Neil: Hello, welcome to Real English from BBC Learning¹ English, I’m Neil.

Lily: 大家好，我是杨莉。

Neil: In Real English we look at words and phrases that you might not find in your dictionary.

Lily: 在我们的 Real English《地道英语》节目中 我们要来学习一些书本以外的新词和说法。So, what’s today’s expression?

Neil: To faff about.

Lily: To faff about.

Neil: That’s right, to faff about.

Lily: What does it mean?

Neil: Well, to faff about, means to spend a lot of time doing unimportant² things when really you should be doing something more important.

Lily: Oh I see. To faff about 就是把时间都花在区区小事上，而忽略了更为重要的大事。说白了，就是耽误时间，瞎忙活的意思。

Neil: For example, perhaps you are a student with an important deadline for your coursework.

Lily: Oh, so you’d better do your work.

Neil: Yes, but instead of doing the work, you read a book, you phone your friend, you play some computer games…

Lily: Oh, I see, you waste time.

Neil: Yep. You faff about. You waste valuable time doing unimportant things.

Lily: 如果你喧宾夺主地浪费了宝贵时间，那么你就是在 faff about。

Insert

A: Come on, hurry up, we’re going to miss our train!

B: Just a sec, I’m can’t decide what scarf to wear.

A: Stop faffing about! We need to leave now or we’ll have to wait two hours for the next train!

Neil: To faff about is the verb, but if you want to talk about the activity, we say faffing about.

Lily: To faff about 是个动词短语，它的名词形式就是 faffing about。

Neil: If she doesn’t stop faffing around they’ll have to wait two hours to get the next train.

Lily: You said faffing around.

Neil: Yes you can say faff about or faff around. Both are possible.

Lily: Faff around 和 faff about 表达的是同一个意思，耽误时间，瞎忙活。

Neil: Join us again soon for some more Real English, from BBC Learning English. Goodbye!

Lily: See you.