Off the cuff 即興

內容簡介

主持人 Beth 的西班牙語老師突然要求大傢上臺發言，練習口語。Beth 沒有事先作準備，所以隻好即興發揮。實用短語 “off the cuff” 的意思就是 “沒有準備，即興地”。“即興評論” 用英語怎麼說？聽對話，學習 “地道英語” 短語 “off the cuff” 在日常交流中的正確用法。

文字稿

（關於臺詞的備註: 請註意這不是廣播節目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能沒有體現錄制、編輯過程中對節目做出的改變。）

Feifei
大傢好，歡迎收聽 AYYBLOG英語教學的 “地道英語” 節目。在每期節目中，我們都會介紹一個英語母語人士或講英語流利的人會用到的表達。I’m Feifei.

Beth
And I’m Beth. How’s it going, Feifei?

Feifei
I’m very well. Thank you, Beth. The phrase we’re looking at in this programme is ‘off the cuff’. It’s really interesting because there are lots of phrases in the English language with clothes words in them, but actually, they don’t have anything to do with clothes, and ‘off the cuff’ is one of them.

Beth
Yes! So, a cuff is the end of a shirt sleeve. It might have buttons, or you might need cufflinks for it. But ‘off the cuff’ means that you do or say something with no preparation or very little preparation, so it’s got nothing to do with clothes.

Feifei

That’s right. So, I actually have an example for this. In my last class I had at university, my teacher asked me to give a speech to the class, like a reflection. I had no warning and I just said something really short in front of everyone. I can’t actually remember what I said, but there was no preparation, so I said it ‘off the cuff’.

Beth
That sounds daunting! So, it was completely improvised. You hadn’t planned anything because you didn’t know it was going to happen. You probably thanked your teachers and classmates.

Feifei
Beth, have you done anything ‘off the cuff’ recently?

Beth
Err, let me think, so, yeah. Actually, I go to a Spanish class, and the other day we suddenly had exam practice. The teacher didn’t give us any time to prepare, so when I got to my speaking, I just said something off the cuff. I hadn’t planned anything.

Feifei
I bet you did really well.

Beth
I don’t know. Here are some more examples of the expression ‘off the cuff’.

Examples
I was in a meeting with my boss, and he asked me in this meeting to explain something quite complicated to the people in the meeting, and I hadn’t prepared. I had to do it off the cuff.

I’ve got to do a speech at my wedding, and I haven’t done any preparation, so I guess I’ll just do it off the cuff.

One of my teachers has called in sick and I’m going to have to teach their class. I haven’t done any preparation, so I’ll have to do it off the cuff.

Beth
Now, it’s also really common to use ‘off the cuff’ as an adjective, particularly before the words ‘remark’ or ‘speech’. Now, if someone makes an off-the-cuff remark, it means they say something without thinking about it first.

Feifei

Yes. And that actually could get someone into trouble. It could be offensive if you say something without thinking about your words first. So, you might have to then apologise, and say “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. It was just an off-the-cuff remark”.

Beth
Exactly. So, to recap, we’ve learnt the phrase ‘off the cuff’ which means to say something without preparing first.

Feifei
是的，“off the cuff” 這個短語很實用，它的意思是 “沒有準備，即興地，未加思索”。比如，我們可以用 “off the cuff” 來描述自己說的話沒有經過事先準備或思考 “I said a few words off the cuff.（我隨便說瞭幾句。）” “Off-the-cuff” 也可以作形容詞使用，但要用連字符把這三個詞連起來，組成一個詞 “off-the-cuff”。比如，上面我們講到的 “off-the-cuff remark（即興評論）”。好瞭，希望大傢可以練習使用 “off the cuff”。

Beth
We’ll be back next week with another useful English phrase. See you next time!

Feifei
Goodbye.