win over — persuade someone to support you or your ideas
phrasal verbC1IELTS 7+neutralcommon
to gradually persuade someone to support you, your opinion, or your side, especially when they were unsure or opposed at first.
Say it like a native
Textbook She gradually persuaded the sceptical board to support her.
Native She gradually won the board over.
'Win over' is the natural verb for bringing doubters round; 'persuaded the sceptical board' is heavier.
Pattern: win someone over (to something)
In use
- It took several meetings to win over the board members to our proposal.communication
- In my opinion, a good leader needs to be able to win over people who initially disagree, as this skill is essential for building consensus and moving projects forward.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ She won over them with her speech.
✓ She won them over with her speech.
With a pronoun, the object goes in the middle: 'win them over'.
Common collocations
win over + doubters— the crowd, voters, sceptics, them
Don't confuse it
Unlike the basic verb 'win', which means to succeed or get a prize, 'win over' focuses on changing someone's opinion or gaining their support, often through effort or charm.