By and large

By and large

This is a great English expression today: by and large. This is one of those expressions that means absolutely nothing like the words inside of it. “By and large” means “in general,” or “everything considered.” How did you hear “by and large” in the first part of today’s lesson?

Here’s what I said: The rich world by and large squandered the advance warning it received of the coronavirus. Squandered means, wasted. The rich world saw it coming and…it’s not that countries like the US did nothing, but they certainly could have done more. Most people assumed this would be like SARS or MERS or similar, previous viruses. I remember seeing China build makeshift hospitals in a matter of weeks. Now, the New York area could use a makeshift hospital. So, countries like the US, Spain and Italy didn’t prepare very well. But there are a few notable exceptions: South Korea performed six times more tests, per capita, than the US did. Hong Kong, Singapore, and Japan also responded better and more effectively than most other countries.

“By and large” fits this situation. Much of the rich world squandered its advance notice of the coronavirus. But that’s not true of every country. We still want to make the point, but we want to make sure that we’re speaking in a generality. That’s why we say “by and large.” The rich world, by and large, squandered its advance warning of this pandemic.

Sporting events worldwide are, by and large, canceled or postponed due to the coronavirus. Soccer, baseball, tennis, basketball, ice hockey, marathons, even now the Olympics: all have been canceled or postponed. But there are exceptions. Horse racing has continued. A horse named Tiz the Law won the Florida Derby—I know you were all anxiously awaiting that result—Tiz the Law won that race before empty grandstands in Miami, Florida.

Liga MX, Mexico’s soccer league, is still playing games, albeit without the traditional handshake. Turkey is also playing soccer. UFC—if you consider that a sport—is still on. Australian football is being played, but without fans.

So, it’s not accurate to say all sports around the world are canceled. But it is accurate to say that, by and large, sports have been canceled due to coronavirus. In general, for the most part, taking all the evidence into consideration, sports around the world are canceled.

Do you remember the lesson we did about direct-to-consumer companies? They’re the companies that, by and large, bypass the traditional retail model of selling in stores and sell online to consumers. For example, they sell on their web sites. Or, they have their own stores that stock samples, but typically not a lot of inventory. The majority are doing this; the majority are skipping the traditional retail model of trying to get on store shelves at big retailers.

I say “by and large” because some direct-to-consumer companies do both. Harry’s razors, for example, is now available at Target, a big retailer in the US. Harry’s grew so fast that, in order to continue growing, it had to be on traditional store shelves. So they are the exception. But, by and large, you don’t find these direct to consumer brands on the shelves of popular stores.

Quote of the week

Today’s quote of the week is funny. It’s from Erma Bombeck. She was a newspaper columnist in the United States and she wrote for parts of four decades. Her topics were mostly suburban American life and her articles were mostly light-hearted and humorous. Here’s one of her quotes. She said: “Worry is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.” A rocking chair is a chair that lets you lean forward and lean back, and it’s a great way to put small children to sleep. When you rock back and forth on a rocking chair, you’re not going anywhere. And so that is what “worry” is to Erma Bombeck. “Worry is like a rocking chair: It gives you something to do but never gets you anywhere.”

On that note, we will close today’s audio lesson. Thanks for joining us. I hope that in these difficult times, you’re still able to find some time for studying English and practicing with us. Remember to check out PlainEnglish.com/live if you’d like to join JR and me on a live Plain English video class or video call. We would love to meet you face-to-face on Zoom. We’ll be back on Thursday—and on Thursday’s lesson, we’ll be asking the question on everyone’s mind. How long is this going to last? Remember to join us then, and in the meantime, stay safe.