This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2543.
Go out of your way for these English direction phrases.
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Is the opposite of on the way off the way?
Today, find out how to make sure you don't assume certain phrases are opposites, and get key skills for giving directions today.
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Hey, Lindsay, how are you?
I'm feeling great today, Michelle.
How's everything going for you?
How are you?
Everything.
Yeah, everything's good.
Lindsay, are there any coffee places that you can go to on the way to the airport closest to you?
I know we've been talking about airports recently.
On the way to the airport closest to me.
Typically, when I go to the airport, I'll just grab a coffee at the airport, you know, even though it's not the best.
But, you know, there are coffee shops on the way to the park, which I love to stop at, you know.
Okay.
That you can walk to?
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
For sure.
Yeah, there's a number of them.
There was a really cute one that just closed.
That was in the park in the park, but it just closed, unfortunately.
But what about you, Michelle?
You have a lot of things on your way to other things.
A lot of coffee shops on the way.
But I just that's one thing about, like you know, being in the suburbs now is, you know, you really have to think about where everything I mean actually this is really anywhere and not just in the suburb.
You know, sometimes I'll think oh, I want a coffee, on the way to something else and then i realized wait, there's not a, there's not a good one around here, and there must be a starbucks somewhere.
There must be, you know, you know that it's, it's somewhere, you just don't know where.
So yeah, um yeah.
But today we're going to be talking about an interesting expression and how the opposite of this expression expression, doesn't work out.
We've talked about opposites before and sometimes they they they, you would think they work out, but they don't.
So we're going to be talking about expression today.
Yep.
Sometimes they just don't work out.
So we can't assume that we just can grab the opposite and that it will mean the opposite.
So tell us where this came from, Michelle.
Yeah.
So my friends and I were on a little road trip, very little, like an hour.
And my friend's son said to his dad he was asking about because we were going to stop at a restaurant on the way.
And so my friend's son said to him is it on the way or is it off the way?
Yeah, I know.
And I thought that and I'm like, oh yeah, that's interesting.
And I said, thank you, you just gave me and I they all know about the podcast and they get very excited.
And I said oh, you know that you just gave me a really good idea for an episode, so I thought we could talk about this today, Nice.
I love that.
I love when our episode ideas come from real life experience, because our listeners can know that this truly is real English right.
And also, listening to children speak is smart too, because they make certain assumptions about grammar that maybe aren't true, right?
Because they're just learning too.
So really good stuff.
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So, all right.
So what does it mean when you say something is on the way, Lindsay?
Yeah.
So it means it is I.
I'm going to encounter that place on my.
I'm trying not to use the same phrasing as I as I go to the other place.
So you asked about a coffee shop on the way to the airport.
I'm going to run into the coffee shop as I go to the airport, if that makes sense.
Right.
So yeah, one destination is in the same direction as the other.
So that's a much better way to, much more concise.
Well, it's not just in the same direction.
It's like you're trying to, okay, let's say you have point A and point B is your destination.
Oh no, no.
Let's say you're trying to get from A to C, but then if something point B is in the middle or you know just in the same direction, then that's on the way.
Yeah.
And this is my big gripe right now with um, any kind of like Google Maps, because what I want to be able to do is I want to tell by voice in the car.
I want to say hey, I want to go.
I'm trying to get to L.A.
I'm in Las Vegas, but I want to stop for a turkey sandwich on the way to Las Vegas.
To be able to do that.
I don't know if I can even do that yet with technology.
We should be able to do that.
Right.
Yeah.
I know that there is where you could say find something near me, but for some reason that never works on my phone.
Yeah.
I don't know.
I also have trouble with that.
I'm never the one to you know if we're, if we're going on a long car ride, I'm never the one to be to have to find the thing because I'm like I don't know.
I can't figure it out.
Oh, geez.
What are we going to do?
So let's give our listeners some more information here.
Yeah.
Okay.
So here's an example.
I can grab a soda before I get to you.
The store is on the way to your house.
Or of course I can drop you off.
It's no problem.
It's on the way.
So I'm emphasizing that this would not be inconvenient to me to give you a ride.
Right.
Because the place your destination is there's.
No, you're not going to have to drive extra to drop them off.
You were going that way anyway.
You got it.
Yeah.
So what is the big question here of the episode?
What is the big?
Yeah.
So is the opposite of on the way off the way because off is the opposite of on.
Seems like it should be Michelle, but no, the answer is no, it's not.
It's not what you would think.
It's not what Ethan thought, right?
He's still learning.
I love that.
Yep.
Not what Ethan thought.
Yep.
So the opposite of on the way actually is out of the way.
So it doesn't really seem like what you would think.
But yeah, that's the opposite.
So out of the way means something is inconvenient to go to because the direction that you're headed in it's not in a straight line.
You would have to go somewhere else and then head back to where you were going.
So it's not close by.
So it could also just be it's not nearby to you.
It's out of the way, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, for example, I desperately need a coffee, but the shop is completely out of the way and I'd be too late.
Or I don't want you to go out of the way.
Only pick me up if I'm on the way.
Yeah.
We also say I don't want you to go out of your way.
Out of your way.
Yep.
Don't go out of it, which is.
Interesting.
Just a little bonus phrase for today.
That has a more broad meaning, metaphorical meaning.
Don't go out of your way.
It's not just physical, right?
It's not just, what does it encompass?
If you say, don't go out of your way, it's like, don't make trouble for yourself.
Don't make things inconvenient for you.
And then I was also thinking yeah, it's interesting, because if I say oh, that's out of the way, I could just mean something's far away or just not inconvenient to get to.
But if I say I wouldn't say, oh, yeah, that restaurant is on the way.
It's only about talking to about it in relation to something else.
Does that make sense?
Yeah.
Well, it has to be in relation to something else.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
Exactly.
These are reference points.
Right.
Yes.
Yes.
Why do we think this is confusing, Michelle?
Yeah, because these opposite words I mean we want to get our listeners, want to be able to make guesses about what expressions might mean, but it doesn't.
It's not really.
Unfortunately, this one doesn't really work.
Um, it doesn't work.
Yeah.
Does anyone say the phrase off the way, Michelle, do you know anyone?
No, no, there's no off the way.
Right.
Um, yeah, but also there's in the way.
Um, so yeah, we could do, we.
I mean well, actually we have some more examples of this here that will help, but we might, who knows, maybe we'll have to do a followup, because there really is a lot here.
So if someone is in the way, right, they are blocking you basically.
So you're in the way.
Please move.
Get out of the way.
Right.
So this is about directions and reference points.
You're going in a certain direction and this person is maybe standing in the road.
Right.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Get out of the way.
Right.
Love it.
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Okay, so there are other things we could say.
Let's just go.
So again, this is invoking a little bit of grammar, a little bit of vocabulary, and we can do a follow-up.
If any listeners have questions after today, guys write into support at allearsenglishcom with your question.
Let's go through these a little bit more, Michelle.
On the way, what else do we need to know here?
Yeah, so we're going to talk about some other ways that you could say this.
So convenient.
So it's not necessarily exact.
Um, but yeah, you could say it's right by my office.
It's so convenient.
So again, I'm just realizing this in real time while we're planning it on the way.
Really does have to be in relation to somewhere else.
It's on the way to somewhere else that I'm heading, right?
You're not just, you're not going to use it as a complete synonym to convenient, because I wouldn't say right.
Like, Oh yeah, I have a coffee shop near my house.
It's on the way.
Like it has to be on the way to somewhere, right?
Yes, I love that.
I love that.
Or the word nearby.
Now this one's tricky.
I actually think we should do a follow-up episode on the difference between near and nearby, because you got auto-corrected in the notes here, Michelle.
Um, there is, there is a grammatical difference that our listeners need to be aware of.
I did.
What did it say?
What did I have?
Um well, maybe we'll bring this up in a different episode, but the sample sentence here is there's a supermarket nearby, right?
It means it's close to me, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
So super interesting.
Near and nearby.
Yeah.
Near and nearby.
Like it's like a, the Titanic song near far.
Um, uh, what else?
All right.
So let's talk about out of the way.
So another way you could say out of the way is inconvenient.
Right.
These directions show this place is too inconvenient to get to.
Right.
And again, out of the way isn't like you don't have to use it in relation to something else.
It could just mean inconvenient.
That's out of the way.
Right.
Right.
Right.
Good.
Or remote.
We use the word remote.
That apartment is too remote.
It's not near any trains.
So it's kind of in an irrelevant location, right?
Not centralized.
Right.
And then let's talk about how on the way can also mean you're coming to a place.
Like you might hear, I'm on the way, right?
Yeah.
You could say en route.
I'll be there in 10.
I'm already en route.
Meaning you're, yeah, you're on the way, right?
And you have an ETA.
Your ETA is 10 minutes.
Mm-hmm.
Yep, exactly.
Or you could say that you're heading somewhere.
So you could say I'm heading over right now.
Love it.
Oh my gosh.
So many things we could say.
Yeah, there's really a lot we could do.
There's so much that we could do with this.
So guys hit follow.
We will be following up on this episode.
There's much more to say.
Yeah, we'll come back to this for sure.
Directions matter.
It matters because this is our orientation in space, right?
In a place.
Where are we going?
What's on the way?
We need this to communicate general everyday things.
But let's do a role play for now, Michelle.
What's our scenario?
All right, so here I am lost.
I am driving to your house and I have to stop to call you to have you help me out.
Help explain to me where your house is.
Okay, here we go.
I'm so sorry, Michelle.
I know I'm super out of the way.
Okay, it's totally fine, Lindsay.
It's actually on the way to my physical therapist, so not too bad.
Okay, most people say it's a bit remote.
Not too bad.
It's not really nearby, but it's not too far.
So at the corner, turn left, not right.
Oh, okay.
I'm en route.
Oh, I think something got messed up with that role play there.
I got a little confused.
No, you were not asking me a question.
You were saying, so at the corner, turn left, not right.
Got it, got it, got it, got it.
So opening up the conversation here, I just was a little confused.
So I'm saying my home is super out of the way, right?
So I know I'm super out of, meaning I am, my location is super out of the way, right?
Exactly, exactly.
So yeah, let's go through this.
Yeah, you said, I know I'm super out of the way.
So inconvenient here.
Inconvenient, exactly.
And then you said it's totally fine.
It's actually on the way to my physical therapist.
So that's not too bad.
So that's good.
Then what did I say?
You said, okay, most people say it's a bit remote.
Yeah.
Isolated.
Isolated.
Yeah.
And then you said, oh, it's not too bad.
It's not really nearby, but it's not too far. right?
And then you said, so at the corner, turn left, not right.
So you're helping me out.
And I said, oh, okay.
And then I said, I'm en route.
So I'm on the way.
Nice.
Nice.
Yeah.
And this is a very common conversation we might have with a friend.
If we're trying to make plans and you're trying to go to their house.
I mean, super common, right, Michelle?
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
Guys, If you like food, spicy food, definitely listen to episode 2529.
This episode is spicy.
Yes, I love it.
And just the takeaway for today is how practical today's episode is.
We'll come back to the near versus nearby in another episode.
So hit the follow button so you don't miss that.
All right.
Excellent.
All right.
All right, Lindsay.
Well, this is a fun one.
Guys, again, these are really great.
These are about reference points and also the other takeaways.
Don't assume that the opposite of one word and expression is going to mean what you think it is.
Yeah, that's kind of the that's that's the point of the episode.
Right.
I mean, it's OK to make mistakes.
It's about connection.
But anytime we can kind of gather more information about what the true opposite is, that just builds our fluency even more.
All right.
Exactly.
All right, Lindsay.
Have a great day.
Bye, guys.
Bye.
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