ON ONE'S OWN

Hello everyone and welcome back to the Daily Vitamin. I hope you are having a great day.

On June 4th and 5th we explained the difference between the word lonely (to be unhappy because there is nobody else with you) and alone (to say that there is nobody else with you). Today we will look at a related expression.

Today's expression is: on one's own

It means: to say that there is nobody else with you.

We can use this expression with verbs like to be or to spend time.

Example 1: I will be on my own this week because my husband is going to be on a business trip.

Example 2: Why are you standing outside on your own? The door is open. Come on in!

Example 3: They are very self-reliant and independent because they had to spend a lot of time on their own when they were younger.

In all of these examples, we could replace on one's own with alone and the meaning of the sentence would be the same. 

⇒ to get some writing practice in English, I encourage you to write your own sentence with the expression on your own. You can post your sentence to one of our social media sites (Facebook or Bluesky) and we will give you feedback about your writing ASAP.

Enjoy the rest of your day!