A: Shall we search the attic, then?
B: Don’t you have to go to work?
A: No. Work can wait.
B: Oh, thank you, Jane.
Question: Is it okay to say “work can be put aside” instead of “work can wait”?
Thank you!!!
The expression is “it can wait,” which means “there’s no rush.” “Work can wait” means “there’s no rush to get (back) to work” or “I’m not in any hurry to get (back) to work.” You might say “work can be put aside for an hour or two” or something to that effect.
1 Like
“Work can wait“ is more common, but your other suggestion is grammatically ok. I would say the slight difference between “can wait“ and ”put aside“ is that “can wait“ implies that you’ll be coming back to it soon or a little later. “Put aside“ is more ambiguous in that it’s not known whether you’ll be resuming it again or not.
1 Like
Yes, it is okay. The idiomatic expression is “work can’t wait”. You are not required to use the idiomatic expression. You can express the same meaning with other words.
1 Like