Read along to learn the English phrases TO WHILE AWAY THE TIME and A WHILE BACKIn this English lesson, I wanted to help you learn the English phrase to while away the time. And I should note that sometimes while is spelled with an H in this phrase and sometimes people leave it out. And both apparently are correct. But when you while away the time, it means you spend time doing something so that time will pass and it's usually something relaxing.Here are a few examples. I have the summer off. I will probably while away the time by reading a few books and maybe hanging out with Jen and just doing some fun stuff. So I'm going to allow time to pass by doing something that I enjoy.So it's not the same as being bored. When you while away the time, you find something fun to do. If you're stuck in line, you might while away the time while you're waiting in line by going on your phone and checking up on social media. The other phrase I wanted to teach you today is the phrase a while back.So when we talk about things that have happened in the past, if it happened yesterday, I would just say it happened yesterday. If it happened a few months ago, I might say, that was a while back. Or that happened a while back. I think that happened way back in December.There's another phrase way back. It was a while back. When did you file your taxes, Bob? That was a while back. I think I did that two months ago. So to review, when you while away the time, it means you spend time doing something usually relaxing and something that you enjoy.So that time goes by. And then when you say something happened a while back, it means it happened a long time ago. But hey, let's look at a comment from a previous video. This comment is from Mr. Fisheri and it says I used to mill about back then and pretend to be checking my phone, but there wasn't much to scroll back in those days, so it was actually awkward to be pretending.There wasn't much to scroll back in those days. Sorry, I kind of used the wrong cadence there. So it was actually awkward to be pretending. But now with the infinite information on the interwebs scrolling, the phone non stop is normalized and not even awkward since it's just the standard thing to do nowadays.And my response, pay attention here. Yeah, you can certainly while away the time when sitting in a waiting room or waiting in line now if you have your phone on you and if it's charged and ready to use. So thank you Mr. Fisheri for that comment. Let's go for a little walk.So I am, in the town of Grimsby, Ontario. This is the town where Jen, comes for the farmers market once a week. And I am actually at the old public library, which is no longer open. I'm not sure what that building is.And then the new public library, much more modern looking, and it's also an art gallery. And there's two things that you can see over here. There is some art on the wall and I think there's also some graffiti on the bottom right corner of the art.But who am I to actually know? Maybe that's actually part of the artwork. So maybe I take that back. Maybe the little bit of writing in the bottom corner is actually part of that piece of art. So what we have here is a historical building and a more modern building.And, this is actually the new library. And I think you remember what a library is, right? You can go to the library, you can check out a book, you can take the book home, you can read the book and all of that fun stuff. But, yeah, the town of Grimsby.I'm just here today because I'm actually going to be visiting family member, later this afternoon to help them with a computer problem. So even, even at my age, in my mid-50s, I still have older uncles and aunts who rely on me to, fix little things that go wrong with their computers.So I feel like they should have their own grandkids by now that are experts in that field, shouldn't they? Anyways, I'll leave you with this. Here is a piece of modern art.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.

Transcript

Related