Take a Hint
This is another incredibly useful phrase that is used very often by native speakers.
Quite often in social situations it’s difficult and uncomfortable to be very direct with someone, especially if it’s a sensitive topic.
Imagine that you and your girlfriend are sitting on a the couch together and watching a movie. Now imagine that your roommate is sitting in the same room and watching the movie too. You probably hope that your roommate will leave the room and give you and your girlfriend some privacy (private time).
If you can see that your roommate is enjoying the movie, you may feel uncomfortable to ask him directly to leave the room. You might hold your girlfriend close to you and hope that he notices you want some privacy. If you do this, you are trying to “give him a hint” that you want him to leave. You don’t say it, but you can make him feel it. If he leaves the room, you can say he was able to “take a hint“. If he stays, you might think, “my roommate can’t take a hint“.
Here’s another example. Imagine you meet a girl at a bar and ask for her phone number. Maybe she gave you her phone number because she likes you, but maybe she just gave you her phone number because she was being polite and didn’t know how to reject you.
Now imagine that you call this girl and send her some text messages over the next several days. If she doesn’t answer the phone or reply to your text messages, it means she doesn’t like you. She is “hinting” that she wants you to stop calling and texting her. Her behaviour is letting you know that she’s “not interested”.
If you continue calling and texting her, she will tell her friends, “I met this guy at the bar. He’s nice but I would never date him. He keeps calling me and I never answer. He really can’t take a hint“.
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