Transcript of AE 1237 - Expression: Do The Honours

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 goin? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. The number one place for anyone and everyone are wanting to learn Australian English. So guys, I hope you've been having a really good week. I hope you've been chilling out relaxing. I've been just doing the 'ush', doing the usual. I had the kids home a few times from day-care not because they were sick, but you know, it's just been fun hanging out with them a bit, going to different places, entertaining them. What did we do the other day? We've had Halloween recently, so that was fun. They have like all sorts of different days at day-care, right? Like, you know, Superhero Day, Halloween, wear your pyjamas at Day-care Day, all that sort of stuff. And they had the whole Halloween thing, and it was really funny going in and seeing all the kids in their different costumes. Because I think we all must shop for our kids at the same, you know, Kmart locally because it's just easy and they have all the stuff there. Right?

And so all these superheroes there were like five different Superman costumes on different kids, you know, there was a bunch of girls wearing them. There was Noah, my son, was wearing one. Some of his mates, I think his best mate Caden had like a golden Superman or something like that. And so yeah, it's just been really fun just raising the kids in the environment they're in, but also seeing all these things that they have that we didn't have.

And yeah, the obsession with stuff! You know, it's really funny how I'm sure it's the same with kids anywhere. They all kind of get impacted by each other's friends, right? By one another's little groups, little peer groups. And at the moment the phase seems to be superheroes. And so Noah is always like, "You know, I want to grow up and one day I'm going to be Superman." "I thought you wanted to be a fireman, Noah?" And he's like, "No, Superman!" And then this week, it's like, "No, now I want to be Iron Man!" And then the next week it'll be "I want to be Spider-Man!"

And so, yeah, it is really cute. You know, you sort of take for granted. What would be the inverse of 'take for granted.' You forget how innocent you are at that age and how much you just get to enjoy the moment, enjoy these smaller things, you know, and hang out with your mates on a regular basis at places like Day-care. You know, Noah goes in and just has his little crew of mates, you know, Tessa, Benji and Caden. He's like little crew of mates and they hang out every single week. He has more fun than I do. I think, you know, he's got more friends than I do now.

Anyway, so today's episode, we're going to cover the expression 'to do the honours'. 'To do the honours'. Have you ever 'done the honours'? Have you heard the expression 'to do the honours'? Before we do that, let's get into a Q and A, Question and answer. This one comes from Ivcoronadob. Interesting name. So the question was "Why are Australia's national colours green and gold?" Why are Australia's national colours green and gold?

This is a good question because you will see these colours all the time on uniforms for our country. So you'll see, you know, the cricket team, the soccer team, the Matildas, the Socceroos. You'll see rugby teams wearing these colours all the time. You'll see them on the athletes at the Olympics, whereas these colours aren't in our flag, right? Our national flag. We have white, blue and red in our national flag. So why do we have the national colours green and gold?

The colours green and gold were formally adopted by the Governor-General of Australia, Sir Ninian Stephen, on the 19th of April, 1984, in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette, on advice from the Prime Minister at the time, Bob Hawke.

The gold colour represents the golden wattle. The species name is Acacia pi- I think it would be pycnantha, which is Australia's national flower. And green evokes the forests, the eucalyptus trees and pastures of the Australian landscape, although quite often when we're in a drought period they are also golden or yellow. So the uniform of Australia's national sports teams are usually therefore green and gold. The golden wattle flower and the colours green and gold are also featured on the coat of arms of Australia.

So yeah, it is a big part of our culture of the Australian country. You will see this all the time in sports. Yeah, hopefully that's the explanation that you're after. Pretty cool. But yeah, it does get confusing at times when there are a lot of other nations out there that have green and gold in their colours when competing. Right? Brazil is one, you know, and so quite often I think we saw this quite a bit watching the World Cup with the women's soccer and how quite often there are 2 or 3 uniforms that teams have so that they don't clash. I think Jamaica is another one with like black, green and gold. So yeah, it can get pretty confusing.

Anyway, let's get into today's joke. So I've tried to connect this to national colours to flags. So hopefully you can see the connection. All right smack the bird. Let's get into today's joke. All right.

"What did one flag say to the other flag?" Hmm. "What did one flag say to the other flag?" Are you ready? "Nothing. It just waved."

Do you get it? "Why did one flag say to the other?" "Nothing. It just waved."

All right, so the pun is on the word 'wave'. The word 'wave'. So 'to wave', it can have various meanings. The first one 'to wave'. If you wave to someone or at someone, this is to move your hand to and fro in a greeting or in a signal. So I saw my mate across the street and I waved. I waved to him. 'G'day mate, how's it going?' I waved hello. You might also wave goodbye.

But if something 'waves', this can just mean that it is moving to and fro right? So you can wave at someone. And you're waving at someone by waving your hand, if that makes sense. So the second meaning here: move to and fro with a swaying motion while remaining fixed to one point. That is the actual definition of 'to wave'. So yes, if you have a flag that is attached to a pole or a stick and it's moving in the wind, the flag is waving in the wind.

You can also wave your flag. If you're holding the flag in your hand, you've got the stick in your hand, and the flag is attached to the end of the stick and you're moving it to and fro. You are waving the flag. And yeah, if you have your hand open and you signal to someone, you're waving to them. Okay. So yeah, "What did one flag say to the other?" "Nothing. It didn't say anything. It just waved."

Okay. So anyway, let's get into today's expression 'to do the honours'. So let's go through the different words in 'do the honours'.

So 'to do' something, 'to do'. This is to perform an action, the precise nature of which is often unspecified. Right. You may just be doing something, you don't know what it is. So you use the verb 'do'. "He's waving to someone. What's he doing?" "Ah, he's waving. He's waving."

'The' or 'the'. This is 'the' definite article. "Is this the car you bought?", or "Is this just a car you bought?" You bought many cars. It's just- is this just one of them, or you've just bought one car and this is 'the' car?

'Honours.' 'Honours.' Something regarded as a rare opportunity, bringing pride and pleasure. So something that is a privilege. 'The honours' or 'an honour'. So, "Who will have the honour of marrying this young lady?" "Who will have the honour?" "Will you do me the honour of this dance?" Will you do me the honour? "May I have the honour of dancing with you?" 'Honour' or plural 'honours'.

All right. So, 'to do the honours'. If someone does the honours, they are doing the action performed by a host or hostess. Right. So that would be the literal meaning, 'to do the honours'. You are the one performing the action as the host of something, or hostess if you are the female. But the figurative meaning would be to perform a task or duty of an official kind of nature, right? Often in a social setting.

So let's go through some examples of how you would use 'to do the honours'. 'To do the honours'. May I do the honours? May I do the honours. All right.

Example number one. Every year growing up I'd be going to my grandparents house for Christmas. Right. We'd be going to their place, we'd have some lunch there, we'd share Christmas presents, all that sort of stuff. So it was quite a do. It was quite a thing. It was quite a big event where my grandmother would cook up a storm in the kitchen, she'd be going crazy. She'd make a huge banquet with various different meals that would come out. You know, you'd get your entree, your main, your desserts, all that sort of stuff. But the main thing, the main meal, would be a roast lamb or chicken or turkey, right? There'd be some kind of meat, and then there'd be roast veggies that would come out, you know. Usually what? Potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, that sort of stuff.

Maybe some broccoli in there too, just to add a bit of greenery. So when the meat was placed on the table, my grandparents were pretty conservative. You know, they well, they're now over there in their 90s. They're over 90 years old. So they grew up at a time where the man was kind of in charge of the meat, you know, once it arrived on the table. So whenever the meat was sort of placed on the table, my grandfather would do the honours, and the honours would be cutting up the meat and portioning it out to people. He would be the one doing the honours, right. He would have the task, the prestigious task of cutting up the lamb shank or the chicken or the turkey. Right. He would 'do the honours'.

Example number two. Imagine a new swimming facility is being opened in your town. The council has raised millions of dollars. They've spent five years building this huge new swimming facility for kids to get swimming lessons at, for people to race at, compete at. It's a, it's a massive thing. And the local MP, member of parliament, the local MP, the politician comes down, he comes to the front of this event, to the front of the building, and there's a huge ribbon there.

And he picks up the scissors and is told that he can 'do the honours'. He picks up the scissors, "I'll do the honours." "Let me do the honours", you know, and that's cutting the ribbon to open the facility to the public. So he 'does the honours'. The MP picks up the scissors, cuts the ribbon, he 'does the honours', he opens the facility.

Example number three. So the last example here. Imagine you've bought a brand new car for you and your wife. This might be something that I have to do in the next six months or so. It's all right. Kel's not going to listen to this episode so she won't see it coming. So you ordered it a while back, but finally it's arrived, you know, and you've gone to pick it up from the dealers. You and your wife drive in in your other car, you spot your new car, you get handed the keys together, you pay for it. All that jazz, and then you both arrive at the car and you kind of like, "Okay, who's going to 'do the honours'?" Who's going to be the first person to drive the car? Who's going to who's going to be the first to open the door, to sit down in the driver's seat, to turn it on, to do all of the sort of prestigious stuff around this, this event. Who's going to be the one to 'do the honours'? If it's me, I'm going to be like, "You know what, I'll let my wife 'do the honours' here." But maybe she'll be like, "Hey, Pete, it's okay. I want you to 'do the honours'."

So there you go, 'to do the honours'. This is to perform a social duty or small ceremony for others, or to perform a particular function that is central to proceedings. Right. So, yeah, chopping up the meat, driving the car for the first time, all really important things, you know, 'to do the honours.'.

So as usual guys let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is where you can work on your Australian accent if that is what you're chasing. If it is not, just say these phrases and words out loud after me. And yeah, do your best to copy my pronunciation and get that Aussie accent. Or just do it in your accent. All right, let's go.

To. To do. To do the. To do the honours. To do the honours. To do the honours. To do the honours. To do the honours. I'll do the honours. You'll do the honours. He'll do the honours. She'll do the honours. We'll do the honours. They'll do the honours. It'll do the honours.

Good job guys. Now remember the word 'honour'. Even though it starts with an H, the H is silent. So it's 'honour' or 'honours'. 'Honours'. 'Honours'.

'Honour'. We would pronounce the -our at the end of the word 'honour' as an /ŭ/ sound in Australian English. But as soon as it becomes plural with the S, it becomes a schwa vowel sound instead of an /ŭ/ vowel sound, so you'll hear /honŭrs/ instead of /honərs/, right. /Honŭrs/ /Honŭr/ /Honərs/.

The other thing you'll notice, because the H isn't set at the start of the word 'honour' or 'honours', 'the' is pronounced as /thee/ and then we use the /yuh/ sound to link to the front of the word 'honours' to that /oh/ vowel sound, /thee◡yonŭrs/. So you'll hear a little kind of Y /yuh/ or the yod, it's called, in English there, pronounced. It's kind of an intrusive semivowel that's used to link two vowel sounds together. /thee◡yonŭrs/, /thee◡yonŭrs/, /thee◡yonŭrs/ instead of /thee/ /honŭrs/ or /tha/ /honŭrs/. /thee◡yonŭrs/. /thee◡yonŭrs/. To do /thee◡yonŭrs/. To do /thee◡yonŭrs/.

Remember, if you want to learn more about this, don't forget to sign up to my Australian English Pronunciation course. This is available at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc. Inside this course, you'll learn how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet so that you can study on your own and really level up your pronunciation quickly. You'll then go through and learn all the different sounds of Australian English. So there's about 42 or so different sounds, different vowel sounds, different consonant sounds. You'll go through tutorials on how to make these sounds, and then you have exercises that you can do so that you can master these over a period of days and weeks. And then in the last section we go through heaps of different lessons on the really advanced aspects of spoken Australian English. So how to link different sounds together, consonant clusters, how sound changes occur when speaking all that jazz. So go check that out at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc

Now the last little section here guys. Before we finish upm I'm going to play a clip for you from an Australian TV show called surviving Summer. So the excerpt is "Expelled from school and exiled to Australia, a rebel New York teen makes waves among a young surfers inner circle and leaves a mess in her wake." So it looks like it was actually filmed down the Great Ocean Road. And it's one of those kind of young teen- I assume it's like relationships and angsty issues going on between girls and boys and everyone that age, but it looks like it's a surfy kind of coast ocean drama, so you might enjoy it if you're into that sort of stuff and you want to see a bit of Australian, you know, coast.

Okay, so the rules of the game here, I'm going to play this clip for you two times. Try and write down what you hear being said. Today's clip is a little longer, so you might have to listen multiple times.

Don't forget that you can download today's free worksheet, and you will be able to check the answer at the bottom of the worksheet. And if you have the premium podcast membership where you get the transcripts for all of these podcast episodes, you'll obviously see the exercise transcribed in the transcript itself so that you can check your answer. Okay, so ready to go? Let's do it.

I was just seeing if you wanted to come for a surf! Are you insane? What time is it? 5:18 a.m.. Yeah. I don't think that's actually a time. Ari, just because you want to go surfing doesn't mean that Summer does.

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

I was just seeing if you wanted to come for a surf! Are you insane? What time is it? 5:18 a.m.. Yeah. I don't think that's actually a time. Ari, just because you want to go surfing doesn't mean that Summer does.

All right, that's it for me today. Guys. Don't forget if you want to read whilst you listen to these episodes and take notes, highlight new words or expressions and just get a lot more out of them and improve your Australian English quickly, check out the premium podcast membership at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. Besides that, I hope you have a ripper of a week and I'll chat to you next time. See ya!