节目简介

人人都有自己的天性。有人喜欢积极地和他人交流，也有人喜欢通过独处来 “恢复能量”。在英语中，我们可以用 “keep yourself to yourself” 来形容那些 “不爱与人交往，喜欢独处，甚至给人一种神秘感” 的人。听节目，跟主持人菲菲和 Becca 学习这个表达的用法。

文字稿

（关于台词的备注: 请注意这不是广播节目的逐字稿件。本文稿可能没有体现录制、编辑过程中对节目做出的改变。）

Feifei
Hello and welcome to Authentic Real English, where we explain phrases and expressions used by fluent English speakers so that you can use them, too. I'm Feifei.

Becca
And I'm Becca.

Feifei
Becca, our new office neighbour seems nice, but I hardly ever see him talking to anyone.

Becca
Yes, he really seems to keep himself to himself.

Feifei
Hmm, what does that mean?

Becca
If someone keeps themself to themselves, they don't spend much time socialising with other people. They prefer to be on their own and usually don't share much about their personal life. Someone who is introverted could prefer to keep themself to themselves.

Feifei
So, does it mean they're unfriendly?

Becca
Not at all. Someone who keeps themself to themselves can be perfectly friendly. It just means they're private or quiet. It usually has a neutral description, although sometimes people use it to suggest someone who is a bit mysterious.

Feifei
Ah, I see. Now, let's hear some more examples.

Examples
I'm just going to keep myself to myself today. I'm so tired.

I've been trying to get to know my new neighbour recently, but I think she likes to keep herself to herself.

When I go travelling on my own, I usually want to meet up with people, but there are others who just want to keep themselves to themselves.

Feifei
你正在收听的是 BBC 英语教学制作的 “地道英语” 节目。在本期节目中，我们正在学习表达 “keep yourself to yourself” 的用法。“Keep yourself to yourself” 的字面意思是 “把自己留给自己”，但实际上它用来形容一个人 “不太与他人来往，不喜欢交谈和社交”。这个说法通常并不带有责备的意味，不是说某人是个 “闷葫芦”，而只是比较直接客观地描述一个人 “性格比较内向，更喜欢独处，甚至可能显得有些神秘”。

Becca, can I say 'keep ourselves to ourselves'?

Becca
Yes, you absolutely can! You can change the pronoun depending on who we're talking about. She could keep herself to herself, or if there's a lot going on, I might want to keep myself to myself.

And with a very different meaning, if we say 'we keep something to ourselves', it means we're keeping a secret or just aren't sharing it. I guess it has a similar mysterious feeling to 'keep yourself to yourself'.

Feifei
我们还可以用和 “keep yourself to yourself” 类似的表达 “keep something to oneself” 来形容某人 “把事情放在心里，保守一个秘密”，或者 “独自占有某样东西，不与他人分享”。Well, Becca, I'm glad you didn't keep this expression to yourself and instead decided to share it with us.

That's it for this programme. Join us next time for more useful English expressions. Goodbye!

Becca
Bye!