Welcome to the English we speak with me Neil and me Faye Fay.

We have a word which describes something that is weak, vague or undefined.

It's wishy-washy.

Wishy-washy. Wishy-washy.

Let's hear how we can use this, Neil.

Let's think about what not to do in a job interview.

If you turn up without thinking about the questions you might get asked, you'll only be able to come up with wishy-washy answers.

I tried that once, it really didn't work.

The interviewers asked me why I should get the job and I could only say

something wishy-washy about being good at doing new things.

Wishy-washy answers to questions in job interviews or exams are those which don't really answer

the question. They are just a bit weak and undefined. We can also use it to talk about the

way that people do things.

Yes, we could say that a manager who takes a very weak approach to problems,

always too scared to talk to their staff, is a bit wishy-washy.

Listen to these examples of how we can use wishy-washy.

If you take such a wishy-washy approach to dealing with these problems, they're only going to get worse.

He gave some wishy-washy excuse about not having time, but I think he just didn't want to do it. Your answer needs to

address these points. If you just write something wishy-washy you won't get any marks. Marks. You're listening to the English we speak from BBC Learning English and we're learning

the word wishy-washy, which is a way to describe something as vague, weak or

undefined. Unsurprisingly it's always used in a negative way.

If you think of it as meaning weak and watery then then it's a kind of example of onomatopoeia.

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