¶ Financial Tools and HR Solutions
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¶ Learning 'A Little Something' Phrase
Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain phrases and expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too. I'm Feifei. And I'm Phil. Merry Christmas, Feifei! I got you a little something. Oh, thanks. Wow. It is little. Never mind. It's just a gift card, but I thought I'd get you something as we've spent another year explaining phrases and expressions used by fluent English speakers. We use a little something.
To talk about small presents. Yes, it doesn't have to be a Christmas present. For example, we sometimes get people a little something for their birthday or when they leave a job and we can bring people a little something back from a trip abroad. Sometimes a little something really is just a small present. However, in English, especially British English, we often like to make things sound less significant than they really are. And so sometimes... What we call a little something isn't that little.
No. So sometimes people can feel embarrassed about giving or receiving a large present. So we might call it a little something to make it feel less awkward. Let's hear some examples of people talking about a little something. So my friend has just had a baby and she said to not bring any presents but I took her a little something just because I thought I'm not going to go and not take a present for the baby.
Hi, thanks for coming to my party. I've just got a little something over here in case you get a bit hungry. My best friend said that he would give me a little something for my birthday and I'm very excited about it. We've been learning the expression a little something to talk about small gifts. As we said before, sometimes a little something doesn't actually mean something that little. We just want to make things less awkward.
Linked to this is the fact that we often use the adverb just with it. We just got you a little something. Or it's just a little something, but we hope you like it. That's it for this programme. Think of it as a little something from us to help your English. That's right. And we'll have another little something for you next time. See you then. Bye. Bye.
Understand news stories in English with our Learning English from the News podcast. In each episode, we talk about one big news story and the vocabulary in the headlines that will help you understand it. Follow the biggest stories in Looking to transform your business through better HR and payroll? Meet PayCorps, a paychecks company, the powerhouse solution that empowers leaders to drive results. From recruiting and development to payroll and analytics.
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