Jiaying Hello and welcome to The English We Speak with me, Jiaying…
Rob And me, Rob. Jiaying, why is it everyone in our office keeps disappearing?
Jiaying What do you mean?
Rob Well, every time I want to talk to someone, I can’t find them! Like Roy, for example. I need to talk to him about something, but he’s nowhere to be seen. Have you seen him?
Jiaying No - I’ve not seen hide nor hair of him.
Rob You mean he’s hiding from me?
Jiaying No, Rob. If we say ‘we’ve not seen hide nor hair of someone’, it simply means we’ve not seen them anywhere for some time. Do you need to see him urgently?
Rob Yes, I wanted him to read out some examples – but Neil will do…
Examples I haven’t seen hide nor hair of Suki all week – maybe she’s on holiday?
We haven’t seen hide nor hair of the builders since we paid them.
We didn’t see hide nor hair of the manager the whole time we were in the office.
Jiaying This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we’re learning about the expression ‘to not see hide nor hair of someone’, which means to have not seen someone around for some time – like they have disappeared. Rob, I hope Roy really hasn’t disappeared – should we look for him?
Rob No, it’s ok, he’ll turn up.
Jiaying He has, Rob! He’s over there and he’s had a haircut.
Rob Oh, he’s had it all cut off – now we really won’t see hide nor any hair of him if he disappears again!
Jiaying No. Anyway, Rob, I meant to ask you if you could have that (note of) ten pounds back, I lent you?
[DOOR CLOSES}
… oh, maybe I won’t see hide nor hair of him for some time! Bye.