Hello and welcome to The English
We Speak. I'm Feifei...
And hello, I'm Rob.
Rob, what's the smell?
Are you cooking something?
Yes. It's my favourite - roast beef. Yummy!
Roast beef?! This isn't really
the time to be cooking.
Well, you said let's do 'roast' today - so
I thought I'd make a start. Just got to do
the roast potatoes now...
Rob, stop! I meant let's do the word 'roast'.
Oh right. Well, this is a good
example of roasting.
No, Rob. It's not the meaning I had in
mind. 'Roasting' is not just
about cooking food
in an oven. We can 'roast' people by
criticising them harshly.
So, Rob, you were very foolish
to start cooking something while
we're presenting a programme!
Oh, am I being 'roasted' now?
You sure are, but you're not alone.
Here are some examples...
We had to roast the teacher after she was
seen shopping when she
was supposed to be
off work with flu!
After my PowerPoint presentation froze
during an important meeting,
my boss gave me a roasting.
She was roasted by her friends after
she posted pictures of herself
on social media showing
off her 'amazing' suntan.
This is The English We Speak from BBC
Learning English and we're
talking about the word 'roast',
which means 'to criticise severely'.
I'm sure you're used to
being roasted, Rob?
Well, if you mean I am hot and smell
delicious, then I am very roasted!
Excuse me?
Feifei, another meaning of 'roast' is to
tease someone in a light-hearted
way or give a funny
comeback when someone
tries to humiliate you.
Oh, ha ha! But hold on, Rob,
I can smell something else...
Oh no - I left the oven on and now
the food is burning. Help!
Rob, you are really stupid - and you
can't cook either.
That's me roasted! Bye.
Bye.