to dawn on
49
3.7
- phrasal verb
- /dɔn ɑn/
:
darse cuenta (de)
- And then it dawned on me that I was not going home.
- suddenly dawned on me
- finally dawned on me
- realization dawned on me
And here's what dawned on me when my dad passed.
- And here's what dawned on me when my dad passed.
- So one day it dawned on me like an epiphany.
- Like it never dawned on me for some reason.
- And then it dawned on me that I was not going home.
- And it dawned on me though, I was there with my dad.
- And then she said the moment I was freed, it dawned on me.
- And then it dawned on him, were you there with me?
- And it didn't even dawn on me like what a miraculous thing that was.
- No sooner I sort of realised where I was and suddenly it dawned on me and I'm now back in the UK.
- And one day it dawned on me, I don't get to talk when I get to talk.
- But how long before that wears off and the, you know, the reality starts to dawn on you?
- You know, all my stuff was in storage and I was in between jobs and, and so I, it just dawned on me that I should do the Camino.
- And did did you ever feel like there's a like, did that dawn on you that this is almost a deliberate thing here?
- I mean, it kind of dawned on me that when you're that big, that's a really valuable lesson.
Examples
-
But as they voted, it dawned on me, something my sister had been trying to tell me for years, what my new friend reminded me today.
-
Suddenly, it dawns on me what he is up to.
Academic text (2008) -
Eight years together, and this is all just starting to dawn on you?
-
Then the meaning of his words began to dawn on me, and I felt sick.
Fiction book (1992) -
And it dawned on me that my success was born out of a crisis.
-
Soon, however, it dawned on me that no one would know better than the students themselves.
Academic text (2008) -
I came here because when I got that letter... it dawned on me that you and Ginger are the only family that I have left.
-
After seeing our fright, it did slowly dawn on him that he had done something wrong.
Academic text (2017) -
Sawyer looked confused for a moment, and then it dawned on him what she was saying.
Fiction book (1997) -
Then the meaning of his words began to dawn on me, and I felt sick.
Synonyms
An idea becomes clear to someone, often suddenly
Antonyms
How Clear
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'dawn' already carries the sense 'begin to become clear', so there is a conceptual/metaphorical link to the MWE meaning; the image of light appearing maps onto understanding. However, the particle 'on' and the phrasing make the construction somewhat idiomatic and its exact syntactic behaviour may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner who simply knows the words, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Dawn on comes from the simple image of a sunrise: when dawn shines on things, light slowly makes them clear. So an idea 'dawns on' you when you suddenly understand something and it now means 'to realize'.