Sink or swim describes a situation where you either succeed on your own or fail. People use it when nobody teaches or supports you and everything depends on you: a first job, a move abroad, studying in another country. The idiom is informal but sounds natural in IELTS Speaking; in an essay, express the idea neutrally: cope without any support.
When would you say sink or swim?
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it's sink or swim; leave someone to sink or swim; a sink-or-swim situation
- On my first day, nobody showed me what to do; it was sink or swim.
- The company left new sales staff to sink or swim during the busy season.
- Moving abroad at eighteen was a sink-or-swim experience, but I learned a lot.
What changed
First versionIn my first job, it was swim or sink.
RevisionIn my first job, it was sink or swim.
It may feel natural to put the positive outcome first. But the word order in this idiom is fixed the other way round: first sink, then swim. A native speaker will understand swim or sink, but it will sound like a mistake.
Throw someone in at the deep end describes the moment itself: someone is given a difficult task straight away, without any preparation. Sink or swim is what comes next: whether they cope depends only on them. They threw me in at the deep end, and it was sink or swim.
Your turn
The new interns got no training and had to deal with angry clients alone, so it was ___.
Show the answer
sink or swim — The interns got no training and were left alone with angry clients, so it was sink or swim. Plain sailing means that everything goes smoothly, and this situation is the exact opposite.
Describe a situation where you had to figure everything out on your own. Say what it was and what you learned in the end.
When I started working at a busy café, it was sink or swim, but I learned to stay calm under pressure.
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