At once

At once

Today’s English expression is, “at once.” You probably know the word “once.” It means, just one time. Like, “you only live once.” That’s easy. But what does it mean to do something “at once” or “all at once”?

There are two meanings—two very different meanings—of at once. Let’s start with the first one: it means to do more than one thing at one time. If you do two things at once, you are doing two things at the same time.

Do you remember what you heard earlier? We said that UV-C light can be a good way to disinfect an entire room at once. That means, to disinfect an entire room all at one time. If we did not have this disinfecting light, someone would have to clean the floors, the tables, the doorknobs, counters, chairs, all the surfaces on the equipment—the list goes on and on. But if you just blast UV-C light in there, it disinfects the whole room all at once. It disinfects the whole room all at one time.

Here are two ways you can read your e-mail in a day. You can read each email as it comes in, or you could read it all at once. Which one do you do? I bet you do the first thing: I bet you read it as it comes in. You see the notification, you read the email. You see another one come in as you’re reading the inbox, you open it. That’s how most of the world does it. But productivity experts tell us that it’s much more efficient to read your emails all at once. It’s better for your mind to dedicate one time or two times per day to read emails, and then close the inbox for the rest of the day.

Why should you read them all at once, instead of one at a time? Because, again, according to the experts, it’s not good to break your concentration over and over again just to read emails. They have a good point, but sometimes I wonder if these experts have a boss or a client waiting for an instant reply!

JR was telling me one time about how some people build houses in Mexico. He said the families save a little money each year and build part of the house each year. So the first year, they might pour the foundation. The year after, they might put up the frame of the first story. The next year, maybe they do the plumbing. Toward the end, they do the electrical. And after several years, there’s a full house constructed. A few years later, they might build a second story on top.

It doesn’t work that way here. Here, we build houses all at once. Most houses go up in about six months, but in some areas and with some builders it can be as fast as three, even two months. We build them all at once. “At once” doesn’t mean that it’s done in a day. It just means that things are done together, in one process. Yes, there are different plans and phases and many contractors and subcontractors and specialists. The builders aren’t doing a little of everything every day. But they are, in one uninterrupted process, building the house from start to finish.

Believe it or not, I used to write and record each week’s lessons all at once. I would dedicate a full day and write both lessons, then record them all the same day. Sure, I took short breaks—but it was basically in one long day, one process. I can’t do that now—not since we’ve added all the Plain English Plus+ features. Now, it’s too much to do all at once, so I spread it out through the week.

I mentioned before there are two ways of using “at once.” There’s one more way to use it. If you want to tell someone to do something immediately, without delay, you tell them to do it “at once.” If you tell your kids, “I want you to go upstairs and brush your teeth at once” you are telling them to go do it now. Don’t delay! It’s a fairly strong order—I wouldn’t use this in a collegial environment or with friends. It’s a firm order to do something immediately. “I need you to stop doing that at once.” That’s a strong way of saying, “Stop doing that right now.”

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote of the week is related to our main topic. Here it is: “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” That is a quote by a former justice on America’s Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis. Justice Brandeis was talking about how to prevent or cure corruption and he used “sunlight” as a metaphor. What it means is that transparency, the ability for people to know exactly what’s going on, is the best way to prevent or stop corruption.

If everyone knows what’s going on, it’s harder to get away with something you shouldn’t be doing. And that’s the origin of the quote, “Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants.” It’s a common, common quote when talking about corruption in public life. I learned that quote a long time ago, but only today did I learn that light can be an actual disinfectant—not just a metaphoric one!

See you next time!

And that’s it! That’s all for today. Hey, I survived another science episode. These are always an adventure, as I find myself on Wikipedia looking up basic things I should have learned in school. I had to look up several things today. First, I had to ask whether a virus was an organism. No, it’s not. Then I had to ask why we don’t die from UV-C rays from the sun. Turns out that the atmosphere blocks UV-C rays, so we don’t all die. I didn’t have to look up what a nanometer was for this lesson, but I did anyway. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter: small, in other words.

Science lessons are an educational experience for me, as well as for you. I hope you enjoyed this one as much as I did! If you’re a member of our Facebook group, tell me what you think in there. If you’re a Plain English Plus+ member, then you can start a post in the forum—whether you think UV-C light is a promising way to arrest the pandemic. I’d love to hear what you all think, especially since so many of you work in the sciences.

That’s all for today—we’ll be right back here again on Thursday. See you then!

If you enjoyed today’s lesson, then you would love being a member of Plain English Plus+ . With video lessons, courses, translations, and a fast version of this same lesson, Plain English Plus+ is a great way to take that next step in English, and to do it with the podcast you already know and love. So come join us today by visiting PlainEnglish.com/Plus .