Learn the English Phrases "in a little bit" and "it's going to be a while"

In this English lesson, I wanted to help you

learn the English phrase in a little bit.

Now, when we say in a little

bit, we mean a small amount.

And we can be talking about time or an actual thing.

Here's a good example.

Let's say that my mom is coming over to visit and

one of my kids says, when will Grandma be here?

I could say, she'll be here in a little bit.

If we're having a nice meal and someone says, oh, there's

a really nice pie for dessert and I'm feeling really full,

I could say, oh, I'll just have a little bit, meaning

that I just want a small piece of it.

So I don't know why we use this phrase.

It is used quite commonly.

I heard it a few times this week.

But when we're referring to a small amount

of time or a small amount of something,

we sometimes just say a little bit.

And then something that's kind of the opposite in terms of

time would be the phrase it's going to be a while.

If one of my kids said, when is Grandma coming?

I could say, oh, it's going to be a while.

And if I said it quickly, I would say, oh,

it's gonna be a while, meaning that she's not

coming in the next five or 10 minutes.

It will probably be a bit longer.

This is a common response that parents give to children

when driving in a car going a long ways.

If the kids say, are we there yet?

We often say, oh, it's going to be a while.

It's going to be another hour

or two before we're there.

So to review, if you say in a little bit, you mean

a small amount of time or a small amount of something.

And if you say it's going to be a while, it means

that it's going to be probably like an hour or two hours.

But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video.

This comment is from MRfisheri.

MRfisheri, I'm not sure how to say it.

And the comment is this hair wise and beard wise

someone needs a bit of a trim and then

a smiley face and just the word joke.

So I think MRfisheri is joking.

My response soon, although I might

grow it out a bit more.

So I'm assuming you're talking about the scruffy beard I have

and the hair is getting a bit long for me.

But thanks for that comment.

Yeah, I think I'll get a haircut soon.

I'm not 100% sure

when. I was thinking about growing it out a

bit more, I haven't done that for a long

time, like letting my hair grow longer.

And then I was wondering, do I need to start

to part it in the middle or on the side?

Because when you have longer hair, you

have to start to comb the hair.

And I don't actually comb my hair.

I just get up, have a shower and dry

my hair with a towel and off I go.

So we'll see.

The beard, though, I think I need to trim.

There's some stray hairs sticking out here

and there. But hey, anyways, I'm back

where I was last Tuesday night.

I thought it would be fun to come back

here and shoot a video in the daytime.

I did a lesson last week, Tuesday night, I think I did

by day and by night, and I did that at night.

And my camera was actually struggling

to stay nice and crisp.

The image was a little bit fuzzy

because of the low light conditions.

But today it's the opposite.

I'm actually having trouble seeing because it's so bright.

But the other thing I can show

you, though is that Tim Hortons definitely

has people going through the drive through.

If you remember from the video from

last week, it was quite empty.

I think there were just some parents and kids

selling things as a fundraiser at the front door.

But other than that, it was pretty full.

I bet you some of these cars have my students

in them because it's lunchtime at school right now and

some of them will come out this way.

Usually they go get pizza, but sometimes they'll go

to Tim Hortons, although it's kind of rare.

But, yeah, certainly this parking lot is a

lot fuller than it was last week.

And again, there's a pet store, a drugstore, a

dance school, a laundromat, a dollar store, the post

office, and a bunch of other things in what

we would call a strip mall.

So anyways, thanks for watching.

I hope you learned a couple new phrases and I'll see

you in a couple days with another short English lesson.

Bye.