The grass is always greener on the other side means other people's jobs, lives or cities always seem better than your own. You see their advantages from a distance, but not their problems. People often just say the grass is always greener. The flipped version, the grass is not always greener, warns against swapping one set of problems for another: it isn't perfect over there either.
When would you say the grass is always greener on the other side?
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the grass is always greener; the grass is greener on the other side
- I envied her quiet office while she wanted my busy studio; the grass is always greener.
- He expected every other job to be easier, forgetting that the grass is always greener on the other side.
- The grass is not always greener: the larger flat also needed far more cleaning.
What changed
First versionHe thinks every other job is easier; the grass is always more green on the other side.
RevisionHe thinks every other job is easier; the grass is always greener on the other side.
More green can seem like a safe way to compare any adjective. But green is a short adjective, and its comparative takes -er: greener. More green sounds wrong to native speakers. More green was replaced with greener.
Green with envy describes the feeling itself: jealousy. The grass is always greener explains why other people's things look better. All that glitters is not gold is wider: it's about anything that looks better than it is, not only what others have.
Your turn
Complete the saying: The grass is always ___ on the other side.
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greener — Green is a short adjective, and its comparative is greener. More green isn't used with short adjectives like this.
Write about a time when someone else's life or job looked better to you, and then turned out to have its own problems.
I wanted my brother's city life while he dreamed of my quiet village; the grass is always greener.
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