Learn English – Can we use “taking advantage of” in a good sense

idioms

Please check the way I've used "Taking advantage of" in the sentence below?

How do you take advantage of these characteristics of colors in your
paintings?

Or should I use "exploit" or "make use of" instead of it?

Best Answer

I would say, your original sentence:

'How do you take advantage of these characteristics of colors in your paintings?'

-is okay. But if you feel it is too long and feels a bit off, then you can ask

'How do you take advantage of these color characteristics in your paintings?'

Now coming to the topic of "Take advantage of"

Well, it can be used in a good sense/meaning/context or a bad one.

Good- Take advantage of the opportunity; Take advantage of this discount;
Bad- Take advantage of a person; Take advantage of his/her weakness/fear;

But you are only talking about colour characteristics in a painting and it cannot come out in a bad sense.

To address your question further, exploit usually means to use to your advantage, so it comes very close to "take advantage of". Exploit can also be used in a good and bad sense.

Good- Exploit a new technology/market Bad- Exploit the poor/innocent

To "make use of" just means to "make use of". It does not show or imply whether you are using it to your advantage or not. So I don't think it will fit into your question.

The word apply is similar to make use of, it shows that you are using it but it does not describe if you are using it to your advantage or not.

I am a Software developer and I use the idiom "take advantage of" a lot, when I try to find how I can use various technologies to leverage the efficiency of my programs, I don't use "exploit" as much though.

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