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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 here with Beth.

Hi, Faye, I heard an interesting phrase on one of our BBC Learning English podcasts this week.

The interviewee was talking about cyber attacks on shops and hot on the heels of that,

there were cyber attacks on airlines. I hot on the heels of that, there were cyber attacks on

airlines. I heard this episode, it was very interesting, just like this phrase, hot on the heels.

It means something happens immediately after something else, often unexpectedly. Yes, events happen

one after the other with not much of a break. For example,

my cousin won a cooking competition last week and hot on the heels of that, she's been asked

to cater for a wedding. That's great. One of my favourite singers just released a new album and her

new world tour announcement came hot on the Heels of the album's release.

I booked tickets straight away. I can't wait. Oh, how exciting. Let's listen to more examples

of Hot on the Heels. There's another storm coming tonight, hot on the heels, hot on the heels of the flooding yesterday.

Hot on the heels of my massive payrise. I won the lottery.

Hot on the heels of their league win, the team then won the cup.

We also use hot on the heels to talk about following closely behind someone or something,

especially if you're likely to succeed in what you're aiming to do.

Yes, so we could say the police car was hot on the heels of the robber,

which means the officers were very physically close to the robber, chasing them.

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