Hello and welcome to the English We Speak, where we explain phrases used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them too.

I'm Faye Faye and I'm joined by Georgie. Hi Georgie. Are you ready to begin?

Yes, I am. But actually Faye, I was thinking about switching up the format of this program a bit. Try something a little different.

What do you think?

Hmm.

I'm not sure about that, Georgie.

We have to do things by the book around here.

We can't just make up last minute changes whenever we like.

Okay, I suppose that makes sense.

Well, you just said we do things by the book,

and that's the phrase we're looking at in this program. Can you explain what you just said we do things by the book, and that's the phrase we're looking at

in this program. Can you explain what you meant by we do things by the book, Faye Faye? Yes,

I mean that we follow the rules exactly without improvising. So to remember it, maybe imagine a book

of rules that you follow, but it doesn't have to be a physical book of

rules. Let's hear some examples from our BBC Learning English colleagues.

I know when some people are cooking, they just like throw any old ingredients in there and make it up as

they go along, but I like to do it by the book and follow the recipe.

I do everything by the book and it does make it slower, which can be a bit annoying,

but yeah, got to follow the rules.

Our accountant is very thorough.

He does everything by the book, so I trust his judgment.

So to use this phrase, you need an action first. Most commonly, you'll hear it with the verb

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