See through means to recognise a lie or someone's real intentions: see through someone, see through an excuse. In a second meaning, see something through means to continue with something until it is finished, despite difficulties. With a hyphen, see-through is an adjective meaning 'transparent': a see-through bag.
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see through + person/lie/excuse; see + plan/project + through (to the end); see-through (adj.)
- The teacher saw through my excuse about the broken printer straight away.
- Most customers quickly saw through the shop's fake discounts.
- The project was difficult, but the team saw it through to the end.
What changed
First versionHe always has an excuse, but I can see him through.
RevisionHe always has an excuse, but I can see through him.
Many phrasal verbs put a pronoun before the particle, as in put it down, so see him through may look right. But see someone through means to support a person during a difficult period. To say that you recognise someone's tricks, put through before the object: see through him.
Everything depends on where through goes. Through before the object means recognising a trick: I saw through her plan. The object between see and through means finishing something: We saw the project through. With a pronoun the difference is especially clear: see through it and see it through are different phrases.
Your turn
The renovation took much longer than planned, but we'd started it, so we decided to ___.
Show the answer
see it through — The sentence is about finishing a renovation they had started, so it goes between see and through. See through it would mean 'recognise the renovation as a trick', which makes no sense.
Think of a time you saw through a trick: an advert, an excuse or a 'great' offer. Write what it was and what helped you spot the deception.
I saw through the free trial offer because the small print said I would be charged after three days.
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