207.- Off the top of my head. Profesor.

Off the top of my head

https://www.bbc.co.uk/learningenglish/english/features/the-english-we-speak_2022/ep-230102

Summary

When you don’t have the facts and figures at hand, you have to make a quick guess. Where does this information come from? We can tell you as we explain this English phrase.

Transcript

Feifei
Hello, and welcome to The English We Speak with me, Feifei …

Rob
… and me, Rob. Hey, Feifei, we’ve taught a lot of English phrases and idioms over the years, haven’t we?

Feifei
We sure have.

Rob
But have we explained one about using our memory?

Feifei
I can’t think of one off the top of my head.

Rob
I think you just have! ‘Off the top of my head’. Let’s use that one.

Feifei
OK, Rob. When we say something is ‘off the top of my head’, it means we are saying something from memory and without thinking much about it. We’re just saying what we think we know.

Rob
Yes, it’s just about quickly remembering and saying some facts without checking them. And off the top of our heads, we have some examples of this phrase now, don’t we?

Feifei
We do, Rob. And here they are …

Examples
Off the top of my head, I think we’ve collected about £100 for Jean’s leaving present.

I haven’t written it down, but off the top of my head we’ve sold about 1,000 raffle tickets.

Off the top of your head, do you know what time the flight from Tokyo arrives?

Feifei
This is The English We Speak from BBC Learning English. We’re looking at the phrase ‘off the top of my head’ – which means saying something from memory and not checking the facts.

And Rob, off the top of your head, do you know exactly how many phrases and idioms we have taught so far?

Rob
Oh… off the top of my head, I’d say err… 707?

Feifei
No, Rob – I’d say it’s more like 708.

Rob
Is that just off the top of your head?

Feifei
It is, Rob – but I have a very good head for numbers.

Rob
If you say so, Feifei. But I’ll go and count them just to be sure. Bye.

Feifei
Bye.