Transcript of AE 1261 - Expression: The Be-All and End-All

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? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. I'm your host, Pete, and it's a pleasure to be here once again to help you better understand and speak Australian English. So I hope you guys have been having a great week. It's been a pretty good one this week. Pretty calm weather wise. Hasn't been too hot, too cold. We've had a few birthdays over the last week. We had my daughter's birthday, Joey turned three, and then my wife's birthday a week after Joey's, and she turned 36, though she wouldn't look a day older than 30, if you ask me. Hopefully she's listening and I get a few brownie points.

I wonder if you guys know the expression: to get some brownie points. This is like to get some, what would you say? Like, positive points from someone for saying something positive, or doing something positive? Let's see if I- this is, impromptu. I haven't actually thought about using this expression ahead of time, but, so okay. This is from GingerSoftware.com. Interesting. "You use the expression brownie points to indicate a nominal mark of achievement, or some kind of kudos for the performance of a positive or credible act." There you go. So you "earn brownie points", usually.

And it's like, yeah, if you help someone do something, they kind of owe you, right? So you "earn those brownie points." Anyway, so it's been a good week. Before we get into today's episode, guys, don't forget. If you would like the transcripts to these podcast episodes, be sure to sign up to the Premium Podcast membership. You can get access to that at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

You'll get, obviously, the transcripts bonus episodes. You'll be able to use the premium podcast player on the website to read and listen at the same time. You can print out the transcript, take notes, learn all of the new vocab in it, everything like that, and you're obviously supporting the podcast by doing that as well. So go check that out at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

All right. So let's get into today's Q and a question and answer. This one comes from Saeed Salahi. Salahi Salahi. And he asks, "Can you suggest an Australian English dictionary for me to use to learn Australian pronunciation and words?" So I would recommend the Macquarie Dictionary. This is the national, you know, Dictionary of Australia. The IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet, that is used in the dictionary is slightly different from what you'll see when I transcribe words using the IPA.

And it's yeah, for some reason they've decided to use the same one as the Oxford English Dictionary. So I think it's sort of similar to British pronunciation, but by and large, you know, you'll get by and you'll enjoy it. If you want to buy one of these, to be honest, I would say go into any second-hand bookstore. Go into the salvos, go to Amazon or eBay and you'll find one second-hand, cheap as chips. It'll be incredibly cheap. So just buy one used.

If you want to sign up on the website, you can also do that and get access to obviously their, whatever their, you know, subscription entails. But yes, the Macquarie Australian English Dictionary is what I would suggest. All right. So slap the bird, give it a kick. And let's get into today's joke.

So today's joke. The joke actually made me laugh out loud when I found it online. I was searching around and I think I, sort of pissed myself a little bit. I was like, waah! And my wife Kel was like, 'What? What is it? What is it?' And then obviously I told her and she was like, 'That's not that funny.' So anyway, let me tell you the joke.

"Why did the dictionary cross the road?" I wonder if you see how this is related to what we just talked about, right? "Why did the dictionary cross the road?" Uh, I'm already laughing, having read the answer.

So, "The dictionary crossed the road to visit its 'grammar'!" So dumb. So, 'grammar' as in G R A M M A R, right. And if we, if you want me to give you the actual definition, you know what 'grammar' is, right? You've been learning loads of English grammar. This is the whole system and structure of a language, okay. In general, usually taken as consisting of syntax and morphology, including inflections and sometimes also phonology and semantics. So there you go. That's the, the Google definition for the word 'grammar'.

And obviously this sounds very similar to 'grandma', right. Like 'grandma', my grandma, my grandma, the mother of one of your parents is your 'grandma'. So, 'On the weekend I'm going to go visit my grandma. And maybe while I'm there, I'll practice some of my English grammar.' 'Grammar' and 'grandma'.

So there you go. "Why did the dictionary cross the road?" "To visit its grandma." God. All right, enough of that. Enough of that. Let's get into today's expression. Today's expression is "the be-all and end-all", right. Something can be "the be-all and end-all", "the be-all and end-all of something" as well. Okay. So let's go through all the different words here.

"The", this is the definite article, right. It's the specific thing. "This is the car I want to buy." "This is the person I want to marry."

"To be", this is to exist. "Are you going to be here on Wednesday?"

"All", this is everything. Each of a group of something. "I have all of my money in the bank." The whole lot. All of it.

Now, "the be-all". So we use a hyphen between these two words 'be' 'all'. And this is the most important thing, right? "The be-all", 'something that is everything to you'. "My wife is the be-all." I guess you could say that. It's sort of weird to not use in the entire, in the entire expression. So, yeah, it is one of those weird things you kind of have to say the whole lot for it to, to really sort of sound right.

"And", I'm sure you guys will know what 'and' is. This is used to connect words together. Words, clauses, sentences, and they're to be taken together. So, "bread and butter", "salt and pepper". "I'm going to the movies with my wife and my kids."

"End", this is the final part of something, especially a period of time and activity or a story. "This is the end of the movie", and "The end of the movie really sucked." It sucked. It was really, it was really bad.

And then we have "end-all". Similar to "be-all", 'end' and 'all' are connected with a hyphen, and the meaning is 'the ultimate purpose, object or conclusion', right. "To end all of the ends." This is the, I don't know, "This is the end-all."

So yeah, what I want to say here is that we typically use this expression, all these words together, we won't really use 'be-all' by itself, or 'end-all' by itself. We typically say that something is "the be-all and end-all", and it means that that thing is the most important part of something or the most important reason for something. It is the central and all important part of something, "the be-all and end-all."

Let's go through some examples and hopefully you'll better understand the expression "be-all and end-all". All right. So number one, imagine you're a kid in Year 12 at school. You're busting your butt, right? You're trying so hard to do well, to get a really high score at the end of Year 12 so that you can get into a good university and study to become a biologist. Or maybe a lawyer, or an economist. So you're worried, though, that your marks won't be up to scratch. They're not going to be good enough. You're really worried. Oh, I'm not going to make it. I won't get the score. I need to get into the desired uni, you know, that I want to get into.

So when you get your marks back, lo and behold, it turns out that you were right and you just didn't get the marks you needed to get into your dream university. You're a bit bummed out, you're a bit depressed, but your family and friends might say, Mate, you still did really well. So don't worry. That university you wanted to get into, it isn't "the be-all and end-all." It's not the be-all and end-all" of all universities. There are other options out there that are still desirable, that are still good. You're still going to succeed. You know, don't be depressed. That university isn't "the be-all and end-all." It's not the most important one in the world. Okay.

Example number two. So when my wife Kel and I were living in Canberra, she was really focusing on her career, as was I, you know, I was trying to build up Aussie English. You can probably go back in the episodes and you'll hear about our adventures in Canberra. But as we had reached our 30s, we were now thinking about having children, you know, and where we wanted to go in life. Did we want to get married? Did we want to live in Canberra forever? Did we want to move somewhere else? Did we want different careers? Did we want to focus primarily on our careers or focus instead on potentially having a family?

So as you guys will probably be aware, we realise that making money and having amazing jobs wasn't "the be-all and end-all", right. It wasn't the most important part of our lives. Instead, we really wanted to have a family and get married and live close to our old friends and my family back home in Victoria. So having an insane career wasn't "the be-all and end-all" for us, right? It's not necessarily the most important thing out there. Having our kids is "the be-all and end-all".

Example number three. Maybe you've decided to go to the gym and try and get fit, and you've started going with friends. You know, one of your friends you go with all the time, and that friend's kind of become hyper obsessed, super obsessed with going to the gym, you know, four times a week. They're going nuts with their diet. You know, they've cut out 100% of junk food and bad food. They're, you know, just absolutely obsessed with getting fit. And literally, you know, they take it to the extreme trying to become as fit as possible.

And you think, Man, fitness is important, but it's not "the be-all and end-all", right. Having a good life, enjoying your life is "the be-all and end-all". That is the most important thing. I don't want to be weighing out the different macros that I'm eating. You know, the different carbs, the different fats, counting calories, obsessing over how many steps I've walked today, how much weight I've lifted. I want to be fit, but I also want to kind of live my life and enjoy it. So being fit isn't "the be-all and end-all." It's not the only important thing right in the world.

So hopefully now guys, you understand the expression, "the be-all and end-all". Something can be "the be-all and end-all". You can also say "the be-all and end-all of something". And the meaning is that that thing is the most important part of something or reason for something. It's the central and all important part of that thing.

So as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is your chance to practice your Aussie accent and develop your own Australian accent so you can speak with confidence. Okay, so listen and repeat after me. Are you ready? Let's go.

The. The be. The be-all. The be-all and. The be-all and end. The be-all and end-all. The be-all and end-all. The be-all and end-all. The be-all and end-all. The be-all and end-all. I reckon it's the be-all and end-all. You reckon it's the be-all and end-all? He reckons it's the be-all and end-all. She reckons it's the be-all and end-all. We reckon it's the be-all and end-all. They reckon it's the be-all and end-all. It reckons it's the be-all and end-all.

Good job guys. So let's talk a little bit about what's going on there in terms of connected speech, maybe intonation and the words that are getting de-emphasised, or emphasised, right. So first you'll probably notice I started by saying /thee/ when I was doing the initial sort of word pyramid, and it quickly became /the/, right. So because the word after 'the' starts with the consonant sound, I typically say /the/, right. I use a schwa sound, /the bee/ /the bee/ /the bee/ /the beeyol and endol/, /the beeyol and endol/, /the beeyol and endol/.

Then you'll notice the words in "be-all and end-all". Which one of them is emphasised in each of those respective examples? Be-all, end-all. It's the first word, right, 'be' and 'end', /beeyol/, /endol/, /the beeyol and endol/ /the beeyol and endol/.

And then linking them /bee/ /yol/. Because there's two vowels there. We're using a /yuh/ sound /beeyol/, /beyol/. And then /endol/ /end/ /ol/. We're linking with that D to the A, right, /en/dol. It goes to the front of that syllable, right. So /en/ /dol/ /endol/ /the beyol and endol/ /endol/.

And something tricky here is 'and' and 'end', right. We kind of say these quickly together. So just make sure you're nailing those vowel sounds /a/ 'and', and /e/ 'end'. /The beyol and endol/ /the beyol and endol/.

And it's almost a schwa sound for that. And if you speak quickly it will become, instead of /a/, it'll become /ər/ /the beyol/, /ənd endol/, /the beyol ənd endol/. That's a little hard to do slowly. /The beyol ənd endol/, /beyol ənd endol/, just takes a bit of practice.

Remember guys, if you want to master your Australian pronunciation and learn to speak with confidence Down Under, be sure to check out my Australian Pronunciation course. You'll save $100 if you sign up via the link AussieEnglish.com.au/APC100. So APC as in Australian Pronunciation Course and 1 0 0 100, the number 100. As in you will save 100 bucks off the price of the course. So AussieEnglish.com.au/APC100.

All right, so to finish up guys I have a little listening comprehension exercise for you where I'm going to play a clip for you from an Australian TV show called Insight. This is free to watch. You can see it on SBS On Demand On Demand and you'll also find some episodes on YouTube. "Insight is Australia's leading forum for debate and powerful first person stories, offering a unique perspective on the way we live." I absolutely love this series. There are so many really, really interesting topics, so definitely go and check out Insight.

The rules of the game. I'm going to play a clip for you two times, and your goal is to write down what you hear being said. Remember, you will see the answer in today's transcript. If you have a Premium Podcast Membership, otherwise you will find it in the free worksheet that you can download so that you can write down what you hear being said. And then at the bottom of that page you will see the answer upside down. Okay, so I'll stop blabbering on and let's get into the first playthrough.

If you lift my tax-free threshold, that changes my life. That means that I get to say to my little girls, "Daddy's not broke this weekend. We can go to the pictures."

All right. How did you go? He had a bit of a strong accent, so you might find this one a little difficult, but that was kind of the point. Okay, so if you have to go back and listen multiple times, that's all good, mate. It's all good. All right, time for the second playthrough.

If you lift my tax-free threshold, that changes my life. That means that I get to say to my little girls, "Daddy's not broke this weekend. We can go to the pictures."

Awesome work guys, awesome work. So I hope you enjoyed that. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I've been your host, Pete and I wish you an amazing week and I'll see you next time. Tooroo!