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Hello and welcome to the English we speak.

I'm Jain.

And hello, it's me, Neil.

Neil, what's wrong?

You look a little sad.

Well, earlier, the owner of the local coffee shop laughed at me.

She said my purple suit made me look ridiculous.

She said I looked like a big grape.

Well, I hope you clapped back.

I certainly did not. I just bought my coffee and left.

Why would I clap at her horrible comment?

I don't want to applaud it. No, Neil, I said clap back. We use clap back to mean

reply or retort. So if someone criticises you, you respond. Ah, good point.

I should have said that if she doesn't like my suit, I won't drink coffee from her shop ever again.

Yes, you should have clapped back with that.

But now, let's listen to these examples.

When she said his sponge cake wasn't nice, he clapped back and said she made bad

cups of tea. Don't clap back at me.

I wasn't trying to criticize you

when I said you need to change your t-shirt.

...