As Usual for Dummies

As usual is a common phrase that we often use in our everyday conversations. It's like when you have a favorite cartoon that you watch every day after school, same characters, same storylines, and you know exactly what to expect. When we say "as usual," we mean that something is happening or being done in the same usual way that it always has been. It's like a predictable routine that doesn't surprise us because we are used to it.

Let me give you an example to make it even clearer. Imagine that every morning before school, you eat breakfast with your family, and your mom always makes your favorite pancakes with maple syrup. This happens every single day, and you have come to expect it. If one day, your mom makes something different, like scrambled eggs instead of pancakes, you might say, "Oh, Mom, why did you change the breakfast? I was expecting pancakes, as usual!". See, "as usual" in this context means that you expected your mom to do what she always does, which is making pancakes for breakfast.

Now, sometimes we use this phrase in a different way, and that is when we are talking about something that always happens in a certain way, and we may not necessarily like it. Imagine if you have a friend who is always late when you plan to meet up. Every time you have a playdate or hang out together, you know deep down that your friend will arrive late, just like always. So, when your friend shows up late again, you might say, "Hey, you are late, as usual!". Here, "as usual" means that your friend has a habit of being late all the time, and it almost doesn't surprise you anymore because it has become a usual thing for them to do.

So, in a nutshell, "as usual" means that something is happening or being done in the same predictable way that it has been happening before. It's like a reliable pattern or routine that we have grown accustomed to. It can be used to describe something positive that we expect to happen, like your favorite breakfast every morning, or it can be used to describe something negative, like your friend always being late. Remember, it's just a phrase we use to explain that something is happening as we would expect it to, just like it always does.