– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Hello. My name is Emma, and today we are going

to learn a very important word, and that word

is "commute". I notice many English language

learners don't know this word, but it's a

very useful word because it's a word we can use

every day. So, what does this word "commute"

mean? Well, "commute", as I said, it's a

common word. We use it a lot in conversation,

and what it means is it means the travel between our home, or where we live,

and our workplace or school. So, here's a picture of a home. Here's a picture of,

you know, an office or the workplace. The

commute is the travel between these two places.

We can also use it to talk about the travel from

home to school. So, for students, this is useful

if you commute to school or you go to school,

you can use the word "commute". If you work

outside of the home, you can also use this word

"commute". So, "commute" can be both a noun

and a verb, and I'll show you how to use it in both of these ways.

Let's look at some common questions people might ask about commutes.

So, one question people ask frequently is they

might ask somebody, "How long is your commute?"

What does this mean? It means how long does it take you to get to work,

or how long does it take you to get from your home

to school? So, you know, if we're ever talking

about work, maybe at a party or in a social event,

a lot of the times we might talk about our commute.

"How long is your commute?" You might say, "I

have an hour commute. I have a one-hour commute."

This means this trip from your home to your

work or your home to your school takes one hour.

For many people, that's a long commute, depending on the city you live.

Some people are lucky. They have a short commute. Maybe it's 10 minutes to get from

their house to work or 10 minutes to get from

their home to school. In the comments, I want

you to write, "How long is your commute?" You can

write to practice, "I have a two-hour commute,"

or "I have a 15-minute commute," or whatever it

might be for you. You can also say, "My commute

is one hour." "My commute is short." So, there's

different ways to say this. You can say, "My

commute", or you can say, "I have a blank hour

commute." Let's look at some other key questions

you might hear using the word "commute". A common

question you might get is, "How do you commute?"

or, "What's your commute like?" When people ask

this, they want to know about your trip from home

to work and from work back to home, or home to school and school back to home.

So, what might you say? Well, when we talk about

transportation, we often use the preposition

"by". So, here are some different ways people

commute. They might commute by foot. This means

walking. So, they might commute by foot. That

means they walk to their job. They might commute

by bike. They ride a bike to their job. They

might commute by subway or by train or by car.

How do you commute? Do you commute by foot? Do

you commute by car? Think about how do you get

to work in the morning? So, here's some examples of

an answer. If somebody said, "How do you commute?"

or, "What's your commute like?" I would think

about it and say, "Hmm, I have an easy commute."

This means work is close by. It's a quick commute. It's an easy commute.

If it's easy, maybe it's five minutes away by

bike. I could also say, "My commute is 15 minutes

by subway." Or, "It's a 30-minute commute by car."

None of these are true, by the way. I actually

have a very long commute. It's almost an hour.

But just to give an example, what I want to point

out is in each of these sentences, I use "by",

and then I have the method of commuting. So,

the method of getting to work. By bike, by subway,

by car. So, in the comments, I would like to know

how you commute to work or to school. So,

you can say, "I commute every day by train."

It's a 45-minute commute. Again, these are

very common things we say when we're talking

to people about our everyday lives, because a lot of us have to commute most days.

So, we talked about commute. There's

another really good word I want you to know,

and that word is "away". "Away" is a great word

to use when talking about distance, so how far

one thing is from another. We can use it when

talking about commutes. We can use it when

talking about travel. There's many different

situations where we can use this word, "away".

So, just to remind you, "how far" means what's

the distance. So, you might ask somebody, "Oh,

how far is your work? How far is your work?" That

means what is the distance. Somebody might say,

"It's 5 kilometres away." Or, "It's 2 minutes

away." So, the nice thing about this word "away"

is you're talking about distance, and you have

a choice. You can talk about distance using

kilometres, or miles, or whatever you use in

your country. Some countries use kilometres, some

miles. Or you can also use time, the duration.

How long does it get... How long does it take

to get there? "My work is 2 minutes away."

So, you can use either this form of distance,

or you can use time distance when you're using "away". It's a very useful word.

Here's another example. So, this one is not about commuting, but for a lot of people,

they don't live in a city. If somebody says,

"Oh, where do you live?" "I live 2 hours away

from Toronto." "I live 5 hours away from

Milan." "I live 30 minutes away from the city."

So, you can see that when you're talking about

where you live and where you work, this word "away"

is a really useful word. Okay, so we've talked

a lot about the word "commute". I also wanted to

show you this word "away" because it has to

do with commuting, but we can use it in other

situations as well. So, again, these are really

useful words for talking about our everyday lives.

Thank you so much for watching today. I hope you visit www.engvid.com.

There, you can do a quiz to practice these

words and make sure you really understand them.

You can also subscribe to my channel. I have many

videos on conversation, expressions, vocabulary,

writing, learning English, and so much more.

So, thank you so much for watching, and until next time, take care.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
commute /kəˈmjuːt/ B1	verb - to travel regularly between home and work or school noun - the regular travel between home and work/school
travel /ˈtrævəl/ A2	verb - to go from one place to another, typically over a distance noun - the act of moving from one place to another
workplace /ˈwɜːrkˌpleɪs/ B2	noun - the location where a person works; an office, factory, etc.
school /skuːl/ A1	noun - an institution for educating children or a place where learning takes place
distance /ˈdɪstəns/ A2	noun - the amount of space between two points
hour /ˈaʊər/ A1	noun - a period of 60 minutes
minute /ˈmɪnɪt/ A1	noun - a period of 60 seconds
long /lɒŋ/ A1	adjective - measuring a great distance from end to end
short /ʃɔːrt/ A1	adjective - measuring a small distance from end to end
easy /ˈiːzi/ A1	adjective - not difficult; requiring little effort
quick /kwɪk/ A2	adjective - moving or occurring fast
common /ˈkɒmən/ A2	adjective - frequently occurring or seen; ordinary
useful /ˈjuːsfʊl/ B1	adjective - able to be used for a practical purpose or benefit
everyday /ˈevri deɪ/ B1	adjective - happening or used each day; ordinary
method /ˈmeθəd/ B2	noun - a systematic way of doing something
transportation /ˌtrænspɔːˈteɪʃən/ B2	noun - the movement of people or goods from one place to another
question /ˈkwɛsʧən/ A2	noun - a sentence worded or expressed so as to elicit information
answer /ˈænsər/ A2	noun - a response to a question or problem
practice /ˈpræktɪs/ B1	verb - to carry out or perform an activity repeatedly or regularly in order to improve proficiency
ask /æsk/ A2	verb - to put a question to someone
talk /tɔːk/ A1	verb - to speak in order to give information or express ideas
use /juːz/ A1	verb - to employ for a purpose