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 Feifei.
Hey everyone, I'm Phil and I am so happy.
Oh, how are you so bouncy at the start of the week?
Can you dial down the energy?
I'm getting a little tired just listening to you.
OK, OK, I'll dial it down a bit.
And actually, that's what we should learn in this programme.
What dial down means?
Well, imagine you're looking at the controls of a machine.
A dial can be something that you turn to change the intensity of something.
Dial is also a verb, so if you dial something down, you reduce its intensity.
Now, you told me to dial down the energy.
Obviously, there aren't actually any controls.
It's just a metaphor.
So we use it much more generally to talk about reducing the intensity of something.
Yes.
If you want someone to make something simpler, then you can ask them to dial down the complexity.
If you want to resolve an awkward situation at work,