Speaker 1: Welcome and by the way, thanks for stopping by today.
I've been thinking bye is one of those little words
that shows up everywhere in English. It's just two letters,
but it does a lot of work. Let's dive in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, 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 nine oh six.
How to use buy in different contexts. Thanks for tuning
in and welcome back to the podcast. Today we're going
to take a close look at buy and I think
you'll be surprised at how many different ways we use it.
You've probably seen by in phrases like by the time
I got there, or a book by hemingway, or I'll
finish it by tomorrow. Yeah. By is short but powerful
time location, who did something, how it happens? Yep, Bye
does it all. So let's break it down nice and easy. First,
let's talk about buy and time. We use by to
show deadlines or time limits, like when something needs to happen,
like the other day in the office, the boss said Michael,
I need that report by five ps Yeah, no pressure, right.
And just yesterday I reminded one of my students, don't
forget to send your homework by Friday. So by in
this case means no later then, not five oh one,
not Saturday, but by the time you said you would.
Here's another one. I've said we should leave by seven
o'clock if we want to catch the train. So again,
by tells us the latest acceptable time something should happen.
Oh yeah, by the way, this is another really common phrase,
by the way. We use by the way to change
the topic or add extra info, like by the way,
did you hear the weather report it's gonna rain all day?
Oh and by the way, you can find the Happy
English podcast on YouTube now. The phrase by the way
shows up in conversation all the time. Oh and by
the way. Next, let's talk about by and location. When
something is near or close to something else, we use
by to show that relationship. Like the cafe is by
the station. That just means it is near the station,
maybe a one minute walk away. Last week, I met
a friend at a ramen shop by the river, and
when I walked in, he was already sitting by the
window enjoying the view. We also had a good laugh
about his dog who always waits patiently by the door
when it's time for a walk. How come Max doesn't
do that. So in all these situations, by means near
or next to. Now, let's look at by to show
who did something. This is especially useful when we talk
about books, art, songs, or when we use the passive voice.
For example, I recently saw Romeo and Juliet, Yeah, the
classic play by Shakespeare, and my friend Maria showed me
a beautiful photo of the cherry blossoms. I asked who
took that, and she said, oh, that was taken by
my cousin. When we use passive sentences, by shows the doer,
the person who did the action, like this house was
built by my grandfather, so by in this case gives
credit or a sign's responsibility, like the sofa cushion was
destroyed by Max. Next, let's look at by to show
how something happens. I get a lot of documents by email.
In last week I bought concert tickets by credit card.
So here by tells us the method the how. In
class the other day I said to a student, you
can improve your listening by watching short YouTube videos with subtitles,
or you may hear one say she got into grad
school by working super hard and staying focused. By working
super hard and staying focused. By shows the method, the process,
and how something gets done. And finally we have by
the time. This is such a natural phrase in storytelling
or explaining a sequence of events. You'll hear things like,
by the time I got to the party, they were
already cutting the cake. That means the cake part happened
before I arrived. I remember last month I was running
late getting ready for a dinner party, and I was thinking,
I hope I'm done by the time the guests arrive.
It's a great way to connect two time related ideas.
And I had a funny one last week. By the
time I finished cleaning the kitchen it was way after midnight.
That one got a few laughs from my students. So yeah,
by the time is a great way to show when
one thing happens compared to something else. All right, let's
recap today. We looked at how by works in English.
By can show a deadline, please submit it by Friday.
By can show location. She's sitting by the window, and
it can tell us who did something that book was
written by Hemingway and by shows method or means I
paid by credit card and by the time helps us
connect two events in time. By the time I got there,
the movie had already started. Bye. It's a tiny word,
but it really carries a lot of meaning. So here's
your challenge this week. Try making your own sentences using
by Maybe send a message to a friend like let's
meet by the train station, or tell your coworker I'll
finish that report by noon. You can even try telling
a short story that includes by the time. The more
you use it, the more natural it'll sound. And hey,
if you want to practice the English from this lesson
and all of my podcasts with me and a group
of other awesome English learners, come check out my podcast
Learner's Study Group. We meet once a week and go
over the language from these podcast lessons together. Just check
the link where you're listening right now, or visit Myhappy
English dot com and look for episode nine oh six.
Thanks for listening, and remember, learning another language is not easy,
but it's not impossible, and I'm here to help you
on your journey.
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