Please double-click on the English subtitles below to play the video.
00:08
Feifei: Hello and welcome to The English We Speak.
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I'm Feifei… and, not for the first time,
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it looks like Rob is late…
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Rob: Here I am! Yes, really sorry. The bus
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was really slow.
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Feifei: Hmmm… Bad on the roads today, huh?
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Rob: Terrible traffic.
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Feifei: That’s funny, because I took the
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train in this morning and I saw you at the
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other end of the carriage.
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Rob: Err, OK. Sorry. Yes. I took the train,
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not the bus. Little fib there.
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Feifei: Why would you want to fib about
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that? Well, not to worry, it gives us the
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perfect opportunity to talk about fibs and
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fibbing – something Rob is very good at.
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Rob: Oh yes, to fib is to tell a small lie,
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nothing too serious. Like giving a false
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reason for being late. Come on Feifei, you
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do it too!
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01:00
Feifei: I’m always on time! Well, almost
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always.
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You can use fib as a verb ‘to fib’ - and
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it can also be a noun – ‘a little fib’,
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or ‘to tell a fib’. Let’s listen to these examples:
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Marty fibbed that he was going to study
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at his friend Lucio’s house, when in fact
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they went to see a movie.
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While watching the horror scenes, Marty
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was so scared he had to close his eyes.
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But after the film he fibbed he was not
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frightened at all.
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Marty told Lucio that he knew the main
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actor from the movie, but that was just
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another fib. In fact Marty had just met the
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actor for five seconds and taken a quick
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selfie together.
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01:47
Feifei: This is The English We Speak from
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BBC Learning English. So anyway, I’m still
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a bit confused about why you had to fib
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about being late?
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Rob: Well, I just had something to do before
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coming in to the office.
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Feifei: Really? That sounds mysterious.
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Rob: Not really. I wanted to go to a shop.
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Feifei: Do tell me why.
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Rob: OK, OK – well it was going to be a
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surprise, but I wanted to buy you a little
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cake, because it’s your birthday today and
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I can’t come to your party later.
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Feifei: Oh, that’s so sweet. Though you
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know, it’s not really my birthday today.
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Rob: What?
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Feifei: Yes. It’s on Saturday. Sorry, a little
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fib there. I told everyone it was my
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birthday today so they would be more
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likely to come to my party.
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Rob: Oh right, very sneaky! Enjoy the cake
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anyway. Bye.
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Feifei: Yum. Bye.
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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.