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English Vocabulary in Use Advance (Unit 75: A pat on the back: complimenting and praising)


A. Collocations with compliment and praise

  • The boss would get better results if she paid her staff compliments occasionally.
  • He asked us what we thought of his suit, but he was really only fishing for compliments.
  • Take it as a compliment that he feels relaxed enough to fall asleep at your dinner party!
  • A back-handed compliment and a double-edged compliment are ones that appear to be both positive and negative.
  • I took it as a back-handed compliment when he said I was looking good for my age.
  • She paid me the double-edged compliment of saying my driving was pretty good for a beginner.
  • The phrase give praise to is usually used only (though not exclusively) for a god. An action or person that deserves praise is praiseworthy and people are praised for their actions.
  • Other common collocations are widely/highly praised, praised to the skies, to sing someone’s/something’s praises, to shower/heap praise on someone/something.
  • To damn someone with faint praise is to praise with such a lack of enthusiasm that you give the impression of negative feelings.

Common mistakes

The verb compliment is followed by on: He complimented me on my guitar playing. (NOT He complimented me my guitar playing)

B. Other expressions relating to praising

Expression Meaning Example
pay tribute to praise; formal At the memorial service, I paid tribute to his kindness.
give someone a standing ovation stand up and clap loudly for a long time At the end of the concert, the audience gave the young pianist a standing ovation.
extol the virtues/benefits of praise highly; formal At the conference, the Prime Minister extolled the virtues of the new trade treaty.
be the toast of be admired for some recent achievement A few months ago, she was the toast of Hollywood.
pat someone on the back / give someone a pat on the back praise, often metaphorically My teacher patted me on the back for my good marks in the maths test.
earn/win plaudits get positive comments; formal The exhibition earned plaudits from all the major reviewers.
laud praise highly in official situations; formal The Prime Minister has lauded the new peace initiative.

These mostly informal expressions imply praising someone for your own benefit: to flatter, to make up to, to crawl, to suck up to, to lick someone’s boots. Such people are called smarmy, slimy or a crawler (informal), a flatterer (neutral) or a servile, obsequious person (formal).
Flatter can also be used more positively: That dress flatters her figure.
The noun flattery is often used in the phrase Flattery will get you nowhere!

Exercise-75.1


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