Waiting for vs. Waiting on

Welcome to The Grammar Minute, where we're saving the English language 60 seconds at a time.

I'm Lauren Smith and I'm currently waiting on a package from Amazon.

If you pictured me standing around in a suit with a fancy tray offering cocktails to my

Amazon package, then congratulations.

That is, in fact, what I said.

To wait on exclusively means to serve.

Waitresses wait on you when you're at a restaurant, for example.

But if you take too long reading the menu and make your waitress stand there in awkward

silence, then she's waiting for you.

Waiting on and waiting for are not interchangeable.

To recap, to wait on means to serve, accommodate, or look after.

To wait for means to kick back and relax until someone else is ready.

That's your grammar minute.

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