Suffer through

If you "suffer through" a period, you survive it, but can't change it

Today's story: Groundhog Day
Explore more: Lesson #19
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Suffer through

Today’s word is a phrasal verb: suffer through. According to my buddy Punxsutawney Phil, we have to suffer through six more weeks of winter. I’m betting that it’s going to be more than six weeks where I live; we will probably have to suffer through another eight or ten weeks of cold weather. By now you might have figured out that suffer through means to endure something; you just have to suffer while you do or experience something unpleasant.

Here are some more examples: If you get a cold, what can you do? Nothing: you have to suffer through it. There’s no cure for the common cold, right? There’s no way to make it better except wait for it to go away. You just have to suffer through it.

Have you ever watched a movie or sporting event that you find boring, but maybe your date or your friends really like it? What did you do? If you didn’t get up and walk out, you probably just suffered through it. You kept watching even though you wanted to leave.

You might remember back in Episode 7, I talked about Britain’s Prince Harry and his fiancée Meghan Markle. I saw an article this week saying they had to suffer through train delays on their way to an event in Wales. There was nothing they could do but suffer through the delays.


Thanks for suffering through another episode of Plain English—I hope this one wasn’t too bad! Have a great weekend, and we’ll talk again on the upcoming Monday edition of Plain English, where we’ll talk about the protests in Russia over the upcoming election. See you then

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Story: Groundhog Day