đť•‹hree drunks arrived at the train station a few seconds before the train was due to leave. Seeing that they were almost incapable, the nice station-master helped to bundle them into the wagon.
He managed to put two of them just in time, before the train pulled out.
He turned apologetically to the one who was left behind.
"I'm sorry old chap," he said. "I wish I could have got you on the train, too."
"Yes," answered the third drunk. "My friends will be very sorry too. They came here to see me off."
There are two interesting phrasal verbs here: to pull out. It is an intransitive verb (it has no direct object). And because it is intransitive, we can be sure that the particle is not a preposition but an adverb | to see someone off. Because this verb needs a direct object, it is transitive, and the particle is a preposition. We also have the expression "just in time." It means "almost too late." One minute later it would have been too late.
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He managed to put two of them just in time, before the train pulled out.
He turned apologetically to the one who was left behind.
"I'm sorry old chap," he said. "I wish I could have got you on the train, too."
"Yes," answered the third drunk. "My friends will be very sorry too. They came here to see me off."
There are two interesting phrasal verbs here: to pull out. It is an intransitive verb (it has no direct object). And because it is intransitive, we can be sure that the particle is not a preposition but an adverb | to see someone off. Because this verb needs a direct object, it is transitive, and the particle is a preposition. We also have the expression "just in time." It means "almost too late." One minute later it would have been too late.
| Expression | Meaning | Example sentence |
|---|---|---|
| on time | not late, punctual | (Dinner is at 6pm. Please be on time for once!) |
| in time | not too late, soon enough | (I hope I'll be in time to see the match) |
| just in time | almost too late | (She arrived just in time to save the cat) |
| in the end | finally, eventually | (In the end, the baby fell asleep) |
| at the end | in the final part of an event | (At the end of the movie, we all applauded) |
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