Micro-listening #33

Micro-listenings | C1

…nothing could have prepared me…

The past modal structures could have and couldn’t have are used to describe hypothetical past possibilities and impossibilities. We’re describing things that didn’t happen.

e.g. You shouldn’t hold yourself responsible for what happened. There was nothing you could have done to help.

…it was…dusk and dawn…

Dusk is last light, dawn is first light.

Dusk happens after sunset, dawn happens before sunrise.

…all at once…

The phrase all at once is used to mean at the same time or suddenly.

e.g. When I finished my presentation, everyone started talking to me all at once.