2023-04-24 Under your breath – The English We Speak

Introduction

Do ever want to tell yourself something, but let no-one else hear? There’s an expression to describe that action, and we can tell you what it is in this programme.

Transcript

Neil
Welcome to The English We Speak, with me, Neil.

Feifei
And me, Feifei.

Neil
In this episode, we are looking at the expression ‘under your breath’. It means ‘say something so quietly that no one else can hear exactly what you’re saying’.

Feifei
We use it to describe when someone complains or makes negative comments to themselves. We often ‘talk under our breath’ to let people know we’re unhappy or angry about something but don’t want them to hear the words we’re saying. 

Neil
Yes, and it can be a quite unpleasant or nasty situation. We could be saying negative things about someone, and we don’t want them to hear exactly what we’re saying. 

Feifei
Yes. Last night, I was watching a terrible film with Jiaying. I said ‘I hate this film’ under my breath. I wanted her to know I wasn’t enjoying it, but I said it under my breath so she didn’t know my exact feelings.

Neil
While we often use it for complaints or negative comments, sometimes we can use it to describe when we talk to ourselves directly.

Feifei
Yes. So, yesterday I played a game of table tennis against Rob. I said under my breath ‘I’m going to beat you, Rob’. This is to encourage myself.

Neil
Exactly! Let’s hear some examples before we talk more about this idiom.

Examples
He always says things under his breath about the work and tasks he’s given. I’m not sure what his problem is.

Bruce told himself under his breath that he would not come back to the restaurant again. He hated it.

She said something under her breath, but I couldn’t quite hear it! She looked angry though. 

Feifei
You’re listening to The English We Speak from BBC Learning English, and we are learning about the expression ‘under your breath’, which means ‘say something very quietly’. We often use it to describe talking to yourself or when we don’t want people to know exactly what we’re saying because we are complaining.

Neil
We often use it with verbs of speech, so for example ‘I said something under my breath’. We sometimes use it with the verb ‘mutter’, which has a similar meaning: ‘speak quietly in a way that’s not easy to hear’ and is often used to talk about someone complaining.

Feifei
Yes. ‘Mutter something under your breath’. As ‘under your breath’ is an idiom, it’s quite informal.

Neil
So, the next time you hear someone complaining, but you can’t understand everything they are saying, you now know the idiom you can use.

Feifei
They are ‘speaking under their breath’. Join us again to learn more common English expressions. Thank you, and bye.

Neil
Bye.