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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Adverb Phrase 17. The adverb phrase today is at

  • play. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone, especially children are

  • at play, they are involved in actively playing. So here it's pretty simple 'at

  • play' really just means that they've been playing for a while having fun , at play,.

  • All right. Now the second meaning. If something is at play, it is active or

  • existing. So you're letting somebody know that something exists. Existing as

  • something that needs to be, that needs to be or should be considered or should be

  • thought about. Yeah. There's something else at play. There's something else

  • that's existing. That's happening. Maybe something you don't know about. So we

  • often say something is at play or I think there must be something else at

  • play here. This is the way we use it. So let's cover it. We got four examples to

  • cover these two meanings. Example number one you know, of course going to the

  • first meaning. Right now it is lunchtime and the children are at play in the

  • playground until the bell rings again for lunch. Yeah, especially in lower

  • grades especially in elementary school probably in the middle of the day they

  • often let the children out. They probably get a lot of energy out. You know, probably

  • right around lunchtime. You know if they eat lunch quick. They

  • have some time where they can play and run around or exercise and then, then of

  • course the bell rings. They got to go back to classes again. So during that

  • time you know they are usually at play in the playground. Okay. Let's look at

  • number two here. This present you know, a gift. This present was a big hit you know,

  • very popular. The children have been at play enjoying it for hours. So they again,

  • they were actively playing for several hours because this was a fun game or a

  • fun toy or whatever this gift was. Okay. Let's look at number three now. Three and

  • four cover the second meaning here. It means something is

  • existing or something else is active that you should consider or think about.

  • All right. So let's look at number three here. There are many other things at play

  • which are happening behind the scenes and are not reported in the media. So

  • you're talking about a situation and you're letting people know well you know,

  • just what they're telling us right here, this is not really the whole story.

  • There's something else at play behind the scenes and maybe you're purposely

  • not being told right now. For one reason or another there's something else at

  • play. There's something else existing that's happening right now. It's at play.

  • Okay good. Number four. A similar idea. I think there is more at play than meets

  • the eye. Yeah well this is another phrase we say. We say there's more to something

  • than meets the eye. Again it means that we there's some information missing that

  • we don't know about. So you can kind of combine them here. In the same sense. So

  • you can say there's more at play. There's more existing than meets the eye. So

  • we're not, we're not seeing everything. There's something missing we're not

  • getting the whole story. Okay. Anyway I hope you got it. I hope it was informative. Thank

  • you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Adverb Phrase 17. The adverb phrase today is at

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