English Vocabulary: sometimes, sometime, some time, always, all ways

Hi again. Welcome back to www.engvid.com. I'm Adam. Today, I'm going to talk to you

about something that is a little bit tricky, that makes English a little bit confusing.

I'm going to ask you to listen to nothing. Now, what do I mean? We're going to look at

some words here that can be said differently, written differently for sure, with different

meanings, okay? "Sometimes", "sometime", "sometime", "always", "always", okay? So, these are the

words we're looking at. What I'm asking you to listen to, especially, is the blank space

between two words that change the meaning of the word, okay? So, we're looking at "sometimes",

"sometime", "sometime", "always", "always". Do you hear that little pause between? You'll

get used to it. Let's look at the meanings of all of these words. What is "sometimes"?

"Sometimes" is an adverb. Sometimes, we call it an adverb of frequency. It means how often

you do something. So, for example, I sometimes play tennis, or sometimes I play tennis. Not

every day, maybe not every week, but sometimes yes, sometimes no. It's kind of regular, etc.

"Sometime". Now, this has two meanings. First, notice there's no "s" at the end. That's how

you know it's a different word. This always has an "s". So, two ways to use this. "Sometime",

we can talk about a time in the future, okay? "Sometime next year, I will move to Hawaii."

That would be nice. "Sometime next year", I don't know when, but in the future, sometime.

Another way we can use "sometime" is to talk about an indefinite time. Now, this might

sound similar to this one, and it is. The only difference is that you can also talk

about the past, okay? So, sometime last week, my friend came over and didn't even tell me.

He came back to the city. When? I don't know. Sometime last week. So, I look at the past

week, sometime in there. I don't know exactly when. I can also talk about the future, so

similar ideas, but a little bit different. You can talk about past, you can talk about

future different ways. "Sometime" is an amount of time. "I have some time this afternoon

if you want to go get a drink." For example, if you want to go get a coffee, "I have some

free time." You can put the "free" in it, but you don't need to. If you say, "I have

some time", it means you are free. It's understood, okay?

Now, "always", again, this is another adverb of frequency. "I always breathe." You know

what I mean? You do too. You're always breathing. I mean, there's lots of things you do always,

but that's just an easy example. "Always" means "all", "total", "ways", "methods",

or "paths". There's a very famous expression, "All ways lead to Rome." I don't know if you

ever heard that one from way back when, but all the ways, all the methods, all the directions,

all the paths, streets, etc., that you can take. Total directions, methods, etc.

The easiest way to understand this is to see them used in examples, so let's do that. I'll

put up a couple of examples. Okay, so we're at a party. We're having fun. It's nice. Everybody

likes a party. You have person A, you have person B. "They met for the first time at

this party." Okay. At the end, person A is about to leave. He's talking to person B.

He says, "It was nice meeting you. Let's go for a drink." Which one do I use? "Sometimes",

"sometime", "sometime". Can you guess? "Let's go for a drink." Future, right? So, "sometime".

Now, people often say this. They meet somebody new, they say, "Let's go for a drink." They're

just being polite. What happens? Person B, he's very happy, right? Or she's very happy.

"Great. I have this weekend." Do you know what this means? It's a little bubble of something.

She has or he has some time, some free time this weekend. So, person B really wants to

go for a drink with person A. Person A is like, "Oh, that's not what I meant. I was

just being polite." He goes, "Oh, I something go away for the weekend." "Go away" means

go out of town or go to the cottage, do whatever. So, not every weekend, this weekend for sure,

but not every weekend. "Sometimes, I sometimes go away for the weekend." So, this person

is already making an excuse. "I'll ask my wife and get back to you this week." Seven

days in a week, which day, I don't know, but one of these days. So, again, "sometime".

So, there you go. I used all four. Well, I used three, but I used one of them twice.

This person really doesn't want to go for a drink with B. This is something people do.

It's not very nice, but it happens. Person E doesn't really understand. Here's a little

bonus quiz question. Is person A going to call person B this week? No, probably not.

That's not nice. It's life. What can you do about it? But, "sometime", "sometime", "sometimes",

"sometime". Okay? This is how it's used. If you want more practice, and oh, always and

always will also be there, www.engvid.com. There's a quiz. You can practice more of this.

You can practice "always" and "always". You can ask questions, and you can come back and

see us again. Thanks.