Episode 31 - Phrases and Sounds Native English Speakers Use To Talk About Time

Today we're looking at using 'ish' (tenish) when making appointments. We also cover a lot of vocabulary that might be useful if you're working in an international company or with native speakers such as 'one minute!' or 'Can you give me a minute?' When we want to make an appointment but don't feel the need to be very accurate we can add 'ish' to the end of the number. 'Let's meet at tenish.' We can use this for other things too, adding 'ish' to the end of a word, that doesn't normally have it, means approximately or around about. If you want to know what time it is there are several ways you can ask. I guess in school you learned 'what time is it?' but you could also ask, 'have you got the time?' or 'what time do you have?' If you are late for something and you want to tell someone you will be there in a short time you could say: Just a second! Just a minute! One minute! I'll be there in a second! Two minutes! I'll be right there! If you know you need more time you might ask: Can you give me a minute? Can you give me five minutes? Can you give me another half an hour? If you interrupt someone, knock on their door or need to talk to them for some reason you might use one of the following phrases. These usually mean that you anticipate the thing you need to talk to them about will only take a short time to talk about. Can you give me five minutes? Have you got a minute? I hope this gives you lots more vocabulary to use at work to talk about time.

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