In this mini episode, you will learn the phrase “to and fro.”
Episode 434 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches you the phrase “to and fro.” 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! This is Lee, from Busan in Korea. And you’re listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 434 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 an interesting expression. The expression is “to and fro.” To and fro.
That’s t-o, a-n-d, f-r-o. To and fro.
What is fro? What does fro mean? I don’t think by itself, on its own, fro really means anything. I don’t think you will ever hear or read that word, fro, by itself. But it is a part of this old-fashioned phrase, “to and fro.”
Let’s see if you can guess what fro means.
In this expression, to means “toward” or “in the direction of something.” And fro is short for the word from. It’s a short form of from. And so, “to and fro” means “in this direction, or toward that place, and in the other direction, away from that place.” It means “toward something and away from something.”
We use “to and fro” to describe things that are moving in one direction and then the opposite direction, and then back and then back again. We use it to mean things that go here and there and back here and back there again, back and forth.
That means if you are describing something like a crowded street scene—you’re describing a scene with all kinds of people walking in all directions—you might describe the crowd as walking to and fro. People are walking over here, then they’re walking in the other direction. People are walking to one side of the street or one side of the square, and then they’re walking to the other side. They’re walking from one side to another. They’re walking to and fro.
You could also describe other things that move from one side to another side and back to the first side and back to the other side as moving to and fro.
For instance, what if you were describing something like a horse? A horse’s tail. Maybe the horse is swinging his tail from one side to the other side. You could say, “The horse’s tail was moving to and fro,” or “The horse was swinging his tail to and fro.”
“To and fro” does sound a little bit old-fashioned. And I don’t think that you will hear this expression in conversation very often. Maybe you will never hear this expression in conversation. But you will see it in writing sometimes.
Even though it’s not a very common expression, I think it is an interesting and useful phrase that you should know.
Outro
This is the end of episode 434 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 Lee 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!