Every now and then
All right, thanks JR. So there you have it, a purely objective opinion. Don’t just take my word for it!
The phrase I chose for today is “every now and then.” It’s very common in English. You might think you know what it means, but keep listening. The simple definition is “sometimes.” The way you heard it was, Every now and then, you’ll hear that some prominent person in American culture is Canadian. You hear that every now and then; you hear that sometimes. Justin Bieber is Canadian. Jim Carrey, the actor is Canadian. Pamela Anderson, supermodel. She’s Canadian. Elon Musk is Canadian. It’s not like every day of the week, you learn of some new popular person is Canadian. But you hear it sometimes.
The thing about “every now and then” is that it doesn’t happen regularly. Like, I get a haircut every three weeks. Three weeks go by, I get a haircut. Three more weeks, I get another haircut. I do not say that I get my hair cut every now and then because it happens regularly. Every three weeks.
There’s a restaurant I like for breakfast called Reno. I go there every now and then. I might go there two weeks in a row; not often, but I might. I might go twice in a month. Then, there’ll be times where I don’t make it for a few months. I go every now and then.
The amount of time doesn’t matter. I go to the dentist every six months. I would not say “every now and then.” But every now and then, I’ll see someone I know on the streets of New York. That might happen once a year, once in three years, who knows. Every now and then I’ll fall asleep on my couch. That happens a lot more often than once a year, I can promise you!
Quote of the week
The quote of the week this week, to celebrate our two-hundredth episode, is about podcasting itself. Joe Rogan is a comedian and he’s very well-known in the podcasting community. And here’s a quote from Joe Rogan about podcasting as a medium. He said: “The beautiful thing about podcasting is it’s just talking. It can be funny, or it can be terrifying. It can be sweet. It can be obnoxious. It almost has no definitive form. In that sense, it’s one of the best ways to explore an idea.”
I certainly agree, and over the last two hundred conversations I’ve had with all of you, I’ve certainly grown to like medium and the connection it allows us to have. And with that, I’ll leave it to JR to have the final word on episode number 200.
I want to say thank you to Jeff for always coming up with great topics and great ideas and for always having a great attitude with the whole Plain English team. And thank you to everyone who is with us every Monday and Thursday. I am so happy to do something that helps others who are learning English. I love reading all your emails telling us how much your English has improved. That’s what makes this all worth it to us. Plain English will be here for the long run—for as long as you find our podcast helpful. Every one of you is extremely important to us, whether you listen to only a few episodes or if you’re with us every week. Thanks again. And by the way, Jeff forgot to say that Drake and Shawn Mendez are both Canadian, too!
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
