 Today, you're going to add the expression sooner or later to your vocabulary and you can thank one of your fellow students, Salim, because this is a question that Salim had. He wants to know how to use sooner or later. So that's exactly what we're going to do today. Of course, I'm Jennifer from J4sEnglish.com and this channel is dedicated to helping you sound like a fluent, confident, natural English speaker. Now before we go any further, make sure you subscribe and hit that bell notification so you're notified every time I post a new lesson. Now let's dive in with this video. Let's talk about sooner or later so you can feel confident adding this to your vocabulary. Now, first of all, you need to know that sooner or later is a time reference. So we use it to talk about time and we use this as a future time reference, which is going to help you determine what verb tense you need to use with sooner or later. So keep that in mind and pay attention to the verb tenses as we look at some example sentences. Now, sooner or later is an unspecific time reference, which means it does not tell you exactly when. The only thing we know is that it's a time in the future. So you can think of it like eventually. If you're familiar with the word eventually, eventually is also a future time reference that's not specific. So sooner or later, eventually you have two time references that mean the same thing. Now let's talk about when you would use it. When would you use a time reference in the future that's not specific? So that does not specifically tell the person when. It only tells them that sometime in the future. Well, first of all, I actually want to talk about when you shouldn't use this. Let's say you're working on a project and your boss asks you when will you finish the project? This is not a time to say sooner or later. Why? Because in a professional environment, we need to know when. We need to know a specific time because likely that project that you're working on has other consequences or activities need to take place depending on when that project finishes. And if you just answer with sooner or later, your boss is not going to be impressed because you did not give him a specific answer. He asked you a specific question. He asked you when and you should answer with a specific time reference. I'll finish the project tomorrow by two o'clock. With that said, let's think about sometimes when you can use sooner or later and it is appropriate and sounds professional and natural for you to use sooner or later. Ultimately, I would say that you can use sooner or later when there isn't an important deadline. When it's okay if that item is finished next week or the week after that or maybe the week after that. So when there isn't an important deadline and it's okay if the project is finished or the item is finished a little bit in the future, that's a perfect time to use sooner or later when you don't want to be specific. For example, I could say I'm going to update my website sooner or later. I'm going to update my website sooner or later. Now, I can use this in the sense of at some point in the future, but I haven't exactly decided when. All I know is is at some point in the future. And my day-to-day operations don't depend on me updating my website. My website is fine the way it is. So basically you can think of it as not a priority right now for me to update my website. It's something that I'd like to do, but if it happens next week, next month, even next year, that's okay. I'll update my website sooner or later. Another example, let's say you were talking about a home renovation you wanted to do. Let's say you wanted to renovate your kitchen, a very common thing to renovate. And your friend asks you, oh, so when are you going to do that kitchen reno? And you reply back, sooner or later, sooner or later. So there isn't an immediate deadline to renovate your kitchen. If you do it next week, next month, next year, it's really not that big of a deal. So that's a great example of when you can use an unspecific time reference sooner or later. Now, in those two examples, we saw sooner or later at the end of the sentence. You can also begin a sentence with sooner or later. So I could say sooner or later, you're going to have to give a presentation in public. Sooner or later, you're going to have to give a presentation in public. So notice I added it right at the beginning. And I took a little pause because we have a comma sooner or later, you're going to have to give a presentation in public. So again, I'm saying maybe not tomorrow, maybe not next week, maybe not the week after that, but sometime in the future. And right now it isn't specified when in this context, the specific time doesn't really matter. It's just the fact that at sometime in the future, this is something that you're going to have to do. So you might as well practice and prepare for it. So when you do have to give a presentation, you feel confident, right? So that's a great example. Sooner or later, you're going to have to speak in public. Now remember, because we're talking about an unspecified time in the future, we need a future verb tense. And did you notice, did you notice the two verb tenses that I used? Somewhat interchangeably, I used the future simple will and I use to be going and then infinitive. You're gonna, I said gonna notice that going to, you're gonna have to give a presentation sooner or later to be going infinitive. So those are the two verb tenses that you can use with sooner or later. Now it's your time to practice. I want you to leave two examples in the comments. Give us an example with sooner or later at the end of your sentence and give us an example with sooner or later at the beginning. And of course you have two examples. So why not use the two verb tenses as well to practice everything we've discussed today. So now you know how to confidently use sooner or later. Woohoo! If you found this video helpful, please hit the like button, share it with your friends, and of course subscribe. Now before you go, make sure you head on over to my website, j4senglish.com and download your free speaking guide. In this guide, I share six tips on how to speak English fluently and confidently. And until next time, happy studying! All right, thanks for learning English with me. I hope you enjoyed this video and I can't wait to read your comments using sooner or later and I'll see you in my next video. Before you go, make sure you subscribe. Bye!