Learn how to use the verb "Face"
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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. My name is Alisha, and in this lesson, we're going to talk about the verb "face." Let's get started. |
| The basic definition of the verb "face" is to turn towards something. Examples: "She faced her computer and opened her email." "The motorcycles faced the road and took off." Okay. Let's look at the conjugations for this verb. Present: "face," "faces." Past: "faced." Past participle: "faced." Progressive: "facing." |
| Now, let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. The first additional meaning is to accept something unpleasant and deal with it. Some examples: "You need to face the fact that it's time to move out." "Many people in the world face hunger." So, these are situations that are difficult to talk about, difficult to address, or are maybe problems in society that people have a responsibility to deal with or they just are stuck with. It's like some problem that it's difficult to get out of as we saw in the second example sentence. Like, "Many people face hunger." So, people who "face0 hunger, it means that that's part of their life. They are dealing with this unpleasant situation, this terrible situation. They have no choice but to try to deal with that. So, we use "face" to show that it's a difficult situation. |
| In the first example sentence, however, it's like a person is at a specific point in their life where they need to address something that might be difficult for them. "You need to face the fact that it's time to move out," means it's time for you to think about this issue. It's some it's something that you are at a point in your life where you need to address it. So, maybe you don't want to, but it's time to. So, we use the verb "face" for these cases. |
| The next additional meaning is to talk to someone when the relationship is bad. Some examples: "You need to face your boss and tell him the truth." "She faced her opponent and revealed the evidence." This use of "face" is used to describe relationships where you have to interact with someone that you do not have a good relationship with. So, it's like an enemy in a game or someone that you have a poor relationship with, a poor interpersonal relationship with. It's something that you probably don't want to do, but for some reason, you need to interact with this person. Like, you need to work with this person on a project, or you need to tell them important information, or there's something you need to say. So, this is when the situation is not so positive. |
| In the first example sentence, "You need to face your boss and tell him the truth," the nuance with the use of "face" here is that the relationship between this person and his or her boss is a poor relationship. It is not a good relationship. So, "You need to face your boss and tell him the truth," it's like saying you need to go and speak with your boss and explain the truth. So, we don't know the reason for the poor relationship. But the use of the verb "face" shares that it's not a good relationship for some reason. |
| In the second example sentence, "She faced her opponent and revealed the evidence," this could be in like a political situation for example. To "face" your political opponent and reveal some evidence. So, again, "face" shows us she faced her opponent. It shows us that the relationship is not a positive relationship, but she has to share something. So, she faced her opponent and revealed the evidence. So, there's something that she needs to share there. That's what this sentence is showing us with "face." Okay. Let's move along to the next variation. |
| The next variation in meaning is to meet in competition, to meet in competition. Some examples: "We're facing one of the best teams in the league today!" "Belgium faced Japan in the World Cup." So, in sporting competitions, especially in contests of skill, ability, in anything where you're competing against other people, other teams, other opponents, other players, you can use "face" to talk about that. You can imagine one player stands across another player. Like face-to-face. This might help you to remember it. This use of "face," however, does not necessarily have a negative nuance about it. It just describes the match which team or which player is competing against which team or which player. So, "face" here doesn't really have a nuance of negativity. It's actually just for competition. So, you can use this to describe lots of sporting events. |
| Now, let's move along to some variations with the verb "face." The first variation is "to face up to something." "To face up to something" is used very similarly to the first additional meaning that we talked about, which means to accept a difficult situation. Some examples: "He has to face up to the fact that he's not making enough money." "She needs to face up to the fact that she doesn't have the skills for the job." So, here we see "face up," and you'll very commonly see this used as "face up to the fact that." So, you have "to face up to something," to some kind of noun phrase. Some difficult situation, you need to accept that situation. |
| In the first example sentence, the difficult situation is a person who is not making enough money. "He needs to face up to the fact" means he needs to recognize this difficult situation and deal with it. In the second example sentence, "She needs to face up to the fact that she doesn't have the skills for the job," means she needs to accept that she does not have the skills required for her job and she needs to deal with that situation. So, you'll hear it "face up to the fact" and "face" used in the same way actually. It's up to you. You can choose whichever you prefer here. |
| Let's move on to another variation. This is actually a set expression an idiom that we use. We use the expression "face it," "face it." So, the expression "face it" is used just before we introduce something that's difficult, just before we describe something that's difficult. Let's look at the example sentences. "Let's face it. We're not going to finish this task on time." "Face it. She's just not interested in you." So, "face it" in both of these example sentences comes just before some unpleasant information, some unpleasant news. In the first example sentence, it's a group situation. "Let's face it. We're not going to finish this task on time." So, as we've seen in the additional meanings and in the variations, this use of "face it" means let's accept and deal with the fact that we're not going to finish this on time. But, "Let's face it" is very quick and very easy to say. |
| The second example sentence is like a command. "Face it." In other words, accept the situation, accept this difficult situation. "She's just not interested in you." This means she's not romantically interested in you. "Face it," it's like kind of a tough phrase to say for many people I suppose. But, this could be like a piece of advice perhaps. You might use this in advice to a friend or a colleague. |
| So, those are hopefully a few new ways for you to use the verb "face." I hope that you found something new. Of course, as always, if you have questions comments, or want to practice making sentences with this verb, please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs, and we'll see you again soon. Bye! |
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