will lose money, meaning that it cost more to produce than it will make in profits from theaters. The movie stands to lose $100 million; the movie is expected to lose $100 million.
The World Cup is going on now in Qatar. Do you remember our discussion about a Super League in Europe ? It would take the very best teams from the individual country leagues and put them together in one continent-wide “super league.” The idea is not popular with fans , but it’s still not dead—there’s still talk of a super league.
Who stands to gain and who stands to lose from a league like that? Teams that would be excluded—they stand to lose. Think about Newcastle, for example. They’re in the English Premier League. They wouldn’t have the opportunity to play against Manchester United. And the English Premier League as a whole would lose their biggest team, so all teams in the league would lose money and publicity. So teams remaining in country leagues, they stand to lose.
The owners of the big teams stand to win. They would presumably get richer television contracts. And teams like Paris and Munich would play the best other teams all year, so the intensity and quality of play would go up. So those teams, I think we can say, stand to win.
What about fans? Some would like it, some would not like it. But I don’t think there’s a high likelihood either way. So I wouldn’t use “stand to” with fans, because I don’t think we know whether fans, in general, would be better or worse after this is done—if it is done.
Quote of the Week
It’s time for our quote of the week. Here’s one from John Keats, an English poet. He lived from 1795 to just 1821, he died at age 25 of tuberculosis. But still he is one of the English language’s most admired poets. So here’s a quote: “I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.”
“I would sooner fail” means, I would rather fail than not be among the greatest. So here’s the quote from John Keats, a famous poet: “I was never afraid of failure; for I would sooner fail than not be among the greatest.”
See you next time!
On Thursday, we’ll get ready for the World Cup. Since I know nothing about soccer, we’ll focus more on the tournament itself and less on the game play. Next week, we’ll touch on the election outcome in Brazil. And one of these days, we’ll talk about how some of the world’s biggest banks stand to lose hundreds of millions of dollars just for lending money to…the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. But that’s for another day.
In the meantime, check out this full lesson at PlainEnglish.com/520 and check back here on Thursday. See you then.
Learn more expressions like this
