This mini episode teaches you the useful phrase “the other day.”
Episode 229 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the useful phrase “the other day.” 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 229 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
In the last episode, we talked about a way to refer to actions that will happen at some time in the future. And that expression was “one of these days.”
Today, I want to tell you about an expression that is kind of like the opposite of that expression. Because this is a way to refer to some time in the past.
And the expression is “the other day.” The other day. That’s the: t-h-e, other: o-t-h-e-r, day: d-a-y. The other day.
What exactly does “the other day” mean? “The other day” means “at some time in the recent past, at some time not long ago.” It does not refer to a certain day. It does not mean “that day.” It means “on some day or at some time, not long ago, sometime not long ago.”
Now, what does “not long ago” mean? Of course, it does not refer to a certain number of days. It doesn’t mean something like “two days ago” or “three days ago” or “four.” It really doesn’t have a specific meaning like that. It means two or three or four or five or maybe six days ago. If something happened one month ago . . . Oh, that is too long ago to use the expression “the other day.” But if something happened ten days ago or twelve days ago, maybe that would be okay. I think you get the idea. The point is it does not refer to a specific day or to a time a certain number of days ago.
Let me give you an example of a situation where somebody might say “the other day”:
The other day, I got an email from an old friend. The other day, I got an email from an old friend. What this means is “at some time, or on some day, not long ago, I got an email from an old friend.” This might’ve happened two days ago or three or four or five or something like that. Not long ago, I got an email from an old friend. When did this happen? The other day.
That is “the other day,” a very useful and common expression that I think you should know.
Outro
We have reached the end of episode 229 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have 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.