Take something with a pinch of salt means not to believe something completely and to treat it with healthy doubt. It usually applies to rumours, adverts, reviews and big promises: you can listen, but you shouldn't believe every word. This is the British version; Americans say with a grain of salt. In an essay, be sceptical of something is more neutral.
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take something with a pinch of salt (UK); take something with a grain of salt (US)
- Online reviews can be fake, so I take five-star ratings with a pinch of salt.
- Take his fishing stories with a pinch of salt; he loves to exaggerate.
- Take hotel photos with a pinch of salt, because the rooms are usually smaller in real life.
What changed
First versionI perceive celebrity diet advice with a pinch of salt.
RevisionI take celebrity diet advice with a pinch of salt.
Perceive may look like a good verb for how you react to information, but it is a formal word about noticing and forming an impression, and it doesn't fit into the idiom. The verb here is fixed: take something with a pinch of salt.
The opposite expression is take something at face value: believe it exactly as it is presented. Don't take his promises at face value; take them with a pinch of salt.
Your turn
The advert promises you'll be fluent in a month, so I'd take that claim ___.
Show the answer
with a pinch of salt — Becoming fluent in a month is unrealistic, so the claim deserves some doubt: with a pinch of salt. At face value means believing it as it is, which contradicts the logic after so.
Write about a piece of news, advice or an advert that you didn't fully believe. Say where the information came from and why you doubted it.
When a lifestyle blog claimed that green tea burns fat overnight, I took it with a pinch of salt because the article quoted no scientists.
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