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Welcome to English in a Minute!
If you have trouble breathing, you could become a bit blue in the face.
But what does it mean to talk until you are blue in the face?
Blue in the Face
Speaker A: Ooh. Dan, do you have $5 I can borrow?
Speaker B: Sorry, I don’t.
Speaker A: Please! I really need a second cup of coffee! And I’ll pay you back tomorrow.
Speaker B: Anna, you can ask until you’re blue in the face, but I don’t have any money on me.
If you talk until you are blue in the face, you spend a lot of time talking, but nothing changes. For example, parents might get blue in the face asking their children to clean their room. But that doesn’t mean the room will ever get cleaned.
And that’s English in a Minute!
*This article has been edited and reprinted from VOA Learning English with permission from Voice of America (VOA) for use in English language materials.
English 
日本語