Even though I was up with the chickens this morning. Because of a train
delay, I got to the office just in the nick of time. I'm
using the trains for the time being, but in the meantime I'm looking for
an apartment closer to the office. Let's discuss. Welcome to another Happy English
podcast, coming to you from New York City, and here's your English teacher,
Michael all Rye. Thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better. And this is
Happy English Podcast Episode seven eighteen Time phrases For this English lesson, Let's take
a look at six phrases that you can use to talk about time. These
are common phrases that you can use in your everyday spoken and ridden English.
Let's dive in. The first time phrase is meanwhile. We use meanwhile when
we talk about one thing that is happening when another thing is happening. In
other words, we use meanwhile to talk about two things happening at the same
time. For example, cook the garlic, tomatoes and basil in a frying
pan. Meanwhile, start boiling the water for the pasta. I was cooking
dinner. Meanwhile, my roommate was cleaning her room. I'm going to clean
this room. Meanwhile, you should go to the grocery store. The next
one is in the meantime. We use in the meantime when we talk about
the period of time between two events, either in the past or between now
and the future. In the meantime means during that time. Here are some
examples. Attention customers. We will begin boarding the flight in about thirty minutes.
In the meantime, feel free to check out the souvenir shops in the
terminal. Jane and I haven't seen each other since high school. In the
meantime, she got married and had three kids. We still have time to
get the bus. In the meantime, let's kill time in the mall.
Next is for the time being, which means at this time, until or
unless the situation changes. The nuance of for the time being is that we
expect the situation to change sometime soon. Here are some examples. It looks
like the rain has stopped for the time being. Let's try hiking down the
mountain. Joe is looking for a new apartment, and he's living with his
sister for the time being. The boss said that the plan to move to
a bigger office is on hold for the time being, but he didn't say
why. We use at the moment to mean right now or these days.
At the moment also has the nuance that we know or we believe that the
situation will change sometime soon. For example, the boss is on another call
at the moment, I'll ask him to call you back. Hey, Donna
isn't dating anyone at the moment, why don't you ask her out? Tommy
told me that he's too busy at the moment to take a vacation. Next.
When you do something in the nick of time, you do it or
it gets done just before a deadline. We often use just in the nick
of time when we want to emphasize that it happened moments before for the deadline.
Here are some examples. We got to the train station in the nick
of time and caught the express train. Willie finished his report just in the
nick of time and handed it to his professor. In the movie Titanic,
Jack found Rose at the front of the ship just in the nick of time.
It seemed like she was going to fall overboard. The last one is
to be up at the crack of dawn. Or to be up with the
chickens, which means to wake up very early in the morning. For example,
mister Wilson is a farmer, so he's up at the crack of dawn
every morning. I have a seven o'clock flight tomorrow morning, so I need
to be up with the chickens. My grandfather always used to get up at
the crack of dawn. Keep in mind, the best way to remember this
and any other word or phrase in English is to take that word, word
or phrase, write it in a sentence that's true for you or true in
your world, and then memorize your sentences. By the way, can you
imagine getting the chance to practice this kind of English with me directly? You
can get more practice using your English when you join my podcast Learner's Study Group.
There you can make new friends, join us for live group coaching every
week where we practice these podcast lessons together. Plus you get access to the
pdf transcript and audio download for every Happy English podcast in the past and in
the future. And on top of that, each episode has exercises where you
can practice this English point with speaking and writing checked by me. To learn
more or to see some of the example sentences from this lesson. Just visit
Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast Lesson seven eighteen. Remember learning another language
is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
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