Learning English

A gunshot rings out...
How do you think the story will end?

A) Jim kills all the pirates and escapes with the treasure
B) There isn't any treasure, so Jim decides to become a pirate
C) The pirates find the treasure and leave Jim alone on the island
D) Something else 

To do

Watch the video and find out which option is correct. And listen out for three more uses of time.

ነቲ ቪድዮ ብምዕዛብ ነቲ ስራሕ ዕመምዎ

To do

So, the correct answer was D) Something else! The old man killed most of the pirates - and shared the treasure with Jim.

Now lets practise the different uses of time. Have a go at this quiz.

Over to you

We asked you to tell us a story, using as many of the phrases with time as possible:

• a long time 
• in no time
• only a matter of time 
• at times 
• as time goes by 
• at one time or another
• time after time 
• in no time
• time-consuming

Your Stories

Moustafa 

A long time ago , I finished my vacation and take a bus to go to the city where my fight will take off . As time goes by , [BBC Learning English says: you need a past tense here: as time went by] I was asking myself is it easy to find some taxi from the city to airport? I asked a young gun was sitting next to me and he was in my age . "I will go to airport too, May I share the taxi with you?" , he said . In no time , I said "sure , I agree". When we reached to bus station we found taxi in no time. Next, he told " I will arrive to the local fights terminal then the taxi will pick you up to the international terminal. I supposed that he knows the airport very well . After he left , I asked the taxi driver about the correct terminal of my flight . The taxi driver reached to some terminal and let me leave . Only a matter of time after I entered to the terminal I realized that they were wrong . The truth is , this airport has two terminals . One of them is for the national airlines and the other is for the foreign airlines . Indeed, my fight is international fight with domestic airlines ! I had have to go out the the first terminal where the guy went out. It was time consuming but fortunately I reached to my flight in time .

______________________

Nguyen

A long time ago when I was in grade eleven, I was granted a full scholarship for studying abroad in Korea. Because it was a good chance and it was also my dream, so I decided to get it in no time. As time goes by, [BBC Learning English says: you need a past tense here: as time went by] I had a recollection of this event. I had a thought that it was only a matter of time for I would being paid for my hard – working days to master Korean. At times, I believes in luck, besides my efforts. At current time, I am totally confident in my ability and my scholarship is completely deserved. As now I experience lots of things my adopted country and achieve accomplishments that pleases myself and my family in a great way.

______________________

Eman Mohamed

A long time ago i had a dream to learn English. I started using some learning sites but it turns out to be time-consuming without benefit, then i found BBC learning English site and as time goes by i levelled up. at the beginning, I studied at times because i was busy doing something else. Time after time my learning hours increased and my English improved in no time.

______________________

María José Berrocal Ríos

Since a long time ago I have been looking forward to travelling. I really like it, but once a year and only for three weeks wasn't too much. Fortunately (in regard to this subject!) I´ve retired a few years ago, and that allows me to make my dreams come true.

I decided to buy a caravan and travel throughout Europe. This kind of journeys are time-consuming, but on the other hand, they are interesting enough to make worth the effort. Every time me and my husband set off in our caravan we spend two or three months away from home. I must say that at times we have to take a break, the journeys being so demanding, but we don't mind.

At one time or another we have visited Italy, Germany, Austria, Portugal, Holland, France and Great Britain and we are so thrilled that we feel encouraged to dust off our french and even to learn german which I can assure you, is a great deal of effort.

As time goes by, the need to go further becomes more and more compelling. So, it's only a matter of time to [BBC Learning English says: replace 'to' with 'until we'] go across the sea and visit The USA, Canada, Japan, South America... Well, not only a matter of time, money is also involved, but we'll do our best.

The way I feel now, I suppose in no time we'll be on the road (or on a plane) again.

______________________

Eduardo, Mexico

In no time Fernando decided to take a break in his life and think about all that was not working. A long time ago, he figured out that something was wrong because he was always angry and irritable. Time after time, he screamed and coursed everything he found if something stupid was not in the way he was thinking. As time goes by, people around him started to avoid Fernando because of his anger explosions. However, Fernando has always had a big and noble hard. Suddenly, at times, he started to feel alone and sad. It was just a matter of time before Fernando wanted to make a change. He knew that making introspection is time-consuming, but, he wanted to solve his deepest problems to work with them and change this attitude to life. Fernando went to some quiet place for some days to listen the nature ant to listen himself. In this way, at one time or another, he would solve his problems with himself and in consequence with all around him.

BBC Learning English says:
Thanks for your story Eduardo! You need to use the past tense in As time goes by - the correct version here is As time went by.

______________________

Kristina, Serbia

As time goes by, world around us changes. At times, it seems like everything is perfect, but there are moments when you'd rather give up everything and move away to a deserted island. When you feel disappointed time after time and it seems that your life is falling apart, the only thing you want to do is to run away in no time and never look back.

A long time ago, people realised that the best way to overcome sadness and disappointment is to surround yourself with those who you love, to tell them what's bothering you and let them help you. Do not think about things or people that made you upset at one time or another. Physical activity may be helpful too, although it can be time-consuming. Try do to this, and it is only a matter of time before you'll see bright side of life again.

______________________

Anna, Russia

A long time ago when I was a little girl I heard a tragic story about an abandoned city named Pripyat. The story thrilled me, and I decided that one day I will visit that city. Time went by, I graduated from school and started to learn at the university, but the dream to visit Pripyat was still there with me. At times I searched the information about the tours to the abandoned city, but kept on postponing the trip itself.

I graduated from university, found my first full-time job, and started to save money for my journey. I thought it was only a matter of time for my dream to come true. But no one of my friends wanted to come with me. Time after time I kept on asking them, but the answer was “No”.

At one time or another I found out that many buildings in Pripyat had begun to collapse. And then I decided that I will not ask anyone else to accompany me. I will go on my own instead. In no time I booked a trip, bought my tickets and started off to the city of my dreams. The journey on a train from Moscow to Kyiv was time-consuming, but at long last I arrived. The next morning I with dozens of other people boarded a bus that took us to the most exciting tour in our lives.

______________________

Natalia, Russia

"I began to study English a long time ago. From 2nd class we had English lessons at school and at times I had extra studies at home. As time went by and after graduation from school and successful admission to the Institute my parents made me a gift – a trip to England for in-depth study of language. By that moment I had not bad vocabulary and strong grammar knowledge, but spoken English was time-consuming. In no time the study in English school helped me with spoken problem. It was because of spending a long time with native speakers.

As time went by after graduation I worked in different companies and time after time my English knowledge was not required. In no time my vocabulary, which I had during my study, was forgotten. And I had language practice only in my trips abroad.

Now unfortunately it will be time-consuming to restore my previous level of English. And I hope with lessons BBC Learning English it’s only a matter of time."

______________________

Fatimah, Saudi Arabia

A long time ago when I was young, my favourite outdoor activity was going to the zoo to watch the spectacular animals. As a child I did not know much about animals. However, time after time my parents would take me to the zoo, and it was only a matter of time that I gained a lot of knowledge about animals. My love to the zoo has lead me to volunteer in some zoo activities where I could teach other children wonderful facts about animals. As times went by I became very passionate in enhancing the public awareness about how they could participate in conserving some animals that were threatened to go extinct at one time or another. At times, I think although this work is time-consuming, I believe in my heart that it is going to be worth it.

______________________

Ronald, Colombia

A long time ago, when I was a kid, I had to spend my vacations at my grandmother's house. Sometimes, I heard some voices and footsteps in the hallway. At one time or another this was really scared.

______________________

Maby Esperanza from Peru

I started to study english a long time ago at school. I remember I learned english only for fun. But as time went by, my vocabulary was increasing and I didn't notice of this.  I started to study at university and at one time or another I must learn english.  Time after time I was searching for a page in which I can learn. Thanks God, I found BBC englishlearning programme. It helps me a lot!

_____________________

Alexandra from France

A long time ago, I thought that I am very good in English because I got high scores in my exams time after time. But when I went to the CPGE school ( "Classes préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles"), the highscores in English exams disappeared. My English teacher said that competitions date arrived in no time and I had to improve my English. But how ? I learn my "lessons" and my list of vocabulary words every week and at times, I read English newspaper. But as time went by and I knew that it was too late. So the next year, I decided to learn time after time my English even though I knew that it's time-consuming learning a language. At one time or another, I found the website "BBC Learning English" I didn't like English lessons and I was very shy during the English class but now, with this website, I know and I hope it's only a matter of time to succeed in passing my exams and become really good in English.

_____________________

Thanh Tan

MY CHILDHOOD SWEET MEMORIES
A long time ago, I came back my maternal homeland during my summer months, and used to be sitting on the back of a lovely buffalo every morning. The buffalo and I – we went through a strong brook in no time. And it was only a matter of time when we reached the mountain side with long and lush stretches of grass land. Then I was a king of the area, sitting on the buffalo’s back among several smaller others. It was usually a clear blue sky but at times a cloudy one. As time gently goes by, I grew more attached to the countryside where I could lie on the buffalo’s back and play / flute my favorite songs by the flute presented to me on my 6th birthday party by my Mom. And at one time or another, I climbed up a tree to seek for a bird nest that is often precariously perched in the tree’s small branches. I always found nothing but a nest at times. I then put in some green fruits and dead grasshoppers or locusts. At the time, I thought these would supply them with further food for the up-coming winter. As time goes by I know it is such the stupid idea at the age of 7 of a rural boy. Time after time, I kept riding the buffalo, fluting my favorite songs and lying on the buffalo’s back to see nice kites flying up in the clear sky. In no time, I did know that nature-loving and leading a simple life close to the nature is not a time-consuming process, but the dream-uplifting process in the middle of the nature’s vastness or immenseness / immensity. That is my childhood sweet memories, still being firmly kept in my mind as time keeps going by my life.

BBC Learning English says:
Thanks for your lovely story Thanh Tan! The correct verb to use with flute is play. Keep studying and your English will get better and better as time goes by :-)

_____________________

Francisco Guerra

Who was that woman?

Not a long time ago, in a place of La Mancha whose name I don’t want to remember, a young couple of tourists called Fran and Miriam, went to visit a famous medieval castle. 

I have to say that this castle has become so famous in no time because at times some international medieval fighting contests have took place there. That’s why nowadays it’s very visited, and more and more people is interested in knowing it as time goes by.

This young couple were enjoining the time-consuming route inside the castle until they went into the marquis’ room, which was the darkest room of the castle. Despite being so dark, Fran wanted to take a photo of his girlfriend in front of a beautiful mirror that there was there. Luckily, he had brought his tripod. At the time, he put his camera on the tripod and it started to take photos. At first, they were shocked because Fran didn’t took them. In no time, scared, they run away because the camera went on taking photos time after time. After running down stairs, exhausted, they watched the photos and found out that a woman appeared in the mirror behind Miriam, which made them to get more frightened.

Eventually, they relaxed in the coffee shop of the castle and saw there was a big woman portrait hanging on the wall. They looked at it curiously and noticed that the woman was the same woman in the photos. Besides, there was a message which said: “Eugenia of Montijo, empress of Francia and owner of this castle in the 19th century”.

_____________________

Angelica, Germany

My story begins a long time ago when gadgets like smart phones hadn’t been invented.

At this time  I went on a trip together with my schoolmates. We started early in the morning by bus. So we arrived at   our destination in no time. We wanted to climb up a mountain there. But soon dark clouds appeared on the sky. It seemed to be only a matter of time that a thunderstorm would disturb our hiking. But nevertheless we started the tour.  Eagerly we wanted to climb the peak. At times on our way we had to stop because the weather got rough and stormy. 

As times went by, we realized, we couldn’t continue our adventure without getting in danger. We had to search for a save place where we could stay until the thunderstorm passed by. At one timeor another we met fellow sufferers who led us to a hut inside the wood where we could wait together with them. Time after time we watched the weather situation. That was quite time consuming.

Last but not least the weather changed to bright sunshine. We could leave the hut. Though we were delayed we arrived in time on the summit before sunset.

_____________________

Mario, Italy

Despite me taking a long time to lose weight and get fit again, I think it was worth it. About one and a half years ago, my body weight reached 100 kg and in no time I decided to sign up for the gym. I started to train three times a week with poor results and, unfortunately, time after time I kept on thinking of food. My doctor advised me to combine my physical activity with learning to play a musical instrument or something like that. I would have liked to learn cooking but ultimately I chose to learn English language. Obviously, "munching" english idioms and phrasal verbs was not the same as munching my loved dark chocolate. At times I thought I was more likely to become a master of english than I was to lose some weight, but it was only a matter of time before I got slim again. In addition, as time went by, even my english improved. Finally, this time-consuming experience has turned out to be very useful but I hope I will never repeat it at one time or another.

_____________________

Seiko Sakanashi

A long time ago, I realized English was necessary to make friends all over the world. I joined an English conversation class in no time. And I thought improving my English skill was only a matter of time. But as time goes by, it didn't work out as I expected. So I stopped going the class because it was expensive for me. At one time or another, I started to study English by BBC learning English. It's difficult for me at times. But I watch video and do quizes time after time. It's quite time-consuming studying English. But I never give up.

_____________________

Carla Brown

There's a cliché according to which there're three things people have to do at least once in their lifetime at one time or another: planting a tree, writing a book and having a child. You may think that's only a matter of time, but as time goes by you realise you can't do these tasks in no time. Perhaps planting a tree doesn't take a long time, but writin a book is a time-consuming book, and having a child is something you are probable putting off time after time.

_____________________

Smiley, Viet Nam

A long time ago, I believed that my English was not bad. When I went to university, I felt shock because the kind of English I had known was only theoretical. I could get high score in English exams, but I couldn’t speak English confidently as my friends.

In no time, I realized that I had to do something different to improve myself. Sadly, I was not quite of a patient person at that time. I only was hard-working at times and there’s nothing more than that. Time after time! Learned and stopped. It was really time-consuming.

At one time or another, I seriously thought of my English journey. I decided to change myself. Then I followed BBC Learning English programmes, especially on new website. As time went by, I was patient to learn English every week from Lower-Intermediate to Towards Advanced. I know it’s only a matter of time to be excellent at English as I wished.

_____________________

Teresa, Málaga, Spain

She had watched that film time after time but as time went by she liked it more and more. She used to sit down on the huge and comfortable armchair which was in front of the screen to watch it, at times with a pop corn bag or any candy that she ate in no time during the beginning of the film. It was only a matter of time that the DVD of the film was broken by the use, and the real problem was that she didn't have any copy of it although it was her favourite film. She kept the sleeve a long time because at one time or another she hoped to found an original version of the film in DVD support. But it was too time-cosuming and finally she decided to download from the Internet.

_____________________

Francesco, Rome, Italy

A SCARY SURPRISE 

A long time ago, we decided to do some works to our house in Umbria. This house in fact is a part of an ancient castle, where the time - consuming process had created troubles to some rooms. My aunt, worried by some rifts, decided to renovate the floor of the kitchen and the hall. Something strange was happening. When the first works started, the floor collapsed revealing under the ground another dark place. When I was young, many stories were told about some secrets hidden in hour beautiful house, but never we expect to find a room unknown to our grandparents who bought this part of a castle at one time or another.

After the floor collapsed, one worker fell in the fissure. Fortunately, the room was not very tall, and the worker had no problem to pick up and block a rope. In this way, we succeeded to explore the unexpected surprise that has rest under our feet for a long time.

Suddenly we heard a creepy murmourr under us. The floor seem to be broken, as we were walking over many spheres.

“It is the jail of the castle!” asked petrified our aunt. Turning on the light, we found under our feet only bones. In this place, our ancestors left their prisoners dying, and as time goes by nobody remembered them. Until we found this jail, turned on by the time in a graveyard.

_____________________

Edilson, Sao Paulo, Brazil

A long time ago it dawned on me that I really needed to start learning English, so I enrolled in a English course from a traditional school close to my house. As time WENT by I realized that the English taught in the textbooks is not the real life English because I used to watch some English talks, series and movies at times, then I put two and two together and realized that most of Brazilian English schools did not teach the real English but the one from the textbooks that are far from the reality. Time after time I WOULD WONDER about it, at one time or another I came to a conclusion that this course was really a time-consuming designedto make me get stuck to it FOR the long run. Then, I finally realized I would not get anywhere by taking this kind of course. Consequently, I started looking for some online resources that could help me to learn useful and real English by myself. After tracking down for some days I found out some interesting English stuff developed by BBC Learning English, then it was just a matter of time before I MADE time to learn English with them.This website is so good that IN NO TIME, I could already see some payoffs.

BBC Learning English says: 

Well done Edilson. We love your story which has a good message! You have used some correct uses of the word ‘time’ but you sometimes mix up your present and past tense – try to keep it consistent. Thanks for sending it in.

_____________________

Silvia

23 years ago I crowned my dream : to become a mother. I had waited for a long time this moment and I was so happy… I could not imagine it would have been so difficult. In no time I realized  I had lost my freedom and it was only a matter of time to understand that life would never be the same as I had in the past. It was very time-consuming to look after that little being and I was so tired… At times I thought I was not a good mother … Then, as time went by she began to smile and later to speak …. everything changed. Time after time my sadness decreased and I was only proud to have a wonderful child.

_____________________

Pawan, Nepal

At times, the window glasses were rattled by the sound of an airplane, and the little boy Krishna would shriek, " Mom, earthquake ...!" in exclaimation. Krishna, who is eight years old, was a gregarious and extrovert child. With broad smile in his face, he used to greet everyone and would rejoice them with his humor. In no time, his smile was seized, and the boy lost his charm when a massive earthquake shook his country one year ago; Krishna was only seven years old then.

As time went by, the earthquake left an indelible mark on his fledgling mind. Time after time, he would shriek, shiver and sob upon hearing the window glasses rattle by the airplane. Only at seven, it seemed his childhood vanished, and his dream of becoming astronaut shattered. After earthquake, he lived in isolation - as a recluse from friends and other people. His mind and behavior were never the same; not only did he forget to smile but also stayed at home all the time without going to play with his friends. It felt as if it was only a matter of time when he would get admitted to a mental hospital. The multiple aftershocks of earthquake at one time or another had a malignant impact upon him, which was apparent form his uncanny demeanor.

It wasn't long before when their parents decided they must visit a psychiatrist, who lived nearby, and ask him for advice. Krishna was admitted to his clinic and timeaftertime visited the doctor. Innotime, some changes were conspicuous from his conduct; he began to draw pictures, read some interesting story books, watch cartoons which made him forget the horrific incident. Soon he started going outside and played with his friends. Although the medication was time-consuming and painstaking, Krishna's forbearance made the healing process look simpler.
However, he was never as before - somewhere down in his mind the severity of earthquake still remained haunting him attimes. 

BBC Learning English says:
Great Job Pawan. Your story has a dramatic flair which really draws the reader in. It was very interesting to read. Your use of time vocabulary is spot on, and your other vocabulary has a dramatic feel too!

_____________________

End of Session 4

That's the end of Session 4. In session 5, Tim from the Learning English team brings us a brand new pronunciation series. Don't miss it!