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Original sentence: There are some advantages of playing video games such as the excitement derived from it.

I was told that this sentence is incorrect as native speakers don't use "advantage" this way. I quote:

"advantage is a comparative term, relative to something else. It is not a perfect synonym for benefit."

I interpret this comment as: "We often use advantage when there are two things and one of them is better than the other in some way. But in your sentence, we don't compare "playing video games" with anything else."

However, I found many dictionary examples written in the same way:

  1. Being able to set your own schedule is one of the advantages of owning a business.
  2. There are advantages of having a global effort to fight terrorism.
  3. Is there any advantage in getting there early?

In the first example, if advantage is correct because the two options being compared are "owning a business" and "not owning a business", then I think the same reasoning can apply to the original sentence.

Another possible interpretation is that "excitement shouldn't be an advantage since other activities also give you this feeling". It's true but there are a lot of activities which don't, aren't there? People play video games because it's fun and exciting, otherwise they would study to destress instead.

So, to sum up, what's the exact reason why "advantage" is incorrect in the original sentence? Am I missing something here? Thank you!

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    I agree that the statement could be interpreted as meaning 'There are some advantages of playing video games, compared to not playing them, such as the excitement derived from it.'. However, it seems 'clumsy'. Advantages are dry, rational things, whereas excitement is a strongly felt emotion. I might prefer 'benefits'. The clash of 'number' between 'video games' and 'it' is awkward.
    – Michael Harvey
    Commented Aug 6 at 6:42
  • Thank you! Regarding "it", it's supposed to refer to "playing video games".
    – An IELTS Learner
    Commented Aug 6 at 8:06
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    You don't know the context of the examples you quote. They may have also discussed disadvantages. A dictionary won't give you a full text or even a paragraph; it gives a short extract which often doesn't have enough context to know exactly how the word is used. (With "Is there any advantage in getting there early?" there is also an implied contrast with getting there late.)
    – Stuart F
    Commented Aug 6 at 11:54
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    Whoever told you that the sentence is “incorrect” is just plain wrong. There’s nothing incorrect about it. Would benefits have been a better word to use? Yes, probably, unless the context set up some sort of comparison. But advantages is perfectly understandable and I daresay most native speakers would not notice anything unusual about the sentence if they weren’t actively looking for it. As for it vs them – your logic is absolutely right: it refers to the playing. It would just be more natural to refer to the games than the playing itself for whatever reason of idiomacy.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Aug 7 at 8:13
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    More than advantages vs benefits, the main thing that feels a little bit jarring to me is actually the preposition: I would naturally say, ‘there are some advantages to playing video games’ instead (but I would talk about ‘the advantages of playing video games’). Both are used, but I think to is more common when the prepositional phrase is outside the noun phrase (as in existential constructions with ‘there is/are’), while of is more common when it’s inside it (as in ‘an/the advantage(s) of X’).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Commented Aug 7 at 8:24

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It's not wrong, but you have been told the better word to use: "benefit".

The difference with "owning a business" is that everybody has to do something to earn a living, either own their own business, or work for someone else. The "Or work for someone else" is contextually (and culturally) understood.

But what is the alternative that you have to do if you don't play a video games? You don't have to do anything else.

Moreover in the case of owning a business, if you don't own a business you will have to work for someone else and so you won't be able to see your own schedule. But if you don't play video games.... you might do sports instead, and derive excitement from sports instead.

Now if you set up a comparison, there's nothing wrong. If you make it clear you are comparing "playing video games" with "studying a language", you can talk about the advantages of each.

In the other examples there are implicit alternatives: The alternative to a global effort to fight terrorism is a "national or local effort" (and not making no effort). The alternative to "getting in early" is "waiting and getting in late(r)" (and not, "not getting in at all")

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    I would like to add my own emphasis to the last two paragraphs here, since I think that's where the misunderstanding lies. Examples in dictionaries are given out of context, and it's easy to imagine examples that use "advantage" seemingly without setting up a contrast, at least in that sentence, but for which the contrast lies in the surrounding broader context. (also: it's easy to imagine examples that use "advantage" where "benefit" might be the better choice, and it's certainly not the worst mistake that ever gets made.)
    – Andy Bonner
    Commented Aug 6 at 14:50

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