Feifei: Hello and welcome to The English
Rob: ...and hello, I'm Rob. Erm, Feifei, why
were you in the cafe with the boss earlier?
Rob: Come on. I saw you having lunch
Feifei: OK, I admit it. I was having lunch
with the boss. What's wrong with that?
Rob: Well, we all know there is
a promotion in the department on offer -
to curry favour with the boss so that
Feifei: Hold on. I can assure you I was
NOT having curry with the boss -
Rob: Feifei, if you 'curry favour with
someone' you are not eating curry.
It means you are 'trying to get someone -
the boss - to like you or even give you
Feifei: I was not! But I like the expression.
Rob: OK. Well, let's hear some examples
of people currying favour with someone else...
I know what you're up to! You're trying to
curry favour with the manager by telling
her what a great job she's doing!
The company tried to curry favour with its
employees by giving them all a pay rise.
He's trying to get free tickets to the gig
by currying favour with the tour manager -
Feifei: This is The English We Speak from
BBC Learning English and we're talking
about the phrase 'to curry favour (with
someone)' which means to try and get
Rob: Another way of saying it is you are
'trying to keep in with' someone.
Feifei: It's all a bit false, Rob, trying
to make someone like you - which is why I
was NOT trying to curry favour
Rob: You won't get the promotion anyway.
Feifei: We were actually talking about you!
Feifei: He wanted my advice on whether
he should give the promotion to you.
Rob: To me! Well, come on then,
Feifei: You'll need to curry favour with me,
Rob: How about dinner? I know a nice