There are two ways to use “make a difference”: first, when an action has a positive impact on the world, and second, when an action has a noticeable effect. A positive impact on the world, or simply a noticeable effect. Those are your two ways to use “make a difference.” And later in the lesson, we’ll cover a few variations, like “make a real difference” and “make no difference.”

To have a positive impact

The first way to use “make a difference” is to say that someone or something has a positive impact on others or on the world. This is often used with people or organizations that contribute to social or charitable causes, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

Let’s start with an easy example. A local food pantry can make a difference by providing meals to people in need. The organization has a positive impact on the world, so we say, “The food pantry is making a difference.” A positive impact on the world means, it’s making the world a better place. You can say the same thing about the people who volunteer there. The volunteers who pack and serve food are making a difference by supporting their communities.

This is “make a difference” in the charitable sense, about people doing good, people having a positive impact on the world.

But even if you’re not volunteering for a charity, you can still make a difference in your job. If you positively affect other people, you’re making a difference. For instance, a surgeon at a hospital makes a difference by saving lives and improving health. That’s easy to see.

But a person who collects trash also makes a difference. That person keeps neighborhoods clean and safe. That person helps prevent disease and keep people healthy. Okay, it’s not exactly the same as being a surgeon. But people in both jobs make a difference. They have a positive impact on the world.

So this is “make a difference” in the sense of having a positive impact, a positive effect on the world.

To have a noticeable effect

But “make a difference” doesn’t always mean having a positive effect. We can also use this expression if something has a noticeable effect, big, small, good, or neutral. We usually don’t say “make a difference” with something bad. But with this definition, what’s important is not that a change is good. What’s important is that you notice the change, you notice that something is different or that something has happened.

Imagine the owner of a business wants to save money on utility bills. The business has a warehouse and the lights are on for most of the day. The parking lot lights are on all night long for safety. The business owner might decide to switch all the light bulbs to LED bulbs, energy efficient light bulbs, as the old ones burn out.

What happens? The business owner notices the electric bills are lower after replacing some of the light bulbs. The action had an impact. So we can say, “Installing LED bulbs made a difference.” It had an effect; you can see it. It’s noticeable. Yes, it’s good, but in this case, the important thing is that it had some kind of effect. The new bulbs made a difference: you can see the effect in the electric bills.

Imagine you have a friend who has been feeling a little sluggish lately. She wants to boost her energy levels, so she makes a change to her diet. She used to have a muffin for breakfast, but now she has a green smoothie in the morning. After a few weeks, she notices she has more energy and feels more alert. The change to her diet has made a difference. She has noticed a change. It’s a good change. But the important thing is, the change was noticeable. Her new breakfast made a difference.

Make a real difference

So now that you know all about how to use “make a difference,” let’s talk about some common variations to this expression.

And we’ll start with “make a real difference”. You would say, “make a real difference” if you want to say that an action has a strong, positive impact. It’s very good, very positive, very good for the world. For instance, if someone volunteers regularly at an animal shelter, you might say, “His dedication makes a real difference in the lives of the animals.” This emphasizes that his work produced a meaningful, lasting effect in the world. You can also say his efforts make a big difference.

Make all the difference in the world

You can step things up, too, and say something had a fundamental or very, very big impact. And for that, you can say “make all the difference in the world.” If you say this, you’re saying that one action or choice or person has had a huge positive impact.

Or, imagine you’re having trouble sleeping because of noise from the street. But then you get soundproofing in your house, so your bedroom is gloriously quiet at night. Now, you sleep like a baby. You can say, “The soundproofing made all the difference in the world.” It had a huge impact.

Make no (or not much) difference

Now, here’s the opposite. You can say something “makes no difference” or “does not make a difference.” If you say this, you mean that something doesn’t have any effect on the world.

Do you use delivery apps? Where you live, there might be two or three different apps that all have the same restaurants, the same fees, and probably the same delivery drivers. So does it matter which one you use?

I can order from Rappi or Uber Eats—it makes no difference which one I choose. That means, my choice doesn’t matter. Pick Rappi; pick Uber Eats. It doesn’t matter. It makes no difference which one I choose. They are pretty much the same.

You can also say something “makes absolutely no difference” or that it “makes no difference whatsoever.” This is a way of making your statement stronger. Should you buy your movie tickets online or at the theater? If it’s not a popular movie, it makes absolutely no difference. There won’t be many people there. You’ll get the seats you want if you buy them online or if you buy them at the theater. It makes no difference whatsoever.

Now finally, you can say something “won’t make much difference” if an action will have only a small impact. If you’re preparing a recipe and it calls for whole milk, but you only have low fat milk available, you might say, “Using low fat milk instead of whole milk won’t make much difference.” That means, sure, maybe the change will have some effect. But it won’t have a big effect on the recipe. It won’t make much difference.

So, now you’re ready to use “make a difference” with confidence. Remember, “make a difference” can mean to have a positive impact, especially in charitable or social causes, or it can simply mean to have a noticeable effect.

There are also some useful variations, like “make a real difference” to highlight a meaningful impact, and “make no difference” or “won’t make much difference” to show when something has little or no effect.

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“To take something for granted.” This is an example of an expression with one primary meaning, but there are many, many situations in which you might use it. When you “take something for granted,” you don’t fully appreciate or notice how important it is to you.

When we take something for granted—and listen, we all do it—but when we take something for granted, we assume it will always be there, we forget how lucky we are to have it. We don’t fully appreciate how lucky we are. We all take things for granted from time to time.

This doesn’t happen on an analytical level. It’s not something that’s in your brain; it’s something that’s in your heart. If you take something for granted, you don’t forget about it; it’s not erased from your memory. But on an emotional level, you don’t appreciate it as much anymore.

So to illustrate this, I’ll give you several examples of things many of us—myself included—take for granted. And then at the end of the episode, I’ll show you one slightly different way to use this expression.

Taking conveniences for granted

Let’s start with taking conveniences for granted—“conveniences” are those little things that make life easier. Many of us don’t think about the everyday conveniences we rely on, that we enjoy. For instance, most of us have easy access to the internet, where we can look up nearly anything within seconds on our phones.

But it wasn’t so long ago that, if you wanted to learn about a new topic, you’d have to find an encyclopedia or go to the library, search through a card catalog—remember those?—and read books—remember those?—to find the information. I’m exhausted just thinking about it. Today, we’re lucky to have that information in our pockets, yet it’s easy to forget just how amazing this is.

We take it for granted. We forget how fortunate we are to have this convenience. How often do you pause to appreciate having unlimited answers at your fingertips? If you’re like me, you probably don’t ever think about it—you simply take it for granted.

This is a good time to mention one thing. We often don’t realize that we take things for granted until we lose them. Have you ever lost your phone for a couple of days? Or been without internet service at home, maybe after you move or switch providers? That’s when you realize that you’re taking the internet for granted—when you lose it!

Taking safety and security for granted

I remember one time early in my career, I got to the office in the morning and the door was broken and there was a huge mess inside. And a coworker—I’ll never forget this—she looked me right in the eye as I walked in, and she said, “Jeff, we’ve been robbed.”

Someone had broken in overnight and stolen computer equipment. This was an older building in downtown Chicago. There was not 24/7 security, but there was security for most of the day. We took our safety for granted; we never thought the office could be robbed! You never hear about offices getting robbed. But it happened. And safety and security became something that we thought about much more often, much more actively, after that. We stopped taking it for granted, at least for a while.

Taking health for granted

Health is another thing that people take for granted. Most of us don’t think about our health until we get sick. I don’t get sick very often, but last year I had a pretty bad case of food poisoning. For a day and a half, I was completely miserable—exhausted, dehydrated, and all I wanted was to feel normal again. I remember thinking then, I’ll never take my health for granted again.

But, of course, you know what happened! A few weeks later, once I felt normal, I didn’t think about my health anymore. I started taking it for granted again.

Taking a person for granted

We can also use “take for granted” to talk about people. When we “take someone for granted,” it means we assume that they’ll always be there for us. It’s not good to take somebody for granted. If you take someone for granted, you don’t show appreciation for their support, their kindness, or their presence in your life. This sometimes happens with people we’re close to, like family members, friends, or partners. Over time, we might stop appreciating how important they are, how much they really mean to us, because they’re always there.

Imagine you have a sibling who’s always checking in on you or a parent who’s always ready to help with little things, like cooking or repairs around the house. It’s easy to get used to that support and forget to say thank you, forget to practice gratitude.

So you get the idea. To take something or someone for granted is—it’s not like you forget, but you stop appreciating something good that you have.

Forget to confirm

There’s one other way to use “take for granted.” If you forget to confirm something, or if you forget an important detail because it just didn’t pop up in your brain, then you can use “take for granted.”

If you drive on the main highways in the United States, you’ll see a lot of gas stations. They’re everywhere. So when the light comes on, just wait a few minutes and you’ll see a gas station. No problem. There are gas stations everywhere.

Well, not everywhere. I’m thinking about a stretch of highway, I-75, in Florida between Ft. Lauderdale and Naples. And there are very, very few gas stations. The highway goes through the Everglades, a protected wetland, and there isn’t much development. And I wound up almost running out of gas in the Everglades. I just took for granted that there would always be gas available. And then when the tank was almost empty, guess what? There weren’t gas stations around.

So, you can say, “I took for granted that…” and then something you just assumed would be true. I took for granted that there would be gas stations. And that means, I didn’t even think about it. I didn’t think to confirm it. I didn’t think I had to confirm it. I took for granted that there would be gas stations…and I was mistaken.

So now you know “take for granted.” What did you learn today? If you stop appreciating something valuable, you take it for granted. You might take your health for granted, if you don’t appreciate how lucky you are to be healthy. Or—and please don’t do this—but you might take a person for granted if you don’t appreciate how much that person means to you.

And then finally, you can use this expression with something you forgot to confirm or check. Like how I took for granted that there would always be gas available along the highway.

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If something happens “for good,” guess what? It’s not about good or bad. If you hear that something is happening “for good,” it means it’s happening permanently—forever. This phrase doesn’t actually have anything to do with the idea of “good” or “bad.” Instead, it’s about how long something lasts.

Permanently closed

If you say something happens or is “for good,” that means it’s permanent. It’s not temporary.

Let me ask you a question. If someone tells you, “That restaurant is closed.” What does that mean? Does it mean that it closed earlier in the day and the restaurant will reopen in the morning? Or does it mean that the restaurant is closed permanently—never to reopen?

“The restaurant is closed” could mean either one of those. Most of the time, it’s clear from the context. But if it’s not clear, you can ask for clarification. You can ask, “Is it closed for good?”

That means, “Is it closed permanently?” One of my favorite restaurants recently closed for good. It was called Selmarie’s in the Lincoln Square neighborhood of Chicago. When I first moved to Chicago in 2005, I lived near that restaurant. And I loved going there for breakfast. But JR—the producer of this podcast—he passed by the restaurant and gave me the bad news. Selmarie’s had closed for good.

This means, it’s closed permanently. It’s not coming back. The owners have retired. A new restaurant is going in that space. I haven’t been to the new one, but I was so sad to learn that Selmarie’s had closed for good.

Permanently stopped

Did you ever have an iPod? This was Apple’s portable music player for the days before streaming. I had a few over the years. Did you know that Apple kept making iPods up until the year 2022? That blows my mind. The last time I used an iPod was probably in 2012.

But finally in 2022, Apple stopped making iPods for good. Apple stopped permanently. They’re never going to start making them. They stopped making iPods for good.

And so you can see that “for good” can also mean to stop doing something forever.

A factory might close temporarily if there is a slow season. But a factory might also close for good. If it closes for good, there are no plans to reopen, and the workers will all have to find new jobs.

It’s hard to quit smoking. Sometimes it takes a few attempts. Here’s a common story. A person might say, “I tried to quit smoking three times over the years. But when I had kids, I quit for good.” That means, he had kids, he stopped smoking permanently—no going back on it. If someone says he’s stopped a bad habit for good, it means he’s not starting it again.

Take a permanent action

By far the most common way to use “for good” is to talk about stopping something, as you’ve heard. But you can also use it to talk about something permanent that you will do or start doing. In this case, “permanent” doesn’t mean “for the rest of time” or even “for the rest of your life.” But it does mean that you’ll do something without the expectation of stopping it.

Imagine that you start working at a temporary job in a different city. You get an Airbnb in that new city, intending to live there temporarily, a few months. But you really like that place, so you decide to move your home to that new city. You leave your old house or apartment and find a new, long-term place to live in the new city. If you do that, you can say, “I’m moving here for good starting in January.”

That means, it’s permanent. No more Airbnb. No expiration date, no expectation that you’ll leave again soon. Now listen, that doesn’t mean you’ll live there for the rest of your life. But it does mean that it’s not a temporary situation anymore. You’re moving for good.

Ah, but remember that job? That was temporary. Now, if you do a good job, they might offer you a full-time position, without an expiration date. If that happens, they might say, “We’d like you to work here for good.” That means, no short-term contract, no end date, no temporary this or that. We want you here for good. That means, we want you here permanently.

You might foster a dog. That means you have offered to take care of a dog temporarily, for a few days or weeks until the dog can find a permanent home. But you might find that you get along with that dog and you want to adopt him for good. You might say to the foster agency, “We’d like to adopt him for good.” That means, adopt him permanently so that he’s your pet, not just a temporary guest in your house.

This time for good

Sometimes you’ll hear someone say, “This time for good.” That means, the previous times have been temporary, or the previous times haven’t worked. But this time it’s permanent. Like quitting smoking, losing weight can be hard. But a person might say, “I’ve lost weight a few times, only to gain it back. But I’m determined to get in shape—this time for good.” That means, “this time, permanently.”

Tom Brady is a famous American football player—and now television commentator. He retired in 2022. But just 40 days later, he announced he was coming out of retirement to join a new team and play another season. But that was his last year. In 2023, he said he was retiring, “for good this time.” He was retiring permanently.

“For good” is easy. It means “permanently” or “not temporarily.” Often, we use it when we’re talking about stopping or closing. A restaurant closes for good if it’s never going to open again. A company can stop making its product for good if it will never make that thing again.

It can be used to start doing something that you don’t expect to stop. If you move somewhere for good, it’s a permanent move—not for the rest of your life, but there’s no expiration date.

And finally, you can say “this time for good” if you mean that previous attempts have failed, but this time you’ll do something permanently.

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“At once” has two meanings, and they’re very different. To make things even more complicated, neither meaning really has anything to do with the word “once,” which means “just one time.”

Here are the two ways to use “at once.” First, it can mean, to do something immediately, without delay, without waiting at all. If a child is misbehaving, you might scold her and say, “Stop doing that at once!” It means, stop doing that right now.

The second way to use “at once” is to do multiple things at the same time. Have you made a big mistake at work? Maybe you were trying to do too many things at once. Maybe you were trying to do too many things at the same time.

Let’s take a deeper dive into the two meanings.

Do something immediately

The first meaning is to do something immediately, without any delay, without any waiting. It’s common to use this in the form of a command. You tell someone to do something immediately.

If you have kids—say, teenagers or younger—you probably use the equivalent of “at once” fairly frequently. Imagine you have younger kids; you’re trying to get them ready for bed. You’ve already asked them nicely a few times to brush their teeth, but they’re still playing with their toys or watching TV. At this point, you might say, “Go brush your teeth at once!”

This makes it clear that you want them to do it right now, without any more dilly-dallying, without any more delays, no more excuses, not “just five more minutes,” at once. Right now. No delays, no excuses. Go brush your teeth at once.

When talking to adults, “at once” implies some urgency. Someone in a position of authority is taking charge of the situation and telling others what to do. Think of a chemistry lab. A student in the lab spills a harmful chemical. The lab supervisor might say, “Everyone needs to get out of here at once.” That means, “everyone needs to get out of the lab right now.”

Or, imagine a hospital. A nurse finds that a patient needs a doctor’s attention immediately. The nurse might say to an assistant, “Call the doctor at once.” That means, do it right now. It’s urgent. Call her at once.

So, when you use “at once” like this, you’re asking for immediate action. But you can sometimes use it to describe immediate action. Have you ever witnessed a car crash? It’s scary. I saw one at a busy intersection in Chicago and I called the police at once. I pulled right over and called 911. And the police came and interviewed me. They asked me what I did when I saw the accident. I said, “I pulled over at once and called 911.”

Do multiple things at the same time

Now let’s take a look at the second meaning, to do multiple things at the same time. Are you good at multi-tasking? That word has fallen out of favor lately because psychologists have discovered that humans are really bad at doing multiple things at once.

Sure, we can try. But if we try to do too many things at once, then we won’t do any of them well. If you work for a big company, you probably have to attend webinars or big group conference calls. And you’re probably tempted to also do something else at the same time.

You might decide to listen to the webinar and reply to emails at once. That means, you’re doing them at the same time. But you know what? We humans are not good at this. Your attention will be on one, on the other, or on neither. But you can’t really focus on two things at once.

If you reply to an email, but you accidentally send a message to the wrong person, you might have to apologize. You can say, “I’m sorry, I was trying to do two things at once and I sent this message to the wrong person.”

All at once

A common variation on “at once” is the expression, “all at once.” When you use “all at once,” everything happens together.

We were just talking about doing multiple things at the same time. “All at once” is very common here. You might say that a parent was preparing dinner, supervising homework, and keeping an eye on work emails all at once. All these things were happening at the same time.

Another way to use “all at once” is to talk about doing things in a batch. How do you review your email? Do you interrupt your work and read all your emails one by one as they come in? Or do you wait for a few hours and review them all at once?

If you review your emails all at once, you wait until a bunch of messages have accumulated and then you read them in a group, in a batch.

A supervisor or manager might say this at work. If employees gradually finish reports, the supervisor might review the reports immediately—right after, or right as, the employees finish. Or, the supervisor might want to review them all at once. That means, she’ll wait until the work is done. Then, when all the reports are drafted, she’ll review them all at once. She’ll review them together in a batch.

Finally, you can say “all at once” when multiple things happen to you, maybe not in the same moment but in the same general period of time. You might get a new job, move to a new house, and start a new relationship all in the same month. If that happens, you can say, “So much was happening all at once; it was overwhelming.” That means, so much was happening together at the same time.

There you go. Now you’re prepared to use “at once” in your English conversations.

Remember, the first definition of “at once” means to do something immediately. It’s often used as a command, like if you tell your kids, “Go brush your teeth at once.” But it can also be used to describe immediate action like, “When I saw the car accident, I called the police at once.”

And then you learned “at once” can be about doing multiple things at the same time. If you try to do too much at once, you’ll get distracted. And then we talked about “all at once,” which is similar to the second definition. It’s about things happening together.

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“Take advantage of” is a very, very common expression in English. And you might have even used it yourself. But did you know it has two meanings? And did you know those are very different meanings? If you’re not using it the right way , you could cause confusion or embarrassment .

So today, you’ll learn both ways of using it—and you’ll learn how to avoid confusion when saying “take advantage of.”

Get a benefit that’s available

Here’s the first meaning. To “take advantage of” a situation is to make good use of it. Something is available to you and you use it. You enjoy a benefit from it. This is a positive thing—or neutral at worst .

Here are some examples. Let’s say you enjoy riding your bike outside . And let’s pretend that it’s late September and you live in the northern Hemisphere. The cold weather is coming. Pretty soon , you won’t be able to ride your bike outside because it will be too cold.

So imagine it’s a nice sunny day. You might say, “I’m going to take advantage of the nice weather and go on a long bike ride.” You take advantage of the weather. The weather is an opportunity : it’s a chance for you to enjoy a bike ride, which is something you like. You are going to benefit from that chance. So we say, you are going to take advantage of the good weather.

You might remember that interest rates were very low from about 2010 to about 2020. I bought a condominium in Chicago in 2016. I had what I thought was a good interest rate . But then two years later, rates had dropped again. Most people in the U.S. have fixed-rate mortgages . So when interest rates go down, you can take advantage of them by refinancing your loan . That means, pay back the old loan and get a new one with the lower rate .

So I took advantage of the lower interest rates by refinancing when rates were really low. Nobody got hurt by my actions. This was an opportunity available to me. I took an action to benefit from the opportunity. So I took advantage of the opportunity.

If a store is offering a limited-time sale , you can take advantage of the sale by buying the things you want and need while they are discounted .

When you take advantage of an opportunity, you take some action. This isn’t something that happens to you; this isn’t a stroke of good fortune . You do something to enjoy an opportunity. You go for a bike ride, you refinance your loan, you buy something on sale.

All right. So that’s the first definition.

Treat a person unfairly for your own gain

The second meaning of “take advantage of” is negative—very negative. It means to treat a person or a system unfairly for your own personal benefit . And the key here is, unfairly.

Let’s take two examples from the workplace.

Imagine a company where employees are paid hourly and there is no expectation of overtime work . But one manager regularly asks some employees to work overtime without paying them overtime. The workers need their job and they’re afraid to say no.

In this case, we can say, “The manager is taking advantage of the workers by making them put in extra hours without extra pay.” The manager is acting unfairly for his own gain . The workers are being treated unfairly, as their extra effort isn’t rewarded . The manager is taking advantage of them.

Here’s another example. A lot of times, telephone salespeople target the elderly . Many elderly people like to be helpful , so they have a hard time saying “no.” Sometimes they’re lonely . Sometimes they can’t really decide if they need something or not. They sometimes get confused on the phone. And—I hate to say it—but some unethical salespeople know this. And they take advantage of the elderly people.

They use high-pressure tactics to sell them extra insurance they don’t need, or add-ons to their cell phone bills, or other services that are useless or fake . These unethical salespeople take advantage of elderly people. They act unfairly for their own personal gain.

So in this second definition of “take advantage of,” there is always a winner, there is always a loser, and the person who gets the benefit is acting unfairly.

Avoiding confusion between the two meanings

All right, got it? Now here’s one. You tell me if this is the first meaning or the second meaning. Remember, the first meaning is to get a benefit from an opportunity that is available to you. Nothing wrong with that. The second meaning is to act unfairly toward a person or a system.

So here we go. Imagine a company offers unlimited vacation days. That’s becoming more common in the U.S. now. It doesn’t mean you can take every day off; it just means the company doesn’t track or count . You’re on the honor system to take a reasonable amount .

So here’s the sentence: “JR is taking advantage of the company’s vacation policy.”

So which is it? Is JR enjoying the benefit of something available to him? Or is JR abusing the vacation policy, taking advantage in an unfair way?

It’s a trick question because in this sentence, you can’t tell . It can be interpreted either way . It might mean that he worked really hard for a few months and is taking a well-deserved ten-day vacation. That’s taking advantage in the good way, using something that’s available to him. That’s what it’s for. Or that very same sentence could mean, he just never comes to work on Fridays. That’s taking advantage in the bad way .

So this can cause confusion and that means you need to be careful. In situations like this, where it can be interpreted either way, you can clarify what you mean.

If you want to say he’s acting unfairly, you can say this: “taking unfair advantage.” So if JR—and he would never do this—but if JR decided he was just going to stop working on Fridays, and sometimes Thursdays, because there’s “unlimited vacation,” you can say, “JR is taking unfair advantage of the company’s vacation policy.”

But if you wanted to clarify that he’s not doing anything wrong , you can instead say “make the most of.” You can say, “JR is making the most of the company’s vacation policy.” That’s great; he’s using it for what it’s intended for . And if you say, “make the most of,” you can avoid any confusion about the phrase “take advantage.”

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“Keep an eye out” and “keep an eye on” are two similar expressions in English that are both about paying attention , being watchful , and being alert .

“Keep an eye out” means to stay alert for something that might happen. “Keep an eye on” means to give a little bit of your attention to something, to make sure it’s going smoothly and that nothing bad happens.

Both expressions are about staying aware without giving your full attention to something.

Keep an eye on

Let’s take a closer look at “keep an eye on.” We say this when we’re watching something to make sure that everything goes smoothly . If we’re keeping an eye on something, we’re ready to intervene —we’re ready to take action if needed—but the situation doesn’t really require our full attention or even a lot of work. It’s about checking in on something now and then; it’s about being aware .

I recently started making black beans on the stove . There’s no comparison with beans in a can, let me tell you that. If you make beans on the stove, you know it takes a while, a few hours. And you have to add water to the pot every so often . Some water boils off , you add more; do that a few times until the beans are soft and ready to go.

What do I do when I’m cooking beans on the stove? I keep an eye on them. I don’t stare at them for three, four hours. I’m not in the kitchen the whole time they are on the stove. But I don’t forget about them either . I monitor them . I check in occasionally . I get up every few minutes to stir them. I add more water when needed. I test them to see when they’re done. I keep an eye on them. It’s about giving a little bit of attention over a period of time to make sure nothing bad happens.

If you babysit a very young child, you probably need to devote your full attention to the child, all the time, at least while he’s awake . But if you’re watching older children, you need to keep an eye on them. You can be in the kitchen while they watch TV; you can read a book while they’re on the playground . Your eyes don’t have to be on them the whole time. But you can’t ignore them for hours at a time either. You have to keep an eye on them; check in; make sure nothing’s going wrong.

If you keep an eye on the stock market , you’re generally aware of what’s going on. You check in every so often , but you’re not a day trader with 5 screens showing constantly-updated quotes , charts , and news all day.

On Election Day in the United States, some people stare at their screens , their TV’s, their phones, all night, watching the results come in . Others pay no attention. But a lot of people keep an eye on the election results over the course of the night. They check in on the news, they check in on how things are going, but it’s not their only activity for the evening. That’s what I’m like. I keep an eye on it, but I don’t give election results my full attention all night long. I keep an eye on it as it happens because there’s plenty of time to read about it the next day.

Keep an eye out

So now that you know “keep an eye on,” let’s talk about “keep an eye out.” You can use “keep an eye out” when you’re staying alert or watching for something you think will happen. You usually say, “keep an eye out for,” plus the thing that you’re watching for.

Imagine you’re expecting an important delivery . You might keep an eye out for the delivery truck . So you’ve got something that you think will happen: the delivery truck will come. You don’t know when. But you’re pretty sure it will happen. When you keep an eye out for the delivery truck, you’re staying aware so that when the truck arrives, you’re ready and you’ll know about it.

Now listen, this doesn’t mean you sit at the door and stare out the window . Your dog can afford to spend the whole day doing that; you can’t. You just keep an eye out for the delivery truck while you do other things. You stay aware and alert .

If you’re in the car on a long road trip , maybe you’ve been on the road for a few hours, you’re ready for a break. You might keep an eye out for a gas station or a rest stop . Again, here’s something that you know, or you suspect will happen: you will see a gas station or rest stop or McDonald’s eventually . You don’t know when, but you know you’ll see it.

If you keep an eye out for somewhere to stop, you’re aware, you’re ready. When you get close to an exit, you’re looking at the signs . You’re paying attention. It’s not the only thing you’re concerned about , but you are aware. You’re keeping an eye out for a place to stop.

Other quick examples. If you go to the mall around the holidays, you might keep an eye out for some good discounts . If your lease is expiring in a few months, you might keep an eye out for “for rent” signs in your neighborhood. If you’re thinking about maybe getting a new job, you might keep an eye out for job postings in your industry . It’s not a full time search, but keep an eye out for something.

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The phrasal verb “figure out” is one you need to know and use, because it’s extremely common in English. It has two meanings. Number one: to understand how to solve a problem or to find a solution. And number two: to understand something that’s confusing.

I know it sounds like those are the same—but they’re not quite the same. So don’t worry. In this episode, I’ll show you exactly how to use “figure out.”

Here’s a tip before we start. After “figure out,” we typically use words like who, what, when, where, or why. So listen for that in the examples.

Find the solution to a problem

We’re going to start with the first meaning. We use “figure out” when we’re working to solve a problem or find an answer. We use “figure out” when we have a problem, but we don’t know what the answer is. “Figure out” is not about fixing the problem. “Figure out” is not about taking the action. “Figure out” is about discovering the solution. First you figure out the solution, then you take the action.

I’ll start with an example close to home. I used to live in a condominium in Chicago, a cold-weather place. And there was a part of my apartment that was just always cold. I could not figure out why that part of the apartment was so cold. I had the heat on. I didn’t understand why the heat didn’t arrive to that part of the apartment. I had a problem and I could not solve it. I didn’t know the answer. I was clueless! Was it the windows? Was it the furnace? I could not figure it out. I just didn’t know.

So I hired an engineer to come to my house. And I told him, “I need some help figuring this out. I don’t know why this area is always cold in the winter.” And you know what? The engineer figured it out. It wasn’t the furnace. It wasn’t the windows. The engineer discovered that the insulation was poor in that part of the apartment. The engineer figured out why that part of my apartment was cold. He didn’t fix the problem! He didn’t fix the insulation. But he discovered the answer. He discovered the solution. He figured it out.

Now imagine that a company is losing its younger customers to competitors. So if this company is going to stay in business, they need to figure out how to attract younger customers. Again here, “figure out” means coming up with a plan to solve the problem. After the company has a plan, it needs to do the work to attract young customers. But the first thing is to figure out what to do. The first thing is to solve the problem.

One last example: Imagine your car needs service and you won’t have a vehicle for three days, while it’s being repaired. You need to figure out how you’re going to get to work during those three days.

What is your answer going to be? Will you ask a coworker to drive you? Will you take an Uber? Does a bus or train go by your workplace? Can you borrow a car from a friend or family member? I don’t know what the answer is going to be. But you have to figure it out. You have to solve the problem, find the solution…and then you have to do it.

In each of these situations, “figure out” is all about finding a solution to a specific issue.

Understand something complicated

The second way to use “figure out” is similar. Here, “figure out” means to understand something that’s confusing or complicated.

Think about a family with two kids, and both kids just advanced to a new grade level, so they’re at different schools for the new year. The schools start at different times; mom and dad both have to work, too.

What do the parents need to do before the school year starts? They have to figure a lot of things out. The parents need to figure out when to set the alarm clocks, so that everyone is awake on time. They have to figure out when to leave the house to get everyone to school and work on time. Then they have to figure out where to drop the kids off after arriving at school. There’s a lot to figure out when kids advance to a new grade level and a new school.

Now imagine the school year is over, and those parents want to plan a party for the other children in their kids’ classes. They’ll need to figure out who will bring the food. They’ll want to figure out where to have the party. And they’ll want to figure out when to have it, too. These are not enormous problems, but they are somewhat complicated. They require some thought.

So notice, in this case “figure out” is not about finding a solution to a problem; it’s about understanding a situation or understanding how you’ll do something.

Are you good at doing household repairs? I’m not. I know better than to try! But I want you to imagine doing something difficult around the house—whether it’s installing a new ceiling fan or fixing a leaky faucet.

You might see a YouTube video or you might have a set of written instructions. But even after watching the video, and even after reading the instructions multiple times, you might say, “I still can’t figure out how to do this!”

In this case, “figure out” means to understand the complicated process. The instructions might have confusing pictures, they might use unfamiliar vocabulary, or the instructions just might not be correct. That happens too, right? So, you’re left staring at the page, holding pieces in your hand, trying to figure out how to replace that faucet or how to install that ceiling fan.

‘Figure out’ a person

This is less common, but you can also use “figure out” when you’re trying to understand a person’s behavior or personality. People can sometimes be hard to figure out—hard to understand!

For example, if a new coworker acts unpredictably, you might say, “I can’t figure out why he’s acting that way.” Or simply, “I can’t figure him out.” This means you’re struggling to understand his behavior or personality. You can also say, “I can’t figure out what he wants.” That means, you listen to what he says, you observe what he does, and you still don’t understand what he wants, why he behaves the way he does. You can’t figure him out.

‘Figure it out’ and ‘figure this out’

Did you hear that? “I can’t figure him out.” You may have noticed that we sometimes put an object in between “figure” and “out.” If you’re trying to solve a problem, you can say, “figure it out.” Part of my apartment was cold in the winter. I couldn’t figure it out. But an engineer did; he did figure it out.

You can also say, “figure this out” or “figure that out.” If your car is scheduled to be repaired next week and you need a way to get to and from work, you can say, “I’ll figure that out later.” But if you’re staring at the instructions to install a ceiling fan, you can say, “I can’t figure this out.”

‘Figure out if’

The examples you’ve heard so far have used “figure out” plus a word like who, what, when, where, or why. You can also use figure out with the word “if.” And this is when you have a yes/no type of doubt. For example, “We should figure out if we can make this recipe gluten free.”

This is a yes/no question. Either you can do it, or you cannot do it. We should figure out if we can make the recipe gluten free.

Pronunciation tips

If you’ve been listening closely, you probably heard that I pronounce “figure out” like it’s one word, the “r” sound at the end of “figure” leads right into to “ou” sound in out. “Figure out.” The two words blend together so that they sound like one. In fact, it sounds strange to say them as two distinct words: “figure out.” Even saying it now, it’s hard for me to put the space between the two words.

The same thing goes when we place an object in between. “Figure it out” becomes “figure it out.” Really fast like that. You might hear someone say, “Can you figure it out for me?” Like that.

So there you go: now you understand “figure out.” It can mean to find the answer to a hard problem or to understand something complicated. We often use words like who, what, when, where, why, or if after “figure out.”

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“Keep track of” is an expression that means to organize information or stay up to date, so you understand what’s going on. We’ve all had times when we missed something important because we weren’t paying attention or didn’t write down the details. That’s what happens when we don’t keep track of things.

In today’s episode, I’ll show you two ways to use “keep track of.” The first definition is about writing down or typing up information to refer to later. The second definition is more general; it’s more about staying informed. And then toward the end of the episode, we’ll talk about a few variations on “keep track of.”

Organizing information

The most common way to use “keep track” is when we’re talking about organizing information or details. This kind of “keeping track” means gathering, writing down, typing up, entering, or saving important information.

Here’s a great example. I keep track of what books I read. I do that on an app called Goodreads. I keep track of the books by entering them into the app. I just finished the book “Long Island” by Colm Tóibín—great book, by the way. I entered it in Goodreads. I started a book called “Wednesday’s Child”—I entered it in Goodreads. I’m keeping track of my books. I’m keeping track of my books so that I don’t accidentally buy or borrow a book I’ve read before. So in this case, keep track is about entering, saving, and organizing information.

These days, we often keep track of things in apps, on websites, or in computer files. But that’s not the only way to keep track of things. If you’ve ever had to take multiple medications at the same time, you know that it can be difficult to remember what to take and when. If you have two, three, or four medications that all need to be taken at different intervals…well, that can get confusing fast!

It’s important to keep track of your medications so you don’t accidentally miss a dose, take something twice, or take something at the wrong time. So how can you keep track of your medication?

You may have seen weekly pill boxes with different compartments for each time of day. That’s a great low-tech way to keep track of your medications. You can use an app; you can use a pill box; you can use paper and pencil. But it’s important to keep track of what you’re taking so you don’t miss a dose.

Another great example is fitness tracking. Some people like to keep track of their exercise routines. You might see people at the gym keeping track of their workouts with a small notebook and a pencil. Some people use an app called Strava to keep track of how far they’ve run, how far they’ve gone on their bike, or how many laps they’ve done in the pool.

I use a fitness app called Strong. It helps me see when I’ve exercised and what I’ve done each time. I keep track of which exercises I do, how much weight I lift, how many repetitions I can do. I enter and save the information; I keep track with the app.

Some people keep track of their spending. I used to keep track of my spending in an Excel spreadsheet. But now, there are apps that connect directly to your bank accounts. That makes it so much easier to keep track of your spending.

So, when we talk about keeping track of things in this way, it’s all about organizing and saving important information or details.

Staying informed

Another way to use “keep track of” is to talk about staying informed, staying up-to-date with something, even if we don’t write down the details. This way of keeping track is more about being aware of the latest updates, knowing what’s going on; it’s less about organizing and saving information.

Many parents like to keep track of their kids’ school assignments. Does this mean they write down every single assignment, write down every due date?

Not necessarily; most parents don’t do that. “Keep track” here means, the parents stay informed. They make sure they’re aware of what’s going on. They ask questions and check grades; they look over their kids’ shoulders as they do their homework. They pay attention to announcements from the school. This is how parents keep track of their kids’ progress. They stay informed.

In your social life, it works the same way. Let’s say you have a big extended family, and everyone has busy schedules. You probably don’t get to see everyone as often as you’d like. But you can keep track of what’s going on in their lives with social media, group chats, texting, calling from time to time, and holiday visits. Keeping track of what’s going on in the lives of your friends and family just means, you stay connected and stay informed.

Your job might require you to stay informed about a particular topic. If you’re a tax accountant, you’ll want to keep track of the latest changes in the tax laws. Like that.

Keep close track

There are a few variations of “keep track” that you should know. Let’s start with “keep close track of.”

When you “keep close track of” something, you’re keeping track in a very detailed way. It’s like you’re a detective and you can’t miss any details. You carefully monitor every little detail, every piece of data, and you notice even the smallest change. This phrase is perfect for situations where every detail counts.

I don’t do this all the time, but there are times when I keep close track of my nutrition. I use the app called Myfitnesspal and I enter everything I eat during the day. Everything! I keep close track of what I eat. I don’t let myself miss a detail. Every calorie goes in the app. It’s not easy. I’m weighing my chicken, measuring my oatmeal, and counting the olives I add to my pasta. I keep close track—this is no way to live in the long run! But I do keep close track during certain times.

Keep better track

Next up: “keep better track of.” When someone says they need to “keep better track of” something, the person is admitting that he or she has room for improvement. A person might say, “I need to keep better track of my spending this month, so I don’t go over my budget.” That means, the person needs to do a better job at keeping track.

A few years ago, I missed some important calls and meetings, like two or three in the same month. I just totally forgot about them. And so I said to myself, I need to keep better track of my appointments. And then I started using my calendar more.

Lose track

Finally, you can say “lose track.” “Lose track” is the opposite of “keep track.” It means you’ve stopped following something—usually by accident. You might lose track of something because you got distracted or because you weren’t paying close enough attention in the first place.

The most common way to use “lose track of” is with time. When you lose track of time, you look at your watch and find out it’s later than you thought. Imagine you start work at 8:00 and you have a 10:30 a.m. call. No problem, right: you start working, get on a good roll, cross things off your to-do list—but then you look at the clock, and it’s already 10:45. What happened? You lost track of time. You weren’t aware of what time it was.

Have you ever had to do the same thing over and over at work? I sure have! It’s important to keep track—even keep close track—of what you have done. Imagine you have to review 30 files. Here’s a nightmare scenario: what if you get through about half of them, go home for the night, and then the next morning you discover that you’ve lost track of which ones you’ve done? That’s bad! Then, you’d have to go back and do them all over again. So you don’t want to lose track; you don’t want to lose track of what you’ve done.

Just to review what you’ve learned. “Keep track of” can mean to organize and save information, like how I keep of my exercise routine in an app. “Keep track of” can also mean to stay informed about a person or a topic, like how an accountant keeps track of changes in the tax laws. “Keep close track” means to keep track in a detailed way. “Keep better track” means to do better at keeping track. And then remember “lose track” is the opposite of “keep track.”

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“In charge” is an expression we use to say who has control or responsibility. We often say, “in charge of” plus the thing the person is responsible for. I say person, but as you’ll learn, organizations or groups can also be in charge.

A person in charge

Let’s start with some easy examples of when a person is in charge. If a person is accountable or responsible for a situation, we say that person is in charge.

There’s a big difference between simply doing something and being in charge. Picture your local café. There might be an employee who makes the coffee and serves the customers. The employee doesn’t make big decisions. And if something goes wrong, the employee doesn’t have to solve the big problems. But there might be a manager who is in charge of the whole store. The manager solves the problems. The manager has the responsibility.

If something goes wrong, the employee behind the counter just calls the manager. But the manager is the one who has to solve the problem. That’s why we say the manager is in charge. She’s the one people look to for answers or for solutions to problems. She has responsibility.

Some jobs are too big for one person. So in these cases, we want to specify who has what responsibility. And when this happens, we say that one person is in charge of one thing; another person is in charge of another thing.

There are several people who work on these lessons about English expressions. I’m just one person. Another person is JR. And JR and I divide responsibility. I’m in charge of writing and recording the lessons. JR is in charge of editing the audio and uploading it to the website.

Did you hear that? I’m in charge of writing and recording the lessons. That means, it’s my responsibility to write and record the lessons. If a lesson doesn’t get written, blame me. If a lesson never gets recorded, blame me. I’m in charge of that part.

JR is in charge of editing the audio and uploading it to the website. That’s his responsibility. If he forgets, blame him. If there’s a mistake in the audio, JR is the one who has to fix it. He’s in charge of that part.

So you may have noticed that we can say “in charge of” plus a thing, or plus an -ing verb. A manager is in charge of the café; that’s a thing. She’s in charge of the café. But editing the audio is an action. And so we use an -ing verb here. JR is in charge of editing the audio of these lessons.

Either way, being in charge is a big responsibility.

Groups in charge

I mentioned before that both individuals and groups can be in charge. And with groups, it works the same way—but instead of one person, a whole group of people has the responsibility for something.

Many towns and cities have a parks department—a whole department in charge of city parks. They arrange for landscaping and maintenance. They plan investments in new parks. Maybe this department organizes activities in the parks. They make rules. They help ensure safety. And it’s not just one person: the whole department has this responsibility within the town government. So you would say, “The parks department is in charge of all the parks in the city.” If something goes wrong in a park, you know who to call.

The department is in charge of the parks. And a person might be in charge of the department: who is the person with overall responsibility for the department? That might be the director. There’s a funny TV show called “Parks and Recreation.” In that show, the character Leslie is in charge of the department. And the department is in charge of all the parks in the fictional city of Pawnee, Indiana.

A big manufacturer might have a department in charge of quality control and another department in charge of new product development.

The U.S. has a national government agency called the Food and Drug Administration. The FDA is in charge of regulating nutrition labels and drug safety. This agency has that responsibility.

So you can see that “in charge of” can be used to describe a person who has responsibility or a group that has responsibility, like a government agency or a department in a business.

Who’s in charge?

Sometimes it’s not clear who’s in charge. So that’s when you might ask, “Who’s in charge here?” If you ask that, you’re asking a group of people, “Who has responsibility for this situation?”

A food safety inspector might walk into a restaurant kitchen. The inspector might see a bunch of people working, but the inspector wants to know who to talk to about the inspection. He might ask, “Who’s in charge here?” The inspector doesn’t want to talk to the line cook. He doesn’t want to talk to the dishwasher. He doesn’t want to talk to the food runners. He wants to talk to the person with responsibility for the kitchen. So he asks, “Who’s in charge here?”

Leave or put someone in charge

Here’s a new way to use it. Sometimes you’re in charge, but you’re going away and you can’t fulfill your duties. So you can leave someone else in charge, or you can put someone else in charge. Those mean the same thing.

Are you a dog owner? It’s a big responsibility. You’re in charge of feeding your dog, grooming your dog, taking your dog out for walks, and making sure he gets his medicine—not to mention lots and lots of love and attention.

But if you go away on vacation without your dog, then you can’t do that. You have to leave someone else in charge. And that someone else was me, when I was a kid. My neighbors would leave me in charge of taking care of their pets while they were away. They left me in charge: that means, they gave me responsibility temporarily.

This is something you can do at work. If you’re managing a few projects that might need work while you’re gone, you can put a coworker in charge. And your coworker will have the responsibility while you are away. You put her in charge.

So now you know how to use “in charge” in different situations. Remember, we often use this to describe the person who has responsibility. And we say a person is in charge of…and then we say the thing the person is responsible for—the thing or the action.

Finally, if you need to give responsibility to someone temporarily, you can leave or put that person in charge.

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“At the last minute” is an expression we use when something happens as late as it possibly can—right before it’s too late. When something happens at the last minute, there’s usually a feeling of stress or a feeling of surprise.

Just a word of warning. The expression contains the word “minute,” but it’s not about a specific amount of time. It’s about the feeling that there’s little or no time left to do something.

You’ll hear in the examples that “the last minute” might be two weeks before, or it might be just a few minutes. The exact time isn’t important; it’s the feeling of stress, the feeling of surprise that comes from a change so close to the last possible moment.

In this episode, I’ll show you two ways to use “at the last minute.” One way is when you purposely delay something. And the other way is when something comes as a surprise. At the end of the episode, I’ll show you how we can use “last minute” as an adjective, like in the phrase “a last-minute decision.”

Decide to wait or delay

So let’s start with a delay that happens on purpose. If you do something at the last minute, you choose to wait almost until the deadline.

Do you buy a lot of gifts during the winter holidays? In the United States, those of us who celebrate Christmas, we like to exchange gifts on December 25, Christmas Day, or sometimes on Christmas Eve, depending on your family tradition. And in the United States, we have this crazy thing called Black Friday, with lots of sales and discounts at the end of November. That makes sense, right? Christmas Day is at the end of December. Get started with the shopping toward the end of November.

Black Friday is usually the biggest shopping day of the year. But would you like to know the second-biggest shopping day of the year? The number-two day? It’s usually one of the last days before Christmas Day itself.

Why is that? It’s because so many people do their holiday shopping at the last minute. They purposely wait until they can delay it no more. In 2023, the second-biggest shopping day of the year was December 23. That’s two days before Christmas Day! Some people start their shopping in September. But clearly other people do it at the last minute, in those couple of days before Christmas.

So in this example, the last minute is two days before the deadline, two days before Christmas Day. If you wait until then, you feel the pressure. You feel the stress. The deadline is coming. It’s really close. You’ve started your shopping at the last minute.

I’m thinking about when I was in school. Our teachers sometimes assigned us work that would take a week or two weeks to complete. And the idea was, you could work on it a little bit every day and finish (comfortably!) before the deadline without too much stress. That was the idea.

Or you could do it all at the last minute. You could wait until the day before it was due. And that would be a long night. And it would not be much fun—at least it wasn’t for me. Some people are motivated by a deadline. Some people say they do their best work at the last minute. No comment from me on that.

So these examples have been about things that you have under your control: when are you doing to do that project? When are you going to do your holiday shopping? Are you going to do it in advance or are you going to do it at the last minute? It’s your choice.

Unexpected circumstances

But sometimes—and this is the next definition—sometimes life happens and something happens at the last minute and it’s not under your control. You didn’t choose it. Something unexpected happened.

Have you ever taken a cruise vacation? I never have. People plan cruises a long time in advance; sometimes, people make cruise reservations a year or more ahead of time. Let’s say you book a cruise 12 months in advance. And then just two weeks before you leave, there’s an emergency at work. You can’t take the vacation. You have to cancel the cruise at the last minute.

“At the last minute” here is two weeks ahead of time. That sounds like a long time, right? So why do we say “at the last minute”? It’s because it’s unusual and uncomfortable to make this change so close to the time the cruise leaves. If you cancel just two weeks in advance, you probably have to pay a high cancellation fee, maybe half the cost of the vacation. You might have to cancel a flight and pay for that. But you had an emergency at the last minute. It’s not under your control; it’s something that happened to you. So here, the “last minute” is two weeks in advance, but the important thing is how uncomfortable it feels to cancel at this time.

Now imagine you have an appointment to get your hair cut at 11:00 in the morning. But you get a call from school: your kid is sick and you have to pick him up. It’s 10:15. It’s only 45 minutes before your appointment. You call and cancel at the last minute. Here, 45 minutes is uncomfortable and stressful because your stylist is unlikely to fill that appointment in such a short amount of time.

What would your stylist say if you did that? He might say, “My 11:00 cancelled at the last minute.”

Leave something for the last minute

So that’s “at the last minute.” You can also say that you “leave something for the last minute.” That’s when you make a conscious decision to do something at the last minute. Kids might leave their school projects for the last minute, if they start them the night before. You might leave your holiday shopping for the last minute if you do your shopping on December 23.

Here’s another way you can say it. You can say, “He waited until the last minute to start studying for his exams.” In fact, that was a common thing my teachers told me when I was a kid: “Don’t wait until the last minute!” Don’t wait until the deadline is almost here.

Last-minute as an adjective

And then finally, you can turn “at the last minute” into an adjective. It’s just, “last-minute”. When it’s an adjective like this, it comes before the noun. A hairdresser might say, “I had a last-minute cancellation, so I can take another client at 11:00.” Here, a “last-minute cancellation” is a cancellation that happens close to the time, close to 11:00.

You might also make a last-minute decision to go away for the weekend. Maybe on Friday morning, you decide to go away for two days. You made a “last minute decision” to go away, since you decided so close to the weekend.

So now you know how to use “at the last minute.” You learned that “at the last minute” can be used when you purposely delay something. A student might do her project at the last minute. And we use this same expression when things happen unexpectedly, when they happen close to the deadline, like if you have to cancel a cruise unexpectedly just a few weeks before it leaves. And we can describe something as “last-minute” like a “last-minute cancellation.”

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