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. ... ... ... ... ... ... Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them as well.
I'm Feifei. And I'm Beth. Feifei, how are you today? Oh, you know, muddling along. Everything's fine, the same as usual. Oh, you're muddling along. Well, that's what we're looking at today and it's a phrasal verb. If you say you're muddling along, it means you're coping fine with something. Things aren't great, but things aren't bad either. And it can also be used when you're doing something without a plan or in conditions which aren't perfect.
Yes. So, for example, I don't have enough money to spend on a new phone at the moment, so I am muddling along with my old one for now. It's not a great phone, but it's OK. for now. Yes so when working on projects I prefer to have a very detailed plan I don't like to muddle along. I'm the same. Let's hear some more examples of muddle along.
I've just moved into a new house and I don't really have any plates or dishes or anything or any furniture but I think we'll muddle along somehow. I could really do with a new job at the moment but there's nothing out there so... I'm just muddling along for now. I'm very disorganised. I don't really have a plan for my life. I just muddle along.
Now, we can also say muddle on and that has the same meaning. Yes, and we also have the phrasal verb muddle through. The main meaning of this is being able to do something even though you aren't organised or don't know how to. Yes, exactly. So my Spanish is quite low level. I could muddle through if I had to speak Spanish, but it would be a bit difficult for me. I'm sure your Spanish is just fine, Beth. We'll be back next time with another useful English phrase. See you soon. Bye.