Feifei Hello, and welcome to The English We Speak with me, Feifei…
Rob …and hello, it’s me, Rob.
Feifei Have you had a busy day today?
Rob I sure have! And there’s plenty more to do before home time!
Feifei Well, after this programme, I think I’ll call it a day. I’ve got my yoga class to go to.
Rob Call it a day?! You’ve only been here seven hours and there are 24 hours in a day.
Feifei I know that, Rob. But I’ve finished my work, so that’s my day finished!
When we ‘call it a day’ we just mean we have decided to stop what we are doing for the rest of the day. It could be because we have just finished a task, done enough or are just bored of doing it. So, Rob, I’ve done my work, so I really must call it a day – I don’t want to miss my yoga class.
Rob Haven’t you got time for some examples?
Feifei Of course…
Examples We’ve been working on this presentation for hours now. Let’s call it a day and carry on tomorrow.
Can we call it a day? We’ve been training since this morning, I’m exhausted.
It’s almost six o’clock, so let’s call it a day and carry on with the building work tomorrow.
Feifei This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. We’re looking at the phrase ‘to call it a day’, which we can say to express that we are going to stop what we are doing for the rest of the day. Now, Rob, if you think you’ve done enough, why don’t you just call it a day?
Rob I couldn’t possibly finish work now! I’m going to be working into the night.
Feifei So, Rob, what are you doing that’s making you work so late?
Rob Well, I volunteered to write some extra The English We Speak scripts.
Feifei Don’t worry about that now, Rob. Call it a day and do it tomorrow.
Rob OK, Feifei, if you say so. In that case, maybe I could join you at your yoga class?
Feifei Sure. Come along.
Rob Great!