English in a Minute: Phrases with fire
Learning English Vocabulary
BBC
4.5 • 523 Ratings
🗓️ 20 August 2025
⏱️ 1 minutes
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Summary
Did you know it can be a good thing to be 'on fire'? Learn this phrase and more in this podcast.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to BBC LearningEnglish.com. |
| 0:04.8 | Fire is hot and dangerous. |
| 0:07.9 | So what kind of things can we express with the word fire? |
| 0:13.7 | If you play with fire, you're doing something risky or dangerous. |
| 0:18.4 | Leaving your car unlocked in the city, if you play with fire, you're going to get |
| 0:22.2 | burnt. If you describe someone as on fire, it means they're performing amazingly. Did you see |
| 0:29.8 | Molly's presentation? She's on fire today. She's doing so well. But if you're under fire, |
| 0:36.6 | that means you're being criticised or attacked. This comes |
| 0:40.0 | from fire referring to bullets. Bill was under fire because he kept turning up late to work. |
| 0:47.4 | What happens if you add fuel to the fire? You make it bigger. You make a bad situation even worse. |
| 0:55.5 | Don't argue with her now. |
| 0:57.0 | You'll only add fuel to the fire. |
| 0:59.8 | Practice these phrases and you'll be on fire in your English conversations. |
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