Transcript of AE 1274 - Expression: Cut Someone's Lunch

G'day you mob, and welcome to Aussie English. I am your host, Pete. And my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go.

G'day you mob. How's it going? I'm Pete, your host, and this is the Aussie English Podcast. So welcome guys. I hope you guys are having an amazing week. And, yeah, enjoying the cold. If you were down here in the south east of Australia just like me, because yeah, it's starting to get a little brisk. It is starting to get a little cool, a little cold. Which I don't mind. You know, it's okay for a little bit, for a few months, and then we'll hopefully return to warmer days. As we slowly, slowly roll back into summer at the end of this year.

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So anyway, let's get into today's Q and A. So today's question comes from, I don't know if I can say this: atzigarciag. It's an interesting name. I'm not sure if it's actually a name or not, but, yeah. Interesting spelling. "What's the weirdest animal you've ever found in your house, Pete?" Okay. The weirdest animal that I've ever found in my house. I guess this is going to be different for everyone, right? But for me, I made a little list here of different animals that I've found.

So I found spiders. That's an obvious one. Huntsman's that climb up on the walls. Daddy longlegs spiders. You know, you find them in and around the house. We have a lot of jumping spiders that seem to somehow get into the house at the moment. Frogs! Sometimes you find frogs, you know, if it's been raining a lot and they're really active and moving around and you have doors open or whatever, they may get inside your house. You can get things like, obviously rats and mice. I think that's ubiquitous around the world, right? No matter where you are, you're probably going to get rats and mice.

Lizards. You can get them in summer, you know, when it's warmer. And again, they're active. If you leave the door open, they might come inside. Possums. So this is getting towards the very weird, I think, for you guys. So around here at least, you can end up with ringtail possums. They're the sort of small cute possums that are about, you know, the size of a very large rat that have a prehensile tail. They have a little, a tail that rings. They can use it to sort of hold on to branches and sticks and stuff like that to help them climb. And it's got a white tip on that tail. They're really cute little dudes. So they can get into your roofs. It's unlikely that they're going to just sort of walk into your house, but they may get into your roof.

It's the same with brushtail possums. I remember when we were living in the Dandenong Ranges when I was a kid. This is a really, really forested area outside of Melbourne, right? The Dandenong Ranges, huge, huge, huge trees up there, massive gum trees. We ended up with brush tails stuck in our roof, you know. Well, they weren't stuck. They loved it, but they they were stuck in that we couldn't get rid of them easily. They were making a home in there and they would- you'd hear them each night waking up, running around, making noise, fighting, all that sort of stuff. And yeah, we had to get someone to come and get them out. So that was pretty weird.

And then apart from that, we've had bats. I remember, I don't know if it was my house, or if we were camping somewhere. Or not camping, but in a cabin somewhere. There was definitely at least one time that I can remember. We had a micro bat. So a very small bat, that was just randomly flying around in my bedroom where I was sleeping. And I had to use like a towel to try and catch it, to then let it go outside. But it was obviously living in the roof, and somehow got through a crack into the house and was flying around.

You have to be very careful with bats in Australia. Don't handle them if possible because they can carry the- I think it's the calicivirus, which is our version of rabies. So you don't want to get that. Yeah. So don't handle them unless you've been vaccinated for rabies. So yeah, that's probably the weirdest one I've ever caught is a small bat. And we just let him go outside, and he went on his merry way!

So kick the bird, guys. Give it a slap. And let's get into today's joke. Okay, so I wanted to tie this in with the previous question and sort of find a joke about an animal. Okay? So see if you can pick which animal I chose.

"Why don't people like working with vampire bats?" So the joke is, "Why don't people like working with vampire bats?" Are you ready? "Because they're a pain in the neck!"

Do you get it? "They're a pain in the neck." Okay, so let me explain. A vampire. A vampire in European folklore is a, I guess it's a dead person, right? And they wake up at night and they can sort of run around and bite people, and they suck their blood in order to feed. And then, you know, they can either kill the person by doing that, or they can turn that person into a vampire as well.

A vampire bat is a small bat that feeds on the blood of mammals or birds, using its sharp incisor teeth and an anticoagulant, saliva. That's pretty cool. And they're found mainly in tropical America. So these things are the stuff of nightmares, to be honest, guys. They, you'll often see docos about these, where they're flying around and they land on a cow or something. And they just make a little cut and then just drink the blood. And that's how they, yeah, get their nutrients. I guess that's how they feed. So yeah, a vampire bat.

But the pun here is obviously on 'vampire' and the expression of 'pain in the neck'. If something is 'a pain in the neck', literally, this would be for you to obviously have some kind of soreness in your neck, right? Whereas figuratively, it would be something very annoying or difficult. "Oh my God, this work I have to do is such a pain in the neck."

And we can often use it to describe a person who's really annoying, you know? "Oh, my kid is being such a pain in the neck today." "He keeps whining, keeps whingeing. Man, he's a pain in the neck." Okay.

So, "Why don't people like working with vampire bats?"

"Because they're a pain in the neck!"

Ugh! [Clip: That was good, wasn't it? Was good for a bit of a giggle, anyway!] Okay. Let's get into today's expression. So today's expression is "to cut someone's lunch". I wonder if you've heard this expression before, "to cut someone's lunch". But before we get into that, let's get into the words in the expression and what they mean. [Clip: Yous. Collective noun. All of your friends.] All right.

So, "to cut something", this is to slice to chop something with something sharp, right. Could be a knife, could be a spade. I'm trying to think what else could you cut with. Razor blade? Yeah, that's what you would cut with, right? "I cut my birthday cake with a knife into slices." "Hey, mate, how did you cut your finger?"

"Someone". This is an unknown person. "Someone's calling me." The number, I don't recognise. I don't know who it is. It's 'someone'. You know, "Someone's calling me." Or maybe it's just an automated spam call. "Someone's just knocked on the door." "Someone has knocked on the door. I don't know who it is. It's someone!" But, you know, it's probably a person. It's unlikely to be a robot. "Someone has knocked on the door."

"A lunch." A 'lunch' is a meal that you eat in the middle of the day, right? When I was a kid and I went to school, I would take a lunch. I would take a lunch to school. "What are you guys eating for lunch? I've got sangers.", right. I've got sandwiches. Sangers.

And bonus here! 'A cut lunch' or 'a packed lunch'. This is the idea that the thing you've taken to lunch is something I guess you could cut in half, right? Like a sandwich. Usually, it's going to be a sandwich. So if you made a sandwich for yourself, you cut it in half and you put it in a lunch box or a bag, you take it to school. That is a 'cut lunch'. It's a 'packed lunch', a 'cut lunch'.

But the expression, right, "to cut someone's lunch". Obviously this could be literal, right? If my mom is making my lunch, she can cut my lunch. But you would hope she wouldn't cut my lunch, figuratively. And you'll see why in a second!

So if you "cut someone's lunch", figuratively, it is to betray a friend by stealing their romantic partner.

So you can see you'd be a bit bummed out if your mum did this to you, right? So to steal someone's man or woman, to have romantic relationship or relations with someone's partner, right? To get them to cheat with you.

Or it could also be that idea of interrupting a couple as they're getting to know each other and kind of stealing, you know, one of the the two people, right. Getting their interest and starting a relationship with them. So when a guy or a girl has sex or partakes in anything sexual or romantic with a girl or a guy that you like, they've 'cut your lunch', right? They've 'cut your lunch'.

And I first heard this in the movie The Castle from 1997, right. This classic Australian movie. And I'll play the clip at the end of today's episode, so stay tuned for that. But in this movie, you'll know there's a scene where Sal is, the mum in this movie, is telling the kids how she met their father, Darryl, right. They are around the dinner table, and she's talking about how much of a stand up guy he was, and she uses this expression, okay. So hang around to the end and you'll get to hear it in context.

But yeah, I guess the idea, if we talk about the origin, the idea would be that a sandwich is the two people in a relationship, and if you've cut that sandwich in half and taken half of it, you've, you know, obviously. Yeah. Stolen someone.

So let's go through some examples of how I would use the expression "to cut someone's lunch" in everyday English.

Imagine you're out with the boys one night on the town, right? You could be out with the girls if you were girls. Well, it doesn't really matter. But in this example, you're a guy, you're out with the boys, and you guys are in your 20s. You know, you're all single, ready to mingle. You're wanting to find some girls and see what happens. When you first go to a club, one of you goes up to the bar to get the first round of drinks for everyone, right? He's like, "Oh, yeah, it's my shout. I'll get the drinks."

But he gets distracted by some beautiful woman up there, you know, who starts chatting to him. So after ten minutes he's still there yakking away with this woman, you know, chatting her up. Or maybe she's chatting him up and you might get annoyed. You might be like, "Man, I'm thirsty. I want my drink, you know? Are you going to get the drinks or what?" So you walk up there and you might say to your mate, "Look, I don't mean to cut your lunch, buddy, but can you just buy the drinks and get back to the table and then continue this chat later?"

So the idea here would be like, I don't want to interrupt your chances with this woman. I don't want to steal this woman from you. I don't want to disturb things, but can you get me a drink? I don't want to cut your lunch, but can you order the drinks and then, you know, continue doing what you're doing?

Example number two. Imagine you're a girl at high school and you and all your little best mates, you know, your little girls club at at school. That wasn't meant to sound patronising. You and your girlfriends at school have a crush on one guy in class with you, right? And you tell your friends, you know, one day that you're thinking of asking him out and you want to get to know him. You think he's hot and, you know, want to take him to the movies on the weekend. But the girls tell you, "Well, actually, one of our friend Sarah has already asked him out and has organised a date with him." Right.

So, you know, you probably don't want to ask him out as well, because you'd be 'cutting Sarah's lunch', right? You'll be interrupting her chances with him. You'll be 'cutting her lunch', right? Don't 'cut her lunch'. Just let her have a fair go, right. You want to be a good friend.

Example number three. Maybe you're out on a date with someone and you sit down to have an amazing meal at a high end restaurant, right? You've met this man or woman and you've taken them out to an amazing restaurant.

You're excited. You get the menus from the waiter, but the waiter is a little too charming for his or her own good, right? The waiter starts charming the person you're with, you know, cracking jokes. And you can see that the person you're with is actually kind of taken by this waiter, right? Finds them attractive, has some sort of obvious chemistry with them.

So you might excuse yourself to go to the loo, right. You might be like, Excuse me, I'm just going to go to the bathroom. I'll be back in a sec. And you might go up to the waiter or waitress and be like, "Look, mate, I'm on a date. Do you mind not 'cutting my lunch'? Can you just stop charming the person that I'm with? Can you take it easy?" "Can you get your hand off it and stop 'cutting my lunch', buddy? You know, just take it easy. Back off."

So hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression "to cut someone's lunch", right? To betray a friend by stealing their romantic partner? Whether you're a man or a woman, doesn't really matter.

All right, so with that done, let's get into today's pronunciation exercise. [Clip: Would you like a 'card-onay', Kylie? Kim, it's not 'card-onay'. The correct pronunciation is chardonnay. Mom! It's French. The H is silent! Back me up here, Kylie!].

Okay, so as usual, the goal here is to listen to what I say and then say it out loud yourself after me. If you're working on an Australian accent, that's brilliant. Try and focus on pronouncing things and connecting the speech and everything like that. Just like me. If you're working on a British or American accent, that's cool too. Just use the words and sentences that I say as a prompt for you to practice that accent as well. Okay, so you're ready to rock. Let's do it.

To. To cut. To cut someone's. To cut someone's lunch. To cut someone's lunch. To cut someone's lunch. To cut someone's lunch. To cut someone's lunch. I'm not cutting anyone's lunch. You're not cutting anyone's lunch. He's not cutting anyone's lunch. She's not cutting anyone's lunch. We're not cutting anyone's lunch. They're not cutting anyone's lunch. It's not cutting anyone's lunch.

Great job! Great job, guys! Okay so let's go through some of the pronunciation aspects of this exercise. So 'to' becomes /tə/ as always, guys. /Tə cut/ /tə cut/. We then mute the T at the end of the word 'cut'. So we don't say /to/ /cut/ /someone/ or /someone's/. We say /tə cut someone's lunch/ and we're muting the T in our mouth.

So we're going to say the T. It's as if we're going to pronounce the entire t, the whole t, the tongue goes to the roof of the mouth and then it just stops. Okay, so it doesn't let that air out. We don't aspirate the T, right? We don't say /tuh/. /Tə cut/, we say. /Tə cut/. /Tə cut/. So, you cut the T, /tə cut/ /tə cut/. /Tə cut someone's/. /Tə cut someone's/.

And you go straight into that S at the start of the word 'someone' /tə cut someone/ /tə cut someone/ /tə cut someone's lunch/, /tə cut someone's lunch/.

And then an interesting thing there. You'll notice the S at the end of the word 'someone's' is a Z sound. So it actually links to the start of the word 'lunch'. And we say /zlunch/. Sounds so weird to say that /zlunch/ as if it's a word. Because we don't often have /zl/. I don't think we ever have that at the start of a word, right, a Z sound.

So instead we have it in, or at the end of this sentence, where it's linking between 'someone's' and 'lunch', /someoneZ lunch/ /tə cut someoneZ lunch/, /tə cut someoneZ lunch/, /tə cut someoneZ lunch/.

And then for the rest of the exercise, what I want you to pay attention to is the contractions. /I'm/ /you're/ /he's/ /she's/ /we're/ /they're/ and /it's/, okay.

In particular, /you're/ /we're/ and /they're/. You'll notice we don't pronounce the R sound. So it's not /youR/ /wiR/ or /theyR/. That would be an American accent. And the reason is we don't have a vowel that comes after any of those contractions there. Because the next word is 'not', starting with an N sound.

So you say /yor not/ /wir not/ /theyr not/ okay. And that's a, that's a real crucial thing to learn in probably any dialect of English. Using those contractions as much as possible. It sounds a lot more natural when speaking quickly, as opposed to saying /you are not/ /he is not/ /she is not/ /we are not/ okay.

So anyway, let's finish up and get into today's little Aussie film clip. [Clip: That's not a knife. That's a knife.] [Clip: Here, there's no cash, right? Cash? No. Robber? No cash.] [Clip: You're terrible, Muriel. Tell him he's dreaming!].

Okay, so the clip today comes from the classic Aussie film The Castle from 1997. This is an absolutely classic film. If you haven't seen this and you are currently in Australia, mate, what are you doing? Just immediately get online, buy this video, get it, find it where it's streamed, whatever and check it out. Because it has so much cultural and historical references, everything like that in there, so much Aussie language. It's just jam packed, chock a block full, of Aussie English history and culture.

Okay, so I'll link the trailer in the description for you to check out. I think you can actually buy this on YouTube for a few bucks. You know, you could rent it or buy it on there too if you want to watch it.

The excerpt is: A Melbourne family loves its home, which is located near the Melbourne airport. When the government and airport authorities forced them to vacate the house, they decide to fight for their beloved home.

So the rules of today's game, I'm not going to actually get you to write down what you hear being said today. Instead, there is a load of different expressions that are used. I'll define them at the end. So today may be a bit of a longer, um, a longer episode, but the expressions are:.

To go out with someone. To put on a show. To sweep someone off their feet. To pop the question. To ask someone out. To back off. To only have eyes for someone. And, Hook, line and sinker.

And you'll obviously also hear cut someone's lunch. So there's like ten or so different expressions in there that are just great for dating language in Australian English. So without any further ado, I'm going to play the clip for you. Once, I'll define the different expressions quickly and then I'll play it for you a second time.

Don't forget, you can download the free worksheet today, to be able to obviously read what's being said, and get access to the definitions and everything. And if you've got the Premium Podcasts, you'll see that in the transcript. Okay. Let's go.

I want to tell you a story. Oh, good! About how your father and I met. I know this one. Not all of it, Dale! You see, I used to go out with a very handsome young man, well-to-do, called Bob Thompson. Big Bob Thompson. What's he doing now, eh? Putting in fence posts in Adelaide? He runs a construction company. So he says. Well, anyway, one night he took me to the Greyhounds. He put on a real show. We ate at the carvery. What'd you had? Ah, pork. Anyway, we had wine, champagne. He put on all my bets and he was just sweeping me off my feet. And, and I wouldn't have been at all surprised if he popped the question. Well, anyway, later on, I don't know what it was, but out of the corner of my eye, I spotted this lanky bloke struggling with one of his greyhounds. Red Rocket. That's you, Dad. Now Bob, he went off to talk to one of the stewards. And this young fellow, he comes right up to me and starts chatting to me. And he asks me out. And I said, "Well, I'm on a date." Well, he backed right off. He said he wasn't cutting anyone's lunch and he wished me good night. And I thought, that man has principles. And from that day on, I've only had eyes for one man. Hook, line and sinker. And that's what I love about him. His principles.

All right. So it was quite long. How did you go, though? Did you hear all of those expressions being used? Let's go through them quickly.

So, 'to cut someone's lunch', remember this is to betray a friend by stealing their romantic partner. If you go out with someone, this is to date someone or be in a romantic relationship with them. I went out with someone in high school. Are you going out with someone?

'To put on a show'. This is to show someone an amazing time whilst on a date, right? So if you take someone out, you might want to 'put on a show'. You might want to show them an amazing time.

'To sweep someone off their feet'. This is to charm or enamour someone intensely and quickly, often leading to them falling in love with you, right? So you want to be able to sweep someone off their feet. If you are really interested in that person, you're in love with them. You want to sweep them off their feet.

'To pop the question'. This is to propose marriage to someone. "Where did you 'pop the question'?" "Where did you 'pop the question'? Did you pop it at a lookout in a romantic place? Did you pop it at dinner?" "Where did you 'pop the question'?"

'To ask someone out'. This is to ask someone on the date. So you might ask someone out at school, at uni, or at work, wherever. You might ask someone, you might ask a stranger out, who knows!

'To back off'. This is to stop being involved in a situation or stop pursuing someone romantically. So if someone shows you they're not interested in you at all, you might 'back off', all right. If you're a good bloke, if you're a good girl, you might just 'back off'.

'To only have eyes for someone'. This is to be attracted to or interested in just one person ignoring all others. So, "I only have eyes for my wife." To only have eyes for someone. I guess the idea being you're only looking at that person.

And then lastly, 'hook, line and sinker'. The idea here is that it is completely without a doubt that thing, right? So 'hook, line and sinker', it's like you're fishing and the fish has taken the bait, but it's also taken the bait on the hook as well as the sink into the hook and the line itself, right. It's bitten so deep. You've got that fish 'hook, line and sinker'.

So, all right, hopefully you got all of those. Let's play the clip one more time and then we'll finish up.

I want to tell you a story. Oh, good. About how your father and I met. I know this one. Not all of it, Dale! You see, I used to go out with a very handsome young man, well-to-do, called Bob Thompson. Big Bob Thompson. What's he doing now, eh? Putting in fence posts in Adelaide? He runs a construction company. So he says. Well, anyway, one night he took me to the Greyhounds. He put on a real show. We ate at the carvery. What'd you have? Ah, pork. Anyway, we had wine, champagne. He put on all my bets and he was just sweeping me off my feet! And, and I wouldn't have been at all surprised if he popped the question. Well, anyway, later on. And I don't know what it was, but out of the corner of my eye, I spotted this lanky bloke struggling with one of his greyhounds. Red Rocket. That's you dad. Now, Bob, he went off to talk to one of the stewards. And this young fella, he comes right up to me and starts chatting to me. And he asks me out. And I said, "Well, I'm on a date." Well, he backed right off. He said he wasn't cutting anyone's lunch and he wished me good night. And I thought, that man has principles. And from that day on, I've only had eyes for one man. Hook, line and sinker. And that's what I love about him. His principles.

All right, hopefully you got them all, guys. Don't forget, grab the free worksheet on the website. Just click on the link in the description or head over to Aussie English and search for the expression 'cut someone's lunch'. So AussieEnglish.com.au.

Otherwise you'll see all the answers in the transcript. If you're a Premium Podcast member and remember, you can sign up for that if you're not already at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. Thank you so much for joining me, guys. I wish you an awesome weekend and I'll see you next time. Tooroo!