I'm Feifei… and, not for the first time,

it looks like Rob is late…

Rob: Here I am! Yes, really sorry. The bus

was really slow.

Feifei: Hmmm… Bad on the roads today, huh?

Rob: Terrible traffic.

Feifei: That's funny, because I took the

train in this morning and I saw you at the

other end of the carriage.

Rob: Err, OK. Sorry. Yes. I took the train,

not the bus. Little fib there.

Feifei: Why would you want to fib about

that? Well, not to worry, it gives us the

perfect opportunity to talk about fibs and

fibbing – something Rob is very good at.

Rob: Oh yes, to fib is to tell a small lie,

nothing too serious. Like giving a false

reason for being late. Come on Feifei, you

do it too!

Feifei: I'm always on time! Well, almost

always.

You can use fib as a verb 'to fib' - and

it can also be a noun – 'a little fib',

or 'to tell a fib'. Let's listen to these examples:

Marty fibbed that he was going to study

at his friend Lucio's house, when in fact

they went to see a movie.

While watching the horror scenes, Marty

was so scared he had to close his eyes.

But after the film he fibbed he was not

frightened at all.

Marty told Lucio that he knew the main

actor from the movie, but that was just

another fib. In fact Marty had just met the

actor for five seconds and taken a quick

selfie together.

Feifei: This is The English We Speak from

BBC Learning English. So anyway, I'm still

a bit confused about why you had to fib

about being late?

Rob: Well, I just had something to do before

coming in to the office.

Feifei: Really? That sounds mysterious.

Rob: Not really. I wanted to go to a shop.

Feifei: Do tell me why.

Rob: OK, OK – well it was going to be a

surprise, but I wanted to buy you a little

cake, because it's your birthday today and

I can't come to your party later.

Feifei: Oh, that's so sweet. Though you

know, it's not really my birthday today.

Rob: What?

Feifei: Yes. It's on Saturday. Sorry, a little

fib there. I told everyone it was my

birthday today so they would be more

likely to come to my party.

Rob: Oh right, very sneaky! Enjoy the cake

anyway. Bye.

Feifei: Yum. Bye.