Go without

To go without

Today’s phrase is a little unique, and it might seem obvious at first, but it’s not quite as simple as it sounds. The phrase is “to go without.” To go without means that you live or you survive without something. Now, you could probably guess what that means, but you need to know this is a very common phrase and I think you should practice using it. I’ll give you plenty of examples to use.

Last night, I had to go without dinner because I had no food in the house. Then, this morning I went without coffee, because I didn’t have any of that either! Okay, that was the easy way to use “go without.” Now let’s make it a little more difficult by adding a time period.

During Ramadan, observant Muslims had to go without eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. The time period here was from sunrise to sunset. Now listen as I split up the words “go without” and I put the time period right between them. During Ramadan, observant Muslims had to go from sunrise to sunset without eating or drinking.

And that is how I used “go without” earlier in today’s episode. Here’s what you heard. The average household in Puerto Rico went an average of 68 days without water service. The average household went without electricity for 84 days.

Go back and listen to this one and check the transcripts if you’re not 100% sure yet how to use this because it’s an important one. I’ll leave you with a few more examples. If you break your leg, you have to go without exercise for several weeks. Listen to episode 12 at PlainEnglish.com/12 and you’ll learn that every year I go the whole month of January without drinking alcohol. Going without isn’t fun but using “going without” in a sentence definitely is—so send me your examples to PlainEnglishPod on Twitter or Facebook and I’ll mention some of them on a future show.

Thanks for listening to Plain English today. JR and I are very grateful to all of you for being in the audience and sending your encouraging feedback. Remember PlainEnglishPod on Facebook or Twitter if you want to get in touch with us. And if you’re not getting the show announcement emails, you’ll want to get on that list. I send out a summary of each show and links to the articles in English that I use to prep the show. PlainEnglish.com/mail is the link for those emails—just enter your details and you’ll get them every Monday and Thursday. That’s all for today. See you right back here on Thursday.