Have a pop

Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei…

Rob …and hello, I’m Rob.

Feifei Rob, I’m having a bit of trouble with my computer…

Rob What, again! What’s the problem this time?

Feifei Well, I’ve written the script for this programme, but it won’t save. And I can’t print it out - this computer just does not work. Can you fix it?

Rob
Let me have a pop at it.

Feifei A pop? Are you going to make it explode? That’s a bit extreme, Rob.

Rob Don’t worry, Feifei. If I have a pop at something, I just mean I’ll try and do it - so I’ll have a go at doing something, like fixing your computer…

Feifei Right! OK, Rob, have a pop then. But just don’t delete all my work.

Rob Don’t worry, Feifei, I would never do that, would I? Let’s hear some more examples of the phrase while I sort this out…

Examples I’m going to have a pop at doing this online application for a passport - apparently it’s really easy.

We had a pop at making a cake but we baked it for too long and it burnt!

Why not have a pop at yoga? I’ve heard it’s good for your mind, body and soul.

Feifei This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English and we’re talking about the phrase ‘have a pop’, which means to try something. So, Rob, you’ve had a pop at fixing my computer… any luck?

Rob Ermm, not exactly. Everything seems to have disappeared from the screen.

Feifei Let me look… no! You have deleted my script. Hmm, Rob, did you know that ‘have a pop’ has another meaning?

Rob Oh yeah, what’s that?

Feifei To ‘have a pop’ also means to criticise or even to try and hit someone. And I’m going to have a pop at you for losing my script.

Rob Hold… hold on, Feifei. If we don’t have a script, we won’t know what will happen next.

Feifei I think the listeners know, Rob, don’t they? Bye.

Rob Bye. Ouch!