#36 - To put someone on the spot - with Ahmad from Senegal

Transcript:

Thank you Wayne. And thank you again for your service. Let's turn to the audience now. Uh, Oh, a lot of hands going up, mr. President, what? I'm pixeling.

Oh, well, uh, you know, you put, you kind of put me on the spot here that, that, uh, the guy in the glasses right back at me in the back end. Why not?

Okay here. We have to put someone on the spot to put someone on the spot, which means the embarrass someone by asking them a difficult question. I love this one because it is easy to remember for me.

This was Ahmad from Senegal. You might have listened to an episode in which he appeared, actually it was episode number 32 in which we covered the expression "to come to terms with".
And right at the beginning, you could listen to Obama the ex president of the USA. So someone tries to put him on the spot. And well, now we are wondering which question was meant to put him on the spot.

My question is, would you please raise my taxes?

Oh. And by the way, the man was unemployed by choice because he has gathered a lot of money and Obama rambled on. So he's not giving a short answer. His answer was about six minutes or so. So I didn't cover it.

Examples: My brightest student asked me a difficult question today. He always puts me on the spot.

My brightest student asked me a difficult question today. He always puts me on the spot.

Another example, my friend's wife puts him on the spot when she asked him what he had been up to the previous night in front of people.

My friend's wife put him on the spot. When she asked him what he had been up to the previous night in front of people.

So the expression is informal and according to the Oxford languages definitions, it means to force someone into a situation in which they must make a difficult decision or answer a difficult question.

What's your question? Are you going to make a film together ??????well, you put me on the spot there?

I think I need to treat my body with more respect...

To put someone on the spot. That was an episode again with Ahmad I want to thank you for your help. My name is Daniel Goodson. I am the vocab man. Thanks for tuning in. And I hope I'll... I hope you're back for the next episode I would be very glad about that. Bye.

Obama: Oh, well, uh, you kind of put me on the spot here.

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