Every cloud has a silver lining means that even a bad situation has something good in it. The image is simple: a dark cloud hiding the sun shines silver around its edge. People say the full proverb in conversation to cheer themselves or someone else up, while the short form the silver lining is that... (“at least the good thing is that...”) also appears in articles.
When would you say every cloud has a silver lining?
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every cloud has a silver lining; the silver lining is (that) + clause; there's a silver lining to + noun
- I missed my connecting flight, but I got a free night in Paris. Every cloud has a silver lining!
- Losing my job was hard, but the silver lining is that I finally started my own business.
- If there's a silver lining to this rainy weekend, it's that I finally finished my essay.
What changed
First versionMy flight was cancelled, but I spent an extra day with my family: there is no bad without good.
RevisionMy flight was cancelled, but I spent an extra day with my family: every cloud has a silver lining.
There is no bad without good is a word-for-word translation of a proverb from another language. A native speaker would probably guess the meaning, but English has no such proverb. The ready-made English version is every cloud has a silver lining. Only the translated part was replaced.
Look on the bright side is similar but sounds like advice: “focus on the positive”. Look on the bright side: at least nobody was hurt. Every cloud has a silver lining is more a piece of everyday wisdom: people say it as a conclusion about something that has already happened.
Your turn
Getting lost in the old town was annoying, but we found a lovely café there. The ___ is that we now know where to have breakfast.
Show the answer
silver lining — Getting lost was annoying, but it led to a lovely café, so there was something good in something bad: silver lining. The last straw is the final problem that makes you lose patience, while here the discovery is a pleasant one.
Think of a problem that ended up leading to something good: a cancelled trip, a rejection, something that broke. Describe what happened and what good came out of it.
My laptop broke a week before my exams, so I revised from paper notes and concentrated much better: every cloud has a silver lining.
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