About

Feifei Welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei.

Neil And I’m Neil.

Feifei In this programme, we’re talking about… ‘about’!

Neil About ‘about’?

Feifei About ‘about’!

Neil This is getting silly! We are indeed talking about the word ‘about’ - but not as it’s usually used.

Feifei Indeed. Let’s demonstrate. Is Mark about today?

Neil Yes, I saw him this morning.

Feifei So - when I asked: “Is Mark about today?” I wasn’t asking if Mark was somehow related to the concept of ‘today’ I just meant ‘Is Mark here’?

Neil ‘About’ means ‘here’, or ‘somewhere near here’.

Feifei Mark’s about. Mark’s near here. By the way, who’s Mark?

Neil No idea. But I know he’s near here!

Feifei Well, that’s reassuring. Time for some more examples about ‘about’.

Examples Hi, is Sue about? Just need to give her some files.

Will you be about this evening? I want to ask a big favour.

There’s no one about. It’s a bit scary.

Don’t talk like that. There are children about.

Feifei There we are. ‘About’ meaning in or close to an area.

Neil You know, there’s another word that behaves like this.

Feifei You’re talking about… ‘around’!

Neil Indeed. We could ask: “Is Mark around?”

Feifei And we know the answer to that: you saw him this morning.

Neil Except… you didn’t really see him did you? Because Mark doesn’t exist…

Mark Hi - I’m Mark.

Neil Ah, Mark!

Feifei We were just talking about you!

Neil We were just talking about ‘about’.

Feifei And ‘around’.

Neil, Feifei, Mark Bye.