Swasdee kha,
We still have 3 more days in hand for the M 6 tutoring before
the ONET will betaken on 20-21 February 2010.
Good luck to both teachers and students!
Here in BBC learning English website there are many interesting
columns and sections to visit and study about. From Ask about
English, I picked “in hand and at hand” asking from Ajay,
Russia to post on the ericsurin2 blogspot and the very kind
explanation has been made by Gareth Rees. I think this is
very interesting to read and learn how to use the expressions
or phrases correctly.
A question from Ajay in Russia:
What is the difference between in hand and at hand? Thanks a lot.
Gareth Rees answers:
Hello Ajay.
Thank you for your question about phrases, or expressions,
that use the word hand.
First of all, I should explain that ‘in my hand’ has the
straightforward, literal meaning thatsomething is physically inside
my hand, that I am holding something. However, the two phrases
that you mention, namely ‘at hand’ and ‘in hand’, have metaphorical,
rather than literal, meanings.
If you have something at hand, you have something conveniently
near you. This something might be a book, a tool or a piece of
information. For example:
Make sure the safety equipment is at hand when you start
working, in case there are any problems.
I don’t have Sarah’s number at hand, so I’ll tell you it later.
We can actually use the phrase to hand with the same meaning,
as in this example.
Can you tell me how many items we sold last month?
I’m afraid I haven’t got that information to hand. Can I
tell you later?
The second expression, in hand, has a few meanings or uses.
Firstly, if you have something in hand, then you have an extra
amount of something, or you have more than you need.
We may use this to talk about time, for example,
I’m not worried about finishing this essay before the
deadline as I still have three days in hand.
If you follow football, you will often hear the following, Chelsea
are two points behind the league leaders, Manchester United,
but Chelsea do have a game in hand.
This means that, at the moment, Chelsea have played one game
fewer than Manchester United.
Secondly, the job, situation, topic or problem that you are
dealing with at the moment can be described as the problem
in hand. So, at the moment, the topic in hand is the meaning
of the phrase ‘in hand’.
Thirdly, if you want to say that you are in control of a
difficult situation, you can say that you have the situation
in hand. For example, Don’t worry about the preparations
for the party, I’ve got everything in hand. You don’t need
to do anything and it’ll all be ready in time.
So, I hope I have dealt with the matter in hand and I recommend
that you keep the BBC Learning English website at hand whenever
you are studying English, as you never know what useful things
you might find in the archive.
Source : http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/ask_about_english/pdfs/090324_aae_in_hand.pdf 18/02/2010
