connective N1 uncommon casualwritten
〜をいいことに — taking advantage of ~
〜をいいことに ・ をいいことに
Meaning
- taking advantage of / exploiting (a favourable circumstance, usually unfairly) — disapproving
Key sentence
親がいないのをいいことに、子供たちは騒ぎ続けた。
Taking advantage of their parents' absence, the children kept making a racket.
Formation
| Attaches to | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Noun + の, or a plain-form clause + の | N／普通形 + の + をいいことに |
When: Always disapproving — the speaker judges the exploitation as unfair.
Examples
彼は私が優しいのをいいことに、何度も金を借りに来る。
Exploiting the fact that I'm soft, he keeps coming to borrow money.
客が少ないのをいいことに、店員はサボっていた。
Taking advantage of how few customers there were, the clerk was slacking off.
Easily confused with
See 〜をいいことに in real sentences
Jengo shows 〜をいいことに the way you actually meet it: inside real Japanese sentences, so it sticks instead of staying an abstract rule.
Study it in JengoSources Compiled from published Japanese grammar references.