Archive for December, 2011

grammatical expression: (it) goes without saying



Well, it’s the last day of the year, so I’d like to write one last blog entry for 2011. It is the expression “goes without saying”, and it’s used when we want to assure another person about something. For example:

We’re very sorry about sending you the wrong item. We’ll send you the correct one immediately, and it goes without saying that there will be no delivery charge.

A: When we go out for my birthday, are you going to pay for dinner?

B: Oh, that goes without saying! It’s your birthday!

It goes without saying that I will do my very best at this job! Thank you for giving it to me.

As you can see from my examples, we usually put the word “it” at the beginning of this expression. However, if we use it as a response to another person, as in my second example, we use the word “that” instead.

When we say something “goes without saying”, we’re basically saying that it’s so obvious that it shouldn’t have to be said. However, we say it anyway in order to make the other feel assured about it.


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