This is an All Ears English podcast episode 2006.
Wait versus await in English.
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When can you interchange await and wait in English conversations?
Rarely, but find out exactly when it does work to use the word await in today's episode.
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Hey, Michelle, what's up?
Hey, Lindsay.
Are you waiting for anything to get delivered to your house?
Any packages?
Oh my gosh, I'm always waiting for something.
We order a lot from Amazon.
So yeah, I would say I'm waiting for a few household items.
What about you?
Yeah I uh i, you know it's funny.
I actually don't think i'm waiting specifically for anything now, um which is weird because we also order a lot of things from amazon uh, but i don't know, i guess it's just one of those one of those dry moments.
It's amazing.
It's amazing how amazon has changed shopping completely.
You know what i mean?
Isn't that crazy?
Where you used to have to go out and buy stuff at the store all the time, now you just press a button And it gets delivered.
My son knows.
He'll say, where did you get this?
Did you order this on Amazon?
He told, he told his babysitter, because we like, we get a lot of his clothes even, you know, on Amazon.
And he'll say, oh, I have jeans from Amazon.
That's so cute.
Oh, yeah.
So it shows how Amazon is really now.
Now they've They've they're in they're embedded in our children.
Yeah.
You know, we can never go back from here.
Michelle can never go back.
Yeah.
I remember when somebody was telling me about Prime and people would say, oh, you have to get Prime.
You have to get Prime.
And I was still paying, you know, three dollars or whatever for delivery.
I remember thinking this is, you know, years ago before I got in.
And I and I remember thinking, why do I need that?
Oh, I don't need that.
And now it's like I can't live with that.
I know.
I feel like it used to be all the cool kids had Prime.
It was like the cool kids had.
And I was like, oh, that's not me.
I don't order stuff that much.
But now we all we've tipped over into the dark side, Michelle.
That's right.
That's right.
So, Lindsay, I asked you if you were waiting for anything to get delivered to your house.
I didn't say waiting.
Are you awaiting?
Right.
Yeah.
If I had said awaiting, would that have sounded weird?
Yeah, it would have been weird to me just because we're so casual in our conversations.
And it would feel a little bit more like literature or poetry.
Like you're reciting poetry, Michelle.
Right.
On the microphone.
Yes.
Well, today we have a listener.
This is from an Instagram follower.
I'm sorry, don't have this person's name.
But this person, the question basically is just what's the difference between a wait and wait?
Yeah, it's a great question.
And we love our Instagram followers over there.
Guys, if you're not following Allers English on Instagram, you should be.
We update multiple times a week.
You get to see us on video, quizzes, fun stuff over there.
That's right.
That's right.
So Lindsay, you mentioned a wait question.
You know you said reciting poetry, so am i?
Is it okay?
Is it safe to assume that you don't really use a weight?
I think i think it is.
Michelle yeah, that's safe to say.
I'm a pretty casual person and uh, i i have a hard time thinking of a situation where i would use a weight.
You know yeah, I don't think I use it.
I feel like it sounds very formal, but we want to answer the question.
So let's go into the difference.
So guys, we are using grammarist.com to help us out.
So just so you know, we're using that site a little bit.
So, guys, but before we get into it, we have another episode about wait and wait on.
Yeah.
So that's episode 1871 of the All Ears English podcast.
It's called Let's Practice Real English with Native Speakers.
Wait for or wait on.
So another one with wait.
Great one, too.
Also interesting.
If you're curious what the difference is, go listen to that episode and then come back here or listen to it after.
Yeah.
Yes, yes, yes, yes.
So right.
So what is wait?
Okay, wait is just stop stopping something or not doing something until something else happens right um, because we think that something will happen at a future point.
Okay, so here's some examples.
Wait, look both ways before you cross the street.
Oh, this makes me think of I don't know if this is in Denver or somewhere else
Maybe it's Boston.
Oh, wait.
Where the thing yells at you.
Yeah, yes, yes.
We have that too.
It's an automatic, like a robo thing, right?
It's like, wait.
Is that wait?
Yes.
Oh, it sounds the same way.
It sounds awful.
It sounds like you're being scolded.
Guys, we're talking about when you press the button to cross the street in Boston, New York.
There's just a very scolding voice that comes on the microphone loudspeaker and says wait, and then it counts down.
Yes yes, that's so funny.
Um, or okay, so wait, look both ways before you cross the street, right?
So it's saying stop, like don't do something until something is achieved right yeah um, or i'm waiting for a package.
Is it here yet?
So this is more about you know, thinking something like you're expecting something, you're something will happen in in the future and in some time.
Yeah um yeah, so that's weight.
Um, what about a weight?
Okay yeah, i think that weight is going to be used in 95 of the situations.
Right, i would say 99, 99.
So if you learn english, and with the 80 20 principle, you are all set.
All you need is weight.
But if you want to know the nuances of english, we'll go into a little bit how a weight is different, Right?
So a wait means to wait or to be waiting.
But the key difference is that a wait needs an object while wait does not.
Right.
Tell us more about that, Michelle.
What do we mean by that?
OK, so, well, wait can have an object, but it doesn't need one.
So, well, let me just it'll be better if I do an example.
She's awaiting her Prince Charming.
Right.
Mm hmm.
But with waiting, if you just say wait, you would have to say she's waiting for her Prince Charming.
Okay.
Okay.
But you could also just say she's still waiting.
Right.
And there's no object there is what you're saying.
Right.
So also, so basically, yeah, you have to be awaiting something.
Okay.
But I mean...
I mean really, what this comes down to is a waiting is sounds more like a fairy tale, like Lindsay said.
And Grammarist even mentioned this idea that it's it's old fashioned.
Exactly.
I would.
I mean honestly, I don't know if I should make such a statement, but I would almost go as far as to say just don't even use it.
I don't know.
Kind of, yeah.
I mean, we're teaching you guys modern English.
When I think of the word await, we talk about fairy tales, poems.
I think of Romeo and Juliet and the scene in Verona where she's standing out on the balcony awaiting, you know, awaiting Romeo.
It's just antiquated and irrelevant.
Yeah, exactly.
Lindsay, that word antiquating, that could be a good... Antiquated, yeah.
Antiquated, sorry.
What does that mean?
Old.
It just means irrelevant and old.
I think it's a combination of those two things.
Irrelevant and old.
Yes, exactly.
So, yeah, it's good to learn this.
It's good to learn the difference.
And it's a great question.
But I really think weight covers all you need while still sounding modern.
That's the secret today, right?
You could just throw this one out.
Yeah, I would just do that.
I mean, and guys, in the follow up episode, we can always talk about other ways to say weight.
Lots of things with this.
All right.
Is there, let's go in a bit more into weight, right?
Just weight.
Cause we like that one better.
We like that one 99% of the time for our listeners.
What is another way to use weight?
Well, as a noun, right?
A delay.
So you could say something like there's always a weight at that restaurant.
So we should make a reservation.
I like this.
I like this use of weight.
I feel like maybe this might be new for some of our listeners.
It sounds native and natural.
And we use this all the time.
All the time.
Oh, man.
Over the weekend, I was up in New Hampshire visiting my niece and my brother.
And there's this place that they like to go to called Tuckerman's Tuckaway Tavern.
And there it's famous because the chef was on some cooking show once on TV.
He's kind of famous.
And there's always like a two hour wait. it's crazy and everyone has to be there to check in.
So it's like, you can't have one person go down and then come back two hours later.
Everyone has to sit in the lobby.
So we always just go to the bar and hang out for two hours.
Oh wow.
Yeah.
But anyways, there's always, so some restaurants are notorious for having a massive weight.
And the only phrase to use there to sound native and natural is have a weight.
There's a weight.
Yeah.
Right.
There's a weight.
You can't say, you can't really say there's a delay.
Yeah know, like that's not the same thing at a restaurant.
No, oh wait.
Yeah, when you say there's a weight, it's really associated.
That that's what you use.
That's just what it is at a restaurant.
It is so in english.
Sometimes we have these very specific situations.
We need one word and this is the one for that situation.
Yeah right, exactly.
So that's just another way to use it, guys.
So you know, and that can it be applied to daily life pretty easily, pretty easily.
So so try and use it in that way as well.
Um, so should we do a role play?
Okay, so you and i here michelle, we are at a bus stop just hanging out.
At the bus stop here we go, just hanging out.
Are you waiting for the 104 too?
Yes, i've been waiting for an hour.
I feel like i'm awaiting a horse and carriage by now.
I hate waiting for the bus.
Yes.
Oh man.
Now there's a wait at the restaurant I'm going to.
Well, I guess it all works out then.
Oh, sorry.
Oh, some days are like that.
You know, it's like a standing in line for my rental car.
I think I shared this on uh when Aubrey and I recorded.
But I in LA last week I was, I rented with a rental car company and I I literally waited for two hours for my rental car at LAX Michelle.
It was insane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
On a Sunday afternoon.
It was nuts.
Yeah.
That's so frustrating.
Yeah.
Can you believe that?
Whereas the other company, I look back, everyone's getting through the line quick and I'm there.
So let's go through our role play, shall we?
All right, let's do it.
So you said, are you waiting for the 104 too?
So waiting for something to happen, you know?
And then you said, yeah, I've been waiting for an hour.
Yeah, you've been stopped basically waiting for an hour.
And then here's when you used awaiting.
So let's talk about this.
You said, I feel like I'm awaiting a horse and carriage.
So what do you think about this?
You kind of used it in a humorous way.
Yeah, I've kind of broken into art and humor here in literature a little bit.
I feel like I'm awaiting a horse and carriage.
I don't have to say that.
I could say I feel like I'm waiting for a horse and carriage.
But yeah, I guess you're kind of you're going back to old times.
You're saying this feels like the 19, like the 1850s.
Right.
A little bit before cars, before buses.
So you're trying to create a scene in the person's mind is why you're using that.
But it would be rare that you would do that.
But you totally could.
It adds color.
Right.
You could do it.
I wanted to give an example of how it could happen.
And I think this is one.
Yeah, I like this.
But it probably won't happen.
And then I said, I hate waiting for the bus.
So again, yeah.
Right.
And then we talked about how to use it at a restaurant for a wait.
Right.
Oh, man.
Now there's a wait at the restaurant I'm going to.
So maybe I got a text message from my friend who's already there.
Right.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's a wait.
That's a great.
These are great examples.
Guys, you got to learn things in context.
You know, this is how we learn.
Yeah.
This is how we learn.
Lindsay, what's the takeaway for today?
This is a great question.
Guys, again, 80-20 principle.
Let's focus on what gets us 80% of the results.
20% of the work gets us 80% of the results.
So if you live by that idea, don't worry another second about, oh, wait.
But if you want to add a little art to your language...
You could try throwing this in occasionally, but 99% of the time go with weight.
All right.
Totally agree.
Yeah.
I'm glad we talked about this.
And this was this was a fun one, a fun question to go into here.
So.
All right, guys, thanks for listening and have a great day.
See you next time, Lindsay.
I know.
And guys, don't forget, check out our Instagram channel.
This question came in through Instagram, and Instagram is a really good place to ask us a solid question.
So go on over there, go to Instagram and search for All Ears English.
All right, Michelle.
You take care.
I'll talk to you soon.
Bye.
Bye.
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