Live Lesson: 15 Idioms Commonly Used In Australia | Learn Australian English | Aussie English

let's take two guys let's try that again I've got my camera and I'm not used to having it sort of facing up like this and videoing myself normally I like to have it like this but I'm using an app on the camera for doing the livestream for the pages and it doesn't seem to you know how the screen will flick automatically when you turn the camera sideways for some reason it doesn't seem to be doing that anyway take two let's try this again let's try this again so I wanted to do fifteen idioms for you guys I wanted to go through fifteen idioms that I found on a really cool website the website is just Australian Catholic University but they had a nice little blog here an international blog for fifteen idioms commonly used in Australia so I wanted to go through these one by one introduce them talk about whether or not I would actually use these idioms myself it's a little bit uh cold today and then give you some example sentences as well as to how you can use these idioms in everyday language so idiom number one idiom number one to beat around the bush to beat around the bush when someone takes ages to say something they don't get to the point it means that they're beating around the bush from the top of my head I can't remember where this one originates from but imagine someone has like a bat and they're hitting a bush I think that originally the idea was to try and scare a bird out of the bush for people to shoot for hunters to shoot that bird and they'd have to send people in to hit the bush to beat the bush for the bird to come out so maybe this expression for some reason turn into the people that go and beat the bush a wasting time and so when we use to beat around the bush to describe someone today in English it means that they are wasting time they're taking too long to get to the point so if for example I saw a politician on TV and you know how politicians are always trying to to say a lot without saying anything you know especially in Australia the politicians will always be like Oh Robert you'll ask them a question and they won't get to the point they won't address the question that is the perfect time to use the expression that politician is beating around the bush they're wasting time they're not getting to the point so that's the first expression to beat around the bush the second one is to be barking up the wrong tree to be barking up the wrong tree so imagine you're a dog and you've run up to a tree and you're going up the tree as if you chase the cat or maybe a possum some kind of animal you've chased up the tree but imagine the dog is at the wrong tree so he's barking up this tree he's at the front of the tree he's looking up the tree with his feet up on it on the trunk of the tree he's looking up when he's going up the tree the cat's actually in another tree behind him so the cats in the wrong tree the dogs barking up one tree the cats in the wrong tree this expression means that you have come to the wrong place for information so like the dog is going to the wrong tree and found no cat because the cat's in the other tree if someone came to me and asked me a question that I couldn't because I couldn't answer or that I didn't know I could say so dude you're Barkin up the wrong tree you're barking up the wrong tree so that's the expression to bark up the wrong tree you've come to the wrong place for this information expression number three don't give up your day job don't give up your day job so in this expression we have the phrasal verb to give up and this would mean to sort of stop doing so if you gave up your day job it would mean that you've quit your day job the job that you do during the day in order to make money so when you tell someone though don't give up your day job this expression is something that you would say if someone is doing something they're not very good at in front of you and it would be like you saying to them yeah I wouldn't be trying to do that professionally imagine someone came over and was juggling in front of me and they were absolutely horrible at juggling balls I could say to them don't give up your day job so it sort of like don't quit your job and try and do that professionally don't give up your day job you could also use don't give up your day or your day job if someone said a really bad joke and you were like yeah that wasn't a very funny joke don't give up your day job so it said when someone isn't very good at something that they're sort of trying to do in front of you don't give up your day job don't quit your day job and try and do this just don't give it up expression number four this is one that I use a lot to feel under the weather to feel under the weather to feel under the weather means to feel sick so if you're feeling a bit under the weather you're not well you're maybe you've got the flu maybe you've got a cold you could be hungover if you've had too much to drink the night before you could be feeling a little under the weather the next day and you could also use the expression to be a little green around the gills green around the gills is another expression to sort of look at it a little bit sick if someone looks green around the gills they look sick and that's because fish when they get sick I've never seen a fish with green gills but apparently they get green gills anyway to feel under the weather means to feel sick you're not feeling well and this one's cool we did this on the other english podcast recently this originates from say a boat you imagine the mast and the sails on the boat and that it used to have people on this boat you know the the sailors if it was really windy it was raining the rain would often come from a specific direction so it would come from the left the right the north the south and a side of the boat would actually be under the weather more than the other side of the boat and so the people that were exposed to the weather on one side of the boat would get sick or seasick feel unwell first and so they would be under the weather they'd be feeling under the weather they'd be feeling sick alright number five two big note yourself two big note yourself I don't know where this one comes from literally I don't know why it is a too big as in like large too big note yourself but it means to to boast to brag to talk yourself up so for example if I was learning English as a second language and I walked into a classroom where they were teaching English and I said I'm so good at English this is so easy I'm so good I know everything I'm the best that is big noting myself that would be me bragging I'm boasting I'm talking myself up I'm big noting myself and this is definitely one that is used a lot in Australia and it's also generally frowned upon it's the kind of thing that you would not say to someone positively you know you would never say it's so good that that guy over there is big noting himself it would always be more yeah that guy's a bit of a loser he's a big noting himself all right we're on the way we're on the way that's one third of the expressions number six number six it takes two to tango so it takes two that means it requires two it there needs to be two people to tango as in to dance to do the tango it takes two to tango so this is used when it to people are required to do something and it's usually in a negative kind of way so when would I say this I would say that it takes two to tango if someone was complaining that they were fighting with someone else so for instance if my sister came to me and she said dad's always arguing with me I'm always fighting with Emma needs always you know he's always arguing and being rude I could say to her it takes two to tango so in other words if you didn't argue with dad he couldn't exactly argue back and so two people are required see you guys to be fighting it takes two people to tango it takes two people to dance you can't really dance on your own you can't argue with yourself you know you're not going to get into a fight with yourself it takes two to tango so it's almost like a check yourself you know you're just as part you know of this problem that you're complaining about as dad is it takes two to tango all right what are we on to number seven to hit the nail on the head so a nail is a piece of metal usually like a thin piece of metal sharp at one end it has like a flat top and you use a hammer to hit the nail into a piece of wood so you'd hit that nail in if you hit the nail on the head the head is the top part of the nail so if the nails facing upwards the heads here you hit the head the now goes into the wood if you hit the nail on the head it means you do something correctly or efficiently so I often use this I think in the podcast you'll hear me say something along the lines of oh you nailed it or he nailed it someone nailed it and that's the same idea of hitting the nail it means they got it right they did it correctly they did it perfectly they hit the nail on the head they nailed it so if I ask someone a question in class if I said you guys right now in the comments what does to hit the nail on the head mean and one of you typed out it means to get something correct to be efficient then I could say to you literally you hit the nail on the head you got it right you nailed it you smashed it out of the park which is another expression like baseball if you hit the ball all the way out of the park you did really well you got it correct you hit the nail on the head number eight so we're up to number eight almost halfway through the 15 idioms guys to miss the boat to miss the boat or you can just say to someone you've missed the boat so we often put it in the past tense if you missed the boat this is the cool one this is the idea that you've missed your chance or opportunity to do something so imagine that you need you get specifically a boat somewhere you need to get on the boat safe for me I needed to get on the boat in Melbourne to get to Tasmania this weekend there's only one boat that goes if I get to the docks if I get to the pier where the boats are where they're going to leave from and I get there late I miss it I miss my chance to get on the boat I miss my opportunity then I have literally missed the boat but also figuratively with regards to getting from Melbourne to Tasmania I've missed the boat in that I've missed the opportunity to get from one place to the other so if someone came to my house and they were looking for a friend that had just gone out I could probably say oh you missed the boat he left he's gone he's he's not here you've missed your chance to see him you've missed your opportunity so you can use that all the time that's the kind of thing I would - it's like yeah you missed the boat you missed the boat number nine piece of cake you guys would probably all know this one this is used quite a bit a piece of cake is when something is incredibly easy I don't know where this one originates from probably how easy it is to eat a piece of cake it doesn't require much effort you're just kind of if a piece of cake so if you found every single one of these expressions in this video easy you could say each one of these expressions was a piece of cake a piece of cake other examples of how you would use this in Australian English and these are a little more crafts they're slightly more rude would be a piece of piss a piece of piss you might hear guys you might hear men say this from time to time in Australia that was a piece of piss piece of piss or you might hear people say piss easy if something was piss easy it means it was incredibly easy it's not overly rude I wouldn't worry too much about using this although I wouldn't use it in formal situations because you are swearing you're saying piss at the end of the day and it just wouldn't be appropriate in most formal situations but friends go to town do it I'm sure they'll laugh alright number 10 to be sitting on the fence to be sitting on the fence if you're sitting on the fence this means that you can't make up your mind you're undecided you can't just you can't decide you can't choose what to do so for example imagine that there are two houses and someone said to you you can have whichever one you want and there's a fence that goes down the middle between these two houses and you're sitting on it and you're saying I can't choose I can't choose which one of these houses I want you would literally be sitting on the fence between these two houses so you're undecided and then figuratively because you can't decide you're sitting on the fence this is one that you'll hear all the time you'll hear this in political talk if a party like labor or the Liberals here in Australia can't make a decision about something you could say that's sitting on the fence if I can't decide if I want to do if I want to go out on the weekend to go clubbing with one friend and another friend said he wants to take me to a barbecue if I say look I can't decide I'm still sitting on the fence it means that I haven't been swayed in either direction I haven't been able to choose to be sitting on the fence alright number 11 speak of the devil speak of the devil and will often contract of the word of OS on tap on to speak and will say speaker speak of the devil speak to the devil speak of the devil this one is something you would say when you are talking about someone and then they suddenly appear so if I was at work or even in class if I was giving a class with a bunch of students and I was saying I Geoffrey is not here he's never here he never comes in where's Geoffrey blah blah blah we're talking about Jeff and then he walks in the door I could say well speak of the devil so I guess it's the kind of idea that if you mentioned the devil you mentioned the devil that he would appear suddenly so speak of the devil this is used all the time if I'm talking about someone a person and then they suddenly appeared it could be that that I was talking about them and they turned up on TV you know it could be a famous person they've just suddenly come into the conversation outside of it though via TV you know via could be anything but it's somehow it's come up you've seen it that's speak of the devil speak of the devil number 12 wouldn't be caught dead wouldn't be caught dead so caught is like to catch it's the past tense of to catch caught and if you wouldn't be caught dead it means that you wouldn't be seen doing something so you wouldn't allow someone else to catch you doing this thing even if you were dead even if you were dead so you'll often use this in situations where you have to wear something that is incredibly silly or dagi or you might think it would be embarrassing so imagine my mum bought me a a pink shirt I could say to mum Pink's not my colour I'm not going to wear that I wouldn't be caught dead in that t-shirt mum I'm really sorry but I wouldn't be caught dead in that I imagine that your dad has a pink car and you just would never want to drive around in that you could say yep I don't want my friends to see me in that car I wouldn't be caught dead in it dad sorry I wouldn't be caught dead so even if I was dead where you would imagine you would not care because it did I still would not want people to see me I wouldn't be caught dead number 13 to be on the ball he's on the ball you're on the ball I'm on the ball to be on the ball this would mean I'd imagine literally that you are playing a sport with a ball with a round object and you constantly have it you're constantly on the ball you have it in your hand you're scoring goals you've got control of it and then figuratively if you're on the ball with regards to a situation that would mean that you're in control of it you're energetic you're organized you're attentive and you're knowledgeable with regards to that topic so if you just got a new job and you went to work and you're like this is easy I've got this you know and you're doing incredibly well everyone could think whoa this guy's on the ball this guy is on the ball he's got control of the situation he knows what he's doing he's on the ball on the ball so number 14 the second last one guys number 14 last straw last straw so last is in the final the final one there's no more after this one that's it the last and straw as in a piece of straw so I think another way of saying that would be hey the kind of stuff that sheep eat you know you get them in bales on farms hey it's the dried grass straw is a piece of hay and it's also the thing that you drink say a soft drink through a straw a straw if something is the last straw I think that this of this would originate from the straw that broke the camel's back and the straw that broke the camel's back means that it was the final straw that you put on the camel that was so heavy after that that the camel's back broke and a camel is the large animal the mammal that lives in deserts with humps that have water that's a camel so if for instance literally okay literally you wanted to use this example you could say if I was wearing a backpack and someone was putting things in it you know filling up with stuff whatever it is for camping if eventually if eventually they put so much in that I literally broke my back I could say that it was the last straw it was the final straw it was the straw that broke the camel's back but you can also use this to be something that is sort of that's enough okay you've you've said enough you've done enough no more so you'll often hear people say this to their children if their children keep nagging them or whining or you know my mama mama if they did that all day and then finally they do it one last time you would probably hear mum say that's the final straw that's enough I'm over this stop it you go to your room five minutes in your room that's enough the final straw so that was literally and figuratively that was I guess literally it was the the final time that you had to do that for her to snap to her to be like that's enough and then figuratively it was like the final straw on the camel's back the broke the camel's back and she was like you're not I'm I'm I'm set up I'm annoyed that's enough all right last expression before I open it up for you guys to ask me questions this is the last one and then you guys can ask away in the comments any kind of questions you want regarding any of these expressions or English in general the final one is to hit the road to hit the road so if you hit the road it means that it is time to go it's time to leave you know if I was at a party I would use this all the time sorry guys I'm gonna hit the road it's time to go so I guess you would imagine getting into your car and literally just driving home you're going to hit the trail hit the road you're going to get in your car and start driving away to hit the road and I guess as a bonus one here we can use a similar kind of expression to men going to bed going to sleep and that is to hit the hay to hit the hay or to hit the sack this expression originates from when mattresses used to be stuffed with hay stuffed with straw and if you would have hit the hay you're literally lying down on the mattress and just smashing your your body down your head down you've hit the hay you've hit the mattress you've hit the sack of hay and you've gone to sleep so like if it's time to leave you can say I'm going to hit the road and if you get home and someone says what are you up to now but you want to go to bed you could say I'm going to hit the sack I'm going to hit the sack Chris just got it right she nailed it she nailed it she hit the nail on the head to hit the sack or to hit the hay so that's it guys that's 15 expressions from this Australian Catholic University blog you can do a Google search for this one just type in 15 idioms commonly used in Australia and you will see more detailed examples a more detailed write-up or put it in the comments as well I might even be able to put it in the description but definitely have a read of those I guess summing up I use all of these expressions all 15 of these expressions I know and I definitely know that I've used all of them there are some that I probably wouldn't use that often like I don't know if I would say I big note myself but yeah I definitely I definitely hear that quite a bit so go back and watch this last lesson again if you want to practice all of these I'll probably put it on the podcast as well and maybe YouTube but aside from that guys it's time for you to ask questions so if you want to know anything if you have any questions about any of these idioms that I just went over feel free to put them in the comments and aside from that if you have just questions in general with English now it's now's the chance to do that so let's go to some of these comments Andres okay I'm going to crash yes exactly that's exactly the same as I'm going to hit the hay I'm gonna go to bed I'm going to hit the sack I'm going to crash and the idea there would be like a car crashing into another car you're going to crash into your mattress so you're gonna you're going to literally just go bang into the mattress so I'm going to crash guys that's a pretty informal casual way of saying I'm going to go to bed I'm going to go to bed I am on it means I have full control of it exactly exactly Sarah that's it it's just like I'm on the ball I'm on top of this thing I'm on this thing I'm in control of it I have everything organized I have everything sorted out you'll hear that kind of expression I am on it at places like work if you're working somewhere whether you're working in say hospitality and someone asks you are you able to do this you doing this are you doing this already this this thing are you doing this I would probably say yeah I'm on it I've got control of this it's piss easy it's a piece of cake I'm on this so there's those questions what about you guys any other questions that you want to chuck down here in the comments regarding expressions phrasal verbs anything else anything else guys feel free to ask I'll hang out for another five or ten minutes or we'll see I'm always worried that these are questions sections go a bit long and bore people so make sure that you chuck some questions in the comments guys no worries Muhammad thank you so much for coming not my pleasure Chris thank you for watching have you got any other questions Chris any other any other issues maybe prepositions I know that but as eel arrows or Brazil arrows have a lot of preposition issues had the same as me in Portuguese hey Pepe how are you going I hope you're improving your English James so funny any other questions guys we've just finished this episode where I went through 15 different expressions from a blog post here that I will definitely put in the description of this episode and whether or not I use them it's going good it's going good how are you I don't know how to say your name is that case case did I say it correctly whereabouts are you from case under the assumption that I said it correctly and I'm so called at the moment I have the heater on in my house and freezing my butt off it's been horrible I was not prepared all right I could tell you guys about prepositions about phrasal verbs about other expressions is there anything that you guys want help with that you have been finding troublesome finding annoying finding difficult in English recently this is your time to ask ask away ask away hey Chris I'm in Melbourne I am in Melbourne I live here this is North Melbourne my house in North Melbourne so yeah I know prepositions are so evil it's so funny especially when I was learning Portuguese when I first started you guys seem to use the preposition with the equivalent of the preposition for butter all the time all the time and it is just a total nightmare because in English I would use in and at and on to describe different situations but then in Portuguese you guys always seem to use powder powder powder powder for everything that was just that is killing me but feel free to ask questions guys come on hit me up hit me up ask me some questions I'm trying to be on the ball I'm trying to get these questions out I have an awesome accent I know I know it's my favourite accent do you guys like the Australian accent has it been a pain in the butt to learn are you having any difficulties understanding the Australian accent at the moment any expressions or pronunciation stuff as well that you want to talk about I'm just going to I'm not sponsored by these guys I just really like Pepsi Max just so you know guys but any other questions come on hit me up I think I think Pepe I think that's a good question why do a stray lien speak so fast so quickly I think it's just that I think it's not necessarily that we speak really really quickly I think we just modify the language quite a bit so for instance I did an episode on YouTube recently about how words that end in things like Oh our a our a re you re and oh you are all those different endings sound exactly the same so Australians will say ah so instead of saying Peter which is my name as Americans would say it I say Peter Peter and so I think part of the trouble is that we do speak quickly when speaking with other native speakers but that we also modify the pronunciation of a lot of things and that makes it quite a bit of a pain in the butt to learn and I'll just scroll through some of these comments here sorry guys how are you going Co is hey from Melbourne exactly and the slang that we use Chris so Australia England because we change the the words so for instance instead of service station will say servo instead of barbecue we say Barbie so I think it's not that you guys are never going to be able to learn all of these things it's just that it's a lot to tackle it's a lot to tackle and it requires constant effort you constantly have to be there you know putting in the effort trying to learn new words trying to use new words trying to remember new words and that's why any language not just Australian but once you guys get to that level where you can understand exactly what people are saying it gets to that point where you you still have to keep pushing and that's the difficult part a lot of people stop they they kind of get off the train that is the learning of English the train that is learning of English they get off and they're like okay I can understand enough that's good enough but really you've got to keep pushing you got to keep pushing the curve is like this for learning right you're learning a language and it's like this that initial part is really fast it's really fast and then afterwards it's really slow but all the important stuff I feel happens later on especially if you're learning more complicated dialects or more specific dialects rather like a strain in English and you want to fit in like an ollie it can be a real pain in the butt so sorry I'm just scrolling back through some of these mistake Pete and Peter yeah so Pete would just be when you take the are off the end of Peter or Peter you would just say Pete's era and then it sounds exactly the same as Peter so if there's an a on the end we'll just we still say Peter Peter but if it's just PE te you pronounce it as Pete as Pete Chris if you're chatting to your cousin's in the USA you might not want to focus on having an Australian accent just because I think that's the funny thing to as much as you guys have trouble with Australian English when I start speaking really fast with people from America from Canada from the USA from England I also have to sort of pull myself back a bit and remember that these guys don't um they don't understand the slang that I'm using they don't necessarily understand the pronunciation of words that I'm using and so quite often I have to hold back on how quickly as well so let's see what are some other ones close what is the difference between modal verbs and modal auxiliary verbs oh man you're killing me you're killing me that's a good one okay so modal verbs I might even have to Google this because I hate getting things wrong man that's the modal verbs versus or Guillory verbs let's see if I can get this for you see I don't know everything I speak this language natively but I still I don't know all of grammar stuff I constantly have to be have to be learning this so let me find out okay okay okay so both modal verbs and auxiliary verbs are helping verbs but I think if we can open this up need some music playing and the different in there in the background so the difference modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that Express modality there you go so modal verbs indicate possibility probability ability permission obligation and necessity and they are not subject to inflections isn't that complicated alright so some examples of modal verbs can could may might must ought to shall should will and would modal verbs auxiliary verbs are verbs that help the main verb to express a tense to express voice and other grammatical aspects so auxiliary verbs indicate tense and mood and grammatical aspect again jargon guys jargon but just think of these as the ones that you would conjugate so you don't conjugate would it's always would you don't conjugate will it's always will you don't conjugate shall should can could they always the same with everything the ones that you do conjugate are to be I am doing for instance that's an auxiliary verb so that is it's it's changing the verb that follows it I guess that's what it's saying there where it modifies it it changes the tense or I have I have done or do I do run I do run so auxilary birds are be doing have the ones that you can conjugate with the different pronouns I do he does I have he has I am he is and then modal birds are the ones that expressed modality whatever that means like can could may might must ought to shall should will and would so that's a pretty complicated question but learning those as a pain-in-the-butt I know just keep practicing guys keep working hard it just comes with time the best the best way to learn those sorts of things though is to try and delve deep into why you're using them when you're using them and get the idea in your head of say permission or probability that might happen that might happen that means that it's probable it's likely to happen so you've got to think in your head when I want to say that it is a possibility that is likely to happen I can say it may happen it might happen so I don't know just taste practice you just have to keep doing it don't worry if you make mistakes guys it's not going to be the end of the world how are you going vivvy hey maybe and Eduardo how you going is there a tip for pronouncing properly feelings like love happiness and feelings to be used on our feelings and feelings okay okay got you got you the difference between those is very subtle feelings can you hear it see if you can hear the difference feelings feelings feelings feelings I guess apart from the fact that I'm raising my voice on the first one and bringing it down on the next one feelings is longer feel whereas feelings is quick it just Phil Phil Phil Phil it's pretty much the same vowel sound I think that feel is just longer so you'll hear this in words like to heal someone it sounds like it's the same the same vowel sound is here as well here heal heal will be the short one so the difference there I get to cure someone to heal someone or a hill like a mountain a small mountain a heel heel and he'll feel and Phil feeling feeling so again don't worry too much practice the pronunciation but don't let it hold you back don't let it stop you from speaking because context is going to give away exactly what you mean no one is going to get confused thinking about when you're ordering a pie or a burrito that you are talking about you feelings like your emotions and vice versa if you say I want to talk about my feelings it's pretty and you accidentally mispronounced pronounce it it's unlikely people are going to wait and think ah is he talking about what goes into burrito so work on it but don't don't let it stress you out too much mate leave and live that's another good example that's another good example leave bit longer live very sort of short II yeah there's slightly different vowel sounds but you could probably use the same vowel just make one of them long and one of them short and it's the same kind of thing with beach beach and those are those ones you don't really want to get wrong quite a lot Beach and e-e-e-e and the same with sheet like the piece of cloth that you would put on your bed that's a sheet and if you accidentally say that is a poo that is a very very rude word for a poo and sheet what is the context for the expression how come hey Kiki how come is just why why I use that all the time and it's funny I have a Spanish friend here staying with me at the moment and I find myself saying all the time how come how come or how come he thought that how come he said that and she'll always be like what are you talking about what does that mean and I'll just say oh sorry why are you talking about that why did he do that why so you can use them interchangeably absolutely someone might say to me do you want to do this later and if I said if I wanted to say why I could just say how come so there may be a slightly subtle difference there if you looked it up online but I would just use them interchangeably so like how come is here why is he here how come we're not going to the beach why aren't we going to the beach how come they're so angry why are they so angry one thing I did is myself doing though is that if I say how come it sounds like how come they're angry I don't invert it so I don't so I don't say how come are they angry I always say how come they are angry so I don't invert it whereas if I was to say why are they angry as you just heard their I say why are they angry so I have to invert it if you say why they are angry that isn't a question that is it's like you're about to state you're about to say why they are angry so I hope that helps me any other questions guys feel free to ask away you'll have to watch this this episode at the at the end when it's up online and you can watch it from the start because I went through 15 different expressions that are commonly used in Australian English 15 different expressions so just to go through them again to give you an idea of what you can go back and see the expressions were to beat around the bush as in a waste time to be barking up the wrong tree which means to come to the wrong place for information don't give up your day job which is what you would say to someone when they're doing something that they're not doing very well too big note yourself which is to boast to talk yourself up it takes two to tango meaning two people are required to do this thing often a negative thing like arguing or fighting takes two to tango if you hit the nail on the head is to get something perfectly correct to be efficient to hit the nail on the head to miss the boat is to miss a chance or opportunity to be a piece of cake is to be incredibly easy to be sitting on the fence if someone sits on the fence they're undecided between two options undecided sitting on the fence speak of the devil is what we use if we are talking about someone and they suddenly appear well speak of the devil here is wouldn't be caught dead doing something is the kind of thing you would say if you would be way too embarrassed to ever do that thing I would never be caught dead wearing women's underwear in public I wouldn't be caught dead doing that to be on the ball is to be in control in I don't know incredibly attentive organized knowledgeable to be on the ball the last straw is for something to be sufficient that is the final straw that is the last straw often in a negative thing a negative way to the kids said to me and was annoying me a lot you was pestering me I could say that's the last straw no more and then to hit the road as then it's time to go to hit the road so remember you can ask questions in the comments here with regards to any of those expressions or anything else in English my battery is going to run out relatively quickly probably in the next 10 or 20 minutes but I'll keep hanging out I'll keep hanging out so what do we got here is it normal to use however in speaking Pepe asks absolutely mate absolutely however you might also want to use some other things in there like other words like although or even though that's the case you know you can definitely use however when speaking absolutely absolutely what else have we got what's the correct way to say it and why I I do not I do not wanted no you would never say that you can't use the auxiliary verb do and we just learnt before you can't use the auxiliary verb do with a past participle which is what you've used there wanted so you have to say I do not want so that's the verb the auxiliary verb there is it at the front I do and then it has to be an infinitive verb want and I did not want to say exactly exactly so if you want to say it in the past you have to say I did not want to say and if you said the present you have to say I do not want to say and in both those cases want has to be in the infinitive form I do not go I do not look I do not leave etc I did not go I did not look I did not leave those words after did or do are always in the infinitive form lots of Brazilians watching lots of Brazilian so what else we got we didn't come here to yes you can yep yeah yep you can definitely use that one Eduardo I might not repeat that on the line here but we didn't come here to yet Fu CK spiders that's used that's probably not commonly used but it's the kind of thing that male friends of mine would say as a joke they would definitely say that as a joke to make people laugh and if I heard that like I just did from you it made me laugh it made me laugh so I don't know if you guys heard one of the previous episodes in the podcast a while back I had a housemate named John and he was pretty rough he was a bit of a rough I was a very strong accent he would say that all the time and if we didn't come here to F uck spiders it means we didn't come to waste time we didn't come here to do anything else we didn't come here to F spiders we didn't come here to our waste time and Pepe asks here get over it is it offensive to use get over it that is the kind of thing we're in and of itself if you just say the words get over it it's not offensive Pepe however the context would be what what could be seen as offensive potentially it depends on the context like it's kind of like if you were to say get over it to someone it would be like you're saying the thing that they're upset about or angry about it's not a big deal move on get over it harden up get over it so for instance if my mother died and someone walked up to me and said dude get over it yeah I'd be offended I'd be offended but it's not so much because of the words the person's used it's because they've the little the fact that something so serious has happened and has affected me so that's the offensive aspect of saying get over it to someone it would be like if the situation is serious and you've just you know maybe they had their leg chopped off in a car accident and you've said to them just get over it get over it you'll be fine stop whinging stop having a wine get over it then they're going to be upset but if it is something like someone's got a mosquito bite you know those annoying bugs that have come down and bitten someone and they keep complaining about it and you say look just get over it it's not a big deal get over it that wouldn't be offensive at all hey Mark Dara Dara and Carol how are you going is it correct to say I haven't could do whatever no you wouldn't say I haven't you if you use haven't which is an auxilary verb as we just used as we just talked about before you would never use it with a modal verb which is what could is after haven't so you would use do so you would either you would either say I couldn't do or I haven't and then you would have to say being able to do so you can use either of those but you can't use having could at the same time what else would you saying to say that have been trying to do something so yeah I haven't been able to do something or I couldn't do something there they mean effectively the same thing you're just picking a slightly different tense where if you were to say I couldn't do it that is that the event has passed and I wasn't able to do that thing in the past yesterday I couldn't come whereas if I said I haven't been able to come that would be like it's continuing until now so imagine there's a party going on across the road if I said to a friend I haven't been able to go over yet it's in the past I haven't I haven't been able to go I couldn't go but that the opportunity is still there and so I might still be able to go but so far because it's continuing I haven't been able to whereas if it completely had passed the opportunity's gone I could say I couldn't I couldn't have gone I couldn't go I couldn't do that thing so yeah being able being able another cool thing about being able or at least the pronunciation of being we often turn this as Australians and probably other native speakers of English to been will get turned into just burn burn or yeah burn almost like you're saying been but it's even even more reduced burn burn I haven't been there I haven't I haven't done that I haven't I haven't been able to I haven't been able to I haven't been anywhere nice recently so we often just squish that one down so you might hear people now when you talk to Aussies quite often contract being they won't say it that well because it requires you to smile you have to say beam they'll just say been or been I haven't been able to haven't been able to no worries Carol granted helped any other questions guys before my battery runs out today was a write off James you speak English fluently you're an Aussie I don't know what you're doing here it's important you just give me suggestions give me suggestions I write off all right I can explain that expression if something's are right off it means that I guess in the case of a day being right off that you've got nothing done so I think you would use this expression mostly with cars in the literal sense right James might be able to correct me if I'm wrong but if a car is written off it means that you've crashed it and damaged it to the point where it would be written off like it's some someone's come in and sign something that says this car isn't able to be driven ever again so if today was a write off it would be that we got nothing done and so the day's been wasted it's been ruined the days been written off where was a bride off I didn't really do much I had planned to do a lot today but I didn't get around to it I didn't do it and the day was a write-off hey Ruchi welcome to the class I'm gonna bail soon I'm going to leave soon to bail is another way of saying leave to go but if you guys have any more questions put them in the comments and or questions about English expressions prepositions anything you like Kiki asks I'm trying to understand the difference between lie and lay apparently it's a common mistake even among some native speakers could you help us okay to line to lay well obviously you can use lie as to tell a fib so to say something that's not true that's one difference but in terms of lying down it would be that you would you know you're standing up and you're lying down you're standing up and you're laying down that's a difficult one though I would probably use them as you say natives would probably screw that up I'm sure if I do a quick Google search live versus lay there'll be a difference but I think in my head I can't think of what that difference is I would probably use them interchangeably so I could say I'm going to have a lie down I'm going to have a lay down if I'm tired I might lie down I might lay down I think that you would say for instance if you were putting tiles on the floor like if someone was coming to your house and you can see on the floor here we have tiles if they were putting those tiles down they would be laying the tiles you wouldn't sit down needles what's here what have we got here so so you lie down on the sofa no direct object but you lay the book on the table okay there's the answer lie is something that doesn't take a direct object so it's something that you do yourself you know do it to something else lay is what you do to something else so with the tiles you lay the tiles down the tiles is the direct objects so you're laying the taught you the verb is doing something to something else if you use lie it has to be just you that's doing that thing I'm lying down but I think a lot of people would say I'm going to lay down so that is probably where it's incorrect it's probably incorrect to say I'm going to lay down you probably have to say I'm going to lay myself down has to have a direct object so hopefully that makes sense what else have we got here crach what have you asked could is mainly used one with verbs like hear see smell taste and to to say that one's is looks like it's a is this an explenation or a question it looks like a long a long comment however in specific situation you would use be able to or managed to the fire spread quickly but everybody managed to escape yeah exactly there are real subtle differences quite often with these things guys but the best way to learn these subtle differences isn't necessarily to go and study these rules but although I do say go and look at Grandma you know read it every now and then if you want to just check some stuff that you're unsure about but first and foremost use it go out there and use it go out there and be wrong go out there and make mistakes so like we've managed to was able to or could if you're unsure ask someone or just use it just just throw it out there and see what people say if they get confused or they're not sure they're going to ask you what do you mean could you repeat that are you able to say that again so that's just a little piece of advice it's an explanation no I ranch thank you amazing lion lay I know and these are things I learn as well guys I don't know all this stuff with regards to grammar a lot of the time you guys ask amazing questions and I have to go and look it up I have to go and type it in and try and find out why it is that I say one thing and not another thing and a lot of the time too like with lie and lay I don't know the answer in my head I have to look it up and I probably make the mistake as well so any other questions before my battery dies guys any more english related questions could you please pronounce where it's like comfortable so you alright here we go comfortable vegetables approximately and valuable so I would say comfy if I really wanted to contract comfortable down but I think if I was to say the whole word properly - ball so I don't say comfortable and I don't even say table at the end I say comes to ball comfortable comfortable with vegetables' again I get rid of veg I just say vegetables so again table requires too much effort I just say - ball - ball comfortable vegetable vegetable with approximately I don't say mate sort of like table I don't say they're able I don't say 8ly I say approximately motely so that's that swore that that stupid Schwartz nee 'king in and taking over those vowels so comfortable vegetables approximately approximately approximately and value ball I won't say value Weibull I say valuable valuable value ball so I hope that helps I know it's difficult I know it's annoying it just takes practice if you haven't already go to the YouTube channel the or the English one and check out the 10 or 11 words to mispronounce like a native and I think I go through some of these I go through them what else we got here how should I use think of or think about they're the same thing you can probably use of and about in different ways depending on the phrasal verb you're using but if i kk came to think of something is to like have that thing come into your head so like i have to think of an explanation for this question i have to think of it but I could also say I'm thinking of something as then I have the thing in my head already so it's not coming to me it's already in my head that is what think about something would mean that it's going on in your head as opposed to coming to you so if I have to think of something you know you might hear someone say to you quick think something like come up with a plan whereas you wouldn't say quick think about something because that would be like they're just sitting there having the thing going around in their head so I think that's the the slight difference of how to use those but I think a lot of the time you could you could use them interchangeably if it's just that you're thinking of the thing whereas if you have to plan for it you've got to say think of something what else have we got here comfy comfy how do you say when we want to show sympathy for someone I mean when a friend is going through a difficult time I guess you could say things like and again it would depend on the situation but I'm sorry to hear that I feel for you I hope you're okay you can say those kinds of things it just depends on the kind of feeling that you're trying to get across if you understand what you're going through that's like you understand what that person is experiencing I'm here for you would mean that if you need anything I'm here and I can help you yeah they're the kinds of expressions that I'd use Kies could you please possibly it's too formal yeah yeah no you could definitely address you could definitely say could you please possibly do something it is somewhat formal as opposed to just could yeah which is probably what I would say in an informal situation I would just say could you do this could you do that could you Kuja and that's a good example of where if a word ends with D the letter D and then you have the word you after it as in the pronoun you as opposed to me or I you you can say could just good job so it turns into a J kind of sound all right 10% of the battery left we get a bit of time we've got a bit of time alright what else we got some other questions guys the American English I know there's a B there's a beard of a difference between American English and Australian English although a lot of the time at least Australians will understand everything that Americans say because we get bombarded with America TV American movies American TV shows we get it just constantly rammed down our throats meaning put in our mouths and rammed down our throats everywhere we look there is American TV American movies American films TV series so Australians understand Americans however Americans quite often don't understand Australians because their experience with Australians and the Australian accent probably starts and stops with the movie Crocodile Dundee so that's that's something to think about if you guys worry about whether or not someone's going to understand you if you learn an Australian accent chances are that Americans might have a difficult time at times so that's why you always want to learn how to say things you know phonetically so like if I was to say that something's really comfy come see Americans would probably be like what are you talking about because they're not used to that slang and so I would have to remember okay so it's comfortable it's comfortable it's comfortable so I would have to go back to saying the word 100% you know pulling it out and saying it properly the same with servo service station Barbie BBQ so it's always good to know both those things anyway guys unless you've got any other questions I might bail I might finish here I think we've been going for about an hour and my phone is probably going to die any minute just going to run out of battery so that's it guys might say peace out remember to go back and watch this lesson if you want to practice the fifteen different idioms that I went over I'll also put them I'll put the link in the description for this video so that you can read about them as well thanks so much for watching guys I'm going to try and do these as much as possible in the future to try and help you but I really appreciate you guys watching and if you want to learn to sound to speak like an Australian speaker make sure you jump over to the other English podcast web site at www.english podcast comm make sure that you sign up and listen to the podcast and if you want all the bonus content for all the episodes that I put on the podcast you can sign up to be a member it's a dollar so give it a go sign up to the first week at the moment and it's a dollar anyway peace out thanks for the company guys and I'll chat to you sir

Channel: Aussie English

Views: 57,869

Keywords: idioms, australia, australian, expressions, beat around the bush, barking up the wrong tree, give up your day job, feeling under the weather, under the weather, big note, takes two to tango, hit the nail on the head, piece of piss, piece of cake, piss easy, sitting on the fence, speak of the devil, caught dead, wouldn't be caught dead, on the ball, last straw, hit the road, hit the sack, hit the hay, aussie english, learn australian english, the aussie english podcast, podcast

Id: c03ET4TwhwM

Length: 61min 15sec (3675 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 02 2017