Feifei This is The English We Speak with me, Feifei…
Phil And me, Phil. We’re going to look at an adjective about organisations and people that are difficult to trust – ‘fly-by-night’.
Feifei ‘Fly-by-night’ is a compound adjective that literally means ‘something that flies in the night’.
Phil Yes. ‘Fly-by-night’ originally described companies, who would disappear overnight taking all the money they owed with them. It’s usually used before a noun.
Feifei My friend bought a second-hand car last month, it’s already broken down and the company has disappeared. Are they a fly-by-night company?
Phil Yes, we can use it more generally to talk about companies or people who are unreliable or difficult to trust. If it looks like someone is running a fly-by-night operation, it’s best to avoid them! Listen to these examples.
Examples
I applied for a job, but when I went for the interview it looked like a fly-by-night company – so I turned them down.
The agent I bought the ticket from was a fly-by-night operator. Once I got to the airport, I couldn’t get any help.
I got my roof fixed, but it was a real fly-by-night job - it’s already started leaking.
Feifei You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we are learning the expression ‘fly-by-night’, which is a way of saying that a person or especially a business is untrustworthy.
Phil In the last example we heard about a ‘fly-by-night’ job.
Feifei Yes, so you can also use ‘fly-by-night’ more generally to talk about things related to untrustworthy people or businesses. A fly-by-night company might do a fly-by- night job if you hire them.
Phil Now, we will definitely be here next week with another episode of ‘The English We Speak’ – we’re no fly-by-night operation!
Feifei See you next time!
Phil Bye!