ESL General English Grammar Questions

Re: kill the time/pass the time/while away the time

Monalisatuan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 15:51:26 GMT

Hi Emmeladelyn,
I don't think " kill the time" is only colloquial and rarely used in writing.

To kill the time : do something to keep yourself busy while you are waiting for something to happen.
To pass the time : do something to stop yourself being bored during that period; do something to keep yourself busy while you are waiting for something to happen.
To while away the time: spend time in a relaxed way because you have nothing to do or while you are waiting for something to happen.

To sum up, all these three sentences can be used interchangeably.

Best Wishes

Re: kill the time/pass the time/while away the time

Emmeladelyn — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:55:35 GMT

Hi,

these three verbs have more or less the same meaning but the first is more colloquial and you wouldn't say it in a formal context and would rarely write it. The third, "while away" is slightly different since it is intentionally spending time doing something just to pass the time, while you may "pass time doing something" just because you want to do it. Don't forget that "while" is a verb here and should have been in the past tense, "I whiled away an hour or so..."

You could also use "spend" interchangeably with "pass".

kill the time/pass the time/while away the time

Tuongvan — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 11:21:31 GMT

Hi teachers,

Could you possibly tell me whether "pass the time", "kill the time", and "while away the time" can be used interchangeably?

The plane was late, so I killed an hour or so window-shopping.
The plane was late, so I passed an hour or so window-shopping.
The plane was late, so I while away an hour or so window-shopping.

Thank you in advance