Gareth King - Colloquial English - A Complete English Language Course

CLERK:

Certainly. Where are you travelling from?

ADRIAN:

From Brighton.

CLERK:

And when do you want to arrive?

ADRIAN:

I’ve got a meeting at twelve. Will the seven o’clock train get me there in time?

CLERK:

Yes, but unfortunately you’ve left it too late – there are no seats left on that train. I can book you onto the nine-thirty, but you’ll be late for your meeting.

ADRIAN:

I can’t miss the meeting. What about the sleeper train tonight?

CLERK:

Hold on – I’ll check to see if there are any seats left.

[ checks on her computer ]

Yes, you’re in luck. There are a few left. Shall I make the reservation?

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ADRIAN:

Yes please. What time does it leave this evening?

CLERK:

Eight o’clock. And you’ll be in Glasgow by seven o’clock tomorrow morning.

ADRIAN:

That’ll give me bags of time to get to the meeting, won’t it? It will arrive on time, won’t it?

CLERK:

Yes – and make sure you get here by eight this evening . . . all our trains leave on time as well!

Idioms

• in timemeans ‘before the latest time possible’

• on timemeans ‘at the scheduled time’ or ‘punctually’

• bags of timemeans ‘a lot of time’ or ‘plenty of time’

Language point 65 – telling the time

Telling the time is easy in English. We’ve seen the numbers in Unit 4 – here are the other words you will need:

o’clock

/ə`klɔk/

it’s

past

just coming up to

to

just gone

half

/hɑf /

exactly

a quarter

/ə`kwɔtə/

at

at about

by

To tell someone what the time is, we use it’s . . .: What time is it?

– It’s ten o’clock

To say when something happens, we use at: I’ll meet you both at ten o’clock

To give the latest time when something should happen, we use by: I’ll be back home by ten o’clock

(perhaps earlier)

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When we are not sure of the exact time, we use about: It’s about ten o’clock

Now let’s have a look at the clock:

o’clock

five to

five past

12

11

1

ten to

ten past

10

2

a quarter to

9

3

a quarter past

8

4

twenty to

twenty past

7

5

6

twenty-five to

twenty-five past

half past

Notice that:

• we say a quarter, but half( not ‘a half’)

• we usually say ten past(etc.), not ‘ten minutes past’ which sounds rather formal

• we always say half past, never ‘half to’

• in colloquial English we often say just teninstead of ten o’clock: I’ll meet you at ten

• in colloquial English we often say half teninstead of half past ten I’ll meet you at half ten

half tenand half past ten both mean 10.30!

• we have special words for 12.00 at night ( midnight) and 12.00 in the day ( middayor noon).

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We use just goneand just coming up toto deal with times between the five-minute intervals on the clock face:

just gone

=

a short time after

just coming up to

=

a short time before

So:

10.16

it’s just gone a quarter past ten

10.19

it’s just coming up to twenty past ten

For very precise times, such as railway timetables and schedules, we use the 24-hour clock, giving two numbers:

10.56

ten fifty-six

13.12

thirteen twelve

Notice:

12.00

twelve hundred

12.07

twelve oh seven

Be careful!The 24-hour clock is common in official uses of

English where precise times are important, but it is not used in ordinary situations in colloquial English:

I’ll see you at a quarter past five

not

‘I’ll see you at seventeen fifteen’

Exercise 1

Give the 12-hour clock equivalents for these 24-hour clock times –

the first one has been done for you.

1 1316

It’s just gone a

6

1754

quarter past one.

2 1544

7 1602

3 0940

8 1435

4 2359

9 2226

5 0710

10 0330

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Exercise 2

Write the times shown on the clock faces in the normal 12-hour system.

1

It’s ______________________________

2

It’s ______________________________

3

It’s ______________________________

4

It’s ______________________________

5

It’s ______________________________

6

It’s ______________________________

Dialogue 2

Candace and Jenny are about to go into the art gallery, but Jenny stops at the door.

CANDACE:

What are you looking for, Jenny?

JENNY:

My money, of course. Oh God, I can’t find it!

CANDACE:

What are you worrying about? We don’t need to pay

for tickets here – it’s free!

[ Candace points at a sign over the door saying ADMISSION FREE ]

JENNY:

So it is! Great – we can look at loads of wonderful paintings for nothing!

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Idioms

• When something is freeyou don’t have to pay any money for it.

• Great!means ‘Wonderful!’ or ‘That’s good!’.

• loads ofmeans ‘a lot of ’ (COUNTABLE nouns); for UNCOUNTABLE

nouns we use a load of.

Language point 66 – ‘where . . . from?’,

‘where . . . to?’

In Dialogue 1 the assistant asks Adrian:

Where are you travelling from?

And in Dialogue 2 Candace asks Jenny:

What are you looking for?

and

What are you worrying about?

These are sentences that contain a PREPOSITION used with a WH-WORD.

In colloquial English we do not usually put any word before the wh-word (although formal English does). If there is a wh-word, we prefer it to be the first word in the sentence. So we don’t say:

‘From where are you travelling?’

‘For what are you looking?’

‘About what are you worrying?’

We move the preposition to the end of the sentence, leaving the wh-word to start the sentence. Here are some more examples: Who were you talking to?