Feifei: Hello everybody. I'm Feifei, and welcome to another Authentic Real English from BBC Learning Engl...

Dan: Erm, hang on a minute Feifei.

Feifei: Dan what are you doing? 我们得开始录节目了！你说说我整天跟这些一点儿都不专业的人一起工作，气死我了。

Dan: It's this machine Feifei. It's on the blink.

Feifei: It's what?

Dan: On the blink. It isn't working properly.

Feifei: Ahh, on the blink. On the blink 的意思就是机器出了故障，不灵了。It's a common phrase to use when machines are not functioning, and it's our Authentic Real English phrase today. Is that machine working yet Dan?

Dan: No, not yet.

Feifei: Well, while you try to fix that, let's hear some more examples of people using the phrase on the blink.

Examples

A: Is that a new phone?

B: Yeah, my other one's on the blink, so I'm using this while it's being repaired.

A: Did you see that programme last night?

B: No my TV's gone on the blink again; I can't watch anything.

Feifei: In the second example we heard the speaker say that his TV's gone on the blink. You can use on the blink with the verb to go, so we'd say something's gone on the blink, that it went on the blink, or that it's about to go on the blink. OK Dan, have you fixed that machine yet? Or is that still on the blink?

Dan: No, all fixed. It should be working perfectly now.

Feifei: Excellent. So it's bye from us. And don't forget to check out more Authentic Real English programmes on our website.

Dan: That's bbcukchina.com. Bye!

Feifei: Bye!