Neil Welcome to The English We Speak, with me Neil…
Feifei And me, Feifei.
Neil Our expression is ‘famous last words’. We say this when we believe something someone says will soon be proven wrong.
Feifei Have you ever said, ‘famous last words’?
Neil Yes. I went to a party at the weekend. I told my friend that I never forget people’s names. Famous last words. I was so embarrassed because immediately after saying that, I called my friend’s new boyfriend by the wrong name three times!
Feifei Yes, famous last words. Could you give us another example in context?
Neil I went to a restaurant the other day and ordered a curry. The waiter warned me it was very hot. I said, ‘I love spicy food, and nothing is too hot for me’. Famous last words!
Feifei What happened? Was it too spicy for you?
Neil Yes! I couldn’t even finish one mouthful. I was sweating and nearly crying – it was so spicy. Let’s hear some more examples of this expression.
Examples My grandfather says he never cries when he watches sad films. Famous last words! We watched a very sad film at the weekend, and he cried a lot.
I said my cricket team would win the championship this year. Famous last words – we finished last.
Lei said he didn’t need to study for his exam. Famous last words. He failed in the end.
Feifei You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we are learning the expression ‘famous last words’, which is said when someone says something that they believe will happen, only to be proven wrong.
Neil Yes. We often say it when we think it will be quite embarrassing for the person when their statement is shown to be wrong, like, for example, when I told you I was brilliant at my favourite board game, and then you beat me easily! Really embarrassing.
Feifei Yes, and we sometimes say it to ourselves to laugh at something we have said previously, don’t we?
Neil That’s right! It’s a form of laughing at ourselves about something we believed or predicted, and then realised we were embarrassingly wrong – like when I said England would win the football World Cup!
Feifei Famous last words! Do you think they’ll win the next World Cup?
Neil Of course – definitely. However, those could be famous last words! Bye.
Feifei Bye.