Red tape means bureaucracy: unnecessary rules, forms and approvals that make a simple task drag on for weeks. The expression always sounds disapproving. Unlike many idioms, it works both in conversation and in IELTS essays about government and business: cut red tape for small businesses.
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a lot of / too much red tape; cut (through) red tape; red tape + involved in + -ing
- My parents spent almost a year fighting red tape just to build a small garage.
- The new law is supposed to cut red tape for small businesses.
- There's so much red tape involved in hiring foreign staff that many firms give up.
What changed
First versionGetting a work visa involves a lot of red tapes.
RevisionGetting a work visa involves a lot of red tape.
Red tape is made up of many forms and rules, so a plural may seem logical. But red tape is not counted item by item; it is uncountable, like paperwork or information. So the -s ending was simply removed in the correction.
Red tape means unnecessary rules and paperwork that get in the way. Paperwork is just the documents you have to fill in, with no judgement attached: I spent the morning doing paperwork. If you want to complain about bureaucracy, use red tape.
Your turn
Opening our café took months. The problem wasn't money but ___: eleven forms and three visits to the council.
Show the answer
red tape — Eleven forms and three visits to the council mean bureaucratic delays, which is red tape. The small print means the conditions in a contract that are easy to miss, but here the problem wasn't hidden conditions: it was forms and trips to offices.
Describe a time you had to deal with bureaucracy, for example when applying for a visa, getting a certificate or registering something. Say what you were trying to arrange and how long it took.
Registering my car in a new city took almost two months because of all the red tape at the local office.
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