Today I have an unusual little expression for you. It\u2019s not even much of an expression, but it\u2019s a little tool that I want you to have in your English toolbox. Here\u2019s what you originally heard. When Norwegian Air had its plane stuck in Iran, it was losing money by the day. That means that every day that went by, it was losing more money. So when you say \u201cby the day,\u201d it means that one day they lose money; the next day they lose more money; the day after that, they lose money; every single day, they\u2019re losing money. They are losing money by the day.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s another example. Have you ever gotten sick, and felt that your illness <\/span> was getting worse by the hour? Boy, I did. Right after <\/span> Christmas, I got sick for about 24 hours, but it seemed that I was getting worse by the hour for most of that day. That means that each hour that went by, I was getting worse and worse. I was getting worse by the hour.<\/p>\n Usually, this expression is used when you want to say something is getting bigger, worse, better, whatever, quickly. You would not say that something is getting better by the year. That\u2019s pretty slow. Venezuela is experiencing rapid price inflation <\/span>. The Venezuelan Bol\u00edvar loses value <\/span> by the hour. If you get paid in the morning, you don\u2019t want to wait until the afternoon to spend it, unfortunately, since the currency loses value by the hour. It loses value really quickly; every hour, it\u2019s worth less. It\u2019s a very, very difficult situation <\/span> over there.<\/p>\n I saw a funny interview with the coach of a hockey team. He said, \u201cI get more gray hair <\/span> by the minute.\u201d It was a joke, of course\u2014but what he meant to say was that, he\u2019s going gray <\/span> pretty fast. He was saying that because he was coaching a team in a difficult game; lots of stress <\/span>, so he said he was getting more gray hair by the minute.<\/p>\n This is also how you say, at what interval <\/span> do you do something. Here are a few examples\u2014it\u2019s easier than trying to explain. You typically reserve a hotel room <\/span> by the day; you generally lease an apartment <\/span> by the year, but you pay rent <\/span> by the month. If you go to an internet caf\u00e9, you probably pay by the minute. If you pay for parking, you generally pay by the hour if you\u2019re staying just a short time. In longer-term parking <\/span>, you might pay by the day. Some hotels let you stay a little longer and pay by the week; you might get a discount if you pay by the week. And there are some hotels that let you pay by the hour\u2014those are the hotels to avoid <\/span>!<\/p>\n Are there still internet caf\u00e9s out there? I guess there are; I haven\u2019t been to one in a long time. Anyway, that brings us to the end of Plain English for this Thursday, February 28, 2019. It\u2019s almost March: spring is in sight <\/span> for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere <\/span>. Remember to claim your free audiobook\u2014in English or in your own language\u2014by going to PlainEnglish.com\/book<\/a>. Maybe Crazy Rich Asians would be a good choice, what do you think? If you saw the movie, then you basically know what the plot <\/span> is. You don\u2019t have to worry about getting too lost in the storyline since you already know what happens. Then you can just concentrate on <\/span> the English. It\u2019s 13 hours of English listening, and if you join Audible\u2019s free trial program, you can have it for free, and keep it forever. Check that out at PlainEnglish.com\/book<\/a>. Thanks again for being with us. JR and I will be back with more on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Use “by the day” when you measure quantity or progress in terms of days; use “by the hour” when you measure in terms of hours<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"terminology_category":[139],"lesson_number":[314],"keywords":[515,1204],"content_tag":[],"level":[],"class_list":["post-9105","expressions","type-expressions","status-publish","hentry","terminology_category-expression","lesson_number-314","keywords-by","keywords-day"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
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