Run low vs. run out

Hey everyone, I am at a cafe using my netbook which is something I rarely do these days... Anyways, today we will be talking about the two phrasal verbs:

to run low

and

to run out

Do you know the difference between them? Well let's find out!

To run low means that your supply of something is going down... think of the gas gauge on your car. The needle moves from F (Full) to the middle and then slowly towards E (Empty). Or you can think of a bag of rice which is very full, so the level of the rice is very high. As the month goes by, you use more and more rice and the level gets lower and lower... so:

I'm running low on rice.

I'm starting to run low on gas, I'll stop at the next gas station.

To run out is a bit stronger than to run low, it means you are out of something. You have none left! So it is often used in the past tense:

I ran out of gas and had to walk 5km to the nearest gas station!

When I was on my date, I ran out of money and she had to pay for me, how embarrassing...

It can be used in the present progressive tense but it is STRONGER than running low.

I'm running out of time!

or in the future tense

I'm gonna run out of gas! I need to find a gas station quick.

Well that's my quick mini-lesson for this cloudy Sunday afternoon in Kyoto. I hope you enjoyed it,

Phil