Feifei Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them as well. I’m Feifei, and I’m joined by Beth. Hello Beth!
Beth Hi Feifei. I wanted to show you a picture of my new puppy! Look at her.
Feifei Aw, so cute! How many do you have now?
Beth I have three cats, five chickens, two goldfish and four dogs – oh, no – five dogs.
Feifei Oh wow. You clearly love having pets. You are the CEO of pets! But you’re not really head of a pet business, are you?
Beth I’m not. ‘The CEO of’ is a funny or silly way of saying someone is the best at something, or that they do something a lot – maybe a bit too much! And it’s often used in a jokey or exaggerated way.
Feifei So, if you are the CEO of pets, I think I’m the CEO of shoes. I have so many pairs of shoes.
Beth Yeah, I feel like you’re always wearing a new pair of shoes.
Feifei Aw. Right. Let’s listen to more examples of ’the CEO of'.
Examples My colleague Phil is so good at statistics. He’s the CEO of spreadsheets.
It’s my job to buy the snacks for the office. I guess you could say I’m the CEO of snacks.
Ugh, I’ve lost my fourth pair of sunglasses this month. I’m the CEO of losing things.
Beth So, ‘the CEO of’ isn’t a serious title. In fact, the CEO of social media wouldn’t be the actual CEO, that’s chief executive officer, of a social media company. It would just be someone who posts on social media a lot.
Feifei I reckon we are the CEO of making podcasts. What do you think?
Beth I’m happy to go along with that! We’ll be back next time with another useful English phrase. See you soon!
Feifei Bye-bye!