🗓️ Idiom: Pay It Forward
💬 Meaning
- Help someone because you were helped, not by repaying the original person but by helping someone new.
- Create a chain of kindness or support by passing on good actions to others.
🧠 Example Sentences
- After receiving a scholarship, she decided to pay it forward by mentoring new students.
- Our CSR campaign encourages employees to pay it forward through community service.
- He was helped during a tough time, and now he’s paying it forward by supporting others in need.
🏛️ Origin
This idiom became popular in the 20th century and was first recorded in a letter by Benjamin Franklin. It grew in use through books and movies, especially the 2000 film *Pay It Forward*, where a boy starts a movement of kindness by helping others who then help more people in return.
📝 Practice Exercises
1. Fill in the blank:
After receiving help, she wanted to ________ by supporting a local charity.
Answer
pay it forward
2. Multiple choice:
What does “pay it forward” mean?
a) Pay money in advance
b) Help someone as a way of passing on help you received
c) Return a favour to the same person
Answer
b) Help someone as a way of passing on help you received
3. Rewrite the sentence:
“He showed kindness to others because he had received kindness in the past.”
Answer
He payed it forward after others were kind to him.
Leave a Reply