Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak. I’m Feifei.
Rob And I’m Rob.
Feifei So, Rob, you don’t look so happy.
Rob I’m… ok.
Feifei I thought you were off to a rock concert for your birthday this weekend.
Rob Yeah, I was. I love rock music.
Feifei Oh. What happened?
Rob Well, I booked my ticket a month ago. It wasn’t cheap. Three of my friends said they were coming too. But they just told me they forgot to book the tickets, and now there are none left.
Feifei What a pain. I’m sorry.
Rob Yeah, I’m a bit ‘miffed’.
Feifei I’m not surprised. Err, Rob, sorry to mention this while you’re feeling upset…
Rob Yes…?
Feifei Do you mind if I use ‘miffed’ as our word today?
Rob Yeah, OK then.
Feifei OK, so as you might have worked out, to feel ‘miffed’ is to feel frustrated or annoyed, usually because of the behaviour of other people. It’s what Rob is feeling right now, because his friends didn’t book tickets to a concert with him. Let’s just give him a minute, while we listen to these examples.
Examples You know what? I’ve been working really late all week to finish this proposal, but my boss hasn’t said a word of thanks. Yeah, you could say I’m pretty miffed.
Laura met this guy on holiday. She told me he was really special, and that they seemed serious about each other. But he hasn’t called in weeks. She’s really miffed about it.
You’d think that when you order a vegetarian pizza, it would come without meat. No wonder Martin was miffed when it arrived with ham on it.
Feifei This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. So, feeling any better yet, Rob?
Rob Well, I just got a message. Get this - apparently my friends were joking.
Feifei Err, I knew.
Rob What?
Feifei Well, I told them to say that, so we had the opportunity to talk about ‘miffed’.
Rob Seriously?
Feifei Yeah, you don’t mind, do you?
Rob Of course I mind. You made me feel, well… miffed!
Feifei Sorry about that.
Rob And I’m miffed with you now!
Feifei Rob, you know what?
Rob What?
Feifei I got a ticket too. It is your birthday after all - I wouldn’t miss it!
Rob Really? OK, all is forgiven!
Both Bye.