Take its toll

Take a toll

Today’s word is “take a toll.” You heard earlier that the intense tour schedule took a toll on Avicii’s health. That means it negatively affected his health. You might know the word toll means a payment, so it kind of makes sense. When something takes its toll, it means that it causes suffering or damage.

It’s common to say something “took a toll” on a person’s health. That could be stress, drinking, travel, lack of sleep, things like that. You might say that eating badly and drinking too much over the holidays takes a toll on a person’s health.

Here’s another way to use it. Let’s say you’re in a relationship and one person has to travel a lot for work. You could say that one partner’s intense travel schedule might take a toll on the relationship. Or, if a parent loses his or her job, that could take a toll on the family’s finances.

The economic situation in Venezuela has taken its toll on the population there, as the people have to suffer through shortages of basic goods and services, not to mention an increase in violence.

Something can be fun, but also take its toll, right? You can go out partying Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and it will probably take its toll on your sleep schedule, or even your performance at work.

By the way, here’s a quick update to the podcast we did back in December. If you were listening way back in Episode 9, you remember that Saudi Arabia approved movie theaters for the first time after a 35-year ban. I saw in the news last week that Black Panther was the first movie to be shown in a brand-new AMC Theaters. Both men and women saw the show together—something that was previously unthinkable in the ultraconservative country. But one step at a time: a scene including a kiss near the end of the movie was cut from the version shown in Saudi Arabia.

That’s about it for today’s episode of Plain English. JR, the producer, and I are both very happy all of you are in the audience. Each time a new episode comes out, we send out emails with an explanation of one additional word or phrase from the episode. The emails also have links to articles about the main topic in English, so you can read more about the topics that interest you. If you want to get these emails, just go to PlainEnglish.com/mail and enter your details to sign up.

Remember that a new episode will be out on Monday. Monday’s topic will be Cuba—and the country’s first president not named Castro in almost sixty years. See you then.