ESEN
Which one to use?Advancedexpressionexpression
It is timevsIt is high time
'It is time' can take an infinitive or past tense; 'it is high time' takes only the past simple to express urgency.
Side-by-side comparison
It is time
expression"It is time to..." simply suggests that the moment for doing something has arrived. It is an observation about the right moment.
It is time to go to bed, you have school tomorrow morning.
I think it is time we had a proper conversation about your plans for next year.
It is time to update your CV, a lot has changed since you last applied for a job.
It is high time
expression"It is high time..." adds urgency and impatience. It implies it should have been done earlier and that too much time has passed. It is followed by the past subjunctive.
It is high time you learned to cook, you cannot order takeaway every single night.
It is high time the council fixed that pothole, it has been there for months now.
It is high time we stopped arguing about this and just made a decision together.
Common mistake
"It is high time to reform the system" is wrong: "high time" always requires subject + past simple. Correct: "It is high time we reformed the system." The past simple here does not indicate historical past: it is an urgency subjunctive.
Trick to remember it
- •Picture a clock past the deadline: IT IS HIGH TIME = "the window has closed — act NOW." The past tense signals urgency backward in time, not a historical fact.
- •"It is time to go" = neutral, no pressure. "It's high time you went" = no more excuses.
Quick rule
- •"It is time + to-infinitive" (no specific subject).
- •"It is high time + subject + past simple" (always).
- •The past simple = urgency subjunctive, not historical past.
Did you know?
"It is time + past simple" is one of the rare vestiges of the subjunctive in modern English. Old and Middle English had a rich subjunctive system (similar to Spanish), but it was progressively eroded. The main subjunctive survivors in modern English are three: the present subjunctive in formal clauses ("I suggest that he GO", "The committee demands that she ATTEND", no -s in third person), the past subjunctive in unreal conditionals ("If I WERE you"), and the past subjunctive in "It is time." Native speakers use these daily without knowing they are using the subjunctive, they simply learned the fixed form from memory.
Practise what you learned
Exercise 1 · Pick the right one
"It's time _____ you apologised to her. You've waited too long already."
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
"It's high time _____ we left. The party is almost over."
Exercise 3 · Form the word
Related word pairs
Second conditionalvsThird conditional
The second conditional expresses imaginary present or future situations; the third expresses past situations that did not happen.
WishvsIf only
'Wish' and 'if only' express desires about hypothetical situations; 'if only' is more emphatic and dramatic.
AvsAn
'A' is used before consonant sounds; 'an' is used before vowel sounds.
A lot ofvsMany
'A lot of' works for countable and uncountable; 'many' only for countable; 'much' only for uncountable.
Bryan López
Founder of SpeakUP Academy