Yap

Hello and welcome to The English We Speak, where we explain expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them, too! I'm Feifei, and I'm joined by Georgie.

Hi Feifei. How are you?

I'm very well, thank you. How are you?

Well, to be honest, I'm feeling pretty great today, actually! I woke up feeling really energetic. I felt really well-rested, and then I had the most delicious breakfast. So the day started off really well. And now I'm just really excited for the week ahead because I've got lots of nice plans. I need to go out and buy some food and things like that because I have a friend coming to stay, so she'll need some food.

OK, OK, Georgie. There is a time for yapping, and it's not now. Let's get on with the programme.

Oh, OK. Sorry Feifei. Well you just told me to stop yapping, so why don't we learn 'yap' in this programme?

Let's. 'Yap' is a slang word which means talk or gossip continuously for a long time. It refers to informal, unserious chat, so it's not used in formal settings.

Yes. I actually used this the other day because I saw a really old friend who I hadn't seen for ages. I went to hers for dinner and we spent the whole evening yapping. We yapped non-stop until about midnight. We had a lot to catch up on!

Right. So 'yap' can be used when one person is chatting endlessly, but it's also something that you can do with another person – you can both yap together.

Exactly. Now, it can occasionally have a slight negative connotation. When someone is talking too much and you want them to stop, you can say 'stop yapping'.

Right. Like what I said to you at the beginning of the programme. Let's listen to more examples.

Don't ask me what my favourite animal is. I could yap about animals all day. I could yap on and on and on. I was trying to explain something to my son over dinner, and he didn't really understand and wasn't paying attention. He just looked at me and said, 'What are you yapping about?' I call my mum on the way home from work and we always end up yapping for ages, and then I'm eating dinner really really late.

So, yapping means talking a lot in an informal way. What about its use, Georgie? What can we do with the word?

Well, you can follow it with 'at' and yap at someone – I was yapping at you earlier about my morning, which you didn't like. You can also yap about something, for example, my friend and I were yapping about our lives after dinner. You can also be a 'yapper' – that's a word for a person who yaps a lot.

Are you a yapper Georgie?

Well, I guess so…

OK, let's recap. We learnt the word 'yap', which means chat continuously and informally for a long time.

Thanks for joining us. Goodbye!

Goodbye!