Fib

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2019-08-26

Summary

Sometimes, telling the truth is hard to do. But why is Rob fibbing about his reason for being late? And is Feifei telling the truth either? We won’t teach you to lie, but you will learn how to use the word ‘fib’ in the programme.

Transcript 

Feifei
Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I'm Feifei… and, not for the first time, it looks like Rob is late…

Rob
Here I am! Yes, really sorry. The bus was really slow.

Feifei
Hmmm… Bad on the roads today, huh?

Rob
Terrible traffic.

Feifei
That’s funny, because I took the train in this morning and I saw you at the other end of the carriage.

Rob
Err, OK. Sorry. Yes. I took the train, not the bus. Little fib there.

Feifei
Why would you want to fib about that? Well, not to worry, it gives us the perfect opportunity to talk about fibs and fibbing – something Rob is very good at.

Rob
Oh yes, to fib is to tell a small lie, nothing too serious. Like giving a false reason for being late. Come on Feifei, you do it too!

Feifei
I’m always on time! Well, almost always. You can use fib as a verb ‘to fib’ - and it can also be a noun – ‘a little fib’, or ‘to tell a fib’. Let’s listen to these examples:

Examples

Marty fibbed that he was going to study at his friend Lucio’s house, when in fact they went to see a movie.

While watching the horror scenes, Marty was so scared he had to close his eyes. But after the film he fibbed he was not frightened at all.

Marty told Lucio that he knew the main actor from the movie, but that was just another fib. In fact Marty had just met the actor for five seconds and taken a quick selfie together.

Feifei
This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. So anyway, I’m still a bit confused about why you had to fib about being late?

Rob
Oh, I just had something to do before coming in to the office.

Feifei
Really? That sounds mysterious.

Rob
Not really. I wanted to go to a shop.

Feifei
Do tell me why.

Rob
OK, OK – well it was going to be a surprise, but I wanted to buy you a little cake, because it’s your birthday today and I can’t come to your party later.

Feifei
Oh, that’s so sweet. Though you know, it’s not really my birthday today.

Rob
What?

Feifei
Yes. It’s on Saturday. Sorry, a little fib there. I told everyone it was my birthday today so they would be more likely to come to my party.

Rob
Oh right, very sneaky! Enjoy the cake anyway. Bye.

Feifei
Yum. Bye.