Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak with me, Feifei.
Roy And me, Roy. Who’s the person in the grey suit speaking to Neil?
Feifei I’m not sure, but he looks very elegant. He looks really familiar.
Roy Is it Brad Pitt?
Feifei No, it’s not. But I’m sure I recognise his face. It’s really bugging me.
Roy What? The man’s face has a bug on it?
Feifei No, Roy. I said it’s bugging me. If something bugs someone, it’s really annoying or irritating. People can also bug another person – it’s an informal way of saying ‘irritate someone’. So, what I meant was he seems familiar, but I’m still not sure who it is, and it’s annoying me!
Roy Ahhh. That makes sense. Yes – it’s bugging me too. I’ll go and ask who it is while we listen to some examples.
Examples My car is always breaking down. It really bugs me that they can’t fix it.
My friend is bugging me about going to the cinema, but I don’t want to go.
I’m sorry. I don’t mean to bug you by asking you again, but I forgot if you wanted tea or coffee.
Feifei You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English and we’re hearing about the expression ‘bug someone’, which means something is irritating or annoying someone. It can be used to talk about a thing or a person that we find annoying. So, Roy, did you find out who the person in the grey suit is?
Roy I did, yes.
Feifei And?
Roy And you’ll never guess who it was!
Feifei Roy, just tell me who it was and don’t bug me!
Roy It’s Rob. He had a haircut and new suit on. He looks amazing!
Feifei Wow! I should have guessed! That’ll bug me for a while!
Roy Well, I don’t want to bug you any longer. Bye!
Feifei Bye.