Serve time

Serve time

Today’s expression is to “serve time.” I scanned the lesson text, as I always do, looking for good expressions. And there were a few good ideas in there. But then I thought, when would I ever say the word “serve time” again?

To “serve time” is to spend time in prison after being convicted of a crime. In Lesson 205, we talked about the difference between jail and prison . Jail is where they take you when you’ve been arrested. But after you have a trial, and you get convicted, and a judge sentences you to serve time, then you go to prison.

If a judge sentences you to serve time means, if a judge decides that you must spend time in prison. Sometimes a judge might sentence an individual to pay a fine, do community service, or be on probation. Other times, home confinement is the punishment. But prison time is often the punishment for more serious crimes. And if you go to prison, you serve time.

“Will she have to serve time?” That’s a question you might hear. After Elizabeth Holmes’s conviction , it was pretty clear she would have to serve time . But it’s not always clear.

Martha Stewart is perhaps the most famous businesswoman ever to serve time in a federal prison. Martha taught us how to set an elegant dinner table, bake cookies, and decorate the house for Halloween. She was convicted of insider trading. That’s profiting off buying and selling stock when you have information from inside the company, information that others would not have.

Will she have to serve time? That was on everyone’s minds. Not everyone convicted of insider trading serves time. But Martha did: she served five months in a federal prison camp in West Virginia.

Did you hear that? You can say: “served” plus a time period. Martha Stewart served five months. If I end the sentence there—”Martha Stewart served five months”—a native English speaker will know I’m taking about prison. If you say “served time” or “served” plus an amount of time, you’re talking about prison, unless you say otherwise.

For example, you could say, “Martha served six years as president of the parents’ association at her children’s school.” That’s not talking about prison. But if you say, “Martha served five months” period, end of sentence, then this means prison.

“Serve hard time” is another variation. To serve hard time means to spend many years in prison or to serve time in a maximum-security prison. Prison is bad—even where Elizabeth Holmes is going. But a maximum-security prison is really bad. If a convict is sentenced to serve hard time, that person is not going to “Camp Fed,” a minimum-security location. That person is going to a prison where life is considerably more difficult, and probably for a long time.

Quote of the Week

Here’s a quote for today: “It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.” This is by Sydney Smith, an English writer who lived in the late 1700s and early 1800s . “It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little.”

See you next time!

And that brings us to the end of today’s Plain English for Monday, June 19, 2023. Right around this time of year is when school would end for me, when I was growing up. In my town, at that time, it was almost always the third week of June. They would schedule it to end the first or second week, but we’d have to go longer to make up for snow cancellations in the winter. So it would usually be right around this time.

I loved summer vacation as a kid. I loved being outside, the sun would stay up until late, it was baseball season, I could go swimming, I could read books, I could sleep late. Those days of summer vacation are long gone, but this week every year I always think back to the pure happiness of walking out of school for the last time.

Anyway, enough reminiscing. The next lesson is coming out on Thursday. It’s going to be about a new health trend—another health trend that I will most certainly not be participating in. But it’s fun to learn about—that’s on Thursday when lesson number 583 comes out. See you then.