Ping

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

Rob
…and hello, I’m Rob. Hey Feifei, listen to this…

Feifei
…OK, interesting. Has your ready meal finished cooking in the microwave?

Rob
Yes actually - but I wanted you to name that sound.

Feifei
Errr well, it’s a ‘ping’ sound - obvs. So what’s that got to do with today’s piece of authentic English?

Rob
Well, we can use the word ‘ping’ to describe something else.

Feifei
I know that, Rob. ‘Ping’ is a short sharp sound - like a microwave makes to alert you that the food in it is cooked. But the word ‘ping’ is also an informal way of describing sending an email or a text message. So if I ping you an email, I basically send you an email.

Rob
Exactly and… Oh, someone’s pinged me a text message. It says “Let’s have some examples, Rob!”

Feifei
That was me, Rob. Come on then…

Examples
I need to know the details of the contract. Could you ping them over to me as soon as possible. please.

My friend’s just pinged me to say she can’t go out tonight, so I suppose I’ll have to stay in and watch TV.

I’ll ping you over the address of the party and hopefully I’ll see you there later.

Feifei
This is The English We Speak from the BBC and we’re finding out about the word ‘ping’ which is an informal way to describe sending an email or a text message. And Rob, I’m going to ping you something.

Rob
Oh yes, what’s that?

Feifei
I’m going to ping you an email containing a recipe.

Rob
A recipe? What would I need that for?

Feifei
You need to start cooking some real food - you can’t live on unhealthy microwave dinners!

Rob
Oh right. And I’m pinging you a message right now … Send!

Feifei
“If you’d invited me for dinner, I wouldn’t have to eat microwave dinners.” OK Rob, I get the hint. How about tonight?

Rob
Great! But can you remind me where you live?

Feifei
I’ll ping you my address. See ya.

Rob
Don’t forget. Bye!