In this mini episode, you will learn the common and useful phrase “one day.”
Episode 409 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the common and useful phrase “one day.” 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
“Hi, this is Diab, from Yemen. You are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 409 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 phrase that might be a little bit confusing. The phrase is “one day.” One day.
That’s spelled o-n-e, d-a-y. One day.
Why do I say that this might be confusing. It looks pretty simple, right? One day. Well, what does this mean? What does “one day” mean?
Of course, sometimes it means one single day.
For instance, if I say, “It took me one day to paint my living room,” then I am using “one day” to mean one single day. But often we use “one day” to mean something very different.
Often we use “one day” to mean “on some day, on some unknown or unspecified day.” Which day? It’s not important. Just a day, some day.
We can use “one day” to refer to some time in the past, I could say, “One day, when he was a boy, my grandfather went to see a baseball game.” One day. He did this one day. When did he do it exactly? I don’t know. Or maybe it’s just not important for this conversation. I can use “one day” to mean “at some point in the past, on some day in the past.”
I can also use “one day” to mean the same kind of thing in the future. And so somebody could say, “One day, I will be a famous musician.” One day, I will be a famous musician. When? When will that happen? The person doesn’t know when that will happen. The person doesn’t have a date. The person is not saying, “On January 1st, 2045, I will be a famous musician.”
The person is just saying at some point in the future, on some day in the future. Which day? When will that happen? The person doesn’t know, but it will happen at some point in the future.
So “one day” can mean “at some point in the past or in the future, not a specific date that we know or that we think is important, but just on some day in the past or the future.”
You will often hear the phrase one day used in this way. And if you have not seen this before, or if you aren’t familiar with this phrase used this way, it could be a little bit confusing because it means something very different from what it might look like. It doesn’t usually mean “on one single day” or “during one single day.” It just means “at some point, on some day, in the past or in the future.”
And that is “one day,” a common and very useful phrase that I think you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 409 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have any 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 Diab 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!