Look on the bright side means to notice what is good in a bad situation and stay positive. Instead of focusing on what went wrong, you look at the better part of it. It is often advice or comfort: Look on the bright side! The idiom is informal and sounds natural in IELTS Speaking, but in an IELTS essay write one advantage is that instead.
When would you say look on the bright side?
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look on the bright side (of + noun); Look on the bright side: + clause; on the bright side, + clause
- I didn't get the job, but I'm trying to look on the bright side: the interview was great practice.
- Our flight was cancelled, but on the bright side, we got an extra day in Lisbon.
- Look on the bright side, Sam. At least nobody was hurt in the accident.
What changed
First versionLet's look on the light side: the rain means the museum won't be crowded.
RevisionLet's look on the bright side: the rain means the museum won't be crowded.
Light and bright can both be the opposite of dark, so light side may seem possible. But the idiom is fixed with bright. The lighter side does exist, but it means something else, the funny, less serious side of something: the lighter side of office life. The only change is light to bright.
On the bright side without look works as a linking phrase in the middle of a story: The hotel was far from the centre. On the bright side, it was very quiet. Look on the bright side usually sounds like advice, to someone else or to yourself.
Your turn
Anna lost her job, but she decided to ___: now she has time to finish her degree.
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look on the bright side — Anna finds something good in losing her job, time to finish her degree, and that is what look on the bright side means. Look on the light side is not an English idiom: the phrase only works with bright.
Think of something unpleasant that happened in the last month: a cancelled trip, a broken laptop or an exam that went badly. Say what happened and find one good thing about it using look on the bright side.
My laptop broke last week, but I'm trying to look on the bright side: I've read two books instead of scrolling through the news.
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