Let sleeping dogs lie: The English We Speak

Feifei: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak.

I'm Feifei.

Neil: And I'm Neil.

So come on Feifei,

you've been grumpy all morning

– what's upset you?

Feifei: We have a new tea-making rota,

and it seems that Rob will be making less tea than me.

Neil: Are you sure?

Feifei: Yes. Look!

Feifei -

Monday morning, Tuesday afternoon,

Thursday morning and every other Friday.

Rob - just Wednesday morning.

This tea-making rota is so unfair.

I'm really going to complain about this

at the next team meeting.

He always has it easy.

Neil: Is it that important Feifei?

If I were you, I'd let sleeping dogs lie.

You could make things worse.

Feifei: Let sleeping dogs lie?

You mean 'leave things as they are to avoid causing

trouble or restarting an old argument'?

Neil: Exactly!

We had this argument before and the

result was this new tea-making rota.

So, just like avoiding waking up a dog

and making it angry,

let sleeping dogs lie.

Feifei: Let's hear some more examples of this phrase….

Examples: I was going to mention the argument we had

last night,

but decided to let sleeping dogs lie.

Let's not go over last night's performance:

let sleeping dogs lie and move on.

Don't remind her about the divorce.

Let sleeping dogs lie and talk about something else.

Feifei: This is The English We Speak from the BBC

and we're finding out about the phrase

'let sleeping dogs lie',

meaning to 'leave a situation as it is and

avoid causing trouble or restarting an old problem'.

That's all very well,

but it still seems unfair that I'm the one

who has to make tea the most.

Neil: Come on, Feifei.

Can't you remember why we had a new tea-making rota?

It was because Rob makes such awful tea,

that we wanted him to make less of it!

Feifei: Oh, yes!

Rob does make awful tea.

You're right Neil, it's not worth making a fuss

- we definitely don't want Rob

to be making our tea too often.

Neil: Yes. Let sleeping dogs lie.

Feifei: But hold on.

I didn't see your name on the rota.

Shouldn't you be making tea?

I thought you were keeping quiet.

You never make tea!

I'm going to say something about this.

Neil: Don't wake up the sleeping dogs.

I'll go and make some tea now, ok?

Bye.

Feifei: Bye.

And don't forget, two sugars!