4 ways to exaggerate like a Brit - English In A Minute

51,011 views ・ 2020-11-16

BBC Learning English


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

00:00
British people love to exaggerate. We say things 
0
240
3120
00:03
aren't literally true in order to make an  
1
3360
2800
00:06
impact. We use 'forever' to say that something 
2
6160
4160
00:10
takes a very, very long time. 'Sorry i'm late.  
3
10320
4428
00:14
I was stuck in traffic forever.'
4
14748
2452
00:17
We use the phrase 'dying for' to say that we really, really need  
5
17200
4480
00:21
something. Obviously, we're not literally dying.
6
21680
3320
00:25
'I'm dying for a cup of coffee.' If something is  
7
25000
2520
00:27
hurting a lot, we can exaggerate using the phrase
8
27520
3160
00:30
'it's killing me' or 'it's killing'. Again,  
9
30680
3080
00:33
we are not literally being killed.
10
33760
2480
00:36
'My tooth is killing me.' We exaggerate by using very,  
11
36240
4240
00:40
very large numbers like 'thousands' and 'millions'.
12
40480
3920
00:44
Again, this is not literal - it's 
13
44400
2000
00:46
just a way to say 'a lot'.
14
46400
2560
00:48
'I'm so busy. I've got thousands of emails to reply to.'  
15
48960
3600
00:52
I bet you are dying to watch more of these videos.
16
52560
3920
00:56
There are thousands more on our website.
17
56480
2000
About this website

This site will introduce you to YouTube videos that are useful for learning English. You will see English lessons taught by top-notch teachers from around the world. Double-click on the English subtitles displayed on each video page to play the video from there. The subtitles scroll in sync with the video playback. If you have any comments or requests, please contact us using this contact form.

https://forms.gle/WvT1wiN1qDtmnspy7