QUICK VOCABULARY BOOST | Time Phrases for EFFECTIVE Communication

Hi there. This is Harry again, and welcome  back to Advanced English Lessons with Harry,  

where I try to help you to get a better  understanding of the English language.  

I help you with vocabulary and pronunciation,  grammar and all aspects relating to idiomatic  

expressions and phrases. And in this particular  lesson, we're going to take a look at some  

collocations. This is an advanced English  lesson dealing with verb collocations all  

connected with time. As always, I'm going to go  down through the list with you. I have 12 okay,  

12 related time-related collocations, and I'll  give you an example as to when you might use them.

Number one is to allocate time. Well, we  allocate time means we give over a certain  

amount of time to some activity. We should  allocate time every day for ourselves. Might  

be to do some reading, some relaxation,  some yoga, some exercise. Whatever it is,  

we allocate time. We dedicate a certain amount of  time in our day for ourselves to allocate time.

Number two to be pressed for time. To be pressed  for time means not to have a lot of time. Not to  

have time to do something you'd really like  to do. Or indeed, if somebody asks you for  

some minutes to talk to you about some things,  I'm a little pressed for time at the moment,  

could we do this tomorrow? Could we do it later?  Could I call you? Send me an email and we've set  

up an appointment. Okay. So when you're pressed  for time, it means you really don't have a lot of  

time available either you've got some deadline to  meet, you've got some meetings, you've got to do  

something, but you are just overall pressed for  time. You've been asked by many different people  

looking for part of your time, and you can't  help everybody, so you're pressed for time.

Number three is to devote time. He loves to devote  time to his family. His kids are at that age when  

they need time with their father to go out and  play football, to take them to the park. Simple  

things are driving them to school, so he will  always try to devote time to his family during  

the week, not just at the weekends. So we devote  time means we pick a certain amount of time only  

for some activity and nothing else. Yeah, he  devotes his time to helping charities. He's  

now retired. He's got a lot of time on his  hands. So he devotes time to his favourite  

charities. So he helps them to fundraise.  He helps in the soup kitchens to feed the  

homeless. Whatever it is he does, he devotes time  or she devotes time to that particular activity.

Number four to find time. I don't know  where you're going to find the time to do  

all of this study that you've promised children.  Yeah, they always promise they're going to do  

more and more study in advance of the exams.  And the parent might ask, I'm not sure where  

you're going to find the time. You're going to  have to stop some of these other activities,  

stop playing computer games, give up the sports  or the gym, or going out with a friend too often,  

just until the exams are over. I don't know where  I find the time to do all this work that I have  

on my agenda. It's going to run into next week  and I'll never get it finished. And I really,  

really want to get it finished before I have my  holidays. I'm not sure where I will find the time,  

or somebody might just simply say to you,  you'll have to find the time because you  

know best. You know what has to be done, so  you will have to find the time to do it. Okay.

Number five to free up time. Well, we may  be busy. We may have lots on our plate. We  

may have lots on our agenda. But this other  aspect, this other problem needs to be dealt  

with. So we're going to have to free up time.  We're going to have to cancel something else,  

move something else, change something else so  that we can free up time. So you might get an  

email from your good client and they really  want to see you. And you say, well, look,  

I'm busy in the next couple of days, but I'll  tell you what to do. If it's really urgent,  

I'll free up some time. So tell me what suits  you and then I'll make room for you in my  

agenda. So that's exactly what you do. You find  out what time the client wants to meet you 11:00  

on Wednesday. So you cancel that meeting you  had at 10:15, 10:30, 11:15, 11:30. So you  

can free up time so that your customer, your  client can get his problem looked at and the  

others can be moved out by a day or two days.  So you free up time, you make time available.

Number six to invest time. Well, when you invest  time in something, it's usually to gain some  

benefit, to invest time in your education, to  invest time in your studies. To invest time in  

planning your career. All of these are ways  in which you can improve your situation for  

the future by investing time like money when you  invest it. You got to look after it. You've got to  

make it work. You've got to make sure it's the  right thing for you to invest time. Not not to  

spend it idly. Yeah. Okay, so he has invested  a lot of time in his political activities,  

and I really, really hope that he gets  selected to stand for this election when  

it takes place next year. So he's put a lot of  time and effort. He's invested a lot of time  

getting to be known by people understanding  the way this party works. Getting his face  

recognized around the different people who will  be voting. So he has invested a lot of time.

Okay. And if you like this particular lesson,  then please like the video. And if you could  

subscribe to the channel because it really, really  helps. Number seven is about killing time. To kill  

time? Well, to kill time usually means to get  some activities because you got a lot of time.  

between meetings, you've got a lot of time until  some other activity takes place and you don't want  

to just sit down doing nothing. So you have to  kill time doing something. Okay, perhaps I will go  

to the gym for an hour and a half. That will kill  some time. Or perhaps I'll read that document that  

I've been putting off for several weeks that will  kill some time, or I'll go for a nice long walk  

and that will kill time. So between meetings,  between events, between different things that  

are happening in your life, you have you have  time and you don't want to just waste it idly,  

but you want to do something so it will kill  time. You could be delayed in the airport because  

your plane has been hit by bad weather or some  technical problem. And there's an announcement  

comes across the tannoy system which says,  unfortunately, we regret to inform you that the  

flight 106 to Toronto has been delayed and is now  not expected to depart until 4:45. So you've got 3  

or 4 hours extra you have to try and kill. You can  do a bit more shopping, you can eat, you can drink  

coffee. All of these things just to kill time or  simply sit down and read a book to kill some time.

Number eight. Number eight is about managing  your time. And this is something we could  

all do better. How to manage your time. So  time management. There are so many books,  

self-help books, so many courses that you can  attend. All about time management. Okay, so  

managing your time really, really important. You  have lots and lots of responsibilities. Lots and  

lots of things that have to do. Lots and lots  of commitments. So the best way to get through  

all of those is to learn how to manage your time  better. People complain. Oh, I have too much to  

do. I can't fit this all in. Often they spend a  lot of time talking about it, and if they spend  

a little bit more time planning and preparing,  then perhaps they could manage their time better  

and perhaps not get everything done. But the  majority of what they want done they will achieve.

Okay, so manage your time. So the boss will  tell you, oh, I keep asking you to get these  

documents completed by deadlines. You  always miss the deadlines. How do you  

manage your time? You're really going  to have to improve your time management.

Number nine run out of time. Well, we've all been  in that situation where rushing to get to the  

airport, we are rushing to get the dinner ready.  We are rushing to make that appointment in the  

afternoon or to meet our friends in the evening.  And we always seem no matter what time we have,  

we always seem to run out of time, meaning  we have no more time to do Well, okay, that's  

the meeting over. We've run out of time. We'll  have to carry over those other two issues to the  

next meeting. That's a very simple. And. Common  situation in business meetings where the agenda  

just went down a little bit longer, and the last  couple of items on the agenda cannot be achieved,  

and we carry them forward or carry them over to  the next meeting because we have run out of time.

You can run out of time in the parking meter.  So When you put money in the parking meter or  

you get some credit and it's for one act or two  hours and you just get held up in town when you  

get back to the car, you've got a ticket on  your car because you ran out of time, and you  

get charged extra money on a date. That might  be a penalty to pay when you run out of time.

Number ten is to set or put aside time. Okay,  so that both mean exactly the same. To set  

aside time or to put aside time, it means to  take some time out of your day or your week  

for a particular activity. I'll put aside  some time for some exercise next week. You  

visit the doctor and the doctor tells you  a lot. I'm not saying you're overweight,  

but you need to lose a few kilos if you're going  to deal with these stress issues. There's no  

point running at a hundred miles an hour. So  you're going to have to set aside or put aside  

some time every week to do some exercise.  You'll feel much better. You'll lose those  

kilos in no time at all. And you'll find that  with some physical activity, your work output  

will probably improve. So please set aside  or put aside some time to do some exercise.  

Or you need to deal with your tax return, or you  need to deal with the household bills. Whatever  

this, private business that you have to do, you  have to put aside some time or set aside some time  

to deal with that and set aside some time at the  weekend. I won't go and play golf. I won't go with  

the guys this weekend. I'll set aside some time.  I got all of this documentation finished and then  

that would be off my plate and I can relax and  feel at ease to set aside or put aside some time.

Number 11 to take up time. Well, lots of things  take up time in my life. Things I prefer wouldn't  

take up time, but that's the way life is. Things  get in the way. Okay, so what takes up time?  

Something. Going to the supermarket every week  takes up time. Taking rubbish to the rubbish bins  

takes up time. Replying to lots of emails that you  don't really want to reply to takes up time. So  

everything, every activity, there's some time that  you use so it takes up time. Something's obviously  

very, very useful. Okay, sleeping an extra couple  of hours in the morning takes up time. And perhaps  

you don't need that going to bed too late, means  you have more time in the evenings. Puts you you  

sleep longer during the day, so perhaps that  takes up time. Playing computer games takes up  

time for some teenagers, and perhaps better to  cut down on the amount of time they spend doing  

those activities. So something that takes up time  uses some time that we could perhaps use better.

And then finally number 12. Waste time. Never,  never. I try never to waste time. I don't mind  

spending time on different activities. I  don't mind putting aside time for different  

activities or something. Takes up time. But  I really, really hate it when I waste time.  

Waste time not knowing what to do, waste time  trying to reboot my computer because something  

happened. Waste time, retyping an email that I  forgot to save whatever it is. You know, people  

don't generally like to waste time because time,  after all, is really, really precious. So when we  

waste time, we spend it idly, or we spend it at  thinking or without proper planning. So again,  

if we have if we manage our time better, then  perhaps we wouldn't waste our time. So waste time.

Okay, so there are the 12 verb collocations. As I  said, they're really, really useful. For those of  

you who are considering using or doing CAC exams  or any proficiency exams, because they're the sort  

of phrases that you can use in your spoken  English or indeed in your written English.

So I'll just run down to them one more time  quickly. There are 12 of them. One allocate time.  

Be pressed for time. Devote time. Find time for  something. Free up time. Invest time in something.  

Kill time. Manage time better. Run out of time as  we all do. Run out of time. Number ten. Set aside  

or put aside time to do something. And the last  two. Number 11 to take up time and 12. Waste time.

Okay, so keep practising those. Try and use  them and see the situation when you can use  

these verb collocations dealing with time.  And if you have any questions, come back to  

me on englishlessonviaskype.com I will happily  help you and give you some additional examples.

Okay, this is Harry saying thank you for listening  and watching. Join me for the next lesson.