In order
Today’s English expression is “in order.” There are several ways to use this one, but today we’re going to be talking about documents, plans, papers, and things like that. When your documents or papers are in order, they are complete and legal and correct.
When I got to the airport in Chicago, I made sure to have all my documents in order . I had my passport, vaccine card, PCR test, and UK entry form. My documents were in order: they were complete and correct and legal. Passengers that show up without their documents in order are not allowed to board the plane to their destination. If I had shown up with incomplete documentation, they would have told me to get my documents in order and come back to the counter.
If you apply for a job, a scholarship, or admission to a university, you need to be sure to have your application in order. You need to make sure to send all the required documents, fill in all the forms, and check all the boxes. If your application is in order, then it’s complete and correct.
Have you ever renovated a house? If so, you might have had to submit an application to the local building office. If you just do some light painting and refurbishments, that’s not necessary. But if you want to take down walls and make structural changes to the house, you might need to get a building permit. And to get a building permit, your application must be in order. You might need architectural drawings, you might need an inspection, you might need to pay a fee, whatever. But your application has to be in order. If you submit an incomplete application, the building office will not accept your application.
When I went to India for business, I needed a work visa. It was a challenge to get all the paperwork in order. I needed to fill out the application, provide an invitation letter from the company in India, provide a few passport photos, give them my passport, and make payment in cash in exact change. It wasn’t easy to get that visa application in order.
So you can see we use “in order” with things like documents, papers, paperwork, plans, applications, things like that. You can also say, “Everything is in order.” If you say “Everything is in order,” you’re saying that everything is complete and correct. Here, you can be a little more general with how you use it. The night before you move, you might look at all the packed boxes in your house, you might confirm the movers are coming in the morning, and make sure you have everything ready for your new house or apartment. Before going to bed that night, you might say: “It looks like everything is in order.” It looks like everything is complete and correct for the move the next day.
JR’s song of the week
Today’s song of the week is “Heart of Gold” by Neil Young. It’s an acoustic song on the guitar and harmonica and the line is “You keep me searching for a heart of gold.” It was called the third-best Canadian song ever by the CBC. Thanks JR for this week’s song, “Heart of Gold” by Neil Young.
See you next time!
I got a chance to meet a number of listeners on my trip, which was so much fun. I want to say special thanks to for the very generous hospitality everyone extended me there. Krisztina, Maté, Ákos, Tomi, and Balazs from Hungary were extremely welcoming to me and really made me feel at home in Budapest for a day. Maja and Emma took turns giving me a tour of Bratislava, Slovakia. And it was nice to meet Claudia and learn a little about Vienna. So thanks to all of you for making my vacation a little brighter!
And that is all for today, Thursday, October 7, 2021. I want to thank you for making a little room for us, and for English, in your day. I love hearing from listeners, so drop me a note any time to jeff [at] plainenglish.com and I’ll be happy to reply.
Use realistic expressions like a native speaker
