‘A funny thing happened to me the other day’ – Learn the language for talking about funny incidents
Neil
In this programme we’ll take a look at how to tell friends, or people you know quite well, about funny or unexpected things which have happened to you.
Perhaps you saw a famous person, or bumped into someone you haven’t seen for years.
How do you introduce the topic to your friends? How do you tell the story, and how do you finish it? Listen and find out more in this week’s How To.
It’s Monday morning at BBC Learning English and everyone’s talking about the weekend. And some very funny things happened.
Funny here means unusual. First of all, listen to Jackie. What happened to her?
Jackie
A really funny thing happened to me the other day when I was out with a friend.
We were in a restaurant in London, and suddenly I saw that she was just staring at something over the other side of the room with her mouth wide open and it turned out that Michael Jackson was sitting there and it was really unexpected: just a really odd experience to see this really famous person.
Neil
Jackie went to a restaurant with a friend and Michael Jackson was in the same room, which is, of course, a very strange and unusual situation.
How did she start telling the story? She says, A really funny thing happened to me the other day.
Jackie
A really funny thing happened to me the other day when I was out with a friend.
Neil
This is a good way of introducing funny or unusual events to a friend or colleague you know quite well.
It’s for informal situations. After she introduces it, she can then tell the story. At the end, she comments on the story.
Jackie
It was really unexpected: just a really odd experience to see this really famous person.
Neil
She says, It was really unexpected: just a really odd experience. Odd is another word meaning strange or unusual.
It’s typical with this type of story to end with a comment which tells us how you felt. Here’s the whole thing again.
Jackie
A really funny thing happened to me the other day when I was out with a friend.
We were in a restaurant in London and suddenly I saw that she was just staring at something on the other side of the room with her mouth wide open and it turned out that Michael Jackson was sitting there and it was really unexpected: just a really odd experience to see this really famous person.
Neil
Next I spoke to William. Something very funny happened to him over the weekend.
William
Something very, very strange and unexpected happened. I was going to the park with my little niece.
When we got there, there were about, I don’t know, about 200 or more clowns, and they were all on bikes or unicycles or whatever and I had my little niece with me and she went absolutely crazy. She doesn’t like clowns.
Neil
He took his niece to his local park and there were about 200 clowns riding bikes and unicycles.
A unicycle’s a bicycle with only one wheel. How does he introduce the story? He says, Something very strange and unexpected happened.
William
Something very, very strange and unexpected happened.
Neil
And after that he tells the story. And, just like Jackie, he finishes with a comment which tells us how it ended and what the feeling was.
William
She went absolutely crazy. She doesn’t like clowns.
Neil
His niece went crazy because she doesn’t like clowns. Now listen to it all again.
William
Something very, very strange and unexpected happened. I was going to the park with my little niece.
When we got there, there were about, I don’t know, about 200 or more clowns, and they were all on bikes or unicycles or whatever and I had my little niece with me and she went absolutely crazy. She doesn’t like clowns.
Neil
Lastly, here’s Catherine. Something funny’s just happened to her as well.
Catherine
You’ll never guess what’s just happened to me. Listen to this, right: I’ve just gone to get a sandwich and on my way back this woman came up to me and she said, ‘I can’t believe it’s you! Can I have your autograph?’ Can you believe it?
Neil
She left the office to buy a sandwich and outside the BBC building, someone asked her for an autograph.
They thought she was a famous person. Listen to how she introduces this story. She says, You’ll never guess what’s just happened to me. Listen to this, right.
Catherine
You’ll never guess what’s just happened to me. Listen to this, right.
Neil
After that, she tells the story and then ends with a comment: this time, Can you believe it? This shows that she’s really surprised about what happened.
Catherine
Can you believe it?
Neil
Now here’s Catherine again.
Catherine
You’ll never guess what’s just happened to me. Listen to this, right: I’ve just gone to get a sandwich and on my way back this woman came up to me and she said, I can’t believe it’s you! Can I have your autograph? Can you believe it?
Neil
So, to recap, if you want to tell a friend about something funny or surprising that’s happened to you, you can introduce it like this:
EXAMPLE
A really funny thing happened to me the other day.
Something very, very strange and unexpected happened.
You’ll never guess what’s just happened to me.
Neil
You then tell the story and end by adding a comment:
EXAMPLE
It was really unexpected, just a really odd experience.
She went absolutely crazy.
Can you believe it?
Neil
That’s all for this How To. Next time you have dinner with Michael Jackson, you’ll know how to tell your friends.
In this programme you can find out how to tell people about funny incidents.
After you have listened to the programme, get some more practice with the quiz below.
Start the story
• A really funny thing happened to me the other day. I saw Beyoncé in a restaurant.
• You’ll never guess what’s just happened to me. A complete stranger asked me for my autograph.
• Something very, very strange and unexpected happened yesterday. I went to the park and it was full of clowns on bicycles.
How to tell the story
• Well, I was in a restaurant with my friend.
• What happened was I looked over my friend’s shoulder and saw Beyoncé sitting there.
Add a comment at the end of the story
• It was really unexpected, just a really odd experience.
• Can you believe it?