We Speak. I'm Feifei...

And hello, I'm Rob.

Rob, what's the smell?

Are you cooking something?

Yes. It's my favourite - roast beef. Yummy!

Roast beef?! This isn't really

the time to be cooking.

Well, you said let's do 'roast' today - so

I thought I'd make a start. Just got to do

the roast potatoes now...

Rob, stop! I meant let's do the word 'roast'.

Oh right. Well, this is a good

example of roasting.

No, Rob. It's not the meaning I had in

mind. 'Roasting' is not just

about cooking food

in an oven. We can 'roast' people by

criticising them harshly.

So, Rob, you were very foolish

to start cooking something while

we're presenting a programme!

Oh, am I being 'roasted' now?

You sure are, but you're not alone.

Here are some examples...

We had to roast the teacher after she was

seen shopping when she

was supposed to be

off work with flu!

After my PowerPoint presentation froze

during an important meeting,

my boss gave me a roasting.

She was roasted by her friends after

she posted pictures of herself

on social media showing

off her 'amazing' suntan.

This is The English We Speak from BBC

Learning English and we're

talking about the word 'roast',

which means 'to criticise severely'.

I'm sure you're used to

being roasted, Rob?

Well, if you mean I am hot and smell

delicious, then I am very roasted!

Excuse me?

Feifei, another meaning of 'roast' is to

tease someone in a light-hearted

way or give a funny

comeback when someone

tries to humiliate you.

Oh, ha ha! But hold on, Rob,

I can smell something else...

Oh no - I left the oven on and now

the food is burning. Help!

Rob, you are really stupid - and you

can't cook either.

That's me roasted! Bye.

Bye.