Drag on

If something drags on, it lasts longer than you want it to last

Today's story: Trump indictment
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Drag on

Now I’m going to show you how to use the English phrasal verb “drag on.” We use this with a process, and it means, to continue for a long time—longer than you want something to continue.

The number one most popular way to use “drag on,” in my personal experience, is with meetings. I used to go to a lot of meetings that dragged on way longer than they needed to. Maybe we had ten minutes of legitimate things to discuss. But 25 minutes later, the meeting is still happening! The meeting is dragging on. It’s lasting longer than I want it to last.

And then we’ve all been to meetings that dragged on for hours. Anyone can handle a boring, 30-minute meeting. But sometimes you’re in a meeting and it drags on for hours. That means, it lasts for hours—and you don’t want it to last that long.

Did you notice how that sounded? Drag on for hours. You can formulate this with “drag on for” plus a measurement of time, usually hours or longer.

The case against Donald Trump is likely to drag on for years. Justice moves slowly in big cases. And this is a big case, with a lot riding on the outcome, and it’s complicated. As I said in today’s lesson, it might be over quickly if a judge dismisses it. Or it might drag on for years, even past the next election.

Negotiations can drag on. When I was in consulting, we would often negotiate our contract before starting work on a project. Sometimes, that whole process would last less than a day. I loved those, those were great clients. We send the contract, the client proposes a few small changes, we make them, we both sign—done!

But sometimes the contract negotiations dragged on for weeks. We had to get our lawyers to approve the project. Then the client wasn’t happy with the price. Then they wanted us to do it faster. Then we said we’d do it faster, but you have to pay us more. They said fine, but we want you to be here in person. OK fine, can we start tomorrow? No, tomorrow doesn’t work, how about two weeks from now? Two weeks from now? We can’t finish on time if we don’t start for two weeks.

The negotiations would drag on, sometimes for weeks. I liked doing the projects; I didn’t like doing all this administration like signing the contracts and such. A whole project might only have taken a month or two, but the contract negotiations sometimes dragged on for weeks. Can you tell I don’t miss it?

A train carrying harmful chemicals derailed in a small town in Ohio in February. And the train spilled a lot of harmful chemicals in the area. It was a big story. Now, the railroad is cleaning up the area. And in early April I saw a story that said the cleanup process would drag on for another two months.

So that’s April, May, early June to clean up chemicals spilled in February. I’m sure they’re working hard. But the residents of the area wish the cleanup would be done faster, so they can go back to their lives and not worry about harmful chemicals in the area. For them, the process is dragging on for too long.

Speaking of trains, Britain is trying to build a high-speed rail network that would connect London to cities in the north. The project is called HS2 and it has dragged on for many years—and may drag on for many more to come. The project was announced in 2009. This is now 2023. The latest estimate says it might be done in 2029 or 2032. That means the process could drag on for another nine years. And even that might be an optimistic estimate.

This is not unusual for megaprojects. Construction on the Berlin airport dragged on for nine years after it was originally supposed to be completed. New York City just opened a new train terminal that connects Long Island suburbs with the East Side of Manhattan. It was supposed to open in 2011, but delays dragged on for over a decade. It opened in 2023.

Quote of the Week

Today’s quote is from Henry Ford. He said, “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” Would these mega projects have taken so long if people heeded Henry Ford’s advice? “Quality means doing it right when no one is looking.” I don’t know. I think people are far, far more worried about how they appear than about how a project might be completed on time.

See you next time!

And that is all for today’s Plain English. Congratulations on reaching the end of another lesson—this was a confusing one. It was confusing for me writing it. But you guys can follow complex ideas in English, we’re not afraid of that here.

Hey, if you haven’t checked out our Instagram page, please take a second to do that. Your comments and reactions really do help other people find us on Instagram. Look for us on there @plainenglishpod.

The next lesson will be delicious—on Thursday, I’ll tell you about America’s number-three fast food restaurant chain by sales, and its plans to expand to Europe and Asia. If you’re in Europe or Asia, you are in for a treat if this restaurant chain opens in your country. Wait till Thursday, I’ll tell you what it is. And I bet you’ll be surprised. See you then.

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Story: Trump indictment