24 Time-Focused English Idioms | Advanced English Vocabulary

Recently,

one of my students told me that I haven't done a lesson on English idioms in

ages and she's right.

I haven't done a lesson dedicated to English idioms for quite a while.

Like my students,

you might love incorporating English idioms into your conversation,

sprinkling idioms into your speech here and there (the way that you sprinkle

salt on food) is a wonderful way to bring interest in creativity to your

speech. It makes our language more dynamic.

And that's exactly what I want to help you do with this lesson today.

If you're joining me for the very first time I'm Annemarie with Speak Confident

English,

everything I do here is designed to help you with the confidence you want for

your life and work in English in this Confident English lesson today,

I hope that you'll join me to learn and add 24 new English

idioms to your active vocabulary.

All of these idioms are focused on the concept of time,

whether you want to express that something happened right on time,

that you don't have enough time, or you have too much time.

Be sure to stick with me all the way to the end,

because I do have a practice opportunity for you.

I want to make sure that you absolutely understand what these idioms mean

and how to naturally use them in your English conversations.

[Inaudible].

Let's start with our first four idioms,

all of which help us express that something happened at just the right time.

It wasn't too early and it wasn't too late.

The first one is in the nick of time. For example,

we were stuck in traffic,

but we arrived at the airport just in the nick of time.

We use this idiom to express that something happened just at the last

possible moment before it was too late.

If we had arrived any later at the airport,

we may have missed our flight. So we arrived in the nick of time.

Similar to that,

we can also describe something as happening at the 11th hour.

Again,

this idiom tells us that something happened just at the last possible

moment before it was too late. For example,

just when we thought we were going to miss the deadline.

Carol finished her editing and we submitted the proposal at the 11th hour.

Our third idiom in this category is it's high time.

For example,

it's high time that we consider moving out of our apartment and into a house.

This idiomatic phrase expresses that it's about time that we finally

do something.

Maybe someone has been waiting for a very long period of time and they are

finally ready. It is about time now is the right time.

It's high time.

And our final idiom in this category is in good time

and good time expresses that something will happen when it's

supposed to happen. For example,

when I was worried about whether I would ever find a job, I really wanted,

my mom said all things happen in good time.

And now let's move on to our second category of idioms.

All of which are focused on different points of time.

For example, eons ago or ages ago,

English speakers love this phrase to express that something happened a while

ago. In fact,

it emphasizes that something occurred a long time ago.

Just like the example I shared at the beginning,

when my students said you haven't done a lesson on idioms for

ages, in other words, for a really, really, really long time.

Another example, I finished that book eons ago. In other words,

months ago or years ago, an idiomatic expression.

That means the opposite. That means that something will occur in the future,

but not for quite a while is a ways out.

For example,

let's say that it's January and you've already started to plan your summer

vacation. You have everything ready to go in a conversation. You might say,

I know that summer is a ways out,

but you can never start planning your vacation too soon.

Another great idiomatic expression to use with a future focus is in the long

run. When we use this in a sentence,

we're expressing that something will more fully develop over time.

For example,

we should start saving money now so that we don't have to worry about our

financial security in the long run.

The next idiom on our list is one of my favorites.

When I get up particularly early for a flight or to work out

at the crack of dawn, for example,

I was so excited about my new job that I woke up at the crack of dawn today.

This phrase refers to that moment when we first start to see the sunlight on the

horizon,

and we use this expression to talk about things that happen super early

in the morning.

And now our final idiom for talking about different points of time is a

moment of truth.

And we love to use this idiom to talk about a present moment when something

will be revealed.

Maybe we've been waiting and waiting and waiting to find out some

information.

And when it is time for that information to be revealed,

we can say, it's the moment of truth. For example,

if you have a child applying to universities,

you might be waiting and waiting and waiting to get news in the mail on whether

or not your child was accepted into that university.

So when that letter finally arrives and your son or daughter starts to

open that envelope,

it is most certainly that moment of truth.

When you will find out whether or not your daughter or son was accepted into

that university. And now it's time for our next six idioms,

all of which are focused on expressing a lack of time

in the past,

I've done lessons on time management and trying to create better

life work balance.

So some of these idiomatic expressions may be familiar to you.

The first one on our list in this category is to be pressed for

time.

And we use this to let others know that we don't have very much time.

For example,

we were pressed for time and had to finish dinner early so we could make it to

the theater. The second one in this category is running late.

You've probably heard this one before,

because it's extremely common when we know we are going to be late,

or we already are late for something,

a very common way to use this is to let others know that you are

running late. So you may not be at the meeting on time.

You might call your coworker and say, go ahead and start the meeting.

I'm running five minutes late when you are unable to complete something

because you no longer have time.

You can use the expression to run out of time.

For example, before I knew it, the test was over and I had run out of time.

When we use that expression,

we're indicating that we were not able to finish the task

time, ran out the deadline passed,

and we were unable to succeed in our task. We didn't finish it fully.

We ran out of time. And of course in those moments,

when you know the clock is ticking, you see time going forward.

And you know that you're going to have a really hard time completing the task.

We can say that you're in a race against the clock or in a race

against time. For example, during the holiday season,

everyone raises against the clock to get their shopping done before the stores

close. And sometimes when we're racing against the clock,

we might try to do something that's kind of cheating or trying to get ahead in a

way to beat the clock. In other words,

you want to make sure that you finish your task before you run out of time.

For example,

Sam tried to beat the clock as he scarfed down his breakfast and ran out the

door. Let's pause here for a moment. What do you think? I mean,

by scarfed down his breakfast,

if someone is trying to beat the clock,

they're trying to do something before it's too late and they're running for the

door to get to work on time.

How do you think they ate their breakfast?

Where are they eating in a calm, super polite, formal manner?

Definitely not to scarf something down means to eat it

extremely quickly. And during that process,

you've probably lost all your table manners as well.

And now our last idiom for expressing a lack of time is certainly one

that, you know, I hear my students use it often. Time is money,

as I'm sure you know,

this idiom is used to express that time is precious and we certainly should not

waste it. For example,

my husband never sits down for a moment to relax because he believes time is

money.

Every moment he is working on something or trying to work toward a

specific goal or to complete a project. All right,

so far we've had a variety of idioms that can be used to express that something

happened right on time,

that we had a lack of time and to express different points in time.

So now let's move on to our fourth category with idioms,

we use to talk about having excess time or too much time.

When you go on vacation,

you probably would love to say that you have all the time

in the world. When we have all the time in the world, there's plenty of time.

There's no rush. There's no panic.

We don't have to worry about any upcoming deadlines.

That is definitely something we all want when we're going away on vacation.

Another example might be, we have all the time in the world to binge watch.

Netflix shows this weekend,

similar to all the time in the world is to have a lot of time on your

hands. Again,

this is used to express that you have plenty of time.

For example, Sandra has a lot of time on her hands.

Now that our kids are at school with this particular idiom,

we can also use it in the negative sense to indicate that we don't have

time, that we have a lack of time. For example,

now that I'm going back to work and at the office full time,

I don't have a lot of time on my hands to watch Netflix when you have

too much time on your hands.

And you're not really sure how to fill up all that time,

you might start looking for different things to do,

to occupy yourself or to kill time. For example,

if you're traveling, you might have a six hour layover in an airport.

So you might say that you want to find a really good book to read while you're

at the airport to kill time.

And if that book is particularly good,

you might lose track of time. When we lose track of time,

we don't even notice that time has passed. Maybe before your flight,

you were really dreading that six hour layover,

but then you found that fantastic book you started reading.

And before you knew it, it was time for your next flight.

You lost track of time while you were reading.

Now let's say that maybe you've lost track of time,

or you've missed out on opportunities because you were way too busy

as a way to apologize to someone else and to show that you

value their time. You might want to make up for lost time.

For example,

both of Julian's parents have been particularly busy with work and approaching

deadlines. So to make up for lost time,

they dedicated their entire weekend to spending time together as a family.

And now our last idiom in this category is to live on

borrowed time.

We use this to express that someone is living or surviving beyond

their expected amount of time. For example,

after surviving cancer,

Karen felt that she was living on borrowed time.

And now we have our final three time focus, idioms,

all of which can be used to express a lack of frequency.

For example, if you want to say that something rarely happens,

you can say that it happens once in a blue moon. For example,

we see our extended family once in a blue moon,

and usually only at family reunions,

similar to once in a blue moon is every now and then if

something happens every now and then it's a little more

often than once in a blue moon, rather than the adverb.

Rarely we might think of the adverbs sometimes, for example,

every now and then Hollywood produces a movie that impacts an entire

generation.

And now our final idiom on the list for today is every so often.

For example, I don't really have a sweet tooth,

but every so often I crave a piece of chocolate.

And with that, you have 24 new English, idioms,

all of which are focused on time to add to your active vocabulary.

Now, when I say active vocabulary,

I mean idioms that you can think of and use instantly in a conversation

to make sure that these idioms are part of your active vocabulary.

You need to of course learn them and then practice them.

You need consistent repetitive practice.

So I've got a couple of questions for you. Number one,

which idiom on the list today was your absolute favorite.

Which one did you hear and think, oh my gosh, I love that idiom.

If there was one, you really enjoyed learning.

I want you to practice using it in your own example sentence,

and you can share your example with me in the comments below my second question.

You is a little more in depth. I want you to think about your last week,

everything that you've done, the things that happened right on time,

the things that you didn't have enough time for moments when you felt like you

had too much time, think about your past week,

choose three idioms from this lesson today and use

those idioms to describe your week. Again,

you can share in the comments with me below.

If you found this lesson useful to you, I would love to know.

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give this lesson at thumbs up here on YouTube. And while you're at it,

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So you never miss one of my weekly lessons. Thank you so much for joining me.

And I look forward to seeing you next time.