In this mini episode, you will learn the useful phrase “remains to be seen.”
Episode 407 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the useful phrase “remains to be seen.” 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! I’m Joy. I come from China. You are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 407 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 common and useful phrase. The phrase is “remains to be seen.” Remains to be seen. That’s spelled r-e-m-a-i-n-s, t-o, b-e, s-e-e-n. Remains to be seen.
What does this phrase mean, and how do we use it?
We use this phrase when we want to say that something is still not clear, or something is still not certain, or we still don’t know something.
We use it when we want to say, “We will have to wait to see how something happens.” Or “We will have to wait to see the result of something.” You will hear people say things like “That remains to be seen” or “It remains to be seen.”
For example, you might hear something like this: Let’s say that two people in an office are having a discussion about some new rule. The office has some new rule, and these two people are talking about what will happen as a result of this new rule. One person is saying something like, “I think this new rule will mean that we have to spend too much money, and so it’s a bad rule.”
The other person might say something like, “Well, I think that remains to be seen.” I think that remains to be seen. This person is saying, “I think it is still unclear,” “I think we still don’t know what will happen,” “I think we will have to wait to see what happens,” “I think we will have to wait to see what the truth is,” “It is still unclear or uncertain.
Why does remains to be seen mean this?
That word remains: What does that mean? What does remains mean? To remain means to stay or continue being a certain way, or to continue being in some place. When we say, “It remains to be seen,” we mean it is still true that we do not know. We still don’t know. The situation where we still don’t know is continuing.
“It remains to be seen” means we still need to see it. We still need to wait before we can see something or before we can know or understand something.
One more thing I want to say about this phrase is that it can sound a little bit formal. I think “remains to be seen” is a perfectly fine phrase. But sometimes it will not sound very conversational. I think you will probably see this in writing more than you will hear this in conversation.
And that is “remains to be seen,” a useful phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 407 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 Joy 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!