take time
A thing that takes time happens slowly. People take time to do certain things because they are important. People also take their time when doing important things or when making decisions in order to avoid making mistakes.
In this video, you will learn how to use “take time” and “take your time.” In the lesson below, I will also include “take the time” and “in the time it takes.”
take time
1. ___ take time: the time required to do something; to wait for something to happen.
Some things require time. There’s no shortcut or any way to reduce the time. You just have to wait.
- It takes time to learn English.
- It takes time for a person to learn English.
- I take some time during the day to work on this website.
- Bread takes time to rise.
- A successful business takes time to develop.
- We take time out of our busy lives to give thanks for what we have.
- People need to take time to consider the impact they have on their environment.
- It takes time to learn how to brew beer.
2. take one's time = don't hurry
We take our time to do something because we want to be careful and avoid mistakes. It’s necessary to use the possessive adjective in this case: my, your, his, her, their, etc. The possessive adjective matches the subject.
- Take your time. (Don’t rush. Don’t hurry.)
- You can take your time.
- The man took his time crossing the street.
- Some people like to take their time while traveling. This allows them to see many different things.
- The city is taking its time to fix the streets.
- I like to take my time while I eat. It’s not healthy to eat too fast.
- A doctor should take his or her time when examining a patient.
- She takes her time while brushing her teeth because she doesn’t want to get any cavities.
3. take the time
To “take the time” to do something means that a person is really going to focus on the activity because it’s important. This is very similar to “take time. The difference is the use of the article, “the.”
- You need to take the time to relax.
- The company is taking the time to reexamine how it does business.
- Juan’s boss told him to take the time to be with his family.
- A person who takes the time to learn how to play a musical instrument will be rewarded with new knowledge.
- Sheila and John took the time to research a few neighborhoods before deciding where they wanted to live.
- He takes the time to do things other than just work because he wants to enjoy his life.
4. in the time it takes
You can use in the time it takes when talking about an equivalent amount of time.
- In the time it takes to drive to work, Mark can easily get there by bike.
- At home, you can prepare and make food in the time it takes to go out and buy it from a restaurant or a vendor.
- In the time it took to finish the project by hand, they could have finished three other projects by using a machine.
- We could have walked to the store in the time it took to wait for the bus.
- It the time it takes to watch a TV show, you can do other, more productive things.
- In the time it took for the train to finally arrive, Harry could have walked home.