Take cover

Take cover

To “take cover” means to look for protection from something dangerous or unpleasant .

The most common time to use “take cover” is to talk about natural disasters . Are there tornados where you live? In the U.S., parts of the south , Midwest and Great Plains areas get tornadoes. The 1990s movie “Twister” took place in Oklahoma, the state just to the north of Texas. They get a lot of tornadoes

When a tornado forms, you want to take cover. You cannot be outside. You cannot look at it through your window. And don’t be like the guys in the movie, chasing it in your truck . You should take cover. You should find a safe area to protect yourself. If there’s a basement , go to the basement. If not, go to an interior room of the house on the ground floor, like a bathroom or a closet . That’s taking cover.

Do you get hail where you live? Hail is like balls of ice falling from the sky. Ironically , hail often forms in warmer weather. This isn’t a winter storm. It’s usually a summer or spring storm, and chunks of ice fall on an otherwise warm day.

If hail starts to fall, you’ll want to take cover. This isn’t as dangerous as a tornado, but you don’t want to be outside during a hailstorm . That can hurt. So you take cover—you seek protection under a roof of any kind. You can take cover in your car during a hailstorm. But it’s loud, and all you’ll be able to think about is the dents forming on the roof!

The sun can be dangerous. In the southwest of the United States, temperatures can reach 40 degrees or higher during the summer. That’s when you want to take cover. If it’s that hot and you’re outside for any length of time …that can be dangerous. If you have to be outside in the hottest months, do it early in the day or in the evening. But during those hottest hours, take cover inside. Get out of the sun.

Sometimes people will take cover for their comfort, not necessarily for their safety. Baseball is my favorite sport, as you know. Some baseball stadiums have a roof: that’s nice. But I like baseball outside. And at outdoor stadiums, most (but not all) of the seats are uncovered .

If you’re at a game and it starts to rain, you’ll see people take cover in the concourses or in the covered seats. This is not for their safety. This is just for their comfort. But still, you can say they take cover in the concourses if they escape the rain.

Usually in the U.S., if it’s about to rain, you can see it coming. But where I live now, in Mexico City, it can start raining suddenly , especially in the late summer months. You can be outside, enjoying a pleasant sunny day, and a few minutes later, it’s raining. Often, the rain only lasts a few minutes.

So if it starts raining suddenly, people take cover wherever they can— under awnings , at bus shelters , wherever—until the rain stops.

See you next time!

That’s all for us here at Plain English; lesson number 696 is in the books. If you want to practice using “take cover,” you can do that at PlainEnglish.com/696. Just click on the expression and then find the tab called “Your Turn.” You write a sentence, I give you personal feedback on what you write. That way, you can practice with us and then you’ll be an expert at “take cover” when the time comes to use it in the real world.

Not that this isn’t the real world. It’s just like a safer, more supportive version of the real world.

We’ll be back on Thursday—and on Thursday, we’re going back to school. See you then.