phrasal verb · informal
take turns
UK/teɪk tɜːnz/US/teɪk tɝːnz/TAKE TURNS
speaking
to do something one after another so that each person has a turn
Examples
“We take turns washing the dishes at home.”
“The drivers take turns at the wheel during long trips.”
“Please take turns speaking so everyone can be heard.”
Band 8 sentence
“To keep productivity high during the experiment, the team members took turns monitoring the equipment in two-hour shifts.”
Collocations
- take turns doing something
- take turns at the wheel
Word family
take turns, took turns, taking turns verb phrase
Common mistakes
We take turn doing the dishes→We take turns doing the dishes
We take turns to cook every night→We take turns cooking every night
Say it for a higher band
5alternate→6share→7+take turns
Synonyms
alternate
rotate
Easily confused
alternate
“We will alternate turns driving on the road trip.”
Related words
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In take …
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