Page 12 - Conversation 3

(6) Off the cuff

Introduction

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

https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/the-english-we-speak_2024/ep-240805

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.