{"id":15619,"date":"2022-12-15T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/?post_type=expressions&p=15619"},"modified":"2024-11-20T23:12:28","modified_gmt":"2024-11-21T05:12:28","slug":"in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"expressions","link":"https:\/\/plainenglish.com\/expressions\/in-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"In the dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the dark<\/h3>\n

Today\u2019s English expression is \u201cin the dark.\u201d To be \u201cin the dark\u201d about a situation is to not know anything about what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Imagine owning a luxury mansion in another country and not being able to go see it. Imagine, also, that you\u2019re subject to sanctions <\/span>, so you can\u2019t hire people to check on your property <\/span>. Probably your family isn\u2019t allowed to travel. You might be feeling a little bit in the dark. You might be feeling like you do not know what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n

Indeed, they didn\u2019t know what was going on. Because some unlucky business and government leaders in Venezuela were the targets of a daring real estate scam<\/a> . While they were in Venezuela, scammers <\/span> in Florida were living in their houses, driving their vehicles, and faking their identities <\/span>. The true owners were in the dark the whole time; the true owners didn\u2019t know anything about what was going on.<\/p>\n

You can say, \u201cI was in the dark about\u201d something. People complain about <\/span> being in the dark at work all the time. Office politics <\/span>, right? \u201cI was in the dark about JR\u2019s new project to redesign <\/span> the web site.\u201d That means, I wasn\u2019t involved <\/span> in JR\u2019s new project to redesign the web site.<\/p>\n

Another common way to use \u201cin the dark\u201d is to say, \u201ckeep someone in the dark.\u201d To keep someone in the dark is to purposely not tell <\/span> that person what\u2019s going on, to purposely not let them have the information they need. <\/p>\n

Oh, here\u2019s a good example. Sometimes a young couple will move in together <\/span>, but they don\u2019t really want their parents to know that they\u2019re living together. So they kind of fake it\u2026they say they\u2019re living with roommates <\/span> or alone or something. They keep their parents in the dark about their living situation. This really only works if you\u2019re not in the same city, right? <\/p>\n

FTX, a cryptocurrency exchange <\/span>, recently collapsed <\/span>. The founder, Sam Bankman Fried, and a small number of other executives <\/span> knew they were using customer deposits <\/span> to make risky investment bets <\/span>. In simple terms, customers deposited money on the exchange, thinking the exchange would keep them safe. Instead, the exchange took their money and lost it on risky bets. Oops.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re still learning the details. But most employees at FTX were in the dark. The founder and a very small number of people at the top kept everyone else in the dark. They hid that information <\/span> from everyone else in the company. They kept everyone else in the dark. <\/p>\n

JR\u2019s song of the week<\/h3>\n

Now it\u2019s time for JR\u2019s song of the week. It\u2019s \u201cFly by Midnight\u201d by Automatic, featuring Jake Miller. Here\u2019s the line I like from that song. It says, It feels like \u201cI\u2019m on a waitlist <\/span> for someone to really know me.\u201d <\/p>\n

The song to listen to today is \u201cFly by Midnight\u201d by Automatic, featuring Jake Miller. Thanks, JR for that one.<\/p>\n

See you next time!<\/h3>\n

That\u2019s all for today. Congratulations on reaching the end of today\u2019s lesson. This was number 529, so the full lesson is at PlainEnglish.com\/529. <\/p>\n

Now a quick note. We are going to do something a little different over the holidays this year, which is that we\u2019ll have four lessons that are not really about trending topics. This is going to allow the whole Plain English team to have some flexibility over the holidays. So we\u2019ll do four holiday special lessons. They\u2019re going to be the same format as normal, but the topics will be a little more fun, a little more general. We\u2019re going to prepare them in advance, and that will let us all manage the holiday schedule a little easier. And I hope you like them, too.<\/p>\n

So the holiday special lessons will go from December 22 to January 2. That will give us a break, but I don\u2019t want you to have to think about anything too difficult over the holidays, so they won\u2019t be too much work for you either. Deal?<\/p>\n

All right\u2014that\u2019s it for today. See you Monday; have a great weekend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To be ‘in the dark’ is to not know about a situation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":15620,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"terminology_category":[139],"lesson_number":[2067],"keywords":[2070,708],"content_tag":[],"level":[],"class_list":["post-15619","expressions","type-expressions","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","terminology_category-expression","lesson_number-2067","keywords-dark","keywords-in"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn the dark | Meaning in English | Learn English expressions<\/title>\n <!-- Mirrored from plainenglish.com/wp-json/wp/v2/expressions/15619 by HTTrack Website Copier/3.x [XR&CO'2014], Tue, 11 Nov 2025 11:32:42 GMT --> <!-- Added by HTTrack --><meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /><!-- /Added by HTTrack --> <meta name=\"description\" content=\"To be "in the dark" means that you don't know about a situation. 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