Hi, do you know when I was growing up, which was my favourite proverb? It was time and
tide wait for no man. I used to be so proud when I used to use this proverb in any kind
of an elocution competition or to maybe even write an essay. however, later on I realized
that, that's not the only proverb or the only saying that I can use related to time but
there was no one much to help me at that point in time but you, you are really lucky cause
you have me, Sonia and we're going to do a lesson today on time-related idioms. Time
and tide wait for no man, what does that one mean? I’m sure you know but just to confirm,
it means that time is extremely important and very precious, alright.
Let’s look at some really interesting ones that you can use in today's day and life.
The first one, it says on the spur of the moment. What do I mean when I say, on the
spur of the moment? It means to do something instantly or to take a very spontaneous decision,
alright. So, quite often in life, we think a lot about doing certain things but sometimes,
we take certain decisions just immediately without really giving it much thought. That’s
when you're doing something on the spur of the moment. So it means to take a spontaneous
decision. Spontaneous means instant, okay or to do something instantly. So in a sentence,
I could say, well Jane was so frustrated at work that she decided to go off on a holiday
on the spur of the moment, instantly without giving it much thought.
The next one here, it says, in the interim. Okay, what do I mean by this? It sounds a
little serious as well. In the interim, sorry means a short period of time
between certain events, between certain events. Let me give you a situation or an example
and I'm sure you'll understand this better. So maybe say you're working for a bank, alright
and you know you have the manager of the bank and then there's also an assistant manager.
So possibly, the main head or the manager has to go and take care of another branch
of the same bank. So what happens in the interim, in that short period of time, the assistant
manager will be the one who'll be taking care of everything at the original branch. Alright
so in the interim is a short period of time between the managers going to the other branch
and coming back. What happens in the interim, the assistant manager takes care of the operations
there. So, if I want to put it in a sentence, I could say, the assistant manager took care
of the outlet or the branch while the manager was at the other outlet during the interim.
Next one here, this sounds a little bit tricky, okay, against the clock. What could I mean
by this possibly, against the clock? This means that you're working so hard, you have
a lot of work to do but time is just flying by, time is not really supporting you or the
clock is not really supporting you. Okay, so basically it means to have very little
time to do something, very little time to do some work or to do something. So many of
us have deadlines at work, right? We need to prepare presentations, reports and the
list just goes on. So quite often, without knowing we actually are working against the
clock. alright, so in a sentence may be you could say, well we need to finish this presentation
by 5 pm. we are working against the clock, which means we have very little or no time
to complete our work.
The next one here is, quite easy to understand, I'm sure. It says in broad daylight. Now tell
me, when you know when it's daylight during the daytime. How is it? Is it bright? Is it
dark? Is it sunny? Is it gloomy? Daylight always you know talks about something that's
bright and sunny and very visible. So yes, in broad daylight means something which happened
or some event that took place was extremely visible, very clear. You will read this expression
a lot in the news. Whenever there's something that's reported, you may read a sentence like;
the robbery took place in broad daylight. Okay, so this is what they mean. It means
that the event or the incident was clearly visible. It happened in broad daylight.
Okay, the next one I have for you, living on borrowed time. Okay before I explain this
one. What’s the meaning of borrowed? Borrowed means to take something which is not yours.
Okay so say for example, if I need a TAB. okay, I don't have one but I really need it
to do some important work. So what do I do? I go to my friend and I borrow the TAB from
her, use it for a while and give it back to her. That’s what borrowing means but what
does it mean here? Living on borrowed time. You know sometimes in life, we have an illness,
we could have an illness which is fatal or we may be in an accident which was so dangerous
that we were almost going to lose our life, okay. However, if you're really blessed and
you're really lucky, you may survive that incident, okay. So how do you feel then? You
feel that you've cheated death. You’ve taken some borrowed time, okay you've come out of
a near-fatal accident. So, it means to survive an incident which was fatal. Okay, which means
something that could have killed you. It could either be an accident, okay or it could have
even been an illness. so may be in a sentence, I could say something like this, well John
was in a terrible bike accident which he survived miraculously and since then he feels that
he is living on borrowed time.
Okay, let's see what we have here, now this is a little common, okay. It says, better
late than never. Now there's this one thing about me, Okay I just don't know how to swim.
Alright, however, I've recently joined swimming classes, good for me. So what did my mom tell
me the other day? She said, well, Sonia, better late than never. You’re pretty grown up
now and you should have really learnt swimming a long time ago. So better late than never
means to achieve or to do something which was long overdue, okay. So better late
than never means to do something which you were really meaning to do for a long time
but you've been putting it off. so that's how you use it, if you want to use this in
a sentence, you could say, maybe to your friend who's always wanted to learn driving but never
really had the guts. so you could tell her well, hey I'm so happy for you that you've
taken up driving classes, better late than never.
Okay, the next one here and this is my favourite. It says, have the time of your life. Alright,
what does it mean to have the time of your life? It means to have an amazing experience
or to have an unforgettable experience. Okay, it's the best time of your life. So you remember
that friend of mine who decided to go on a holiday on the spur of the moment. so she
went to Europe and she had the time of her life there which means, she had an unforgettable,
amazing experience, which can't really be recreated may be again.
Next one here, okay it says the time is ripe. Now when I say ripe, I mostly think of a fruit.
Okay when a fruit is ripe, you eat it. That the best time to eat it but the time is ripe
actually means that this is the best time or the most advantageous time, alright. So
it's the best or the most advantageous time. So let me give you a situation here quickly.
May be you're a student and you need to go overseas to pursue higher education but student
loans can be you know very expensive sometimes but recently you've come to know that the
interest rates of student loans have really, really dropped. So that is, that's what it
means that the time is ripe for you to apply for a loan and go overseas to study. So in
a sentence, I could say, well hey John, do you know that student loan rates have dropped
really low? The time is ripe for you to go overseas now.
And finally, we have this one which says, all in good time. What could I mean by that?
Now, this is a saying when you want to tell someone to be extremely patient, oaky. So
basically it means to be patient about something. So say for example, if you've recently taken
up may be dance classes. Okay, and you really want to learn, say ballet. Alright, and ballet
is a tough dance form. So it will require a lot of time. It will require a lot of patience
but you're the types who is a little impatient and every evening when you come home from
dance class, you're really disappointed because you're not really getting the right form and
you don't really feel you're doing good at ballet. So what would I tell you then in that
case? I would say, well you need to be a little patient, okay because learning ballet takes
a lot of time. You will become a really good performer. It will all happen in good time.
So all in all, I'm just telling you to be patient.
So here we are, okay with some lovely expressions or idioms related to time. They’re really
easy to use, make sure that you understand the meaning of each and every idiom and then
you can use them in your day to day conversation. Well, this brings me to the end of the lesson
and I hope that you enjoyed watching. I'll be back soon with something more, till then
you take good care of yourself, bye.