This mini episode teaches you how to use the word “ago.”
Episode 246 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you how to use the word “ago.” 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 Carla, from Brazil. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 246 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 this episode, I am going to teach you about the word ago. Ago. That’s spelled a-g-o. Ago. Before I can teach you about ago, I want to teach you about a word that is very similar. And that word is before. Before: b-e-f-o-r-e.
Let me give you an example of a sentence that uses the word before. We will talk about it a little bit, and then I will explain ago. The sentence is this:
“My friend started taking tennis lessons three years before.” My friend started taking tennis lessons three years before.
Maybe you don’t know it, but that sentence sounds strange. It sounds like there is something missing from that sentence. This is what I mean:
When we say before in a sentence like that—“My friend started taking tennis lessons three years before”—we need to include something else. My friend started taking tennis lessons three years before… what? Three years before… when? We need to include some more information. Maybe the context will make it clear, or maybe this sentence is part of a larger conversation. But somehow the listener needs more information.
We would need to say something like “My friend started taking tennis lessons three years before… her tenth birthday.” Or “My friend started taking tennis lessons three years before… she graduated from high school.” We need to say something else when we use the word before. We need to say “before what?” or “before when?” Does that make sense?
Okay. Well, keep that thought in your mind while you listen to this example:
“My friend started taking tennis lessons three years ago.” My friend started taking tennis lessons three years ago.
That sentence sounds fine. It sounds complete. It is not missing anything. We don’t need any more information to understand that sentence.
Why? What’s the difference? How is ago different from before? With before, I said we needed more information. We needed to know about another event so that we could say that something happened three years before another event. But with ago, we don’t need more information. Why?
The answer is that ago always means “before now.” When we use ago, we are saying “before now, before this time, before the time when we are talking” or “before the time I wrote this sentence down.”
When I say, “My friend started taking tennis lessons three years ago,” I’m saying my friend started taking tennis lessons three years before now.
Before and ago are very similar. They both tell us about things that happened in the past. But ago kind of comes with information. The idea of “before now” is a part of the word ago.
Let me repeat this because I think it’s very important. These two sentences feel different: “My friend started taking tennis lessons three years before” and “My friend started taking tennis lessons three years ago.”
The first sentence—the one with before—feels incomplete. We are missing some important information. If we don’t have that information, we don’t really understand the sentence. But the sentence with ago is not missing any information. Because ago always means “before now, before this time.”
That is ago, a very useful word that I think you should know.
*****
Now that I think about it a little bit more, I would like to add one more point.
I said—many times—that ago means “before now.” I think I could have been a little bit more clear. Ago really means “before the time when someone is speaking” or “before the time when someone is writing.” That will often mean “before right now.” But if you are reading something that somebody wrote a long time ago, then ago would mean “before that time in the past, when the person was writing.”
So ago really means “before the time when someone is communicating.” That will usually mean “before now,” but not always.
Outro
That is the end of episode 246 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 Carla 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.