This mini episode teaches you another useful expression: “It’s about time.”
Episode 192 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you another useful idiom: “It’s about time.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello. This is Juhee from South Korea. You are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 192 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let's get on with this mini episode.
The episode
Today I want to teach you a useful and common expression. Like other idioms, this idiom is hard to understand just by looking at the parts. If you try to understand what this idiom means just by looking at the words, you will probably never be able to guess. You need to know and remember what the entire expression means.
The expression is “It's about time.” It's about time. That’s it’s—i-t-apostrophe-s, about—a-b-o-u-t, time—t-i-m-e. It’s about time.
What does “It's about time” mean? “It's about time” means “I think this thing should have happened already. I think this thing should have happened before. This thing took too long.” Or “Finally! This thing has happened.”
Let me give you an example of a situation where you might hear somebody say, “It's about time.” Let's say that my computer has stopped working. So, I bring my computer to somebody who can fix it. Every day I wait for a phone call from this person. One day goes by. Two days go by. I'm starting to get a little bit impatient. Then, after one week, the person calls me and says, “Your computer has been fixed. You can come pick your computer up.” And I think It's about time. In other words, I think my computer should have been fixed earlier. I think my computer should already have been fixed. It took that person too long to fix my computer. Or Finally! My computer is ready.
You should know that the expression “It's about time” often conveys a feeling of annoyance or impatience or frustration. We usually use it in situations where we think that something should have happened before, and we are a little bit annoyed or frustrated because something didn't happen sooner.
That is “It's about time,” a common and useful idiom that I think you should know.
Outro
And that's the end of episode 192 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions about the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can use at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Juhee recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I'll be back soon with another episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye. I'll see you soon.