skew-whiff

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

Rob And I’m Rob.

Feifei And I have to say Rob, you look fantastic! Big night, tonight, eh?

Rob Well, I like to make an effort sometimes. It’s not every night you get invited to a movie premiere.

Feifei So handsome…

Rob Do you like my bow tie?

Feifei Oh yes. Just one thing…

Rob What’s that?

Feifei It’s a bit… skew-whiff.

Rob Oh, really?

Feifei Yes. It’s not quite straight. Here.

Rob Oh, thanks. That’s better.

Feifei Absolutely.

Rob It’s a good word, skew-whiff. We use it to describe things that aren’t quite straight, or not quite as they should be.

Feifei Like your tie. And your… hang on… your hair.

Rob No, no - don’t touch the hair. I spent ages getting it just right.

Feifei Sorry. We can also use skew-whiff to describe things that don’t go according to plan.

Rob Now Feifei, I’m just off to check myself in the mirror. Let’s play some examples while I’m gone.

Examples A: There we go! One perfectly hung picture. What do you think? B: Hmm, it’s a little skew-whiff. Let me hang it straight.

This table is skew-whiff. One of the legs must be too short.

Our journey went a bit skew-whiff after we missed the train this morning.

I wanted to spend the whole weekend working on my dissertation, but everything went a bit skew-whiff when my friend arrived in the afternoon.

Rob This is the English We Speak from BBC Learning English. We are talking about the word skew-whiff. OK, that’s my bow tie looking perfect now, thanks Feifei.

Feifei Great. There’s one more thing.

Rob Oh yes? What’s that?

Feifei Take some chewing gum. Your breath is fine,I think, but it’s always good to have, just in case.

Rob Yes, you wouldn’t want a whiff of bad breath at the premiere.

Feifei Indeed, the word ‘whiff’ on its own means ‘a sudden smell of something’. No danger of that happening now. Enjoy the show!

Rob I will!

Feifei and Rob Bye.