Education
The English We Speak: Neck of the woods
In this episode of 'The English We Speak', Feifei and Phil explore the informal expression 'neck of the woods', which refers to a specific area or neighborhood. They provide exampl...
The English We Speak: Neck of the woods
Education •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hello and welcome to the English We Speak
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where we explain expressions used by fluent English speakers
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so that you can use them too.
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I'm Feifei.
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And I'm Phil.
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What have you been up to, Feifei?
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Well, I just had an old friend visit.
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I told her, dropping if you're ever in my neck of the woods.
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And she did.
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Wait, Feifei, you live in the woods?
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No, no. It's just an expression.
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My neck of the woods means my area.
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Oh, yes.
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And I think that's the expression we should learn in this programme.
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Neck of the woods.
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OK, yes.
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So, when someone is talking about their neck of the woods
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or that neck of the woods,
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they are talking about an area or part of an area.
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It's quite an informal expression.
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If someone recommends a great restaurant, for example,
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you might say, I'll have a look when I'm in that neck of the woods.
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When someone talks about something that's near where you live,
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you might say, oh, that's in my neck of the woods.
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Let's listen to these people using the expression neck of the woods.
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I'm going to be in your neck of the woods next week.
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Shall we go for a coffee?
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I live in the suburbs of the city.
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Nothing exciting happens in my neck of the woods.
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I'm not really familiar with this neck of the woods,
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but I do know a few good shops around here.
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We've been learning the expression neck of the woods
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to talk about an area or part of an area.
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We've already said that it's quite informal,
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so it's most likely to be used in speech rather than in writing.
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It's also really common to use a possessive pronoun
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to relate it to a person.
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We often talk about my neck of the woods or your neck of the woods.
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Well, I need to get back to my neck of the woods now.
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See you next time.
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See you then. Bye.
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Bye.