Learning English

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Introduction

Do you want to beat your friends by saying what you have done that is better than them? Learn a phrase for this.

Transcript

Beth
Welcome to The English We Speak with me, Beth...

Jiaying
And me Jiaying.

Beth
We have an unusual verb which is all about saying you are or have done something better or more impressive than someone else. And the verb is 'to one-up'.

Jiaying
‘To one-up'. It's a verb with 'one' and 'up'. How do we use it Beth?

Beth
Well, you like singing don't you Jiaying? Have you ever sung in front of an audience?

Jiaying
I have! I sang at my friend's wedding. There were about 100 people.

Beth
Wow! That is actually quite impressive. But I can one-up you. I sang on a stage last year in front of 1,000 people.

Jiaying
OK. That is a lot. But I can one-up you on something else. I ran a half-marathon last year.

Beth
Hmm. Impressive, but I can one-up you. I ran a full marathon last week. Let’s hear some more examples.

Examples

Mike is always trying to one-up me. He's such a show off.

The striker one-upped the goalkeeper with that last penalty.

They were trying to one-up each other over who could cook best.

Jiaying
You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we are learning the verb ‘one-up’, which is an informal way of saying you have an advantage over someone else by doing something more impressive or better.

Beth
It's often used in a jokey way if someone is showing off, acting as though they are better than you, and is frequently followed by a person, like 'you' or 'the goalkeeper'. And it can be used in a range of tenses, like the continuous 'one- upping', and the past simple 'one-upped'.

Jiaying
That's right.

Beth
Oh, by the way, remember I one-upped you in the race last week?

Jiaying
Argh! I will one-up you on something soon. See you next time!

Beth
Bye.

Jiaying
Bye!

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