--- title: "Five more minutes" and other waiting games — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «"Five more minutes" and other waiting games», a lesson of the world course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: "Five more minutes!" Kai asks at 8:00 and finally stops at 8:25, when Dad pulls the plug: 25 minutes, five lots of five. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/) / "Five more minutes" and other waiting… # "Five more minutes" and other waiting games Lesson 109 of the world course of Mova's primary school: 27 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/0/) — "Five more minutes!" Kai asks at 8:00 and finally stops at 8:25, when Dad pulls the plug: 25 minutes, five lots of five. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/1/) — People mean their promise, then lose track while they play. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/2/) — Mum is no better: "Leaving in 10 minutes," then 25 minutes of chatting at the door. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/3/) — "Classic," says Esme. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/4/) — Many waiting words are stretchy, not exact: "in a bit", "back in a jiffy", "a tick", "a mo", "two shakes". - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/5/) — In South Africa "now now" means soon, maybe in a while, and "just now" can even mean later. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/6/) — A text saying "omw" (on my way) tells you nothing about how far away someone is; ask "how many minutes?" instead. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/7/) — Some waits can be worked out. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/8/) — In a queue, multiply: 4 people in front, about 3 minutes each, is 12 minutes. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/9/) — A theme park posts its wait time, 45 minutes, so you can choose another ride. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/10/) — Live signs and apps guess from where the bus is, and traffic changes the guess: "Next bus 4 min" can still say "2 min" four minutes later. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/11/) — Doctors run late too, because some patients need more time than planned. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/12/) — So bring a book, and set a timer for your "five more minutes". - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/13/) — From 8:00 to 8:25 is 25 minutes, which is 5 lots of 5 minutes. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/14/) — People often say a short time and take longer; Mum's "10 minutes" that became 25 was 15 minutes longer. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/15/) — A queue wait can be worked out by multiplying the people in front by the time each takes: 4 × 3 = 12 minutes. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/16/) — A 45-minute wait is 15 minutes less than an hour. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/17/) — 2 minutes is 120 seconds; a watched toaster only seems slow because you are staring at it. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/18/) — Being patient means waiting calmly without fussing; it is not an amount of time. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/19/) — "A watched pot never boils" is a saying meaning time feels slower when you stare and wait. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/20/) — Doctors often run late because some patients need more time than planned; arriving at 10:00 for 10:10 and being called at 10:35 means 25 minutes after the booked time. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/21/) — Asking every 5 minutes for 30 minutes means asking 6 times, because 30 ÷ 5 = 6. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/22/) — Live bus signs are guesses that change with traffic: "4 min" that becomes "2 min" after 4 minutes means a 6-minute wait in total. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/23/) — "A jiffy", "a tick", "a mo" and "two shakes" all mean a short moment, but nobody measures them; "back in a jiffy" once took 12 minutes. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/24/) — In South African English "now" can mean soon, "now now" a bit sooner, and "just now" a bit later. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/25/) — "omw" in a text means "on my way"; it does not say how many minutes away someone is. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/109-five-more-minutes-and-waiting-games/26/) — Words people use: "pull the plug" means switch it off, "classic" means typical, "ain't" means isn't, "you're having a laugh" means you must be joking (UK), "lekker" means great (South Africa) and "lah" is added to the end of sentences in Singapore. - ← previous: [How long since? Counting back](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/108-how-long-since-counting-back/) - next →: [Why time flies and why it drags](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/110-why-time-flies-and-why-it-drags/) - ↑ back to [World](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/world/)