The English We Speak: All hands on deck
Learning English Conversations
BBC
4.6 ⢠1.1K Ratings
đď¸ 5 August 2025
âąď¸ 3 minutes
đď¸ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
This phrase comes from a boating context. Learn how to use it here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to improve your English conversation skills? |
| 0:03.4 | We have a podcast for that. |
| 0:05.5 | Learning English Conversations is our home for authentic English. |
| 0:09.9 | Every week, learn a new phrase or idiom with the English we speak. |
| 0:14.3 | And across the year, listen to our special documentaries designed to improve your spoken English. |
| 0:25.6 | Search for learning English conversations in your podcast app or visit BBC learning English.com. |
| 0:26.6 | Hello and welcome to the English We Speak, where we explain expressions used by fluent English speakers |
| 0:33.6 | so that you can use them too. |
| 0:35.6 | I'm Faye and I'm joined by Georgie. How are you? I'm very well. Thank |
| 0:40.3 | you, Faye Faye. How are you? I'm very well, thank you, Georgie. Well, that's good news. Now, my friend used |
| 0:46.0 | an interesting phrase at the weekend and I thought it would be a good one to share. It's all hands on deck. |
| 0:52.2 | Oh yes, I know this one. But tell us the story of how they used it. |
| 0:56.7 | So I was on holiday with a group of friends and a few of us went food shopping. |
| 1:01.1 | When we got back, we wanted the others to help unload the car and put everything away. |
| 1:05.9 | My friend went in the house and shouted, all hands on deck. |
| 1:09.5 | Right. So in other words, everyone in the group needs to help. |
| 1:14.0 | And all hands on deck comes from a boating context, doesn't it? |
| 1:18.6 | Yes, it does. |
| 1:19.8 | A deck is the top part of the boat, the flat bit that you can walk on. |
| 1:23.9 | So if someone on a boat shouts, all hands on deck, sometimes in an emergency, it means everyone |
| 1:29.7 | must go to the deck and help fix a problem. So your friend used the phrase as a command. She was |
| 1:36.2 | telling everyone to come and help. But we can also use it as an adjective. For example, we needed an |
... |
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