‘Wrong’ vocabulary: Wrong Weather Forecast

Wrong, wrong wrong! There are lots of ways to say that you’ve made a mistake. Look out for the common English ‘being wrong’ vocabulary highlighted in bold in the text. Then read the explanations below.   British weathermen predicted yesterday that the UK would be battered by the ‘perfect storm’ over today and the weekend: torrential downpours, thunderstorms, gale force winds, hail and flooding have all been forecast. Well, I am glad to report that (at the time of writing) it seems that they have slightly miscalculated.  Not only have they made a slight error, they seem to have got it completely wrong. Today in London, the sun has been shining brightly and people are walking around in t-shirts and shorts. In fact, I would go as far to say as that it’s been a very nice summer’s day. Which means, all in all, that the weathermen were clueless on this one. They have done it before, too. A very famous BBC weatherman, Michael Fish said this during his weather forecast on 15 October 1987:  “Earlier on today, apparently, a woman rang the BBC and said she heard there was a hurricane on the way… well, if you’re watching, don’t worry, there isn’t!”     That night, the worst storm hit Britain since 1703 causing terrible damage and killing 18 people. I think that everyone can agree that the weathermen were quite a bit wide of the mark in this particular case. In fact, you might go as far to say as they got it so spectacularly wrong that they couldn’t organise a piss-up in a brewery. Of course, everyone makes mistakes and we shouldn’t be so harsh on the poor old weathermen. But the thing that annoys me is that they never own up to their mistakes. They never admit that they got it completely wrong the previous day. Have you ever heard a weatherman say, “Yesterday I said that it was going to be sunny today, but actually it was hammering down with rain all day. Sorry about that. Sometimes I don’t know my arse from my elbow.”??? No, I thought not. Me neither.

Being Wrong Vocabulary

to slightly miscalculate

to make a small mistake

to make a slight error

to make a small mistake

to get it completely wrong

to be 100% wrong

to be clueless

to be an idiot

to be a bit wide of the mark

to make a small to medium error

to get sth spectacularly wrong

to really make a bad mistake

to not be able to organise a piss-up in a brewery

to be an idiot that gets everything wrong, making mistakes all the time

everyone makes mistakes

Phrase meaning we can all be wrong sometimes, it’s only human

to not know your arse from your elbow

to be an idiot that always makes very big mistakes

Here’s 3 more weather-related, recent blogs you might be interested in:

1. Listen to the SGI native-speaker teachers having a natural conversation about British Weather in April this year.
2. Watch Prince Charles giving a weather forecast on the BBC.
3. The Sun is Shining in London: Win a free week of lessons at SGI.