G'day, you mob, and welcome to Aussie English.
I am your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken
down under. So, whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to
understand what the flipping hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come
to the right place.
So, sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English.
Let's go
. G'day, you mob. How's it going?
My name is Pete and I'm the host of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone
wanting to learn Australian English and get a fair dinkum dose of Australian
culture, history, current affairs, all that jazz.
Guys today is a special episode.
So, I'm trying something a little bit new.
I'm trying to add to the expression episodes that I normally do
on the podcast by giving you content now.
So, like this episode where I'm going to recap the five most recent
episodes, so we can go over the meanings of the five most
recent expressions and you can kind of have a quick revision.
You know, I'll try and keep this video and podcast episode to about five to ten minutes.
Don't forget that if you want the full transcripts to all podcast
episodes, you can sign up to the premium podcast.
You will get the premium podcast player, which will allow you to read the transcript whilst you
listen. You can pause, you can take notes, you can fast forward, you can rewind.
It's a really good tool when you're studying English as well as using the podcast
material. You can also obviously get access to all of the stuff in the premium podcast membership
if you're an Academy member.
So, if you join the Academy, there are hundreds of expression courses in there.
Courses that are built around the expression episodes that have other videos
breaking down, important vocab, important expressions and the
pronunciation exercises in those expression episodes.
And then also including other content, like sometimes dialogue videos that are related
to the content in that episode.
And you'll also obviously get in the academy three weekly speaking
calls with teacher Ian and other students.
So, you get to meet a lot of people at the same time.
So, for all of this information, guys, go to AussieEnglish.com.au, and check
that out or click the little card up here if you're watching the YouTube video, because you'll be
able to go there, too, via that card.
Anyway, without any further ado, guys, I got my little coffee here.
This is my Darwin Cafe mug.
My parents found this over in Canada.
So, I'm an evolutionary biologist.
I'm a big fan of Darwin.
And they found this mug and brought it back.
Having a coffee sitting down here in my little office for now whilst we're still in this
house, as you guys will probably know by the time you hear this, if Kels
episode with me is out, we have to move house.
So, that's going to be happening soon.
Anyway, getting side-tracked.
Let's just get in and recap the five most recent expressions.
Okay.
So, number one, "as clear as mud".
If something is "as clear as mud", it is actually not
very clear at all and not very easy to understand.
So, remember that if someone were to give you instructions, you know, maybe they're giving you
directions.
Mate, how do I get from Geelong to Melbourne and they give you this really
detailed series of directions, you know, go straight, then turn right.
And then at the second lights, you need to turn left and then left again and then turn right and
then four more kilometres, and there's Melbourne.
You might say, mate, those instructions are as clear as
mud. Right?
They're really difficult to understand.
They are not easy to understand at all.
They are "as clear as mud".
The point here being that mud, right, the liquid made from water and
soil.
Stuff that, you know, kids might play in.
My son plays in the mud after it's rained.
Is not transparent, it's not clear.
It is actually murky, right, it's opaque, it's very
dark, it's very hard to see through.
So, clear as mud. It's kind of an oxymoron.
Mud is not clear. All right.
Number two, "to fly off the handle" at someone or you
could just say, "to fly off the handle".
I wonder if you guys remember this expression, "to fly off the handle".
If you fly off the handle, if you fly off the handle at someone, it is that
you become incredibly angry at someone usually out of
nowhere. Right, suddenly, unexpectedly, you just suddenly get angry.
So, maybe someone, you know, makes me a coffee in a coffee store
and it's just not hot enough.
I prefer my cappuccinos to be really hot.
And I go in there and I pay for the coffee.
I'm waiting. They give it to me and it's just not quite right.
You know, it's not hot enough.
A normal reaction might be, hey, mate, I prefer my cappuccino to be a little bit hotter.
Could you remake it or could you heat it up a little bit?
But if instead you were "to fly off the handle", you might, you know, go
into a rage, you know, what the hell were you doing?
This is horrible. This is the worst coffee ever.
You know that would be flying off the handle.
And if you do it at the barista, the person who made the coffee, you're flying off the
handle at that person.
Right, "to fly off the handle", to become very angry, unexpectedly and
suddenly. Number three, "hands down", right.
"Hands down".
If something is, and then you can kind of use any adjective you want
and then say, "hands down".
So, something is "hands down" the best or the best "hands down".
Or it could be this thing is "hands down", the worst ever.
You know, it's "hands down", the most atrocious thing ever.
It's used as an intensifier to mean easily,
clearly, decisively, you know, evidently, obviously.
And then the best, the worst.
The biggest, the smallest, whatever the adjective is that you're using to describe that thing.
So, what's an example?
Again, I could use maybe...
What have I got here? Okay.
All right. I've got some batteries here, so I bought some rechargeable.
.. What have we got here?
...Ever Ready batteries the other day because we don't like throwing
batteries in the trash.
So, I've got all these rechargeable batteries.
If I find out that Ever Ready these rechargeable batteries here lasts something like
ten times longer than Duracell or whatever other brands of
batteries I've been using, I might say, man, Ever Ready are "hands down" the
best battery brand I've ever tried.
"Hands down". And if Duracell's the worst that I've ever tried, I could say, man,
Duracell is "hands down" the worst that I've ever tried.
Another example might be if we get into whisky, you know, I've got some Sullivan's Cove
here. Sullivan's Cove is a very famous Australian whisky.
It's won a bunch of awards.
I tried this whisky recently and it was "hands down", one of the most
average whiskies that I've had out of Australia.
It wasn't as good as I was expecting when previously I had another
Sullivan's Cove and it was "hands down" the best whisky that I had ever had, right.
"Hands down".
Number four, "to turn a blind eye" to something
or towards something.
"to turn a blind eye", to turn a blind eye to something.
I wonder if you remember what this one means.
So, imagine someone is misbehaving at work.
Maybe they're stealing from work, right.
So, they're working in hospitality at a restaurant.
And the person behind the till, the cash register is taking money
out and putting it in their pocket, when they go home.
They're stealing. If someone notices that but says nothing and pretends not to see
that that thing has happened, they are "turning a blind eye" to that
thing, right. The idea being that they have one eye that they can see out of one that's blind.
They are trying not to notice that thing or pretending it's not happening.
So, they turn their blind eye towards it.
So, they're blind eye obviously doesn't see it, right.
"To turn a blind eye" towards something is to pretend not to notice
something. Number five, which you should be most
familiar with, as this was last week's expression, is your "bread
and butter".
your "bread and butter".
So, someone's bread and butter, my bread and butter, his bread and butter, bread and butter.
Remember that this means one's primary trade or profession or means of
earning a living, right.
Of getting an income.
Of earning a crust if you want to use the Australian slang term.
So, for instance, online English content creation is my "bread
and butter" with respect to learning foreign languages.
Portuguese at the moment is my "bread and butter".
It's the language that I'm spending the most time with.
It's what I'm most familiar with.
It's my "bread and butter". So, in that sense, it's more an activity or a hobby that I'm most
familiar with, that I am the best at out of the other options that I have.
Right. So, there you go, guys.
There are five of the most recent Aussie English expressions that you can use.
To be honest, these are English expressions that are used everywhere.
They're not just Australian English.
You can use them in America, in Great Britain.
Hopefully you've gone out and checked all of these episodes on the podcast.
So, you'll be able to click up here if you're watching the video to go to these podcast episodes
and have a listen. If you've been listening to these podcast episodes and including this
one and you haven't checked out the YouTube videos or YouTube channel yet, go to "Aussie
English" on YouTube, just do a search for it.
You'll find it. And for everything else, Australian English just go to
AussieEnglish.com.
I'm your host, Pete.
I hope you've had a ripper of a day and I'll see you next time.
Should say, cheers.
Cheers, guys. See yah.