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Hello and welcome to the English we speak and Jane.

And hello, I'm Rob biting my tongue.

Rob bite your tongue is our phrase today but you don't have to physically do it.

Oh phewiting my tongue was painful and it was very hard to speak.

Well that's why we sometimes tell people to bite their tongue. You see, when we bite our tongue, we are stopping

ourselves from saying something that might offend or upset someone. It might be inappropriate

too. You might also say to someone else, bite your tongue. It

means don't say it, but, Rob, we don't physically bite our tongues.

Right, so for example, I shouldn't tell someone they've put on weight.

I should bite my tongue.

Exactly.

Just like the people in these examples. I wanted to tell him his new shirt looked awful, but I decided to bite my tongue.

I know the food's not great, but please bite your tongue. I know the food's not great, but please bite your tongue and just eat it.

I had to bite my tongue when my friend kept bragging about her great exam results.

This is the English we speak from BBC Learning English.

We're learning about the phrase, bite your tongue, which means to stop yourself from saying

something offensive, hurtful, or inappropriate.

So Rob, we shouldn't tell people we think they've gained a bit of weight, should we?

No, we should bite our tongue.

Good, and I will bite my tongue about your weight.

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