English Help Online's Blog

Today I’d like to go over another verb which has other meanings that many people don’t know about; the verb is “work”. Of course, everyone knows the primary meaning which is to do a job. However, we can also use it when trying to arrange a time to meet someone. For example:

I’d like to get together with you at 4:00 tomorrow. Does that work for you?

I have another appointment at 2:00, so 3:00 works better for me.

I’m afraid having the meeting at 11:00 doesn’t work for me. I have another appointment then.

We can also use it to talk about the functioning of a machine. For example:

Is your cell phone working? I tried mine, but I can’t get a signal.

This computer isn’t working properly. I’d better get someone to come take a look at it.

I don’t know what happened. I was driving my car down the street when it suddenly stopped working.

Another way to use this verb is when talking about the effectiveness of something. For example:

I tried my friend’s cure for hiccups, and it worked.

I took some medicine for my headache, but it didn’t work.

The ad we placed in the newspaper is working well. We’ve gotten many new customers from it.

If you want to remember to people’s names better, you should try the technique in this book. I tried it, and it works well for me.