Off and on?_其他_趣味英语-查字典英语网

Off and on?

So the marriage is “on” again.

Then, sure enough, next month, the same tabloid reveals in another sensational scoop that the male star is seeing someone else...and that the marriage plans are, once more, “off”.

See, this is how a relationship is “on again, and off again”. In a case like this, you can describe their relationship as off and on. In other words, the couple have been going out together now and then for some time. During this time, they are often together, but do stop seeing each other from time to time.

Oddly enough, you can also describe this as “on and off” – “on and off” and “off and on” basically mean the same thing.

Alright, without further ado, let me find you a media example of each phrase:

1. on and off:

A defiant Herman Cain tried to turn the tables on his growing legion of critics and accusers Wednesday, blasting them for allegedly engaging in gutter politics and giving no indication of any immediate intent to abandon his embattled presidential campaign. “They have been trying to do a character assassination on me,” Cain told an enthusiastic crowd in West Chester, Ohio. “They are attacking my character, my reputation and my name in order to try and bring me down.”

“I don’t believe that America is going to let that happen,” he declared.

His fund-raising took a hit, Cain acknowledged later Wednesday, after a woman said Monday she had engaged in a long-term affair with the former Godfather's Pizza CEO.