Take exception to

Take exception to

Today I’m going to show you how to use the English phrase “take exception to.” This is one of those phrases that doesn’t mean what you think it means. It doesn’t really have anything to do with the word “exception,” the way we normally use it.

To “take exception to” something is to object to it, to disagree with it strongly. You can take exception to a statement or a description. You can also take exception to an action, something that has happened. So let’s start with statements and descriptions.

If you say, “I take exception to that statement,” that means, “I strongly disagree with that statement.” So imagine that someone says—as they sometimes do—that all big American cities are too dangerous to live in. I would take exception to that statement. I would strongly disagree with that statement; you can refer to Lesson 499 and Lesson 500 to hear why.

In today’s main lesson, we were talking about Ben & Jerry’s. The ice cream maker decided to stop selling its products in the Palestinian territories , saying that it didn’t want to be part of an illegal occupation. The government of Israel took exception to that statement. The government disagreed strongly with that statement. The foreign minister—one of the most powerful government officials in Israel—objected.

Now let’s talk about taking exception to a thing or an action. I’m watching a political drama called “Borgen,” it’s from Denmark. In one episode, a political party discovered that its offices were being monitored by the country’s spies. The head of the party took exception to being spied on. The head of the party strongly objected to being spied on.

In another episode, the finance minister was fired. The finance minister took exception to the prime minister’s decision to fire him. He disagreed with the decision.

Here’s something funny from the news. Microsoft—a company worth $2.03 trillion as of the date I researched this lesson—Microsoft is suing a British mom who has a small educational business. Her business is called Word Window and it helps young kids learn to read. Microsoft takes exception to the name of her business. Microsoft thinks “Word Window” is too closely related to its Microsoft Word and Microsoft Windows software.

I think a lot of small entrepreneurs would take exception to Microsoft’s decision to sue this woman with a small business. After all, it’s not like the words “Word” and “Window” are really specific words, right?

Here’s another funny thing from the news. Do you know Tim Horton’s, the Canadian doughnut chain? Apparently the Tim Horton’s mobile app—for a year—was tracking users’ locations without their permission. Customers took exception to this unauthorized use of their data; the customers objected strongly to this. So they filed a class-action lawsuit against Tim Horton’s. The case went to court and the court approved a settlement. As compensation for using private location data for over a year, Tim Horton’s will give all affected users a free coffee and a free doughnut.

Quote of the Week

It’s Monday, so it’s time for a quote of the week. We didn’t have one last week, so I’ve got a few saved up. We did a few lessons in August about the James Webb Telescope. And I saw a funny quote about whether there’s life on other planets. Arthur C. Clarke was a science-fiction writer; you might know his work from “2001: A Space Odyssey.”

Anyway, he said: “I’m sure the universe is full of intelligent life. It’s just been too intelligent to come here.”

See you next time!

And that’s all for today. Congratulations on making it to the end of another Plain English lesson. This one was lesson number 502, so remember you can find all the lesson resources at PlainEnglish.com/502. We’ll be back on Thursday with a new lesson. See you then.