Episode 0311

Hello everyone and welcome to English Pot. My name is Marco.

My name is Catherine and today we're talking about a very important topic. This is about time.

That's right. So sometimes we are a little bit lazy or maybe we sleep too much and we're late to work or a meeting.

All right, so learn many different ways to talk about being late today. Let's take a listen to our dialogue.

Okay, everyone, shall we begin?

Sorry, Maggie, but we are missing a few people. Can we hang on a sec?

Well, I did say 11:00 sharp. And it's now 5:00 past. So

Okay, James, take a seat quickly, please.

Right, the subject of the meeting is the importance

Hi guys, please excuse me. I was held up in traffic.

Right. As I was saying, the subject of the meeting is

Okay, now, as you're aware, the topic for the meeting is the importance of being punctual. Who would like to start?

Alright, we're back. So now let's take a look at some of this vocab on language takeaway.

Language takeaway.

So first up we have a word that we heard, uh, the phrase was, I did say 11 o'clock sharp.

Okay, so if you say the time like 11 o'clock and then you add sharp at the end. What does that mean?

That means exactly. So, uh 11 o'clock, exactly 11 o'clock. 1100. Not 1101, not 1102, but 11 o'clock.

So if I say I'll be I'll be there at 3 o'clock sharp.

That means you won't be there at 258, you will not be there at 304, you'll be there at 3 o'clock.

That's right. Okay, so 3 o'clock sharp. So if you say the time and then you add sharp, it means at that exact time.

Mhm. Now, uh, James was late. He said he was late because he had to wait ages for a taxi.

Okay, so this might be confusing for some people Marco, because I can say, um, what's your age? How old are you? Um, but here ages has a different meaning.

So I had to wait ages means I waited a very long time.

That's right. So the word ages means for a very long time. It's always related to time in this sense.

Okay, very good.

And now the next person Sally came in and she said she was held up in traffic.

Okay, to be held up in traffic means to be stuck in traffic. That means you were made late because there were so many cars on the road.

Okay, so somebody or something else made you late.

That's right. So to be held up means to be made late.

I could ask you, Marco, why are you so late? What held you up?

Exactly. What held you up? That means what made me late?

That's right. It could be many different things.

Okay, yeah. Okay, yeah. So it could be traffic or maybe I could be held up by um the doctor, maybe he took longer than than what I expected.

Or there's no elevator and I'm waiting for the elevator and I got held up by the elevator.

Okay, very good. And now the importance of being punctual, that's the topic of the meeting and so what is this word punctual?

Okay, so punctual is an adjective and it describes uh something is being on time. Okay?

So the opposite of this word would be what?

So the opposite would be late.

Late. Okay, so um she's a very punctual student. She always comes to class on time.

She's never late.

Punctual. So uh you you describe a person as being punctual or not?

That's right.

Okay, very good.

Let's review all this vocab. Let's go back and listen to the dialogue again.

Okay, everyone, shall we begin?

Sorry, Maggie, but we are missing a few people.

Can we hang on a sec?

Well, I did say 11:00 sharp. And it's now 5:00 past. So

Okay, James, take a seat quickly, please.

Right, the subject of the meeting is the importance

Hi guys, please excuse me. I was held up in traffic.

Right. As I was saying, the subject of the meeting is

Okay, now, as you're aware, the topic for the meeting is the importance of being punctual. Who would like to start?

Alright, now let's take a look at some phrases on fluency builder.

Fluency builder.

We have a lot of really great phrases today that describe, uh, well, that are excuses for not being on time or for not being punctual.

The first one we heard was actually different though. One of the students said, can we hang on a sec?

Hang on a sec.

Okay. So if you ask someone to hang on, that means to wait.

Hang on. Wait.

Yeah, exactly. So hang on just means to wait. It's very casual.

Okay, now if we add a sec, hang on a sec or hang on a minute, that means, uh, wait for a little while.

A little while. A sec, SEC means stands for second.

And uh, it's very common in this phrase we hear hang on a sec or wait a sec.

Wait a sec. Uh-huh.

Okay, very good. So, it's very casual, it's very spoken English, although the word sec doesn't really exist. It's just a short way of saying a second.

Mhm, exactly.

And uh later on we heard uh James come in. He was one of those people that we had to wait for, and he said, it's raining cats and dogs outside.

That's right. Okay, it's raining cats and dogs. So, are cats and dogs falling from the sky?

They are not. So this might sound very weird to you. This does not mean they're cats and dogs falling down from the clouds, but it does mean that it's raining a lot. It's raining really hard outside.

Okay, very good. So, it's a phrase used to say it's raining a lot. It's raining very, very hard.

Raining cats and dogs.

So Maggie is trying to continue with the meeting as many people keep coming in and disrupting her. So she says, right, as I was saying, the subject of the meeting.

As I was saying.

Now this is a really important phrase because uh you're going to hear this a lot in in meetings or in conversations where someone is distracted. So, okay, we're having a, oh wait, I'm sorry. I have to talk to this person over here. When you want to come back to what you were talking about, you want to return to the topic, you say, as I was saying.

That's right.

As I was saying. So maybe you were interrupted, maybe you got distracted, and you want to continue talking about the same topic. As I was saying, and then you continue talking.

So you return to the original point you were making.

Okay, very good.

And uh, well, Bruno was the last guy to come in and he said that traffic is murder out there.

Okay, so murder, to murder means to kill someone. Uh, but we're not talking about killing people here. We're talking about, um, an an analogy. We're saying, uh, it's as bad as murder.

So in this case, traffic is murder means traffic is really awful. It's really terrible outside.

So in what other situation or with what other uh noun instead of traffic can we use this something is murder?

The wait is murder.

So that means you have to wait a very, very long time.

Uh-huh, okay.

All right, very good. So now why don't we go back to the dialogue? Let's have one last review and we'll be right back.

Okay, everyone, shall we begin?

Sorry, Maggie, but we are missing a few people.

Can we hang on a sec?

Well, I did say 11:00 sharp. And it's now 5:00 past. So

Okay, James, take a seat quickly, please.

Right, the subject of the meeting is the importance

Hi guys, please excuse me. I was held up in traffic.

Right. As I was saying, the subject of the meeting is

Okay, now, as you're aware, the topic for the meeting is the importance of being punctual. Who would like to start?

So Marco, are you a punctual person or are you usually late?

Uh, for social gatherings, I'm usually pretty punctual.

I've noticed. You're one of the last people to come in in the morning.

Yeah, usually, usually for uh for work I I arrive late, but not like too late. You know, some people may even be an hour or two or something, a couple minutes, 15 minutes is all right.

But uh I do hate to wait if we agree to meet up at 2:00 and you come in at 2:30, I don't know, let's say to the movies, then I think that's that's really irritating.

I agree that's I'm a very punctual person and I get very annoyed when people are late to meetings or when people come late to uh appointments or parties.

Yeah, and I think it's it's different in in different countries because uh you know, in many different places they have what they call the local time. So if you say, okay, the meeting's at 9:00, then everyone assumes that the meeting is supposed to start at 9:00, but then everyone comes in it and comes in at 9:00, but grabs a cup of coffee, talks at the cooler, uh gets their seat, checks their email and then the meeting will start at 9:30 instead of 9:00.

Right. Or for example, the the transportation you will find in different countries can be punctual or not punctual.

In Germany, their transportation is very famous for being punctual.

Oh really? But in India, you will find that the the trains are not very punctual. You might wait one or two or six hours for a train.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

So it's different in in in different countries. I imagine that in a place like Germany it would be very um it would be considered a very bad thing to arrive late to a meeting, for example.

Yeah, I'm curious about that. So let us know, is it acceptable in your country to be a little bit late to a meeting or to an appointment? Um, is punctuality important? Let us know. Our website is englishpod.com.

All right, we'll see you guys there. Bye.

The English pod audio review.

Listen to the meaning, then say the vocabulary word.

Hold on.

Hang on a sec.

Wait for a very long time.

Wait ages.

Stuck.

Hold up.

Very sorry.

I am terribly sorry.

Pardon.

Please excuse me.

Let's try that faster.

Very sorry.

I am terribly sorry.

Wait for a very long time.

Wait ages.

Hold on.

Hang on a sec.

Pardon.

Please excuse me.

Stuck.

Hold up.

Now say the word and hear it in a sentence.

Hang on a sec.

Now hang on a sec. Where does this order button fit into this web page?

Hang on a sec.

Hang on a sec. I'll talk to you as soon as I've finished my report.

Hang on a sec.

Hang on a sec. Let's take another look at this.

Wait ages.

It was raining and he waited ages for a taxi.

Wait ages.

I waited ages for a hamburger. I'll never come back to this restaurant again.

Wait ages.

You must have waited ages. I'm sorry about that.

Hold up.

Don't let me hold you up if you are busy. We can chat later instead.

Hold up.

They were held up by fog.

Hold up.

Sorry. I was held up by the meeting.

Please excuse me.

Please excuse me. I was held up by the train delays.

Please excuse me.

Please excuse me. I have to go to the bathroom.

Please excuse me.

Please excuse me. I was stuck in traffic.

I am terribly sorry.

I'm terribly sorry that I messed up your order.

I am terribly sorry.

We're terribly sorry that we misprinted your details.

I am terribly sorry.

I am terribly sorry for being late.