Please check my usage of "meanwhile" and "meantime".

Question

Please generously check my usage of "meanwhile" and "meantime" in the below sentences; thanks in advance.

1-All right. In the meanwhile, I would think about where to go on tomorrow.

2-I am going to Australia on the coming Saturday. For the meantime, I would endeavor to finish all my summer holiday assignments before engaging in that fabulous travel.

3-Tom will get the guns now; meantime, Jenifer will go for the ammunition and Lewis is going to get the bulletproof gear.

4-The bus is arriving its destination after 45 minutes. For the meanwhile, Theo will take a snooze.

My interpretation towards those two words and idioms:

-"Meanwhile", "meantime", "in the meanwhile" and "in the meantime" are all the same - at the same time.

-"For the meanwhile and "For the meantime" mean the period before another event happens.

Thanks much to every kind teachers!

Avangi · Accepted Answer

loveCZHey, it happens.

Situation: I am in the toilet for the purpose of excretion. And then I would say:

1-All right. In the meanwhile, I would think about where to go on tomorrow. Okay.

2-I am going to Australia on the coming Saturday. ~~For~~ In the meantime, I would endeavor to finish all my summer holiday assignments before engaging in that fabulous travel.

3-Tom will get the guns now; meantime, Jenifer will go for the ammunition and Lewis is going to get the bulletproof gear. Okay.

4-The bus is arriving its destination after 45 minutes. ~~For~~ In the meanwhile, Theo will take a snooze.

My interpretation towards those two words and idioms:

-"Meanwhile", "meantime", "in the meanwhile" and "in the meantime" are all the same - at the same time.

-"For the meanwhile and "For the meantime" mean the period before another event happens. Obviously, we don't quite agree. Maybe it's a BrE thing. I'm not sure.

I probably shouldn't have answered this. I'd never say "for the meanwhile." I'd say "for the time being," describing a temporary arrangement of unknown duration, awaiting some future event, as you say. I'd accept "For the meanwhile, I'll be in the kitchen," just as I'd say "For the next hour, I'll be in the kitchen." "For" here clearly indicates duration.

I'd use "for the meantime" and "for the time being" as describing the purpose or use of some temporary or makeshift arrangement, not for just hanging around.
"I just broke the good hammer. I've got to go to the hardware store and buy another. For the meantime (for the time being) you'll have to use this old piece of junk." I understand it to mean that this old junk hammer is for use during the time I'm gone to the store. But I'd also use "in the meantime" to describe what you're going to do while I'm gone.

I use "[in the] meantime / meanwhile" interchangeably to describe plans for some interval of known or unknown duration. The interval may be measured by some other event which is running concurrently, or it may be measured only by the coming of the future event.

But I don't recognize your distinction between
(a) a period of time while something else is going on, and
(b) a period of time while we're waiting for some future event - as a test for using "for."

If someone gives you different advice, please take it!

Edit. I guess I have to accept Theo's snooze, indicating that it will last for the entire interval up to the time of the arrival of the bus.
The one about finishing the holiday assignments I won't accept, because you may finish early or not at all. It's just something you'll do in the meantime.

As you can see, I only addressed the issues you asked about.

Yankee · Answer

1-All right. In the meanwhile, I would think about where to go on tomorrow. "In the meanwhile" strikes me as odd, and I doubt I would ever use that phrase. Instead, I'd use "in the meantime". I would also like to mention that there is not enough context there for me to understand exactly what you mean. Out of curiosity, when you wrote "go on", did you mean "continue", and why did you choose to use the word "would" rather than "will"?

2-I am going to Australia ~~on the~~ this coming Saturday. ~~For~~ In the meantime, I ~~would~~ will endeavor to finish all my summer holiday assignments before engaging in that fabulous travel.
I would not use "for the meantime". To me it simply is not idiomatic. I'd use "in the meantime."

Your first sentence states a starting time for an upcoming event. The reference is to time between now and your departure for Australia. If you begin the second sentence with "in the meantime", then the addition of "before engaging in that fabulous travel" strikes me as completely redundant. To me it would already be completely clear that you are referring to the span of time before you leave. The wording of that clause also stikes me as awkward.

3-Tom will get the guns now; meantime, Jenifer will go for the ammunition and Lewis is going to get the bulletproof gear. OK

4-The bus is arriving at its destination ~~after~~ in 45 minutes. ~~For~~ In the meantime, Theo will take a snooze. I don't particularly like the use of "in the meantime" here. If Theo is a passenger on the bus, and the whole bus trip is longer than 45 minutes, I think I'd say something such as this: "The bus won't be reaching its destination for another 45 minutes, so Theo is going to snooze for a while. "

My interpretation towards those two words and idioms:

-"Meanwhile", "meantime", "in the meanwhile" and "in the meantime" are all the same - at the same time. To me, they refer to activities that are, will be or were happening within the same time frame and/or happening simultaneously before or after a particular point in time.

-"For the meanwhile and "For the meantime" mean the period before another event happens. I consider both of those phrases to be incorrect. They are not idiomatic. You can say "in the meantime". You can also say "for the time being" or "for the moment" or "for now", however these expressions would be used differently from "in the meantime". They usually suggest a temporary or stop-gap sort of activity. "In the meantime" can but doesn't have to be used that way.

Anonymous · Answer

can we use "meanwhile" without "in the" ?

LoveCZ · Answer

Oh thank you so much everybody. Yankee, I would like to clarify my choices of words in sentence one. I chose "go on" not because I want to say "continue" but really just plainly "head to". Like where should I head to on tomorrow; where should I go, on tomorrow. And I opted "would" instead of "will" because I think it would be more polite to use would... not anything regarding probability though.

Avangi · Answer

Elidacan we use "meanwhile" without "in the" ?

loveCZMy interpretation towards those two words and idioms:
-"Meanwhile", "meantime", "in the meanwhile" and "in the meantime" are all the same - at the same time.
Avangi I use "[in the] meantime / meanwhile" interchangeably to describe plans for some interval of known or unknown duration.
Hi Elida, I don't wonder you should ask. There's a lot of stuff here to weed through.
We generally use this type of bracket " [ - - - ] " as a shorthand to indicate that what's inside may optionally be omitted.

So my yellow higlighted section means:
I use
in the meantime
in the meanwhile
meantime
meanwhile
allinterchangeably.

loveCZ is saying basically the same thing.

My favorite example of this usage is one we all had to memorize in the US in grammar school:
Meanwhile, impatient to mount and ride,
Booted and spurred, with a heavy stride
On the opposite shore walked Paul Revere.
Now he patted his horse's side,
Now gazed at the landscape, far and near. - H. W. L.

And who could forget the favorite voice-over line from the old westerns:
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, - - - -

Yankee · Answer

loveCZI chose "go on" not because I want to say "continue" but really just plainly "head to". Like where should I head to on tomorrow; where should I go, on tomorrow. And I opted "would" instead of "will" because I think it would be more polite to use would... not anything regarding probability though.

Hi LoveCZ
OK, that explains things a bit. I understood that you were writing "go on" (continue) because we don't say "on tomorrow". It's standard to use "on" this way: "I'll do it on Tuesday" or "I'll do it on May 25th". However, the word "tomorrow" is different: "I'll do it tomorrow".

As for your use of the word "would", if you were using it in order to be more polite, then was the intended meaning actually something like the following?
"You should think about where to go tomorrow."
(i.e. "I would think about where to go tomorrow if I were you.")

If not, then I'd say "will" is quite appropriate and also preferable in your sentence.

I agree with Avangi about "meantime", "meanwhile", and "in the meantime" being interchangeable. And if someone were to use "in the meanwhile", I would understand it to mean the same thing. I simply do not use "in the meanwhile" myself, and I don't hear anyone in my neck of the woods using it either. If the British National Corpus and the American Corpus are a reliable indication of usage frequency, then "in the meantime" is used far more often than "in the meanwhile". The American Corpus suggests that "in the meantime" is used about 60 times more often than "in the meanwhile" in North America. I use "meanwhile" quite often, but not "in the meanwhile".

Please check my usage of "meanwhile" and "meantime".

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