Jiaying Hello, I’m Jiaying. This is The English We Speak.
Neil And hello, I’m Neil. Hey Jiaying, I’ve just been to the cafe downstairs and guess what…
Jiaying You bought me a coffee?
Neil No! I didn’t buy any coffee because now you have to make your own coffee – and you have to bring your own cup. What kind of cafe is that?
Jiaying You couldn’t make it up!
Neil But I didn’t make it up.
Jiaying I know – I believe you! We say, ‘you couldn’t make it up’ to express how unbelievable or ridiculous a situation is. It is a situation you could not have imagined. So, why are they doing this?
Neil Something to do with ‘health and safety’ – who could come up with an idea like that?
Jiaying Like I said, you couldn’t make it up. Here are some more examples of this phrase…
Examples The breakdown van that’s coming to fix my car has broken down – you couldn’t make it up!
The session about punctuality will start late because the speaker has been delayed – you couldn’t make it up!
You couldn’t make it up – the cake shop has started a ‘healthy eating’ campaign.
** Jiaying** This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. We’re talking about the phrase ‘you couldn’t make it up’, which can be used to express how unbelievable or ridiculous a situation is. So, Neil, where are you going to get your coffee from now?
Neil Probably from the other cafe across the street.
Jiaying Oh, haven’t you heard? At that cafe, you have to bring your own coffee beans and milk if you want them to make you a coffee – something to do with saving storage space.
Neil How ridiculous – you couldn’t make it up.
Jiaying Actually, I did make it up – just so you could say the phrase one more time!
Neil Thanks! I’m going to get my coffee now, and I’m not getting you one.
Jiaying It’s OK, Neil. I’ve got one already. Bye.
Neil Hmmm. You didn’t make that up, did you?