{"id":16326,"date":"2023-03-13T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-13T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/?post_type=expressions&p=16326"},"modified":"2024-02-25T15:29:37","modified_gmt":"2024-02-25T21:29:37","slug":"bear-the-blame","status":"publish","type":"expressions","link":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/expressions\/bear-the-blame\/","title":{"rendered":"Bear the blame"},"content":{"rendered":"
Today’s English expression is to “bear the blame.” When you say someone else “bears the blame” for something, you believe that this person is responsible for something bad that has happened.<\/p>\n
“Blame” can be a noun or a verb. When it’s a verb, you say, “I blame JR for making us late.” That means, I believe that JR is responsible for making us late.<\/p>\n
But in the expression, “bear the blame,” blame is a noun, and it means “responsibility for something bad.” Blame, as a noun, is a very passive thing; there is no action involved. Notice also that it’s an opinion, and not everyone will have the same opinion. Usually one person is saying that another person is at fault; it’s that other person who “bears the blame.” But this is an opinion.<\/p>\n
Imagine I say, “JR bears the blame for making us late.” I mean that it’s JR’s fault that we’re late; JR did things\u2014or didn’t do things\u2014and the result is, we’re late. Notice, JR doesn’t have to agree with this. He doesn’t even have to know that I said it. But in my mind, as the speaker, I think JR is at fault, so I say, “JR bears the blame for making us late.”<\/p>\n
So imagine JR and I have an important business meeting to attend at 11:00 a.m. If JR oversleeps and we don’t arrive until 11:45, then I can say that JR bears the blame for making us late. But listen: he doesn’t have to agree. Maybe I said that I’d call him at 9:00 a.m. to wake him up, but I didn’t do that. Then JR might say I bear some of the blame.<\/p>\n
And when something bad happens, there can be multiple people at fault. So the full blame doesn’t necessarily<\/a> belong to just one person. In cases like that, you can say, “JR bears most of the blame, but I admit that I bear some of the blame, too.” You can say, “bear some of the blame, much of the blame, most the blame, all of the blame” whatever.<\/p>\n The other thing about “bear the blame” is that the person you’re talking about either feels bad about it, or should feel bad about it. <\/p>\n Let’s go back to our example. Imagine JR and I are on time and we’re walking to the meeting and JR trips and falls on the sidewalk, injures his wrist, and we have to go to the hospital\u2014that’s an accident. I would never say, “JR bears the blame for making us late.” He doesn’t have to feel bad about that. So if there’s an accident, if there’s no fault, if there’s no reason to feel bad, then don’t use the word “blame.”<\/p>\n We talked about FTX<\/a>a few weeks ago. Many people, including government prosecutors in multiple countries, they believe Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-30-year-old founder, bears the blame for the collapse of the business and the loss of billions of dollars of customer money. They believe Sam Bankman-Fried’s actions (or inactions) caused a terrible thing. They believe he is responsible and that he should feel bad about it. They believe he bears the blame for the collapse of FTX.<\/p>\n Sam Bankman-Fried has apologized for making some mistakes, but he doesn’t necessarily<\/a> agree that he bears the blame for the full crisis.<\/p>\n This is a great illustration of how “bear the blame” is more about the opinion of the speaker than about the person named in the sentence. If I believe that Sam Bankman-Fried is at fault, then I would say, “Sam Bankman-Fried bears the blame.” But he has a different opinion\u2014and that’s fine, when he talks, he can say that his rivals at Coindesk bear some of the blame.<\/p>\n