Learning English

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Introduction

An expression that means you say something without preparing first. Learn it here.

Transcript

Feifei
Hi. Welcome to The English We Speak, the podcast where we explain phrases that fluent English speakers use so that you can use them as well. I'm Feifei.

Beth
And I'm Beth. How's it going, Feifei?

Feifei
I'm very well, thank you, Beth. Now, the phrase we're going to look at in this programme is 'off the cuff'. There are lots of phrases in the English language with clothes words in them that actually have nothing to do with clothes, and this phrase is one of them.

Beth
Off the cuff. Yes! So, a cuff is the end of a shirt sleeve. It might have buttons, or you might need cufflinks for it. But 'off the cuff' means that you do or say something with no preparation or very little preparation, so it's got nothing to do with clothes.

Feifei
That's right. So, I actually have an example for this. In my last class I had at university, my teacher asked me to give a speech to the class, like a reflection. I had no warning and I just said something really short in front of everyone. I can't actually remember what I said, but there was no preparation, so I said it 'off the cuff'.

Beth
That sounds daunting! So it was completely improvised. You hadn't planned anything because you didn't know it was going to happen. You probably thanked your teachers and classmates, that sort of thing.

Feifei
Probably. Beth, have you done anything 'off the cuff' recently?

Beth
Erm, let me think, so, yeah, actually I go to a Spanish class, and the other day we suddenly had exam practice. The teacher didn't give us any time to prepare, so when I got to my speaking, I just said something off the cuff. I hadn't planned anything.

Feifei
I bet you did really well.

Beth
I don't know. Here are some more examples of the expression 'off the cuff'.

Examples
I was in a meeting with my boss, and he asked me in this meeting to explain something quite complicated to the people in the meeting, and I hadn’t prepared. I had to do it off the cuff.

I've got to do a speech at my wedding, and I haven't done any preparation, so I guess I'll just do it off the cuff.

One of my teachers has called in sick and I'm going to have to teach their class. I haven't done any preparation, so I'll have to do it off the cuff.

Beth
Now, it's also really common to use 'off the cuff' as an adjective, particularly before the words 'remark' or 'speech'. Now, if someone makes an off-the-cuff remark, it means they say something without thinking about it first.

Feifei
Yes. And that actually could get someone into trouble. It could be offensive if you say something without thinking about your words first. So, you might have to then apologise, and say "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you. It was just an off-the-cuff remark".

Beth
Exactly. So, to recap, we’ve learnt the phrase 'off the cuff' which means to say something without preparing first.

Feifei
Yes, and that's all from us. We'll be back next week with another useful English phrase. See you!

Beth
Bye!

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