Speaker 1: Sorry, I'm late. I got held up in traffic. Has
this happened to you recently? Have you gotten held up
and then you are running behind? Well, if you're looking
to figure out how to talk about being late, you've
come to the right place.
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, Jan and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast Episode eight twenty three. Late, delayed,
held up, Let's talk about being behind schedule. Hello and welcome.
Thanks for joining me for another episode of the Happy
English Podcast. I'm your English teacher Michael, and I'm so
glad you could join me today. And hey, if you're
listening on time, you're not late, But if you are,
it's okay. That's actually the topic for today. So let's
talk about words like late, delayed, and some other useful
English expressions that all have to do with not being
on time. Let's start with the word late. It's probably
the one you use most. We use late to talk
about people and things that move, like public transportation. When
someone or something is late, it just means they didn't
arrive on time, like Lisa was late for the meeting
this morning, or the bus was ten minutes late. That's
a pretty common occurrence in New York. By the way,
he's late, it's late, pretty simple. Late focuses on the
result the person or thing did not show up when expected. Okay,
now let's look at delayed. Delayed is similar to late,
but delayed focuses more on the reason something is late.
Usually it's not the person's fault. Something caused the delay,
like my flight was delayed because of bad weather, or
the train was delayed due to signal problems. Another typical
thing you'll hear on the New York subway system. So
if I say sorry, I'm late, I was delayed by traffic,
I'm telling you why I wasn't on time. The next
one is to be held up or to get held up.
It's a little more casual, and it basically means the
same thing as delayed, like I was held up at
work or Mike got held up in traffic. These are
conversational ways to tell someone the reason you were delayed.
Held up is great for everyday English conversation when you
don't make it on time and you need to say why.
And speaking of being behind, that's another phrase, running behind.
It's super useful if your day isn't going as planned.
You can say i'm running behind today, I'll be there
in twenty minutes. I'm running behind is also a casual
way to say that you are delayed, like if you're
a school teacher, you might tell the students, Hey, we're
running behind schedule, so let's skip the quiz. So when
you're late, you didn't show up when expected. Late doesn't
tell us the reason, So to mention the reason, you
can use delayed, held up, or tell someone that you're
running behind. Now, what if something should have happened a
while ago, but it still hasn't happened. In cases like this,
you can use overdu. We usually use overdu when we
talk about things not people, like I just found out
that my library book is overdue, or when your teacher
said this report is two weeks overdue. It's not just late,
it's very late. By the way, the word late has
one more meaning. We also use late to describe something
that happens near the end of the day, the end
of the season, or the end of another time period,
like on Tuesdays, I have a late class it starts
at ten pm. Or I wasn't expecting there would be
tomatoes in my garden that late in the summer. And
you know what, I just met a new student in
her late sixties. She told me it's never too late
in life to try doing something new. I completely agree.
And there you have it, a little vocabulary boost to
help you sound more natural when you're well not on time.
Thanks for hanging out with me. Keep in mind, the
best way to remember English like this and any other
word or phrase in English, is to take that word
or phrase, write it in a sentence that's true for
you or true in your world, and then memorize your
sentences and remember this. 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 lessons 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, just
visit Myhappy English dot com and choose podcast Lesson eight
twenty three. 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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Happy English.