Move on
Today’s English expression is to move on. This means, to start doing something new and to leave something else behind in the process.
The classic way to use this expression is after a breakup. After a breakup, both partners may need to take some time to work through their emotions, think about the past, and think about the future. Some may hold out hope that they get back together. But eventually, both sides need to move on. Both sides need to do something new and leave the old relationship in the past.
In today’s lesson, you heard about the parenting trend of “birdnesting,” where two divorced parents share the family home and a separate residence. The kids stay in the main home, while the parents shuttle between the two homes. This has certain advantages. But it can make it hard for each parent to move on because they’re still sharing not just one but two homes with their former spouse.
It can make it hard for the parents to do something new. Why would this make it hard for the divorced parents to move on? Well, a few things. For one, neither side has space that’s truly their own. For another, they have to continue to share household duties with the former spouse. And finally, this would be a less-than-ideal situation if one or both parents started to see someone else.
So there are advantages to this in the short run, especially for the kids, but “birdnesting” can make it hard for the parents to move on.
Another way to use “move on” is to talk about leaving a job or a career. I don’t know about you, but I’ve always found that quitting a job is hard. I tend to stay at jobs for a long time, but when I do leave, I get this sick feeling in my stomach when I have to tell my boss. One nice or polite way to saying you’re leaving a job is to say that you’re “moving on.” That just sounds a little nicer than, “I’m quitting,” or “I’m leaving,” or “I’m resigning.” None of those words really sounds great to me.
“I’ve decided to move on,” is a softer, more polite way of saying the same thing. If you’re talking to your friends, you might say something like, “I really need to move on from this job.”
If you decide to leave a city, you can say you were ready for a change and you wanted to move on. I lived in New York for three years and I’m really glad I did. But after three years, I was ready to move on. I was ready to leave New York behind and do something else. I don’t mean any offense, but I was ready for something else. So I decided to move on.
Here’s another way to use it. Have you ever been in a meeting where there’s one topic taking up way too much time? Maybe there are two sides that disagree, or maybe the discussion is just going nowhere. If you’re in charge of the meeting, you can say, “We need to move on from this topic.” That means, you need to leave that topic behind and move on to other topics.
Quote of the Week
It’s time for us to move on to the Quote of the Week. This is technically not an English quote; it’s translated from French. Here it goes: “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” That’s from the French writer Albert Camus. I just read that quote in a book today. Here it is once more, from Albert Camus: “In the depths of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.”
See you next time!
That brings us to the end of today’s audio lesson. This was number 454, so remember the full lesson is available at PlainEnglish.com/454.
It’s sometimes hard for me to pick out a topic for the video lesson. The videos are less about explaining a phrase and they’re more about how to enliven your speech a little bit, how to help you use the words you already know to express your best ideas. And for today’s lesson, I’m going to choose “half and half.” This is a way to say that two people divide something evenly.
That sounds confusing; it’s hard to explain in the audio lesson. That’s why we make it a video! And in the video, I’m going to show you: what are the situations in which you can use this, and how do you form it? We’re going to go step-by-step, nice and slow so you can see right there on the screen how to use it. And then as always, you’ll have the chance to write your own sentences using “half and half.”
That’s in today’s video lesson at PlainEnglish.com/454, and remember the step-by-step videos are included in the Plain English Plus+ membership. If you are not yet a member of Plain English Plus+, you can join today by visiting PlainEnglish.com/Plus .
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