Learn Australian English in this Aussie English Video Breakdown episode where I breakdown the vocab used by Wildman as he’s talking about being crocwise.
AE 276.2 – AEVB: Wildman Episode Vocab Breakdown
G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English Video breakdowns.
Today I’m going to be breaking down a video by a guy named Wildman.
So, he’s from Queensland, and he does a lot of stuff out and about in nature, checking out the animals, the wildlife.
He uploads a great deal of different videos and different information about Australian wildlife online.
So, definitely make sure you go to his Facebook page and give him the like.
Say g’day from Pete and Aussie English. It’s Wildman Adventures, and it’ll be attached below in a link.
So, today I want to break down this video, and he says a lot of really interesting stuff.
He has a very broad Australian accent. So it’s going to be good practice for you guys.
Let’s get into it.
Yeah, g’day folks Wildman here.
Down at the boat ramp on the edge of the Daintree River, and I’ve come across something that annoys me quite a lot.
We’ve got down here a heap of fish scraps, alright?
Some fishermen’s come along and decided he’d dump his baitfish here.
We’ve also got, and I’m not going to go too close to the water, there’s a heap of fish scraps all dumped in the water.
About 30 or 40 fish in there. And what happens now is crocodile comes along.
They come up onto the boat ramp to eat these fish.
Someone reports it, poor crocodile gets removed, and quite often killed.
This sort of behaviour that needs to be taken responsibility for.
If you’re going to have people leaving their fish scraps they need to be fined and punished for it so it sends a message out that this behaviour is not to happen.
Crocodiles are getting persecuted for people’s stupid behaviour, and this is not a prime example of it.
This is what we’re talking about people. You do silly things in croc country bad things can happen.
If you be smart and they crocwise you have no dramas.
If you’re a fisherman don’t leave your bloody fish scraps on the boat ramp.
You’re a dickhead.
We’ll just go in and break it down sentence by sentence.
“Yeah, g’day folks. Wildman here.”
“Yeah, g’day a Folks Wildman here.” So, he’s just saying, “G’day guys. G’day people.”.
“Folks” is another way an Australian English, and English everywhere, that you can refer to people.
“G’day folks”. “How’s it going folks?”. “What are these folks doing?”. “Folks.
“Wild man here”, just means, “It is Wildman here. This is who I am. I’m Wildman, and I am here.
“(I’m) down at the boat ramp on the edge of the Daintree River.”
“I’m down at the boat ramp on the edge of the Daintree River.”
So, “a boat ramp” is a ramp that we used to put boats into the water.
And the Daintree River is a very large river that’s found in the Daintree Rainforest at the top of Queensland.
So this is right up in the north of Australia.
“And I’ve come across something that annoys me quite a lot.”
So, he’s come across something that annoys him quite a lot.
“To come across” means to find, to stumble upon, to discover.
And “to annoy” obviously means to irritate.
“We’ve got down here a head of fish scraps. All right?”
“We’ve got down here a heap of fish scraps. All right?”.
This means he’s found down here, as in on the ground, down below.
He’s found a lot of fish scraps.
“Scraps” is a way of saying leftovers, pieces, bits of fish.
And so, this is obviously what fishermen have left on the ground.
And he says “all right” as a way of saying to you, “Do you see this? Do you agree? All right? Do you get it?”
“Some fishermen’s come along, and decided he’d dump his bait fish here.”
“Some fisherman’s come along and decided he’ll dump his fish scraps here.”
So, “to come along” means to arrive, to come to a place. Someone’s come along.
They’ve arrived here. And “to dump” means to deposit or dispose of.
So, they’ve just thrown their fish scraps away and left them on the ground.
“We’ve also got, and I’m not going to go too close to the water,…”
“We’ve also got, and I’m not going to go too close to the water,…”.
“We’ve also got”, we also have.
He doesn’t want to go too close to the water, because there’re crocodiles in this area, saltwater crocs, man-eating crocs, crocodiles that can kill you.
And so, it’s always wise, especially in the north of Australia, to stay away from the water’s edge.
“There’s a heap of fish scraps all dumped near the water. About 30 or 40 fish in there.“
“There’s a heap of fish scraps all dumped in the water. About 30 or 40 fish scraps dumped in there.”
So, he’s just pointing at the water and they’re floating around in the water.
Someone’s also dumped them right at the water’s edge.
“And what happens now is crocodile comes along.”
“And what happens now is a crocodile comes along.”
And what happens now, because someone’s left these fish scraps in the water, a crocodile will come and eat them.
They’ll arrive. They’ll come to this place. They’ll come along.
“They come up onto the boat ramp to eat these fish.”
“They come up on to the boat ramp to eat these fish.”
So, they’ll come up onto the boat ramp, and they’ll try and eat these fish scraps that someone’s dumped on the ramp.
“Someone reports it, poor crocodile gets removed, and quite often killed.
“Someone reports it, the poor crocodile gets removed, and quite often killed.”.
So, if someone “reports it”, it means they’ll see it and they’ll tell the authorities, they’ll report it to the authorities so that the authorities will come in and get rid of this crocodile.
We have a lot of crocodile issues in Australia where they get too close to people, too close to humans, and quite often it’s because humans do something dumb and it’s not the crocodiles fault.
So, if they get removed, it means they will be captured and taken away. They’ll be released somewhere further from humans.
But unfortunately too they’ll often also be killed or euthanised, put down, by the authorities.
“This is the sort of behaviour that needs to be… taken responsibility for.”
“This is the sort of behaviour that needs to be taken responsibility for.”
This is the sort of behaviour that people need to take responsibility for.
They need to avoid doing this in the future. It’s not okay. It’s not correct.
“If you’re going to have people leaving their fish scraps they need to be fined and punished for it.”
“If you’re going to have people leaving their fish scraps they need to be fined and punished for it.”
So, “to be fined” is to be charged a certain amount of money as a result of something you’ve done wrong.
So, forced to pay something, a certain amount of money to an authority.
And “punished” is obviously to have some kind of penalty inflicted upon you.
“So, it sends a message out that this behaviour is not to happen.”
[00:06:30] “So, it sends a message out that this behaviour is not to happen.”It sends a message out in that it gets a message across, it sends a message to people everywhere else, so, it goes out to other people, that this behaviour is not to happen.
That it is not okay for people to do this. That it shouldn’t happen. That you shouldn’t do it.
“Crocodiles are getting persecuted for people’s stupid behaviour.”
“Crocodiles are getting persecuted for people’s stupid behaviour.”
“To be persecuted” is to be treated poorly because of something that you are.
“And this is another prime example of it.”
“And this is another prime example of it.”
That’s just another way of saying this is a perfect example, a great example.
This is a prime example.
“This is what we’re talking about people.”
“This is what we’re talking about people. So, this is the kind of thing we need to discuss, that we’re talking about.
“(If) You do silly things in croc country bad things can happen.”
“If you do silly things in croc country bad things can happen.” “Croc country” is just anywhere in the world, but in Australia here, where you will find crocodiles.
So it’s the part of the country where there are crocodiles, croc country.
“If you be smart and be crocwise, you have no dramas.”
“If you be smart and you be crokwise you have no dramas.”
If you’re “crocwise” it means that you are intelligent, you are wise around crocodiles and thus don’t dump fish scraps near the edge of the water.
You don’t go near the edge of the water.
You give respect to the crocodiles, and you’re smart around them so as to not get in danger yourself.
“To have no dramas” is a really Australian way of saying, “You’ll have no problems”, “you’ll have no issues”.
“You going to have no dramas mate. You’ll have no worries at all.
“If you’re a fisherman don’t leave your bloody fish scraps on the boat ramp. You’re a dickhead.”
“If you’re a fisherman don’t leave your bloody fish scraps on the boat ramp. You’re a dickhead.”
So, “bloody”, here, is just a way of emphasising it. It’s slightly rude, but not really.
It’s just adding emphasis. It’s not near the F word. If I was to say fucking, which is incredibly rude.
It’s used in exactly the same way, but it’s a lot more polite, and you can do this on TV, on podcasts, etc. without people complaining too much. “Bloody”.
If you call someone a “dickhead”…
This used to be a lot ruder than I feel it is today, but today it just means an idiot. An idiot.
“You’re a dickhead mate”. “You’re an idiot”.
Yeah, g’day folks Wildman here.
Down at the boat ramp on the edge of the Daintree River, and I’ve come across something that annoys me quite a lot.
We’ve got down here a heap of fish scraps, alright?
Some fishermen’s come along and decided he’d dump his baitfish here.
We’ve also got, and I’m not going to go too close to the water, there’s a heap of fish scraps all dumped in the water.
About 30 or 40 fish in there. And what happens now is crocodile comes along.
They come up onto the boat ramp to eat these fish. Someone reports it, poor crocodile gets removed, and quite often killed.
This sort of behaviour that needs to be taken responsibility for.
If you’re going to have people leaving their fish scraps they need to be fined and punished for it so it sends a message out that this behaviour is not to happen.
Crocodiles are getting persecuted for people’s stupid behaviour, and this is not a prime example of it.
This is what we’re talking about people. You do silly things in croc country bad things can happen.
If you be smart and they crocwise you have no dramas.
If you’re a fisherman don’t leave your bloody fish scraps on the boat ramp.
You’re a dickhead.
Check out Wildman’s Facebook page here! Give him a like and say g’day from Pete!
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AE 504: How to Build English-Speaking Confidence
Learn Australian English in this episode of The Aussie English Podcast where Ii talk about how you can build English-speaking confidence.
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AE 504: How to IMPROVE Your English-Speaking Confidence!
All righty guys, it looks like summer has arrived! It is a hot one, actually. Need to wind down the windows and let the hot air of the car out because it’s boiling inside here, but yeah back in Ocean Grove.
Living with the folks at the moment for the next few months as we get settled and get organised and yeah, I’m enjoying being back. Canberra was good, Canberra was good, but I definitely know how it feels now to be away from family and friends, you know, it wasn’t the same experience as I’m sure a lot of you guys have gone through with regards to moving, moving abroad, moving overseas and having to live away from friends and family and effectively start again, but I definitely felt that to some extent as I knew absolutely no one in Canberra. Actually, that’s a lie. I knew one person who I saw once, two people two people. I lie. I lie. I knew two people, but I wasn’t very close friends with those people. So, I had to sort of kindle those relationships and become closer with them, but yeah.
It was difficult not being near family or anything like that the entire time, that was, that was quite hard so, I can appreciate what it’s like guys moving away for substantial amounts of time and having to restart your life because at the time we thought we were going to be there for two years, but only ended up being there for about six months fortunately or unfortunately.
Just going to straighten this camera. Anyway, today I wanted to chat about confidence and building confidence when speaking English or when wanting to learn English because I had a lesson recently with one of my students and he had some difficulties at work so, I might tell you his story because I won’t mention his name, but he had been hired for a job and after a few months they had decided to let him go because they decided that they didn’t
have the money to have him on board at his experience level and not have someone with more experience to help train him up so effectively they needed someone with more experience and they only had enough money to hire one person.So, they decided they had to let him go but in the process of letting him go they had made him do a few exercises and like presentations to try and test whether he was going to be good enough for that position. So, I was helping him prepare for one of the talks that he had to give in order to try and, I guess, show confidence when he’s speaking when he’s presenting in English and, hopefully, keep his job.
But he lost it, unfortunately, because they had already decided that they needed someone more experienced, with more experience. I guess the good thing was though that he has grown a lot through that experience and he had to obviously work through some very tough situations and practice his English and presenting skills.
But the funny thing is with with this guy he speaks really well. He speaks really well, but he lacks the confidence because of these things that he’s gone through so, his confidence has been a bit chipped away at, it’s been a bit reduced because of these experiences where he is working for a company in Australia obviously is mostly Australians. They all speak English fluently and he has the same demands put on him as they would put on a native speaker.
Despite being able to speak incredibly well, obviously, sometimes probably more often than than a native speaker he finds it hard to find the words or to express himself as clearly and it’s led to this sort of positive feedback loop of second-guessing himself, so hesitating a lot more than normal and he was saying to me when I had these lessons with with him I’m really frustrated because I know I can speak really well. I I feel like my English has gotten a lot worse recently, not because I can’t speak English, I can’t use the tenses like my grammar and my vocab hasn’t gotten worse, but I’m finding it harder to express myself and when we got to the root of the cause that was more related to his confidence than his actual speaking
abilities and I guess that was an interesting thing for me because, he was the first person I’ve sort of encountered where his English was fine, but his speaking had taken a hit. It had been reduced because of this issue with confidence.And so, the last few lessons we had been working through how to build his confidence to improve his speaking where he already obviously has a solid foundation with regards to his speaking and that’s why I wanted to make this video today guys for you to talk a bit about what you can do if you find yourself in a similar situation where, well, you don’t even necessarily have to be in a similar situation if you’re working on your speaking and trying to improve your speaking as well. This advice will obviously help you too, but if you are in a similar situation where your speaking is already at a very good level, but you’re finding it’s still hard to express yourself because of being nervous anxious and feeling like you just don’t have enough confidence, hopefully some of these tips and tricks or this advice that I will give you will help.
So, I sat down with this guy in a Skype call the other day and we were working through ideas about how he could build his confidence around speaking and and we we worked out that the problem with with why he was so nervous was because he was always, every time he was speaking English, was in a situation where something was on the line. All right, meaning that where he was at work, and he was speaking with colleagues and he was worried about his job or he was worried about his work.
So, he was constantly nervous there or he was in class with me and he felt a little bit nervous there as well because he is trying to learn he’s trying not to make mistakes and I said to him are you going out and finding ways to speak English and to engage with other people where English doesn’t have so much weight on it where it’s not so important as to whether or not you’re correct when you speak or as to whether or not you communicate your ideas concisely and very quickly? And he said no, the only time I really speak is at work and in classes with you, and I said well, there you go, that is something that you need to do. It would be like me wanting to get better at Jiujitsu, the martial art that I used to do, but the only training I ever did was competing right so it would be like me always going to competitions and
expecting to try and improve, whilst also trying to compete and when you compete obviously you’re not in an environment where you can freely try new things, where you can take more risks, right? If you’re always practicing your English when you’re in a situation where you can’t take risks, you can’t be relaxed and you can’t try new things then you’re not going to improve and you’re going to become a lot more nervous, a lot more self-aware and have issues with your confidence.So, what did I suggest to this guy that he could do firstly and and you know this is a pretty obvious one. Try and find something you’re interested in where you have to use your English and engage with other people. So this could be joining a sports club, doing some kind of recreational activity in groups, right? There are loads and loads of meetups that you can go to whether they’re related to English or not one example is that yesterday I went to Werribee zoo to do some photography with one of my friends Richard, who is a second…He speaks English as a second language, but he speaks like a native speaker, he’s been in Australia for five years now, and he spoke a long time before that, but before we went to Werribee zoo, he actually went on Facebook and found a walk around Melbourne to a photography group Meetup thing and spent two hours walking around, Melbourne, practicing his photography and it was free. There was no payment, it was mostly, I think mostly Australians, some foreigners as well, but he got to chill out with them and practice his photography which like his English well, his English is good, but his photography is very poor. He’s very much a beginner when it comes to his photography, right?
So, he was out there trying new things. There was no real… his photography wasn’t on the line so, he could just muck around practice take risks and feel at ease, obviously, you could do this same sort of thing, but with your English, so tip number one there, I would get online whether it’s on Google or on Facebook and look for some kind of group or Meetup related to a passion of yours. It doesn’t have to be English. Obviously, it can be English, it could be an English meetup group, but it could be related to photography. It could be related to sightseeing and travel it could be related to maybe you’re a mother or a father a new mother or a father and you could go to a meetup group for young parents, there are so many groups on there guys. Just find something you’re passionate about and try and do that once a week, you know, it could be an hour but once a week where you get to indulge in a passion of yours, but also practice English in a safe environment an environment where you don’t need to be perfect, you take risks and you can just do so in a relaxed manner, that is a great way to practice your speaking and to build your confidence, whether it’s in English alone, or it’s in another activity like photography.
Now, the other tip that I gave him was to check out public speaking groups. So, there’s one in Melbourne and I’m not sure this could be all over the place. It could be everywhere in Australia in the big cities, but there is a a group called Toastmasters, Toastmasters, I’m not sure if this is free or not. I have a feeling it is, but I could be wrong Toastmasters is a group that you can meet up with or you can go to that practices public speaking, so it can be for anyone whether you’re in business whether you’re a student at university, whether you’re learning English as a second language and usually the whole focus the whole point of these things is to just improve your public speaking, so it could be that you need to present at university and maybe they will critique you that will give you advice but it’s a safe environment because they as well are learning how to speak publicly, it could also just be practicing your English in general where you get up and introduce yourself and, you know, talk about yourself in front of them, but I think the basic idea here is that you will work on your public speaking which will definitely help you build confidence in English.
So, anyway, those were the main sort of points that I ended up saying to this guy, I was like you need to find time outside of work and outside of lessons with me where you can be speaking English and practicing your English and it’s not a risky moment, right? like the time that you’re spending doing. This isn’t going to make you nervous, isn’t going to make you anxious because it doesn’t matter if you get anything, right or wrong, the focus isn’t on how correct or efficient your English is, the focus is on just enjoying yourself and meeting other people.
Oh, I just I just remember the third one, the third one here, guys. Language meetup groups. I’m sure a lot of you will know about these in Melbourne in Sydney in Brisbane all the big cities around Australia and if you’re overseas, I am sure if you are in America or Canada there will be language meetup groups elsewhere in the big cities there to go to those guys, they tend to be free the ones that I went to in Melbourne when I was practicing my French and practicing my Portuguese were one called Lingos and another one called Mundo Lingo, okay? So, you should be able to find those or equivalents to those online if you go to Google or Facebook and type in language meetups, you’ll either find their website or their Facebook page and these are usually weekly or monthly meetups where foreigners and native speakers of English from that country as well can meet up to practice languages so, it’s not just English that they’ll be practicing. It’ll often be English speakers, they’re wanting to practice foreign languages as well. You know, whether it be Chinese or French or Portuguese. And so this is another relaxing, informal environment where you can meet many different people in the same boat as you learning languages their humble, they’re working on their confidence as well. So you you don’t need to be anxious you don’t need to be nervous and you can share your experiences, your worries, your concerns, all of that sort of stuff whilst also having fun and meeting new people, right?
So, language meetups are also an amazing place to just hang out meet new people, especially if you’re new to the area it’s a great place to meet native speakers and are foreigners as well and hopefully foreigners who don’t speak your native language and work on learning languages anyway, so I hope that’s helped guys at the moment.
I am off to Torquay I am about to catch up with two of my mates Dave and James. You’ve probably seen them in other episodes, we haven’t caught up in a week or two. So, we are going to go and get some healthy fish and chips there is a restaurant in Torquay called ‘Fishos’, called ‘Fishos’, just passing the airport here, you might see some of the planes out the window here a fish and chips place called Fishos and it is really gourmet. It’s very nice. They have fresh fish, that’s locally sourced. They have salads that you can pick to have with your fish. I think there were some sweet potato chips not just potato chips sweet potato. That’s healthy, huh?
Anyway, so I’m looking forward to that and I brought my camera gear so, I might go out and take a few sneaky shots before we get down and get down to business and start eating some food because I’m also quite hungry. It’s after lunch so, I hope that helps guys. I hope you’ve enjoyed this episode. Don’t forget to check out the Aussie English Podcast if you want to learn Australian English or English in general, that is theaussieenglishpodcast.com, if you’d like to support the podcast and Aussie English in general there’s a link down below for the Patreon page where you can sign up to donate as little as a dollar a month and if you would like to learn English in more depth, go over to theaussieenglishclassroom.com and that is where I upload a course every single week, I add to that constantly and there are videos and other materials in there that will help you Learn English, build your vocab and speak English confidently like a native speaker a lot faster.
So, get over there and try it, it is just a dollar guys to sign up. So, give it a go! I’m gonna stop rambling, keep driving and I’ll see you guys later. Thanks for joining me guys! See ya!
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Pronunciation: Contracting HAS onto HE, SHE & IT
In this Pronunciation episode of Aussie English I teach you how contracting HAS onto HE, SHE and IT is easy!
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Pronunciation: Contracting HAS onto HE, SHE & IT
G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today we’re going to be contracting the word HAS onto the pronouns HE, SHE and IT. So, in the previous episode we did HAVE onto the pronouns I, YOU, WE and THEY. And so, now we’re going to effectively do exactly the same exercise but with HAS, which is the singular form of the verb TO HAVE in the present tense.
So, let’s just dive straight into it guys, and we’ll practice the listen and repeat exercise as we always do at the start where I’m going to say HE HAS followed by HE’S, SHE HAS followed by SHE’S and IT HAS followed by IT’S five times. So, listen and repeat after me guys, and practice your pronunciation.
Listen and repeat:
He has – he’s x 5
She has – she’s x 5
It has – it’s x 5
So, HAS here is usually left uncontracted if said on its own followed by something like a noun, because it can otherwise be confused with the contraction of IS. So, obviously, contracting HE HAS sounds like HE’S and contracting HE IS sounds like HE’S. So, if you’re talking about possessing something but you’re not using any other word in that sentence, for example, GOT, after HAS, you’ll leave HAS uncontracted, or else you’re going to confuse it. So,
HE HAS A CAT = HE’S A CAT,
HE IS A CAT = HE’S A CAT.
If I was to hear, HE’S A CAT, my automatic assumption would be that someone is saying HE IS A CAT contracted. So, if you want to contract HAS in this sense and you want to avoid confusion add the word GOT after the contraction of HAS onto the pronoun. And so, for example, you would say HE’S GOT A CAT meaning HE HAS A CAT instead of HE’S A CAT. Hopefully that makes sense guys. We’ll do some substitution exercises in a sec[ond] which will add the word GOT into phrases with HAS when it’s contracted in order to help you practice that.
And also, obviously, HAS can be contracted when forming the Present Perfect tense. So when the verb TO HAVE is followed by a past participle. So, HE HAS BEEN becomes HE’S BEEN, SHE HAS WATCHED becomes SHE’S WATCHED, and IT HAS TAKEN becomes IT’S TAKEN.
So, let’s do a substitution exercise guys. The very first one I’m going to focus on using HAS plus the word GOT. So, as I said in the previous episode the form HAS GOT can be used in two different ways primarily. The first one is when it’s followed by a noun and you’re contracting HAS and it’s just that idea of possession. So, HE’S GOT A CAT, HE’S GOT A CAR, HE’S GOT A HOUSE. And then there’s the second one HAS GOT + A VERB which means HE MUST DO SOMETHING, HE NEEDS TO DO SOMETHING, HE HAS TO DO SOMETHING, HE’S GOT TO DO SOMETHING. So, it’s that idea of NEED, MUST, HAVE TO, you’ve got to do it.
So, listen and repeat after me guys, and as I’ve said previously as well, if this is too advanced to start with, and it’s a bit too complicated, use this substitution exercise as a listen and repeat exercise and just practice your pronunciation. However, if you want to treat it as a substitution exercise then instead of repeating the first sentence that I say try and contract the first one and then listen to me say the second one as it’s the answer to the contraction of the first sentence.
So, here we go guys.
Substitution exercise: HAS + GOT
He has got time.
He’s got time.
It has got a new colour.
It’s got a new colour.
She has got several pets.
She’s got several pets.
It has got to be enough.
It’s got to be enough.
It has got a few features.
It’s got a few features.
He has got two brothers.
He’s got two bothers.
She has got to leave soon.
She’s got to leave soon.
She has got a lot on her mind.
She’s got a lot on her mind.
He has got nothing else to say.
He’s got nothing else to say.
She has got nothing to do today.
She’s got nothing to do today.
She has got an old pair of shoes.
She’s got an old pair of shoes.
He has got to stop asking questions.
He’s got to stop asking questions.
It has got four rooms and a garage.
It’s got four rooms and a garage.
It has got a number of different uses.
It’s got a number of different uses.
He has got two times as much as she has got.
He’s got two times as much as she’s got.
And so, now guys we’ll do the second substitution exercise where this time I’m going to be using the word HAS followed by a PAST PARTICIPLE of a verb. So, we’re talking about something that HAS HAPPENED.
And so, here we go guys.
Substitution exercise: HAS + PAST PARTICIPLE
It has been too long!
It’s been too long!
She has asked a few times.
She’s asked a few times.
It has taken ages to finish.
It’s taken ages to finish.
She has been learning to sing.
She’s been learning to sing.
He has eaten all of her dinner.
He’s eaten all of her dinner.
It has gotten worse and worse.
It’s gotten worse and worse.
She has tried her hardest to win.
She’s tried her hardest to win.
He has done more than we asked.
He’s done more than we asked.
He has just gotten home from work.
He’s just gotten home from work.
It has definitely changed my opinion.
It’s definitely changed my opinion.
He has just finished training at the gym.
He’s just finished training at the gym
She has watched the movie several times.
She’s watched the movie several times.
So, that’s it guys. Practice this episode a few times. Do it until this stuff becomes natural. It probably won’t happen overnight, but the more you do it and the more frequently you do it, you know, every few days, every few weeks, every few months. Just keep going over these episodes and eventually this stuff is going to become second nature. It’s going to become natural. You’re not going to have to think about when and how to contract these words when you’re speaking with other natives or with other English speakers.
So, see you in the next episode guys!
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AE 464 – CAN vs CAN’T | Australian Pronunciation & Accent Training
Learn Australian English in this episode of Aussie English where I teach you the Australian pronunciation of CAN vs CAN’T.
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AE 464 – Can vs Can’t | Australian Pronunciation & Accent Training
G’day, guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today I have a question from Dan who sent me this on YouTube, and Dan said, “How do we get the difference between can and can’t in Australian English?”. So, how can we pronounce these, and how can we listen out and hear the differences? Let’s go.
Alright, so this was a really good question. Thanks Dan. And remember, if you guys wanna ask me a question that you would like me to do a video on in the future, put that below.
Also, don’t forget to hit the subscribe button and the bell notifications button as well if you would like to stay up to date with all the future episodes.
Alright, so ‘can’, we’ll go through ‘can’ first. ‘Can’ has the vowel sound /æ/. Okay? So, it sounds like words like fan, van, man, plan, and scan. However, ‘can’ can often be contracted, it can be de-emphasized, when it is in a sentence that has other words, where the word ‘can’ is not the focus.
So, ‘can’ is an auxiliary verb and I can use this verb before other verbs if I want to show that I am able to do this thing. I’m able to, I can do this thing. However, it can be contracted, it ‘can’ be contracted into just the schwa sound in Australian English, English everywhere can do this. Okay? “…’can’ do this”. So, if there are words in the sentence after ‘can’ I would generally say that you can contract it. Okay? So, it sounds like ‘can’. I so say this with me.
Can, can, can, can.
Good job. And let me give you some examples, okay?
I can see. I can see. I would never say it like that. Because the word ‘see’ is there, I would say, “I can see”. ‘Can’. The other example here is: can he help you? Can he help you? Can he help you? Can he help you? You’ve got ‘help you’ in there so you can say: ‘can’ he help you? Can help you?
The only thing I want to mention, when it is stand-alone, when it is by itself, in a sentence as in someone has used a question, they’ve ask you, “Can you do this? Can you do this”, and you’ve replied, “Yes, I can.”, you would never contract it. And so, you would say the full, well-pronounced word ‘can’. You wouldn’t say, ‘I can’ or ‘you can’.
So, for example: I can help you later. Can you? Can you? ‘Can’ is the only interesting word in that sentence aside from the pronoun. Can you? Can you? You wouldn’t say: can you? “Yes, I can”, not, “Yes, I can”. Okay?
So, quick recap. ‘Can’ sounds like: van, Dan, man, plan, etc., but it can be contracted when it is not the important word in a sentence, and it can become, it ‘can’ become, ‘can’. Can, can.
Alright, now let’s move onto ‘can’t’. ‘Can’t’. So, this is a different vowel sound. ‘Can’t’ sounds like words including: car, star, far, bar. This is a long /ɐː/ vowel sound, as opposed to a short /ɐ/ vowel sound. Okay? And this happens in the Australian accent where we have this vowel difference. Can, /æ/, can’t, /ɐː/. /æ/, /ɐː/. This is Australian, could be British as well, but it doesn’t happen in the Standard American Accent.
They will say ‘can’ and ‘can’t’, ‘can’ and ‘can’t’, and you have to listen for that T.
However, because we have that vailed difference in Australian accents you won’t often hear the T at the end. You can hear ‘can’, ‘can’, you know that that is the affirmative form, there’s no negative there, ‘can’, ‘can’. And when you hear ‘can’t’, you know, that’s negated because of the vowel sound.
And remember guys, this is different from the short version of this vowel. ‘Hut’ is a very short /ɐ/ sound, but if we make that longer, it changes the meaning of the word to heart, heart. Right? So, this is why it’s important to get this vowel sound right or you will change the meaning of the word and it’s quite bad.
Story time. Okay, so once I was working in a restaurant and the Thai lady, who was my manager at the time, I had to ask for a break. I needed to go on a break. So, I said, “Can I go on break?”, and she replied to me, “No, you cunt”. So, that was incredibly awkward, because I’m sure you guys will know that that word is one of the worst, if not the worst, words in English.
The way in which I told her to get around this was to just make sure she elongates that /ɐː/ sound. So, if you’re worried about making that mistake, just make sure that your elongating the vowel sound in the word ‘can’t’. Okay? Don’t make it quick. Don’t make it quick. Can’t.
Another point we also touched on a moment ago was that we mute the T. So, quite often you won’t hear people say ‘Can’t’, you’ll hear them say ‘can’t, ‘can’t’. So, what’s happening is that that T is a stop consonant where pressure builds up behind the tongue, and then is released, it’s released, but we can un-release it, although that’s not a word, we can prevent it from being released by just going. So, we would say, instead of ‘can’t’, we don’t say the /t/ and instead we just say ‘can’t’, and the tongue stops the air, ‘can’t’.
So, it sounds like a very, very, very short N sound instead of a long N sound. So, this is another way to listen out for this. If you heart, ‘can’t’, ‘can’t’, ‘can’t’, it’s different from ‘carn’, ‘carn’. That N sound is a lot more emphasised in the word ‘carn’ as opposed to ‘can’t’.
So, let’s compare these two words, okay, where will say the T released and then we’ll say unreleased.
Can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t, can’t.
As a result of this T being muted as well, when a word follows the word ‘can’t’ and it begins with a vowel sound, quite often we will link these words with an N sound. Okay? That /n/ in ‘can’t’ right at the end there. So, two examples are: I can’t open the door. I can’t open the door. I can’t open the door. N_open, N_open. I can’t open the door.
It can’t end like this. It can’t end like this.
Although, ‘can’ can be contracted to ‘can’, because ‘can’t’ or ‘can’t’ is already a contraction of the words ‘can not’, we won’t contracted any further. Okay? We won’t say ‘can’t’. So, let’s practice pronouncing the differences between ‘can’ and ‘can’t’, okay? Listen out for it.
Can, can’t, can, can’t, can, can’t, can, can’t.
Now I’m going to say to you a list of sentences, guys, and I’m not going to show you what those sentences are until after I have said them, and I want you to see if you can pick when I say ‘can’ or ‘can’ and when I say ‘can’t’. Okay? So, listen and have a think, pause the video if you need, but practice your ear here. This is where you want to listen and see if you can notice the difference in pronunciation. Let’s go.
Listening Comprehension test:
- ____ animals feel?
- She ____ help you.
- I ____ see him.
- He ____ eat now.
- ____ they buy me something?
- ____ you say anyone?
- It ____ end like this.
- We ____ leave when you want.
- I ____ change his mind.
Good job guys. I hope that helps. I know that the different sounds between ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ can be a real pain in the butt. Keep practising it. It will take a little time, but I am sure that you will get the hang of it sooner rather than later.
Remember, guys hit that ‘Subscribe’ button if you want to keep up to date with all the future videos coming out with regards to Australian English or English in general, and don’t forget to listen to the Aussie English Podcast.
This is the free podcast that I create, guys, for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So, check it out via the website here.
Until next time, guys, I hope you have an amazing day and I’ll see you later. Peace!
Answers:
- Can animals feel?
- She can’t help you.
- I can see him.
- He can eat now.
- Can they buy me something?
- Can’t you say anyone?
- It can’t end like this.
- We can leave when you want.
- I can’t change his mind.
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