Once in a while

Once in a while

“Once in a while” is an expression that means “sometimes, but not on a regular schedule.”

The fact that it’s not regular is very important. If you do something once a day—you can’t use “once in a while.” If you do it every week, every month, or even every year, you still shouldn’t say “once in a while.”

You have to use this for something that you do sometimes, occasionally, not on any kind of schedule. I live in Mexico City. It might surprise you, but I only eat tacos once in a while. The tacos are delicious here, but they don’t fit into my diet.

Still, I do like to get them once in a while. I was starving on the street the other day, so I got two tacos with chorizo and potatoes at breakfast time. The time before that was, I think, two weeks earlier. I had barbacoa tacos on a Sunday morning. Before that—it might have been a week, a week and a half, or maybe two weeks? I don’t remember. And I can’t predict when I will have them next. That’s because I have tacos once in a while.

If you have a lot of work to do, you might be tempted to work all day and all night. But it’s important to take a break once in a while. That doesn’t mean you set an alarm and take a break every hour. But it means that a few times during the day, you should stand up, get something to eat, rest your eyes, clear your head, and then get back to work.

And of course, it’s important to take a vacation once in a while. This might only be once, twice, three times per year. But it’s important to get that time completely away from work.

Do you tip at a cafe or coffee shop? People are under increasing pressure to tip at cafes, now that we have touch-screen payment options. I used to work at a frozen yogurt dessert shop as a teenager—it was one of my first jobs. Most customers didn’t tip; this was before the days of touch-screen tip requests ! Those who tipped left a few coins, they dropped their change in the tip jar. But once in a while someone would leave $5 or something and that would make our day! Once in a while, we’d leave with enough tip money to buy lunch at a deli the next day.

So how often is “once in a while”? As you can tell from these examples, it’s purposely vague. Tacos once in a while—that can be a couple times in a month, give or take, at least for me. Take a break once in a while—that can be multiple times in a day. Go on vacation once in a while—maybe just twice in a year. It all depends on the context, so you should only use this if your readers will understand what you mean.

You can use “once in a while” in the past tense as well. If you’re part of Plain English Plus+ , you may have seen a recent video about “used to.” That’s all about how to describe a habit from the past.

I don’t have a car now. But when I lived in Chicago, I had a car. I used to get my car washed once in a while.

Some people go to the car wash every week. Some people—you have to be a real car lover to do this—they would go more than once a week. I was certainly not that way. I went once in a while.

Sometimes two months would pass and I wouldn’t get a car wash. Other times, I’d go twice in a month. I don’t have a car now. But I can use “once in a while” to talk about the past, what happened occasionally in the past. So I can say, I used to go to the car wash once in a while.

See you next time!

And for more on “used to,” make sure you check out the video we have for you at PlainEnglish.com. These videos are great because they take you step-by-step through how to express a more complex idea in English. And we did four videos in total with “used to,” and they have exercises, quizzes, and chances to practice, so you know you’re learning it the right way.

That’s all at PlainEnglish.com, included in the Plus level membership.

Now that brings us to the end of Lesson 640. We’ll be back here on Thursday, when we’ll talk about a reality TV show with a new lease on life—and it’s coming from a surprising place. See you then.