In this Expression episode of Aussie English I teach you guys how to use the expression “To wait and see”.

Ep074: Expression – To Wait And See

Hey guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today I’m going to explain to you an expression, a new expression that I haven’t covered before, and this expression is “To wait and see”, “To wait and see”, “To wait and see”.

So, I’ll quickly go through and describe for you the definitions of these different words. So, it’s obviously two verbs, “To wait” and the verb “To see”.

“To wait” means to remain ready for something, to stay somewhere until a certain time or event. So, that’s “To wait”. You’ll often wait somewhere for a bus or a train, or you’ll wait for someone to come and meet you for coffee, etc., that sort of thing. You’ll all know the verb, “To wait”.

The verb, “To see” is obviously the verb that explains to perceive, to view, to experience something with your eyes, to discern something visually. So, “Seeing something” is using your eyes. That’s another verb that you’re going to know.

But you may not know the expression “To wait and see”, “To wait and see”, and “To wait and see” means to wait to find out what will happen before it happens or before doing something.

So, what are some examples where you might hear someone say “To wait and see” or “Wait and see”?

Say for example it’s a kid’s birthday tomorrow but he is incredibly impatient and he wants to know what his parents have bought him as a present. So, he could pester his parents, he couldn’t annoy them, he could be asking them constantly, “What did you get me? What did you get me? What did you get me?” and his parents could say to him, “Look, you’re just going to have to wait and see. You’re just going to have to be patient and want and see what it is tomorrow. So, you’re going to have to WAIT and then tomorrow’s going to come, you’ll get to open the present at which time you’ll SEE what the present is.” So, that means… yeah, “Wait and see”, “Wait and see”.

Another example could be you had your final exams for the semester at university or at high school, at school, and just after coming out of them you say “Oh I really hope that I went well. I hope I did well in these exams. I’m looking forward to seeing my results. I can’t wait, I can’t wait!” and your friends could say to you, “Well there’s not much more we can do, we just have to wait and see. We just have to wait and see what our results are when they come out in a month, in however long it is you have to wait. We have to wait and see. We won’t know until then”.

So another example could be that your parents have had a big fight and you and your sister are worried that they are not going to be able to patch things up, to fix things. I might add that the phrase “To patch things up”, is to fix a situation. So, it’s literally, you think about putting a patch on say, pants that have a hole in them, to sort of patch the pants up, to fix them. So, if you patch things up with someone it means you fix whatever fight you’ve had. So, the parents have had a fight, the kids are worried that they’re not going to patch things up, to fix things and stay together. And so, one of them could say to the other one “I hope they don’t get divorced” and the other kid could say “Well, we’re just going to have to wait and see what happens. We’re not going to know. It’s up to them. We have to wait and see.”

One last example could be that you’ve just finished the most recent released book in a series of books that you’re absolutely obsessed with, and I mean, for me this could be Game of Thrones, for example, or back when I was in high school it could’ve been Harry Potter, any other book series that you’re really keen on. And so, imagine that you are one or two books away from the very end of that series, like with Game of Thrones at the moment there’s only two books left, and… So, for instance, in Game of Thrones you want to know who’s going to end up on the Iron Throne, who’s going to end up effectively winning the Game of Thrones. Is it going to be John Snow? Is it going to be Tyrion? Is it going to be Daenerys? But ultimately, you’re just going to have to wait and see. You’ll have to wait and see. The books are going to have to be released. You’re going to have to read the books. You’re going to have to wait and see until you’ve read the books to find out who’s going to end up on the Iron Throne. So, that’s a little… a little segway into Game of Thrones there, which I absolutely love as a TV show and as a book series.

Anyway, let’s do some listen and repeat exercises. So, listen and repeat after me guys, and I’m going to do these in my natural accent. I’m not going to really annunciate them incredibly distinctly and well, like I just did that quick phrase. So, bear with me. I hope it’s ok.

Note: the following sentences are written phonetically as I say, “…just going to have to wait and see”. You would never write English like this.

I’m just gonna havda wait ‘n’ see.

You’re just gonna havda wait ‘n’ see.

He’s just gonna havda wait ‘n’ see.

She’s just gonna havda wait ‘n’ see.

We’re just gonna havda wait ‘n’ see.

They’re just gonna havda wait ‘n’ see.

So, just practice that a few times guys. You’ll get it. It’s… it’s so rhythmic when you start speaking this way with a lot of these contractions. So, in that instance you will have heard me say “Gonna” and “Havda”. “I’m just gonna havta wait ‘n’ see”, I don’t really say the “And” in between “Wait and see”. I say “Wait ‘n’ see”, “Wait ‘n’ see”, “Wait ‘n’ see”. Practice those things and you will be able to speak a lot more fluently. It just comes naturally. It’s a very interesting thing that I’ve noticed with French, and I started practicing these kinds of contractions that I heard other people do, and it just comes naturally. So, just practice these things and then go away and you’ll probably eventually find that you’re saying them without thinking when you speak or have conversations with other natives.

Note: if I speak very quickly “Have to” will often be said with a “D”, “Havda”, though as I slow down it can be a “T”, “Havta”.

And so, that’s really it guys. That’s it for this episode. I hope you enjoyed it. It was just a quick one, and you’re going to have to wait and see what the next episode is. You’ll have to wait for it to come out, you’ll have to wait and see, and when it comes out you’ll know. See you then guys!