What does 'out of order' mean?

52,983 views ・ 2019-04-29

BBC Learning English


Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.

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Feifei: Hello and welcome to The English
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We Speak. I'm Feifei.
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Neil: And I'm Neil. Hi everyone.
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Feifei: Is everything OK, Neil? You sound
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a bit annoyed this morning!
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Neil: Yeh, I'm OK, I'm just a bit frustrated.
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I spent a few hours organising all of the
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books on my bookshelves last weekend,
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but then my wife decided
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to clean the shelves
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and put the books back in a mess.
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They're all out of order again now!
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Feifei: Oh, that is totally out of order!
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Neil: Yeah, they are now totally
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out of order.
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Feifei: I'm talking about your wife,
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not the books.
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Neil: Eh?
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Feifei: What I meant is that
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it wasn't fair that all your hard work
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went to waste - she
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should have been more considerate.
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Neil: Ohhh, I see. You mean 'out of order'
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in a different sense! My books are out of
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order because they're disorganised,
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but my wife was out of order
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because she was inconsiderate.
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Feifei: That's exactly right! Let's listen
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to some other examples of how you could
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use this alternate meaning.
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The referee in Saturday's football match
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was totally out of order!
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I couldn't believe he sent off
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our best player - he was obviously biased!
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A passenger on the train this morning
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started shouting at me. She said
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I pushed her! I thought
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she was really out of order! I couldn't help
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it. The train stopped abruptly.
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Who took my pen from my desk?
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It's the fourth time this week -
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this is out of order!
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Feifei: This is The English We Speak
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from BBC Learning English and
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we're talking about
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the phrase 'out of order'. This phrase
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often means that something
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is disorganised or in the wrong order,
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but it is also used in spoken English to
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say that someone has been unfair
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or inconsiderate. Could you give us
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another example of this, Neil?
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Neil: Well, I wrote a script last week which
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you said was rubbish! I thought that was
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a bit out of order!
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Feifei: Oh dear! I'm sorry if I offended you,
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Neil, but I think you might
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have misunderstood what I meant!
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When you printed it out and gave it to me,
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I couldn't read anything - there
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was ink all over it. Perhaps
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the printer was out of order?
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Neil: And that's a third meaning
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of 'out of order'.
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Feifei: Yes. 'Out of order' also means
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broken! Well, that's all we have...
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Neil: Oh dear, it seems Feifei's mic
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is out of order! What she was
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trying to say was that's all we have
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time for this week, so join us again next
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week for more The English We Speak.
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Goodbye!
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