a silver lining

[ostap77]

'' There will always be a silver lining." I've got a question regarding the use of it, what context would you use it in?

 

[5jj]

Thanks to **##$ing regulations about machine-readable passports, I was recently not allowed to board a flight to the land of the free. I lost a planned holiday. Doom, gloom, despondency.:-(

Forced to remain at home, I am now spending my days sitting in the garden watching the crocuses, primroses and daffodils spring into life in my garden - something I would have missed if I had been allowed to wander round Arizona. Contentment.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

I might also use your expression here.

 

[ostap77]

Thanks to **##$ing regulations about machine-readable passports, I was recently not allowed to board a flight to the land of the free. I lost a planned holiday. Doom, gloom, despondency.:-(

Forced to remain at home, I am now spending my days sitting in the garden watching the crocuses, primroses and daffodils spring into life in my garden - something I would have missed if I had been allowed to wander round Arizona. Contentment.

Every cloud has a silver lining.

I might also use your expression here.

Would it be OK to say there will a silver lining in problems at work?

 

[5jj]

Would it be OK to say there will a silver lining in problems at work?

It's unlikely. We normally talk about silver linings after something good has come from something not so good.

 

[BobK]

:up: And we normally - though not always - mention 'cloud'.

b

 

[SoothingDave]

I think you can use the phrase as well to encourage someone to look for the good in a bad situation. Not only after the "silver lining" is evident.

 

[ostap77]

I think you can use the phrase as well to encourage someone to look for the good in a bad situation. Not only after the "silver lining" is evident.

Can it be used with differebt prepositions? So it can be used for "a shining ray"?

 

[Tdol]

I wouldn't use shining ray- how about glimmer of hope if the good thing hasn't arrived yet but there's a chance it will.

 

[BobK]

And if someone is 'a ray of sunshine' they are always happy and optimistic.

b

 

[BobK]

I've just heard this idiom in real life, so here's the story:

At my choir rehearsal this evening our accompanist, Christopher, was going to be late. The conductor said: 'I'm afraid Christopher won't be here till later. But this gives you the opportunity to practise singing unaccompanied -"every cloud has a silver lining."

b