phrasal verb · neutral

turn pale

UK/tɜːn peɪl/US/tɜrn peɪl/turn PALE

speakingtask2

to become pale suddenly because of shock, fear or illness

Examples

When the teacher mentioned the exam, several students turned pale.

She turned pale at the sight of the accident.

He turned pale when the doctor said the test results were abnormal.

Band 8 sentence

When the panel started asking about the missing data, the lead researcher visibly turned pale, which suggested deeper problems.

Collocations

  • turn pale at the sight
  • turn pale with fear/shock

Word family

turn verbpale adjective

Common mistakes

turn into paleturn pale

to turn paleturn pale

turned paledturned pale

Say it for a higher band

5go pale6become pale7+turn pale

Synonyms

go pale

Easily confused

go pale

She went pale as soon as she heard his name.

Related words

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