a saving grace — redeeming quality
collocationC1IELTS 7+neutraloccasional
a positive quality or feature in a person or thing that makes an otherwise negative situation or experience better or more acceptable.
Say it like a native
Textbook The one good quality that made the bad situation acceptable was the location.
Native The location was its only saving grace.
'The saving grace' names the single redeeming feature; the paraphrase is clunky.
Pattern: a saving grace (of something/someone) | the only saving grace
In use
- The only saving grace of the long commute is that I get to listen to my favourite podcasts.daily life
- Although the hotel was quite basic, its location near the city centre was a real saving grace for us.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ The film's only saving grace are the visuals.
✓ The film's only saving grace is the visuals.
'Saving grace' is singular — 'is', not 'are', even when what saves it is plural.
Common collocations
the (only) saving grace— only, one, its, was
Don't confuse it
Unlike 'main advantage' or 'best feature', 'a saving grace' is used when something is mostly negative but has one redeeming quality.