Time

A1 What do you call the time in the early morning before the sun comes into sight?

A2 The time when the sun first comes into sight, that’s ________.

A3 The time between the middle of the day and supper time:

A4 The time of day when the sun goes out of sight

A5 The time right after the sun goes out of sight, before it becomes all dark:

A6 What time is this? (Show picture of clock face at 10:45.)

A7 And what time is this? (Show picture of clock face at 10:30.)

A8 What joking names do you have for an alarm clock? [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

A9 What do you call wasting time by not working on the job?

A10 And doing little unimportant things: Somebody asks, “What are you doing?” and you answer, “Nothing in particular—I’m just ________.”

A11 When somebody takes too long about coming to a decision, you might say, “I wish he’d quit ________.”

A12 When somebody keeps you waiting, you might say, “Hurry up! I don’t have all day to ________ you!”

A13 When something needs to be done immediately, you might say, “I’ll do it ________!”

A14 Referring to a very short period of time: “I’ll be ready in ________.” or “It won’t take any longer than ________.”

A15 Something that happens only occasionally: “He comes around ________.”

A16 A very long period of time: “I haven’t seen him ________.”

A17 If it was 1960 and you were speaking of something that happened in 1950, you might say, “That was ten ________.”

A18 Words or expressions used around here about a very slow person: “What’s keeping him? He certainly is ________!”

A19 Other ways of saying “I’ll have to hurry”: “I’m late, I’ll have to ________.”

A20 Joking ways of telling somebody to hurry: You might say, “________!”

A21 When someone is in too much of a hurry you might say, “Now just slow down! Don’t ________.” [Early QRs: When someone is in too much of a hurry, or wants to do something before the right time, you might say, “Calm down! Don’t ________.”]

A22 Other ways of saying ‘to start working hard’: “She had only ten minutes to clean the room, but she ________ (and had it done in time).”

A23 To do something at the very first try: “He got the right answer ________.”

A24 Speaking of someone who has always been the same way: “He’s been hot-tempered from ________.”

A25 When something goes on for a very long time: “That sermon yesterday was certainly ________.” [Asked in early Questionnaires only]

A26 Talking about the past: “People used to walk a lot, but everybody drives a car ________.”

DARE Data Summary by Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.