Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Adverb Phrase 17. The adverb phrase today is at
play. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone, especially children are
at play, they are involved in actively playing. So here it's pretty simple 'at
play' really just means that they've been playing for a while having fun , at play,.
All right. Now the second meaning. If something is at play, it is active or
existing. So you're letting somebody know that something exists. Existing as
something that needs to be, that needs to be or should be considered or should be
thought about. Yeah. There's something else at play. There's something else
that's existing. That's happening. Maybe something you don't know about. So we
often say something is at play or I think there must be something else at
play here. This is the way we use it. So let's cover it. We got four examples to
cover these two meanings. Example number one you know, of course going to the
first meaning. Right now it is lunchtime and the children are at play in the
playground until the bell rings again for lunch. Yeah, especially in lower
grades especially in elementary school probably in the middle of the day they
often let the children out. They probably get a lot of energy out. You know, probably
right around lunchtime. You know if they eat lunch quick. They
have some time where they can play and run around or exercise and then, then of
course the bell rings. They got to go back to classes again. So during that
time you know they are usually at play in the playground. Okay. Let's look at
number two here. This present you know, a gift. This present was a big hit you know,
very popular. The children have been at play enjoying it for hours. So they again,
they were actively playing for several hours because this was a fun game or a
fun toy or whatever this gift was. Okay. Let's look at number three now. Three and
four cover the second meaning here. It means something is
existing or something else is active that you should consider or think about.
All right. So let's look at number three here. There are many other things at play
which are happening behind the scenes and are not reported in the media. So
you're talking about a situation and you're letting people know well you know,
just what they're telling us right here, this is not really the whole story.
There's something else at play behind the scenes and maybe you're purposely
not being told right now. For one reason or another there's something else at
play. There's something else existing that's happening right now. It's at play.
Okay good. Number four. A similar idea. I think there is more at play than meets
the eye. Yeah well this is another phrase we say. We say there's more to something
than meets the eye. Again it means that we there's some information missing that
we don't know about. So you can kind of combine them here. In the same sense. So
you can say there's more at play. There's more existing than meets the eye. So
we're not, we're not seeing everything. There's something missing we're not
getting the whole story. Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was informative. Thank
you for your time. Bye-bye.