hold on — wait briefly
phrasal verbB1IELTS 5+neutralcore
to wait for a short time, often used when asking someone to pause or not to go ahead yet.
Say it like a native
Textbook Please wait for a brief moment while I check.
Native Hold on, let me check.
'Hold on' is the natural spoken 'wait a sec'; 'please wait for a brief moment' is over-polite and stiff.
Pattern: hold on (for a moment/minute/second)
In use
- Hold on, I'll check if he's in his office.daily life
- In my last job, I often had to ask customers to hold on while I looked up their information.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ Hold on the line, I'll get her.
✓ Hold on, I'll get her. / Hold the line, please.
Bare 'hold on' = wait; 'hold the line' is the phone-specific version (no 'on').
Common collocations
hold on + context— a second, a minute, tight, let me check
Don't confuse it
Not the same as 'hold onto', which means to keep something and not let go.