Jiaying Welcome to The English We Speak with me, Jiaying…
Rob … and me, Rob. Hey, Jiaying, have I told you about my amazing weekend?
Jiaying No.
Rob Well, I met some friends, played football in the park, had one of those delicious ice creams from that new shop, then went shopping and bought some new jeans and this jacket.
Jiaying Rob! Stop!
Rob Why?! I’m wearing my new jacket now; don’t you like it? It was such a bargain… and then, what I did aft…
Jiaying Rob! Just zip it!
Rob Zip it? Oh, OK, I’ll zip it up if that’ll cheer you up.
Jiaying No – zip it. Stop talking! When we ask someone to ‘zip it’, we simply mean, be quiet, stop talking. It’s a bit rude but sometimes necessary if someone keeps on talking. Listen to that - peace and quiet – that’s better.
Rob Oh, OK.Maybe we can hear some examples now?
Examples I had to ask her to zip it – nobody else could say what they thought.
Just zip it will you, please? We’ve listened to you enough, and what you’re saying is rubbish!
Eventually, I told him to zip it – I’d heard enough of him complaining about how much work he had to do.
Jiaying You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we’re talking about the expression ‘zip it’. It’s what we can tell someone who is talking too much to do – be quiet! But be careful – it’s not very polite!
Rob Can I talk now?
Jiaying Yes, Rob.
Rob OK. Do you not like my new jacket?
Jiaying I love it, but I’ve got a headache and you were talking too much.
Rob Oh, sorry to hear that. What you need to do is drink lots of water, stand on your head… or is it lie down? And then eat lots of chocolate. And then what you’ve got to do is…
Jiaying Can you zip it again, please – you’re talking too much. Shall we just agree not to talk for now?
Rob Yep, OK. I’ll zip it if you do! Bye.
Jiaying Bye, Rob.