An English Lesson About Time

In this English lesson,

I want to teach you some English phrases

that you can use to talk about time,

but not simple phrases. like it's 10 after 10,

or it's five to two.

In this English lesson,

I want to teach you phrases that you can use

to talk about the past or the future.

I want to teach you phrases about time

that you can use to talk about things that happen quickly,

or that you can use when you're in a hurry,

or to talk about things that happen occasionally.

So stick around.

I think you'll learn a lot in this English lesson

about time.

(upbeat music)

Let's start this English lesson

by learning a couple phrases that you can use

to talk about a future event,

and a couple of phrases you can use

to talk about a past event.

In English, when there is an event that's in the future,

and if it's far in the future, we might say it's a ways off.

Or we might say it's a long ways off.

When we talk about an event that was in the past,

and a while ago in the past,

we would say that it was a while ago,

or it was a while back.

Notice how I couldn't help,

but use the phrase a while ago,

while talking about something in the past.

Let's create some example sentences.

Let's say your birthday is in a few months.

If someone said, when is your birthday?

You could say, my birthday is a ways off.

Or my birthday is a long ways off.

If your birthday was several months ago.

And if someone said, is your birthday soon?

You could say, no, my birthday was a while back.

My birthday was a while ago.

So in English, when you're talking about a future event,

you can say a ways off, or a long ways off.

And when you're talking about a past event,

you can say a while ago, or a while back.

Well, hey, welcome to this English lesson about time.

Before we continue with the lesson, though,

if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button over there,

and give me a thumbs up if this video helps you learn

just a little bit more English.

Sometimes when we talk about time,

we want to talk about how time goes by really quickly.

And there's a few phrases we can use for this in English.

Sometimes for me, a certain month will go by really quickly.

And I would use the phrase, that went by fast,

and I can be specific.

I could say, wow, that month went by fast.

And we have a few more phrases as well.

Sometimes we ask this question, we'll say,

where did the time go?

When you say, where did the time go in English,

you're expressing that something in the past

just happened really, really quickly.

I could say, wow, it's already October.

Where did the time go?

Sometimes we use this phrase as well.

We'll say, it seems like just yesterday.

And we use this phrase to introduce

an idea to the conversation.

The best one I can think of is this.

Because I have children,

I could say it seems like just yesterday,

they were really little.

They've all grown up quite a bit by now.

So sometimes when we talk about how time goes quickly,

we'll use the phrase, it seems like just yesterday.

And there's a phrase that you're probably familiar with,

time flies.

Sometimes we add time flies when you're having fun,

but sometimes we'll just say, whoa, time flies, doesn't it?

When you talk about a month that went by quickly, or a year,

sometimes a whole year goes by, and you're like wow,

it's already 2021.

Wow, time flies.

Actually 2021's almost over, isn't it?

Wow, time flies.

In about 15 years, I'll be retired.

And then I'll have all the time in the world.

The English phrase, all the time in the world,

refers to someone who has so much time every day,

they don't even know how to fill it.

They don't know what to do during their day.

And this usually reminds me of retired people.

I know retired people are actually busy,

but I always think when I'm retired,

I'll have all the time in the world.

Another English phrase we use to talk about

having extra time, or having time is a little different.

And it's the phrase, time to kill.

This is a phrase you would use

if you were at the airport to pick up your friend.

And if you found out their flight was delayed by four hours,

you would then say, oh, I have time to kill.

You have an amount of time

where you really can't do anything else.

You need to wait for them.

So in that case, we would use that English phrase.

We would say, you have time to kill.

Of course, there's also times

when you don't have enough time,

where you are in a hurry, or you are in a rush.

And then we would probably say

that you are pressed for time.

Sometimes in the morning when I'm getting ready for work,

I'm running a little bit late,

and then I'm pressed for time.

It simply means that I'm in a rush, I'm in a hurry.

I'm going to be late for work if I don't get moving.

So when you're pressed for time,

it means you're probably going to be late for something.

And then we also use kind of the negative

of a phrase I taught you earlier.

We might say that you don't have all the time in the world.

This is something that I might say to my children.

If I'm ready to go and they're not,

I might say, let's get going.

I don't have all the time in the world.

So sometimes you're late, sometimes you're in a hurry,

and you can use one of those two phrases.

You could say I'm pressed for time,

or hey, hurry up, everybody.

I don't have all the time in the world.

Sometimes when you're talking about time,

you want to describe something that happened really quickly,

like a car accident.

In that situation,

you would use the English phrase in the blink of an eye.

You could say I was driving along,

and then in the blink of an eye,

someone pulled out in front of me, and I hit them.

That wouldn't be very nice,

but that is the English phrase you would use.

You would say it happened in the blink of an eye.

Sometimes when I go to my classroom, I forget something,

and I have to go back to my teacher work area to get it.

In that situation, I would say to students,

I'll be back in a flash.

The English phrase in a flash

indicates that hardly any time will take place

for whatever's going to happen.

So if it's before class starts,

and I'm like, oh, I forgot my laptop.

I might say to my students, I'll be back in a flash,

and then we'll get started on the lesson.

Another phrase we use in English

to describe when someone does a job quickly

is to say that they did it in no time,

or they did it in no time flat.

Sometimes when I go out to make my English lessons,

I'm done in no time, I'm done in no time flat,

because the words come to me very easily.

Surprisingly, with this video,

I'm not getting this done in no time flat.

It's taking a lot longer than I expected,

because I keep mispronouncing words for some reason.

But normally when I make these English lessons,

I'm done in no time, or I'm done in no time flat,

meaning that it goes fairly quickly.

There's a few English phrases we use

to talk about things that happen occasionally.

We say things like this every once in a while,

or from time to time, or once in a blue moon.

Let me give you some example sentences.

Every once in a while, we take the kids out for ice cream.

That means we don't do it every day,

we don't do it every week, but we do it once a month,

maybe every other month.

Every once in a while, we take the kids out for ice cream.

Another phrase we use is the phrase from time to time.

And I can say this, from time to time,

Jen and I go out on a date.

From time to time, we leave the kids at home,

and we go out with just the two of us

for a meal, and maybe to see a movie.

So from time to time means I guess every other month or so,

maybe every three months.

There's no specific time attached to these phrases.

And then the phrase once in a blue moon.

When I was younger,

I went and saw movies with my friends all the time,

but now I go once in a blue moon.

That means that because I'm older, and I'm married,

and I have kids, I'm really busy,

I don't actually go out with my friends

as often as I used to.

So once in a blue moon,

my friends and I will go and see a movie.

That means probably once a year.

That's about the average right now.

Once in a blue moon, we go out to see a movie.

It should be more often, shouldn't it?

Yeah, I should call them tonight and see if they want to,

but we're still in a pandemic, aren't we?

Maybe I'll wait until next year.

Well, hey, thank you so much

for watching this English lesson,

where I hoped you learned a few phrases

that you can use to talk about time.

Remember, if this is your first time here,

don't forget to click that red subscribe button,

and give me a thumbs up

if this video helped you learn a little bit more English.

And if you have the time,

why don't you stick around,

and watch another English lesson?

(upbeat music)