Feifei Hello, and welcome to The English We Speak with me, Feifei…
Roy… and me, Roy. I am so hungry! I haven’t had anything to eat all day! Where are the pizzas?
Feifei What are you talking about?
Roy You sent me a message saying you had lots of pizzas, so I’m ready to eat!
Feifei No Roy, I said I had real pizzazz! I was saying how glamorous I was. Pizzazz is spelt P-I-Z-Z-A-Z-Z! It doesn’t look anything like pizzas.
Roy I thought you were writing pizzas with extra Zs to be cool! Now it makes more sense! Pizzazz relates to be being glamorous or having vitality.
Feifei Anyway, I would never buy you pizzas. I have too much pizzazz to eat pizzas. If I were feeling generous, I would buy you a glass of water from the tap.
Roy But that’s free!
Feifei Exactly! Well, why don’t you go and eat while we listen to these examples?
Examples Have you seen the latest episode? That new actress has real pizzazz.
I think the colour scheme on your painting is so vibrant. It has real pizzazz.
The moment I listened to the song for the first time, I couldn’t stop dancing to it! The tune has real energy and pizzazz.
Feifei You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we’re talking about the expression ‘pizzazz’. If someone or something has ‘pizzazz’, they are glamorous or have real energy. Roy, what are you eating?
RoyI’m just about to eat a slice of pizza – I am so hungry! I would offer you a slice, but I know you don’t think it has real pizzazz.
Feifei Well, I could make an exception this time. Go on, I’ll have a slice of your pizza.
Roy But I only have one slice.
Feifei You should give it to me. I’ll tell everyone how much pizzazz you have!
Roy Oh, that’s really kind of you Feifei, but I don’t need you to say that. I already have pizzazz! You can see that in that picture of me dressed like a flamingo on social media.
Feifei I’m not sure if that’s what I would call glamorous, Roy. So, are you really not going to give me your pizza?
Roy No.
Feifei Well, I’m going to make my own pizza then – and it will have more pizzazz than yours. Bye.
Roy Bye.