Transcript of AE 1248 - Expression: Be In A Bit Of A Pickle

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

G'day, you mob! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone to learn Australian English. I am your host Pete and it is a pleasure to be here with you guys this weekend to teach you the expression "to be in a bit of a pickle".

Now today's story. So I was just chilling out, right? I've I've recorded another episode earlier today. I decided to go and make myself a coffee, and I'm just chilling out in bed, kind of watching some YouTube videos. And my cats, they always come and hang out with me when I sit in the bed. I guess they just, you know, sort of want to chill out, lie down, have a bit of a snooze. You know what cats are like. But yeah, so Scraps, my youngest cat, the kitten that is my son's male cat. And Peaches, the girl that you guys will probably know. Big old Peaches. She was there chilling out with me on the bed.

Now they are so food motivated. They are some of the most food motivated cats that I think I've ever known, especially Peaches. She is the worst. So anyway, I'm sitting there with these cats, and they're so twitchy when we get to around two, 3:00 in the afternoon, right? Because that's about the time that they get fed. They usually get fed around 3 to 4 p.m.. But yeah, around this time they start getting a bit twitchy. And any time I make a move, they start bolting for where the food is.

So I'm sitting there watching some videos and I hadn't realised how much they're attuned now to just me shutting my laptop. As soon as I shut my laptop, they were both on the bed and they both just piss bolted and jumped off the bed into the wall. And smacked on the ground and ran out the door and yeah, well, like, 'Where's the food? Where's the food? Where's the food?' So I was just giggling a bit before this episode because of that.

Cats and dogs, man, those pets are just some of the most fun animals because they just always seem to get themselves into trouble, or do funny things. Anyway, guys, before we get into today's episode, don't forget that if you would like to support the podcast as well as level up your English, sign up to the premium podcast membership. You can get this at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast

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So let's get into today's Q&A question and answer. This one comes from Marsepaz, who asks "What's another way of saying 'soft drink'? I've heard something like 'fisy'." So he or she has written F I S Y.

So I think what you're thinking about is fizzy, as in fizzy drinks. We use that for soft drinks, which I think Americans would call pops or soda pops. We don't really use that in Australia, though. We're aware of it because of American TV shows and everything. But yeah, 'soft drink', you know. "Do you want some soft drink?" "My son loves soft drink." He loves drinking things like ginger beer, Fanta, caffeine-free Coke, whatever it is, you know, soft drink, soft drinks. But we call them fizzy drinks as well because they're obviously 'fizzy', right? They've got little balls of carbon dioxide in there that 'fizz' out of the water once you've opened them up. Fizzy drinks.

All right, so kick the bird, slap the bird. Let's get into today's joke. So I tried to tie in today's joke with the expression to be in a bit of a pickle. See if you can see the connection. Okay, so "What's a cucumber's favourite musical instrument?" Hmm? "What is a cucumber's favourite musical instrument?" Are you ready for this "A pickle-o!" Do you get it? A 'pickle-o', a 'piccolo'.

Okay, so the pun is on the the word 'pickle'. And then I guess it's a hyphen zero or O, 'pickle-o'. And the word 'piccolo'. P I C C O L O. I imagine that is Italian. And a piccolo is a small, shrill flute whose range is an octave higher than that of an ordinary flute. A piccolo, a pickle-o. "What's a cucumber's favourite musical instrument?" "A pickle-o!", and that is because a 'pickle' is a 'pickled' cucumber. So you get the joke. What's a pickles? Ehm, what's a pickles? "What's a cucumber's favourite musical instrument?" "A pickle-o!" "A pickle-o."

Okay, so I should, I should probably define what 'pickled' is, right. So if you 'pickle' something that is to preserve food or other perishable items in things like vinegar or brine. Brine being salty water so you can pickle fish, you can pickle cucumbers. All sorts of foods can be pickled, okay. And you can 'pickle' a pickle, which is a cucumber, that has been pickled.

All right. So to be in a bit of a pickle, let's go through the different words in this expression. There's a few of them.

'To be'. This is to exist to occur. Right? "I am." "I think, therefore I am." 'I am', 'to be'.

'In'. Expressing the situation of something that is, or appears to be enclosed or surrounded by something else. "The cat is in my room." "The coffee is in my coffee cup." Right. 'In'.

'A' is the indefinite article. Like 'an', "I have not just a cat, but two cats." "He has a chocolate bar in his hand", "A choccy bar in his hand." 'A'.

'Bit', or 'a bit', a small piece, part or quantity of something. So, "It's only a bit of the full story." "She's only going to tell you a bit of the full story, not the full whole entire story." Just a small piece of it. 'A bit'.

But we can also use 'bit' ironically, right. So it can mean a small piece, but we can also use it to mean a fairly large amount of something. How confusing is that? So, "Working in a foreign country took quite a bit of getting used to." 'Quite a bit'. "He's in quite a bit of trouble." You'll often hear it with collocations like that. 'Quite a bit of trouble', right?

It's like the word 'few'. 'Few' is kind of like that. "Oh, there's only a few", or "There's quite a few", if that makes sense. Like, "There's only a few people there. I don't know, 2 or 3." "Man, there's quite a few, probably a hundred or so!"

'Of'. This is a preposition you guys want know how to use of. It's used to indicate the whole that includes an amount of or part of something mentioned. First. How confusing is that? So a bit of something of is helping you work out what it is part of. I guess the smaller the word I feel like a lot of the time, the harder it is to define in a language, especially ones like 'of' that have so many different uses.

And lastly, a 'pickle'! A relish consisting of vegetables or fruit preserved in vinegar or brine. But it can also just be the food, the veggie, the meat, whatever it is that is preserved in vinegar or brine as we went over. Right? So you might buy a jar of pickles and then tuck into them. My wife hates pickles. She always pulls pickles out of her hamburgers or whatever food she's gotten. If they've smuggled a pickle in, if it's gotten through, she gets quite upset because she hates them.

So to be 'in a bit of a pickle', this is in a difficult situation, in a mess, in a dilemma. And yeah, I guess you could think of it being like, imagine you're a pickle. Well, a cucumber who doesn't want to be pickled. And then they suddenly chuck you in a jar of vinegar. You're in a bit of a pickle, right?

All right. Anyway, so I looked up the origin, the origin of this phrase. It originates from the literal pickling process, which involves preserving something in a fermenting solution. The idiom has come to describe finding yourself in a situation that's far from sweet and can be applied to so many situations. Okay, so this is from the Grammarist.com.

Let's go through three examples of how you may be in a bit of a pickle in life. Okay, imagine it is your wife's birthday and you've gone out to get a present. You know, you want to buy her a little present for her b-day, for her birthday. So you know, you're going to a bunch of different stores, maybe a jewellery store. Maybe you're thinking about getting her a new ring, a necklace, a bracelet, something that she'll love, right? If she's a bit of a fiend for jewellery, she loves expensive jewellery. Maybe that's what you'd grab her.

So when you get to the jewellery store, you find the perfect item. A beautiful gold and silver love heart pendant thing that she is going to wear as a necklace. The shop attendant puts it in a box for you, wraps it up, and as you're at the checkout about to pay for it, you realise you've left your wallet at home and you don't have any money on you to be able to pay for this necklace, right? So you're in a bit of a pickle.

What are you going to do? You're going to have to go home, rush home, get some money, come back and hope no one else has bought this perfect present, this perfect present that you want to get your wife. You're in a bit of a pickle. You're in a bit of trouble. You're in a difficult spot. You're in a pickle. In a bit of a pickle.

Example number two. Imagine that you are a bit absent minded, maybe like me at times, right? Meaning you're forgetful, you forget things, you're absent minded. So your kids have been nagging you all week to do. Do something fun on the weekend, right? Early in the week. Your son has been harassing you to go to the zoo this weekend. 'Dada. Can we go to the zoo? I want to see the gorillas. I want to see the lions. I want to see the elephants. Let's go to the zoo.' And then later in the week, your daughter asks about wanting to go to the beach, so maybe she's like, 'Yeah, this weekend. Dad, you said we could do something. Can we go to the beach? I want to go surfing. I want to get in the water. I want to have fun in the beach. Fun in the sun', you know, fun at the beach, not in the beach. I want to have fun at the beach.

Because you're absent minded, you've accidentally said both these things can happen, right? You've said, 'Yeah, son, we can go to the zoo.' And you've said to your daughter, 'Yeah, daughter, we can go to the beach.' So when the day rolls around and all of a sudden it's the weekend, you may realise, right, the penny may drop, you may get a bit of a sinking feeling when you realise that you've promised both things and you can't do both. You can only do one. And you're like, 'Oh God, if I pick my daughter over my son, he's never going to forgive me. And if I pick my son over my daughter, she's never going to forgive me.' So you're in a bit of a pickle. You're in a very hard spot. Difficult situation.

So maybe to please both kids, you're just like, look, I'm really sorry. Here's $100 each. That would probably be bad parenting. Maybe instead you say, 'Hey, guys, let's just go get some ice cream, okay? The ice creams are on me. I screwed up, I'm sorry. I'm absent minded. I accidentally promised both of you that we would do each of your things, which we can't. I'm in a pickle. I'm in a bit of a pickle. I'm in a tough spot. Let's just have some ice cream' and they'll be like, 'Yeah, dad, no worries!' I'm sure that would happen.

Example number three, a great example that happens to me sometimes in the mornings is getting into the shower, having a wash, only to get out 5 to 10 minutes later and realise there's no towel in the bathroom. And if my kids are at day-care and my wife isn't in the house, she's gone to work. I can't really just yell out to someone, 'Hey, I've forgotten my towel, can you help me?' And quite often what happens in the morning is that when I come out of my bathroom in the en suite, in my bedroom, there are three windows along the wall facing the road where people walk past. And my wife often leaves these windows open in the morning when she's doing her makeup, so she gets a bit of extra light.

So my problem is that quite often if this happens, I have to somehow walk out of the bedroom and go find a towel, and I have to do so naked. So it's a little awkward. I end up in a bit of a pickle, right? I end up in a tough spot. It hasn't happened yet, but I am absolutely mortified. I'm scared. I'm terrified that one day I will forget a towel. There'll be no one at home, and if I come out of the room naked, out of the bathroom naked, go through the room. That just as I do, that a young family will walk past the windows and look sideways and just see, you know, naked old me in the window and be like, 'Aah!' So yes, when that happens, I am in a difficult spot. I'm in a bit of a pickle.

So hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression 'to be in a bit of a pickle'. This is informal. It is to be in a difficult situation, in a mess, in a tough spot, in a dilemma, in a dilemma, in a bit of a pickle. So as usual, guys, let's go through a pronunciation exercise where you guys can work on your Australian English pronunciation. Listen and say these words after me. Okay, you ready to rock? Let's do it.

To. To be. To be in. To be in a. To be in a bit. To be in a better. To be in a bit of a. To be in a bit of a pickle. To be in a bit of a pickle. To be in a bit of a pickle. To be in a bit of a pickle. To be in a bit of a pickle. I'd been in a bit of a pickle. You'd been in a bit of a pickle. He'd been in a bit of a pickle. She'd been in a bit of a pickle. We'd been in a bit of a pickle. They'd been in a bit of a pickle. It'd been in a bit of a pickle.

Good job guys. Now there's a lot going on when we say the phrase 'to be in a bit of a pickle' in terms of reductions like contractions, right? Which words are being emphasised and not 'to be in a bit of a pickle', 'to be in a bit of a pickle', 'to' becomes /tuh/ /be/ /in/ /uh/ /bit/ /ov/ /uh/ /pickle/.

Right. So there's a lot going on. 'To' 'a' 'of' and 'a' all get reduced to schwa sounds /tuh be in uh bit of a pickle/ /tuh be in◡uh bit ov◡a pickle/ /tuh be in◡uh bit ov◡a pickle/ /tuh be in◡uh bit ov◡a pickle/.

And then one last thing to go over here, it is the phrase 'I had been', 'You had been', 'He had been' and we're contracting 'had' onto the pronoun. 'I'd' 'You'd' 'He'd' 'She'd' 'We'd' 'They'd' 'It'd'.

So the D gets muted in our mouths. We're not releasing it. We're not saying /I'duh been/, /you'duh been/, /hee'duh been/ right /Id been/ /youd been/.

And it's important to be able to hit that muted D so that we know the grammar that's being used there. Right. So /I'd been/ /I'd been in◡uh bit ov◡a pickle/. /You'd been in◡uh bit ov◡a pickle/. /He'd been in◡uh bit ov◡a pickle/.

And the last one /it'd/ /it'd/. So instead of 'it had' the T at the end of 'it' turns into a schwa and we say /it'd/ /it'd been in◡uh bit ov◡a pickle/ /It'd/ /it'd/ /it'd/.

So this is pretty advanced stuff. If you want to learn more about this, check out my Spoken English course. You can go and check this out on AussieEnglish.com.au, and also my Australian Pronunciation English course as well at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. And in fact I think if you go and sign up for the Australian Pronunciation course, I should have checked this ahead of time. You'll get access to the IPA section learning the International Phonetic Alphabet.

You'll learn the sounds of Australian English, the vowels and consonants. You'll also learn these 25 advanced lessons, covering things like contractions and the schwa and emphasis. But when you sign up at APC 100, right, AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100, you'll save $100 off the course, but you can also get the Spoken English course for 50% off when you sign up. So it's a good bundle to get.

And in the Spoken English course we go over contractions and linking. So in particular contracting things like phrasal verb or not phrasal verbs. What am I thinking? Auxiliary verbs and modal verbs contracting those in spoken English and then also linking, you know, linking between different sounds. Okay, so go check that out. AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100

So the final section of today's episode, guys, is a little listening and writing exercise, a listening comprehension exercise. I'm going to play a clip for you two times. Your job is to write it down and then check whether you got everything right. Today's clip comes from a new Aussie TV show on Stan called Black Snow.

The excerpt is "After a time capsule is unearthed at a local high school, a small far north Queensland town is plunged back into the past, and the secrets of an unsolved murder of one of its students unravels." So it's a bit of an interesting one. I haven't checked this out yet, but I'm keen to remember.

You can check your answer if you download today's free worksheet on the website, or if you are a member of the Premium Podcast membership, you can obviously check the transcript for the answer. If you haven't signed up, check it out at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast So are you ready to go? Here's the first playthrough.

There are people here I trusted. But now I know they feed on suffering. One day when I'm safe from their clutches, I'll expose them and their cruelty. That's if they don't kill me first.

Awesome work. Did you get all of it? How did you go? Time for the second playthrough.

There are people here I trusted. But now I know they feed on suffering. One day when I'm safe from their clutches, I'll expose them in their cruelty. That's if they don't kill me first.

All right, that's it from me today. Guys, I hope you have an absolute brute of a weekend, a ripper of a weekend. Enjoy yourselves and I'll chat to you next time. See you later!