How to use Once - EnglishClass101

Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody! My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I’m going to talk about how to use the word “once.”

Let’s get started!

For this lesson, I have three categories of meaning for the word “once,” we’ll break this down, and then I have one list of expressions that feature the word “once.” So, we’ll take a look at the specific meanings of this word and then we’ll look at some special meanings at the end of the lesson.

So, let’s start with the first meaning.

The first meaning of once is “one time,” one time.

So, let’s take a look at this example sentences in break down how the word “once” is used here.

First example:

“I’ve been to Europe once.”

In this example sentence, “once” comes at the end of the sentence and means exactly “one time.” So, we could replace the word “once” with “one time” and the sentence would still be correct and it would have the same meaning.

“I’ve been to Europe one time.”

So, this is probably the most common use of “once.”

Let’s take a look at the next example sentence.

“She said she rode a horse once when she was a little kid.”

So, again, with this use of “once,” we can replace “once” with “one time,” and the sentence keeps the meaning. She said she rode a horse one time when she was a little kid. So again, this use of “once” means one time, one time only.

Okay, let’s continue to the next example sentence now.

“Can you keep a secret? Just this once!”

So, I wanted to include this example sentence with this part right here, just this once. It’s like saying just this one time or this one time only. So, sometimes, when people want to make a special request, they’ll use the expression “just this once” or “please do this just once.” It sounds like just one time, Please do this thing just one time.” So, this is one example.

“Can you keep a secret? Just this once!”

It’s like saying I only want to ask this of you one time. So, again, we can simply replace this word, once, with one time and we keep the meaning. So, “once” is a little bit more efficient.

Okay, let’s continue on to the last two examples. The last two examples use negatives, which I think are very important to talk about with this word too. Let’s take a look.

First - “My date didn’t ask me a question once!”

“My date didn’t ask me a question once!”

So, in this situation, the speaker is talking about their date, so the person they went on a date with. We call the other person our date. So, in this situation, we have a negative. The person didn’t ask me a question once. So, the same one time meaning applies here. That means this sentence means, my date didn’t ask me a question even one time. So, this use of “once” that we often see with this negative form tends to take the feeling of even one time, like we’re kind of surprised or shock in some way. You have some expectation, right? If you go on a date with someone, you expect (probably) they’re going to ask you some questions, right? So, this person is expressing some shock and surprise, not even one time is what this sentence expresses.

Let’s look at another example of this kind of “once.”

“We worked so hard to cook a nice dinner, but our guests didn’t comment on the food even once!”

So again - “We worked so hard to cook a nice dinner, but our guests didn’t comment on the food even once!”

So again, this “once” is like saying “one time,” and again, we have this even feeling here. In this case, I included the word “even.” So again, we’re emphasizing, we expected some comment about the food. We worked really hard to cook it, so you think maybe the other person will have some comment about it. This is so delicious. Where did you find the recipe? What’s in this? And so on… There are many comments we can make, so we’ll probably expect some kind of comment when we make something for someone else. But the speaker is expressing surprise or shock. They didn’t comment even one time is what this expresses.

So you can use these negative patterns to express that kind of shock and we sometimes do this and it really helps us see like wow, this person didn’t meet expectations at all.

So, all of these sentences express the meaning of “one time.” Literally, just one time, one instance of something.

Okay. With this in mind, let’s continue to the second group, the second category for meaning for this lesson. This category is formerly or at a past point in time. So, a key here, something that you can use as kind of a hint is that often, this use of “once” refers to something that happened in the past, in the far past. Not like yesterday or last week, but when you’re talking abou history, for example, you might see this use of once.

So, let’s break down this example sentence.

“This city was once very popular for its exciting nightlife.”

So, this “once,” you’ll notice it appears in the middle of the sentence. It comes after this “was,” right? So, we’re talking about a past condition or a past status of the city.

“This city was once…” so this position here shows us in context as well that it’s not so much about one time as in one instance of something, but rather, one time in terms of a past point in time. So, we’re not talking about like one case of something, we’re talking about one past point in time.

So, in this situation, we can replace “once” with formerly.

“This city was formerly very popular”

Or we could say, “This city was at a past point in time very popular for its exciting nightlife.”

The nuance here then is that this fact has changed. So in the past, at a point in time, it was very popular for its exciting nightlife. However, now, it’s not popular for its nightlife. So we use this once often to emphasize some kind of change, from a condition in the past.

Let’s look at one more example.

“Her company was once a fun, relaxed place to work.”

So again, we have this “once” here. This refers to a past point in time or a former condition. So this sentence is saying, in the past, at a past point in time, her company was a fun and relaxed place to work. So the nuance here is now, it’s not a fun, relaxed place to work. Maybe it’s very stressful and it’s very difficult.

So this use of “once” refers to some kind of past point in time. You can kind of see the context is very different here. We’re talking about very different topics over here. We’re talking about a city, a company, some kind of condition. Whereas, when we talk about one-time experience, we’re talking about travel, conversations, personal experiences and so on. These aren’t so much about conditions. Here, we’re talking about conditions a bit more. So that’s another context that you can use to help you understand, which “once” is the meaning here.

Okay, let’s continue to the last use, the last category of meaning. It’s “as soon as,” as soon as.

So, let’s break down these examples:

First - “Call me once you finish work.”

“Call me once you finish work.”

A very, very common request. So, in this case, we can substitute “as soon as” for “once” here.

“Call me as soon as you finish work” is also 100% correct, but once is a little more efficient.

So, this “once,” you’ll notice comes after a verb expression, yeah? It’s like a command. Call me once you finish work. This is saying call me the moment you finish work or in other words, as soon as you finish work. It’s like asking for a very quick thing to happen once or as soon as something else is complete. So when this is done, please do this. We can use “once” to do this very efficiently to communicate this.

Okay, let’s look at the next example of this meaning.

“He can make the rent payment once he gets paid.”

So in this case, the topic is paying rent. So, to make a rent payment means to give the person who owns your house or who owns your apartment money for the month. That’s the rent payment.

“He can make the rent payment once he gets paid,” once he gets paid.

So again, we have this “as soon as” meaning here. So, he can make the rent payment, this will happen after he gets paid. So when this happens, the rent payment will be made. We use “once” to express this sequence. As soon as A - B. We use once to do this.

Okay, so these are the three most common uses of “once” generally. There are a couple of other uses that are a bit less common and they’re kind of specific to certain situations, but in most cases, these three will be great for everyday communication. So keep in mind, some of the context clues that I talked about here; personal experiences and conversations for one time, conditions and statuses for past points in time, and verbs, actions for as soon as.

Okay, great! So, now, let’s move along to some expressions that feature once. These are some very common expressions that use the word “once” and the meanings are sometimes very different from those we discussed earlier in the lesson. So let’s break them down.

First, we have “at once” at once. This means immediately or right away. It can also, in some more formal situations, it might sound a little old fashioned, it can also be used to mean “both.”

So let’s take a look at some example sentences.

First - “Call an ambulance at once!”

“Call an ambulance at once!”

So, an ambulance is an emergency medical car, so there’s an emergency, “Call an ambulance at once!” means call an ambulance right now, immediately, it’s important! So, we can use at once to express this.

One more - “He came home at once!”

He came home immediately. He came home right away.

So, “at once” expresses this feeling of doing something immediately, at the moment.

Lastly, I want to give one example of these both used. So, this example, as I said sounds a little bit old fashioned and we don’t use it so much. Maybe we’ll see it in writing, some writing pieces somewhere, but we don’t use it as much in everyday communication. Let’s take a look though.

“The song was at once sad and beautiful.”

So this means both. The song was both sad and beautiful. So this “at once,” if you look at it and you think, does this mean immediately? Does this mean right away? It doesn’t seem to make sense in this situation, like immediately, the song was immediately sad and beautiful? It sounds strange, right?

So this “at once” is kind of like saying at the same time or simultaneously. The song was simultaneously sad and beautiful. So, again, as I said, this isn’t so commonly used today, but you might see it from time to time.

Okay, let’s move on to the next expression. The next expression is “once and for all,” once and for all. We use this typically after we’ve been working on a challenge for a while or we’ve been trying to solve a problem, we’ve been working hard as a sports team or as a company, something like that and we get to the last step. We want to make a statement about the last step or the final step. We use once and for all, sometimes, to do this. So this expression is like saying definitely or finally or for the last time.

So, let’s look at our examples:

First - “Let’s win the game and show everyone we’re the best team once and for all.”

“Let’s win the game and show everyone we’re the best team once and for all.”

So, this is something a sports team might say at the championship game, the last game of the year. So, “Let’s show them we’re the best team once and for all” sounds like we want to show other people that we are the best, we are here at the last stage, we’re going to do this for the last time, let’s make it big. That’s kind of the feeling of “once and for all.”

Let’s look at one more example:

“Her great plan solved the company’s sales problems once and for all.”

So in this example sentence, we know the problem. The company has some kind of sales problem and this person created a great plan. So, her great plan solved this problem finally, at the end, after lots and lots struggles, once and for all. So, it’s kind of like saying, you can think of this once part as kind of like being with one action or one instance or one case, the problem was solved or they were able to overcome the challenge forever. That’s kind of one way to understand this. With one movement or with one action, they were able to make a change forever. That’s kind of the feeling of “once and for all.”

Okay, let’s move on to our next expression. The next one, we may already know, it’s, “every once in a while,” every once in a while. Please note, native speakers sometimes write, “every once AND a while” (incorrect). Every once IN a while, in a while.

So, this expression means sometimes or occasionally. We like to use it in very casual conversations and we usually say it very quickly, every once in a while.

So, let’s break it down.

“I like to go to the movies every once in a while.”

We can replace every once in a while with “sometimes” and it creates exactly the same meaning. Again, every once in a while just sounds a little bit more casual. Yeah, I like to go to the movies every once in a while. That’s how a native speaker would probably use this expression.

One more:

“We eat at expensive restaurants every once in a while.”

So again, we’re expressing this feeling of occasionally, every once in a while. Again, this is a set expression, which just means sometimes.

Okay, lets’ continue to the last one. The last one is actually two, but may have the same meaning. So, they are “once again” and “once more,” once again and once more. These both mean one more time, one more time.

So, I wanted to include this because I know lots of learners like to request from their teacher, “Can you say that once more?” or “Can you say that one more time?” Just be careful not to mix them. Sometimes, I hear learners say like “once more time,” something like that or just “one more.” Neither of those are really correct. Make sure to say, “Can you say that once more?” or “Can you say that one more time?” So, once again and once more both mean to do something one more time.

So, our example:

First - “Once again, thank you for coming today.”

“Once again, thank you for coming today.”

So, we sometimes do this when we’re giving presentations to mean I already said this, but I’m going to say it one more time. This is usually done like I said in presentation, in speaking situations and in this case, typically, the expression comes at the beginning of the sentence. Also, sometimes, people will use this expression when they feel frustrated. Like if someone asks a question repeatedly, they get the same question many, many times or if there’s a rude behavior or something like that, that person in charge, they might use “once again” to express that frustration, to say, “Once again, please no talking during the presentation” or something like that. So that kind of tone with this expression means, I have to say this again? I’m saying it again? So please pay attention to the speaker’s tone. Sometimes, it’s very happy, right? Once again, thank you for coming. That sounds good. But sometimes, we use this expression to show that we are tired of saying the same thing again. “Once again, please be quiet,” something like that. So please keep an eye out, I guess, keep an ear out for the speaker’s tone.

Okay, last example is “Let’s practice this part once more.”

“Let’s practice this part once more.”

So again, “Let’s practice this part one more time,” we can use the two interchangeably or we can say “Let’s practice this part once again.”

So, this all mean one more time. It’s up to you to choose, whichever you prefer. Just, as I said, make sure not mix them, not “once more time” or just “one more.” Make sure to say, “once more” or “one more time.”

Okay, great! So, I hope that this lesson helped you to understand the different ways that we use the word “once.” In lots of situations, we use it to mean just one time. Sometimes, we use it to talk about past points in time, past conditions. Sometimes, it means “as soon as” and of course, we have many expressions that also use “once” and there are other expressions I didn’t cover in this lesson, but I can hopefully cover them at a future point in time.

Awesome! So, I hope this video helped you to be able to use the word “once” with a little more confidence. Of course, if you have any questions or comments or if you want to practice making some sentences with the word “once,” please feel free to do so in the comment section of this video. Thanks very much for watching this lesson and I will see you again, soon. Bye!

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