FeifeiThis is The English We Speak with me, Feifei…
**Rob
**…and me, Rob. Now, our piece of authentic real English in this programme is, Feifei…
Feifei… twiddle your thumbs.
**Rob
**OK, I will… Err, what are we waiting for?
FeifeiNothing, Rob! ‘Twiddle your thumbs’ is the phrase.
**Rob
**Oh sorry, Feifei – I thought you were telling me to wait around, not do anything, until something happens.
FeifeiWhy would I do that?
**Rob
**So, you can watch me twiddle my thumbs?
FeifeiNo, Rob. The informal phrase ‘twiddle your thumbs’ means to wait around, doing nothing, until something happens. But, you can twiddle your thumbs again, while we listen to some examples…
ExamplesWhere have you been? I’ve been twiddling my thumbs, waiting for you to arrive.
Just twiddle your thumbs while we work out how the computer works.
I’ve been twiddling my thumbs because I arrived early for the meeting.
FeifeiThis is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English and we’re learning about the phrase’ twiddle your thumbs’ which means do nothing while waiting for something to happen.
**Rob
**We don’t actually have to twiddle our thumbs when we have nothing to do, do we?
FeifeiOf course not. It just describes having nothing to do.
**Rob
**You mean being bored?
FeifeiYes, exactly – and you know what is a good solution for stopping you twiddling your thumbs?
**Rob
**No.
FeifeiDoing something, like making your colleague a nice cup of tea.
**Rob
**Hint taken. See you later.
FeifeiBye.