Transcript of AE 1240 - Expression: Warts and 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! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn, you guessed it, Australian English! So guys, I hope you've been having a good week. I've been recovering almost back to 100% after being a little under the weather, being a little sick, having a sore throat, a cough, losing my voice a little bit, having a croaky voice. But yeah, we're we're back at it. I've just been taking it easy for the last, I don't know, week or so, doing a bit of work here and there, but also trying to give myself a bit of a break, have a rest. Everything like that. Much to the envy of my wife, she is away at work every day during the week and she's always like, "Man, all you do is just, you know, sit around at home enjoying your life." And I'm like, "Yeah, a little bit." Anyway, guys, I hope you've all been having a great week.

I've heard that the Covid is sort of back with a bit of a vengeance in Australia. So if you're Down Under, if you're in Australia, I hope you're avoiding Covid. I hope you're up to date with your vaccines. And yeah, I just I hope you are healthy, well, wise, happy and looking forward to Christmas. It's already the 22nd of November where I'm recording this episode, so time flies. Time flies!

All right, guys, before we get into today's episode, don't forget, if you want access to the transcripts for these episodes, be sure to sign up for the premium podcast at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. You will get access to the transcripts. Obviously, the bonus episodes. You'll get the premium podcast player so that you can read and listen at the same time, whether on your phone, tablet or computer. It is a great resource for improving your Australian English, so go check that out. AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

Now let's get into the question of the day the Q&A question and answer. So this one comes from Sam. And Sam wants to know "What is the meaning of 'though' when you put it at the ends of sentences in informal English?"

So I'm trying to think of a sort of good example off the top of my head. "It's Thursday and I should be at school. I wanted to go to the beach though", right? I wanted to go to the beach though.

"It's Thursday and I should be at school. I wanted to go to the beach though." 'Though' You could also say this as "It's Thursday and I should be at school, though I wanted to go to the beach."

So what does 'though' mean here? Here, the word 'though' is used as a conjunction, right? It's similar to 'however' or 'but' and we introduce something opposed to something else and we qualify it. And we use 'though' in order to do that. So the example here where I say "It's Thursday and I should be at school", and I'm connecting it to the phrase "I wanted to go to the beach", right. So these are two things that are kind of opposed to one another: 'going to school' and 'going to the beach', or 'wanting to go to the beach'.

We can use 'though', to show that they are opposed to one another. Right. "It's Thursday and I should be at school, otherwise I would be at school." "I'm normally at school on Thursdays. However, I wanted to go to the beach though I wanted to go to the beach."

So we can use it if we have, say, two clauses like that that we want to put into the same sentence. So they're just separated with a comma. "It's Thursday and I should be at school, though I wanted to go to the beach." That's a single sentence, but it's two clauses separated by a comma. After the word 'school'.

"It's Thursday and I should be at school" comma "though I wanted to go to the beach." Otherwise we can use two separate sentences and we can put 'though' at the end of the second sentence, or 'however' at the end of the second sentence as well. Right. These two are synonyms and they can do the same thing. "It's Thursday and I should be at school. I wanted to go to the beach, though." "It's Thursday and I should be at school. I wanted to go to the beach, however."

However, 'however' is used a little more formally compared to 'though', if that makes sense. It's so funny though I could say "Yeah, 'however', is used a little more formally though."

Okay. Anyway, hopefully you understand that Sam definitely start using 'though' in your informal English. All right, smack the bird. Give it a punch, give it a kick. Make the kookaburra cry out. And let's get into today's joke.

All right, so today's joke isn't a sort of question and answer joke. It's more of a few sentences. So bear with me. Okay? Hopefully you enjoy this.

"I noticed a lump on my finger was getting bigger, so I went to the doctor to get it looked at. He told me it was a simple wart and he could remove it then and there. No worries! I decided not to though, as it was starting to grow on me!"

Do you get it? And I'm glad that I got to use the word 'though' in that joke. Do you get it? "It's starting to 'grow on me'." That was the the joke there.

So the phrase 'to grow on someone'. A wart, right? A wart is that little kind of bump mole shaped thing that can grow on your body, usually on your hands, and it's caused by a virus, so you can get them burnt off. You go to the doctor, they can use creams, or they can use things like liquid nitrogen to freeze it and it drops off. That's a wart.

And warts grow on you, right? They grow on your body, on the surface of your skin. They grow on you. But we can use the phrase 'to grow on someone' as a figurative way, to mean that that person is beginning to like that thing. Right? So if someone or something 'grows on you', you like him her it more and more than you did at first.

"I wasn't sure about this album when I bought it, but after a few listens, it's really starting to 'grow on me'", you know? Or maybe you didn't like the Aussie English Podcast when you first started listening to to the podcast, but after a few episodes, it started to 'grow on you'. Or I could say it started to 'grow on you' after a few episodes 'though'.

So there you go. Hopefully you understand that joke. I'll do it one more time. "I noticed a lump on my finger was getting bigger, so I went to the doctor to get it looked at. He told me it was a simple wart and he could remove it then and there. No worries. I decided not to though, as it was starting to grow on me." Ugh.

All right, so let's get into the expression of the day, 'warts and all', 'warts and all'. So we'll go through and break down the words in the expression. First, we'll talk a little bit about where it comes from. How to use it. In some examples we'll go through a pronunciation exercise and then a little listening comprehension exercise at the end. Okay.

So, a 'wart'. We've covered this. It's a small hard benign growth on the skin caused by a virus. In Western culture when we have like witches in TV shows or books, you know, literature, they typically have 'warts' on their faces. They might have a big 'wart' on their nose. And the point is to, you know, make that witch really ugly. They have a 'wart' on their nose.

'And'. We use the word 'and' to connect words of the same part of speech, right? Clauses, sentences, everything like that. So we use, we use 'and' to join multiple things together. "This is my mum 'and' my dad."

'All'. 'All' is used to refer to the whole quantity or extent of a particular group or thing. "These are 'all' of my friends." "Today I'm going to play 'all' of my guitars."

So, 'warts and all', the meaning of this expression, it may not be too obvious, 'warts and all'. This means including features or qualities that are not appealing or attractive, right? So if we talk about something having, you know, "it's warts and all" or "showing its warts and all", it means that you're seeing all of the features and qualities of that thing, whether they are appealing or attractive or not.

Okay, so 'warts and all' means including attributes that are not attractive, including all failings and shortcomings. "The origin of the idiom is often attributed to Oliver Cromwell, who was Lord protector of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland in the 1600s. It is said that when it came time for the artist Sir Peter Lely, to paint his portrait, Cromwell told him to render his likeness, 'warts and all'."

So I guess the whole point there is to show what Cromwell looked like exactly as he appeared, whether you got the appealing and attractive sides of him or not. So yeah, that was what the grammarist.com had to say about the origin of the expression 'warts and all'. So pretty cool, pretty cool. Let's go through three examples of how I would use the expression 'warts and all' in day-to-day life.

All right. Example number one. My wife's learning to drive at the moment, and we're thinking about buying a second car so that each of us have a car. It can be a bit of a, you know, hit and miss kind of adventure, trying to find a good deal on a car. Sometimes you can find really good cars, sometimes you can find really bad ones. Sometimes the car's nice but has too many kilometres on it, or there's some obvious issues that are going to cost a lot of money to fix, but sometimes you end up finding a really good deal.

So there are a lot of dodgy car salesman out there though. You have to kind of be careful when inspecting cars. Definitely make sure you get to see everything. When looking at these cars, you want to see everything, 'warts and all' before handing over your hard earned cash, right? You don't want to buy the car with no idea about what the problems are. You want to see everything, 'warts and all'. Show me all the problems as well as all the appealing features, everything that's good about the car, but also show me what's bad about it so that I'm not going to get a sudden surprise after I leave.

All right. Example number two. So when you first start dating someone, usually everything is amazing, right? It's all kittens, flowers, rainbows as you fall in love with this person that you're getting to know and starting a relationship with. However, over time, over the months and years that follow, if you stay together, you start to see the less than desirable features of that person, right? Their true colours can come out. You get to see all the things that aren't necessarily attractive or, yeah, desirable.

There's always going to be a few things that end up, you know, appearing later on that you're kind of like, 'Oh, if I'd known about that earlier, who knows? So you just have to kind of accept the person for who they are though, warts and all. So before deciding to stick it out for the rest of your life, hopefully you get to see all the sides of the other person that you're in a relationship with. Everything, 'warts and all', all the good, all the bad, all the ugly. You want to get to know them, warts and all. And then you can decide, "You know what? Screw this. I'm not marrying this person."

All right. Example number three. Maybe you're looking for a new house, right? You're wanting to buy your own place or rent your own place for you and your family. This was the position that we were in a few years ago when we were trying to buy the house that we're currently in, so we looked at a heap of different houses in the area that we were interested in living in, and we eventually found this one, the one that we really wanted though, the one that we wanted to end up buying.

We liked it a lot, but it was a little too expensive. So the one that we did purchase was one that came at a really good price, right? It did have a few issues, but we were comfortable once we saw the 'warts and all' right. Once we saw all the undesirable, unappealing sides of this house because of the price, because of the location, everything like that, we decided, you know what? It's a bit of a steal. It's a good deal. So we're going to get it. Even though we've seen 'warts and all', everything about this house and there are a few features we didn't necessarily find ideal.

So hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression 'warts and all'. This means including features or qualities that aren't appealing or attractive, right? 'Warts and all'.

So as usual, let's get into a little pronunciation exercise, guys. This is where I'm going to read out some words and phrases. And you can work on your Australian accent by listening and repeating after me. Okay, so are you ready to go? Let's do it.

Warts. Warts and. Warts and all. Warts and all. Warts and all. Warts and all. Warts and all. I love it, warts and all. You love it, warts and all. He loves it, warts and all. She loves it, warts and all. We love it, warts and all. They love it, warts and all. It loves it, warts and all.

Great job. All right. So if we talk a little bit about connected speech, 'warts and all', how do you notice those words changing in their pronunciation when we say it quickly altogether. 'Warts and all' 'Warts and all' 'Warts and all' So 'warts' is going to stay the same. 'Warts', 'warts' but the word 'and' isn't going to necessarily be enunciated that well, that clearly. Right. You're not going to hear /and/ in the middle of a phrase. Usually native English speakers of any dialect are going to reduce this to a schwa sound, and they may not add the D on the end.

So you might hear /ən/ right, or even just /n/, /warts'n all/ /warts'n all/ So you'll hear that /-s'n all/ So yeah. No D, we're bouncing off the N to then say 'all', /warts'n all/ /warts'n all/ /warts'n all/ /warts'n all/.

Now the other thing we can do here with the word 'all' we can pronounce the L at the end of the word 'all' as a light L, so the /l/ sound /all/ /all/. But we can also use the dark L because there's no sound. There's no vowel sound that comes after the L. It's at the end of a phrase here. So we can say /al/ /al/.

So this is where it's not necessarily an L /luh/ /luh/ sound, but it's almost as I normally say, a reverse W. Your lips are kind of rounding at the end to give it a /oo/ sound. So you'll say /owl/ /owl/ /owl/ /owl/ instead of /oll/ /oll/. I love it, /warts'n owl/ He loves it, /warts'n owl.

Now lastly here with these phrases "I love it" "You love it" "He loves it" "She loves it" What do you notice happening to the word 'it'? /I lov◡it, warts'n owl/ /You lov◡it, warts'n owl/ We take the /eeh/ vowel sound and we make it a schwa. So /I lov◡ət/ /You lov◡ət/ /əh/ /əh/ /He lovs◡ət.

And we're also muting the T. We're not saying /I love iT, warts and all/ We're saying /I lov◡ət wart'n owl/ /I lov◡ət warts'n owl/ So we mute the T by placing our tongue against the roof of our mouth. /it/ And just not releasing it. So not doing the /iT/ We just say /it/. /ih/ /I lov◡ət, warts'n owl/.

So, guys, if you want to learn more about Australian pronunciation, don't forget to check out my Australian Pronunciation course. You can find out more about it at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100

If you use APC100 at the end there, you will save $100. When you sign up inside the course, you will learn how to master all of the sounds of Australian English. All the vowel sounds, all the consonant sounds. There are audio and video exercises and tutorials and tongue twisters, everything in there that are designed specifically to help you master these sounds as quickly as possible.

You'll learn how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet so that you can study on your own and master your pronunciation, and you will also have, at the end of the course 25 advanced lessons about things like linking connected speech. How sounds change in spoken English.

Okay, so again, if you want to save 100 bucks, go check it out at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. And that is the numbers 100, APC100.

All right guys so let's finish up today's episode. Today I'm going to play for you a little clip from a TV show called Alone, which is based in Australia for this season. It's available on SBS Demand, I found. So I think you can sign up for free to SBS Demand. I believe the address is sbs.com.au.

The excerpt is "Ten Australians are dropped off alone in separate areas of the Tasmanian wilderness, where they must deal with the forces of nature, hunger and loneliness."

So the rules of the game, guys, I'm going to play the clip for you two times, and your goal is to listen and then write down what you hear being said.

This is a great way to work on your listening comprehension. You're going to hear lots of different speakers, different accents in the different expression episodes where we do this exercise. Remember, you can check the answer in today's free worksheet, which you can download on the website on this episode's page, or if you have access to the premium podcast, you'll be able to check the answer inside the transcript. So you're ready to go? Here's the first playthrough.

I've never said I'm an expert survivalist and I never will. Like, I'm not. I know I'm not. But what I found was that I could let my instincts, and the land, teach me what I needed to know.

So it's a bit of a long one today, but hopefully you got all of it. Time for the second playthrough.

I've never said I'm an expert survivalist and I never will. Like, I'm not. I know I'm not. But what I found was that I could let my instincts, and the land, teach me what I needed to know.

Awesome job! So I hope you enjoyed this episode guys. Thank you so much for joining me. I am Pete, this is Aussie English and I will see you next time. Tooroo!