In this mini episode, you will learn the useful, but possibly confusing, phrase “every other.”
Episode 341 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the useful—and maybe confusing—phrase “every other.” Send your questions about English and your comments and suggestions to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hello, everyone. This is Daniela from Colombia, and you are listening to this amazing podcast, Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 341 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 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 a very common, but maybe confusing, phrase. And that phrase is “every other.” Every other. That’s e-v-e-r-y, o-t-h-e-r. Every other.
You will hear this in a longer phrase, such as, “every other person,” or “every other Sunday,” or “every other time.”
If you have not learned this expression before, you might think that it means “all of the other people,” or “all of the other Sundays—or “every Sunday”—or “every time,” or something like that.
That might make sense, but that’s not what it means. When we refer to every other thing, we do not mean all of the other things. Instead, we are talking about alternating things. What do I mean by that? Let me give you an example, and I think you will understand what I am talking about.
Let’s say that your friend is going away on a vacation, and she has asked you to go to her house every day to feed her cat. She also tells you that her cat needs medicine. And these are the instructions that your friend gives you: your friend says, “Please remember to give my cat one pill every other day while I’m gone, starting on Sunday.”
You might think this means one pill on Sunday and then one pill on each other day. One pill on Sunday, one pill on Monday, on Tuesday, on Wednesday, et cetera. But that is not what it means.
Instead, it is describing a system of alternating days. So, your friend wants you to give her cat a pill on Sunday. And then skip the next day—skip Monday—then give the cat a pill on Tuesday, then skip the next day, and give the cat a pill on Thursday, and so on.
And so, “every other day” means every second day. Not each day, but one day, and then not the next day, but then the next day, and not the next day.
That’s what it means when we say “every other.” It means we are talking about doing something and then skipping one, and then doing it again, and skipping another one.
And that is “every other,” a very common, useful—and maybe confusing—expression that I think you should know.
Outro
And this is the end of episode 341 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments for me, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Daniela recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to EverybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode. And until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. I’ll see you soon. Goodbye!