A reader asked which of the two sentences below is correct:
She told me in the face that I wasn’t good enough.
She told me on my face that I wasn’t good enough.
Answer
To my face
Actually, neither of these sentences would be considered correct by most English speakers. The standard construction uses to + possessive + face, as in the example below.
She told me to my face that I wasn’t good enough.
This construction, to my/your/her/his/ face, is used to indicate that information was shared directly with someone, rather than told to someone else. This is one of many common and useful expressions with face. Others are presented below.
Other common and useful expressions with face
Here are examples of other common and useful expressions with face. The meaning of each one is shown in parentheses.
Her face fell when I told her the bad news. (=She looked disappointed when….)
Her face lit up when she saw him. (=She looked happy when.…)
On the face of it, her idea seemed ridiculous. (=At first, ....)
She laughed in his face. (=directly in front of him, without trying to hide it)
She was afraid she would lose face if she admitted her mistakes. (=lose people’s respect)
He tried to save face by working overtime. (=avoid losing people’s respect)
You can refuse to talk to her, but you’re just cutting off your nose to spite your face. (=doing something that is meant to harm someone else, but also harms you)
