QUICK VOCABULARY BOOST | Time Phrases for EFFECTIVE Communication

22,460 views ・ 2024-08-14

Learn English with Harry


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Hi there. This is Harry again, and welcome  back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry,  
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where I try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language.  
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I help you with vocabulary and pronunciation,  grammar and all aspects relating to idiomatic  
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expressions and phrases. And in this particular  lesson, we're going to take a look at some  
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collocations. This is an advanced English  lesson dealing with verb collocations all  
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connected with time. As always, I'm going to go  down through the list with you. I have 12 okay,  
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12 related time-related collocations, and I'll  give you an example as to when you might use them.
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Number one is to allocate time. Well, we  allocate time means we give over a certain  
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amount of time to some activity. We should  allocate time every day for ourselves. Might  
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be to do some reading, some relaxation,  some yoga, some exercise. Whatever it is,  
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we allocate time. We dedicate a certain amount of  time in our day for ourselves to allocate time.
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Number two to be pressed for time. To be pressed  for time means not to have a lot of time. Not to  
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have time to do something you'd really like  to do. Or indeed, if somebody asks you for  
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some minutes to talk to you about some things,  I'm a little pressed for time at the moment,  
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could we do this tomorrow? Could we do it later?  Could I call you? Send me an email and we've set  
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up an appointment. Okay. So when you're pressed  for time, it means you really don't have a lot of  
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time available either you've got some deadline to  meet, you've got some meetings, you've got to do  
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something, but you are just overall pressed for  time. You've been asked by many different people  
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looking for part of your time, and you can't  help everybody, so you're pressed for time.
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Number three is to devote time. He loves to devote  time to his family. His kids are at that age when  
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they need time with their father to go out and  play football, to take them to the park. Simple  
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things are driving them to school, so he will  always try to devote time to his family during  
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the week, not just at the weekends. So we devote  time means we pick a certain amount of time only  
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for some activity and nothing else. Yeah, he  devotes his time to helping charities. He's  
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now retired. He's got a lot of time on his  hands. So he devotes time to his favourite  
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charities. So he helps them to fundraise.  He helps in the soup kitchens to feed the  
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homeless. Whatever it is he does, he devotes time  or she devotes time to that particular activity.
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Number four to find time. I don't know  where you're going to find the time to do  
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all of this study that you've promised children.  Yeah, they always promise they're going to do  
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more and more study in advance of the exams.  And the parent might ask, I'm not sure where  
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you're going to find the time. You're going to  have to stop some of these other activities,  
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stop playing computer games, give up the sports  or the gym, or going out with a friend too often,  
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just until the exams are over. I don't know where  I find the time to do all this work that I have  
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on my agenda. It's going to run into next week  and I'll never get it finished. And I really,  
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really want to get it finished before I have my  holidays. I'm not sure where I will find the time,  
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or somebody might just simply say to you,  you'll have to find the time because you  
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know best. You know what has to be done, so  you will have to find the time to do it. Okay.
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Number five to free up time. Well, we may  be busy. We may have lots on our plate. We  
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may have lots on our agenda. But this other  aspect, this other problem needs to be dealt  
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with. So we're going to have to free up time.  We're going to have to cancel something else,  
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move something else, change something else so  that we can free up time. So you might get an  
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email from your good client and they really  want to see you. And you say, well, look,  
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I'm busy in the next couple of days, but I'll  tell you what to do. If it's really urgent,  
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I'll free up some time. So tell me what suits  you and then I'll make room for you in my  
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agenda. So that's exactly what you do. You find  out what time the client wants to meet you 11:00  
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on Wednesday. So you cancel that meeting you  had at 10:15, 10:30, 11:15, 11:30. So you  
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can free up time so that your customer, your  client can get his problem looked at and the  
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others can be moved out by a day or two days.  So you free up time, you make time available.
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Number six to invest time. Well, when you invest  time in something, it's usually to gain some  
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benefit, to invest time in your education, to  invest time in your studies. To invest time in  
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planning your career. All of these are ways  in which you can improve your situation for  
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the future by investing time like money when you  invest it. You got to look after it. You've got to  
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make it work. You've got to make sure it's the  right thing for you to invest time. Not not to  
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spend it idly. Yeah. Okay, so he has invested  a lot of time in his political activities,  
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and I really, really hope that he gets  selected to stand for this election when  
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it takes place next year. So he's put a lot of  time and effort. He's invested a lot of time  
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getting to be known by people understanding  the way this party works. Getting his face  
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recognized around the different people who will  be voting. So he has invested a lot of time.
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Okay. And if you like this particular lesson,  then please like the video. And if you could  
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subscribe to the channel because it really, really  helps. Number seven is about killing time. To kill  
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time? Well, to kill time usually means to get  some activities because you got a lot of time.  
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between meetings, you've got a lot of time until  some other activity takes place and you don't want  
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to just sit down doing nothing. So you have to  kill time doing something. Okay, perhaps I will go  
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to the gym for an hour and a half. That will kill  some time. Or perhaps I'll read that document that  
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I've been putting off for several weeks that will  kill some time, or I'll go for a nice long walk  
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and that will kill time. So between meetings,  between events, between different things that  
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are happening in your life, you have you have  time and you don't want to just waste it idly,  
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but you want to do something so it will kill  time. You could be delayed in the airport because  
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your plane has been hit by bad weather or some  technical problem. And there's an announcement  
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comes across the tannoy system which says,  unfortunately, we regret to inform you that the  
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flight 106 to Toronto has been delayed and is now  not expected to depart until 4:45. So you've got 3  
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or 4 hours extra you have to try and kill. You can  do a bit more shopping, you can eat, you can drink  
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coffee. All of these things just to kill time or  simply sit down and read a book to kill some time.
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Number eight. Number eight is about managing  your time. And this is something we could  
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all do better. How to manage your time. So  time management. There are so many books,  
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self-help books, so many courses that you can  attend. All about time management. Okay, so  
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managing your time really, really important. You  have lots and lots of responsibilities. Lots and  
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lots of things that have to do. Lots and lots  of commitments. So the best way to get through  
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all of those is to learn how to manage your time  better. People complain. Oh, I have too much to  
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do. I can't fit this all in. Often they spend a  lot of time talking about it, and if they spend  
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a little bit more time planning and preparing,  then perhaps they could manage their time better  
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and perhaps not get everything done. But the  majority of what they want done they will achieve.
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Okay, so manage your time. So the boss will  tell you, oh, I keep asking you to get these  
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documents completed by deadlines. You  always miss the deadlines. How do you  
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manage your time? You're really going  to have to improve your time management.
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Number nine run out of time. Well, we've all been  in that situation where rushing to get to the  
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airport, we are rushing to get the dinner ready.  We are rushing to make that appointment in the  
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afternoon or to meet our friends in the evening.  And we always seem no matter what time we have,  
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we always seem to run out of time, meaning  we have no more time to do Well, okay, that's  
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the meeting over. We've run out of time. We'll  have to carry over those other two issues to the  
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next meeting. That's a very simple. And. Common  situation in business meetings where the agenda  
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just went down a little bit longer, and the last  couple of items on the agenda cannot be achieved,  
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and we carry them forward or carry them over to  the next meeting because we have run out of time.
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You can run out of time in the parking meter.  So When you put money in the parking meter or  
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you get some credit and it's for one act or two  hours and you just get held up in town when you  
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get back to the car, you've got a ticket on  your car because you ran out of time, and you  
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get charged extra money on a date. That might  be a penalty to pay when you run out of time.
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Number ten is to set or put aside time. Okay,  so that both mean exactly the same. To set  
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aside time or to put aside time, it means to  take some time out of your day or your week  
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for a particular activity. I'll put aside  some time for some exercise next week. You  
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visit the doctor and the doctor tells you  a lot. I'm not saying you're overweight,  
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but you need to lose a few kilos if you're going  to deal with these stress issues. There's no  
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point running at a hundred miles an hour. So  you're going to have to set aside or put aside  
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some time every week to do some exercise.  You'll feel much better. You'll lose those  
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kilos in no time at all. And you'll find that  with some physical activity, your work output  
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will probably improve. So please set aside  or put aside some time to do some exercise.  
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Or you need to deal with your tax return, or you  need to deal with the household bills. Whatever  
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this, private business that you have to do, you  have to put aside some time or set aside some time  
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to deal with that and set aside some time at the  weekend. I won't go and play golf. I won't go with  
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the guys this weekend. I'll set aside some time.  I got all of this documentation finished and then  
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that would be off my plate and I can relax and  feel at ease to set aside or put aside some time.
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Number 11 to take up time. Well, lots of things  take up time in my life. Things I prefer wouldn't  
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take up time, but that's the way life is. Things  get in the way. Okay, so what takes up time?  
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Something. Going to the supermarket every week  takes up time. Taking rubbish to the rubbish bins  
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takes up time. Replying to lots of emails that you  don't really want to reply to takes up time. So  
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everything, every activity, there's some time that  you use so it takes up time. Something's obviously  
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very, very useful. Okay, sleeping an extra couple  of hours in the morning takes up time. And perhaps  
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you don't need that going to bed too late, means  you have more time in the evenings. Puts you you  
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sleep longer during the day, so perhaps that  takes up time. Playing computer games takes up  
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time for some teenagers, and perhaps better to  cut down on the amount of time they spend doing  
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those activities. So something that takes up time  uses some time that we could perhaps use better.
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And then finally number 12. Waste time. Never,  never. I try never to waste time. I don't mind  
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spending time on different activities. I  don't mind putting aside time for different  
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activities or something. Takes up time. But  I really, really hate it when I waste time.  
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Waste time not knowing what to do, waste time  trying to reboot my computer because something  
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happened. Waste time, retyping an email that I  forgot to save whatever it is. You know, people  
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don't generally like to waste time because time,  after all, is really, really precious. So when we  
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waste time, we spend it idly, or we spend it at  thinking or without proper planning. So again,  
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if we have if we manage our time better, then  perhaps we wouldn't waste our time. So waste time.
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Okay, so there are the 12 verb collocations. As I  said, they're really, really useful. For those of  
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you who are considering using or doing CAC exams  or any proficiency exams, because they're the sort  
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of phrases that you can use in your spoken  English or indeed in your written English.
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So I'll just run down to them one more time  quickly. There are 12 of them. One allocate time.  
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Be pressed for time. Devote time. Find time for  something. Free up time. Invest time in something.  
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Kill time. Manage time better. Run out of time as  we all do. Run out of time. Number ten. Set aside  
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or put aside time to do something. And the last  two. Number 11 to take up time and 12. Waste time.
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Okay, so keep practising those. Try and use  them and see the situation when you can use  
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these verb collocations dealing with time.  And if you have any questions, come back to  
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me on englishlessonviaskype.com I will happily  help you and give you some additional examples.
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Okay, this is Harry saying thank you for listening  and watching. Join me for the next lesson.
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