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TAKE ADVANTAGE OF

05 / 07 / 2007

TAKE ADVANTAGE OF: meaning and examples

Good morning. 

What's wrong with the following sentence?

i) While we were on the Costa Brava, we profit of the sea-water swimming pool.

First of all, profit is a noun which refers to the money you make in business or by selling things, but it's being used as a verb in this sentence. Following is a sentence that correctly uses the noun profit.

Example 1:
The Company made a healthy profit of more than one-hundred million euros last year.

My student, José Manuel, who wrote sentence (i), was really trying to express the following.

ii) While we were on the Costa Brava, we took advantage of the sea-water swimming pool.

Today's expression is: To take advantage of somebody/something

Meaning 1: to make good use of something; to make use of an opportunity.

Example 2:
He took advantage of his children's absence to take his wife out for a romantic dinner.

To take advantage can also have negative connotations.

Meaning 2: to make use of somebody/something in a way that is unfair or dishonest.

Example 3:  
The employee took advantage of my generosity, and asked me for a 6,000-Euro loan. 

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Have a great day!