We Speak. I'm Feifei.

Neil: And I'm Neil. Hi everyone.

Feifei: Is everything OK, Neil? You sound

a bit annoyed this morning!

Neil: Yeh, I'm OK, I'm just a bit frustrated.

I spent a few hours organising all of the

books on my bookshelves last weekend,

but then my wife decided

to clean the shelves

and put the books back in a mess.

They're all out of order again now!

Feifei: Oh, that is totally out of order!

Neil: Yeah, they are now totally

out of order.

Feifei: I'm talking about your wife,

not the books.

Neil: Eh?

Feifei: What I meant is that

it wasn't fair that all your hard work

went to waste - she

should have been more considerate.

Neil: Ohhh, I see. You mean 'out of order'

in a different sense! My books are out of

order because they're disorganised,

but my wife was out of order

because she was inconsiderate.

Feifei: That's exactly right! Let's listen

to some other examples of how you could

use this alternate meaning.

The referee in Saturday's football match

was totally out of order!

I couldn't believe he sent off

our best player - he was obviously biased!

A passenger on the train this morning

started shouting at me. She said

I pushed her! I thought

she was really out of order! I couldn't help

it. The train stopped abruptly.

Who took my pen from my desk?

It's the fourth time this week -

this is out of order!

Feifei: This is The English We Speak

from BBC Learning English and

we're talking about

the phrase 'out of order'. This phrase

often means that something

is disorganised or in the wrong order,

but it is also used in spoken English to

say that someone has been unfair

or inconsiderate. Could you give us

another example of this, Neil?

Neil: Well, I wrote a script last week which

you said was rubbish! I thought that was

a bit out of order!

Feifei: Oh dear! I'm sorry if I offended you,

Neil, but I think you might

have misunderstood what I meant!

When you printed it out and gave it to me,

I couldn't read anything - there

was ink all over it. Perhaps

the printer was out of order?

Neil: And that's a third meaning

of 'out of order'.

Feifei: Yes. 'Out of order' also means

broken! Well, that's all we have...

Neil: Oh dear, it seems Feifei's mic

is out of order! What she was

trying to say was that's all we have

time for this week, so join us again next

week for more The English We Speak.

Goodbye!