Transcript of AE 1236 - Expression: Wax Lyrical

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, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So this is another expression episode. Guys, it's been a little while between drinks, but I've been trying to mix it up and do a few different things like the Pete's 2cents episodes and The Goss episodes with my dad. So I hope you're enjoying those. But if you really, really want more of this kind of content, the expression episodes, then yeah, definitely let me know. I need a sort of, I guess, chat to you guys a bit more about your level, you know, work out where you, or the majority of you, are at with your English and the best kind of content for you. And then obviously focus on that, because I haven't done that in a while. But my assumption always is that with you guys following the podcast, you tend to have a really good level in English. And that conversations, interview episodes, those sorts of things are potentially more helpful than these episodes, but these episodes get lots of downloads.

So yeah, I guess maybe you guys are listening to these multiple times. Anyway, before we get into today's episode, guys, don't forget if you want the transcript for this episode and all of the other episodes that have been transcribed. So I think that's over 1200 episodes now. The only ones that aren't included are the Pete's 2cents episodes. But if you want access to the transcripts, sign up to the Premium podcast. You can get access to this membership at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

You will obviously get all of those transcripts. You can download them as PDFs, you can print them out, you can take notes on them. You can use them as studying material. And you'll also get access to bonus episodes, Members Only episodes and content, and the Premium Podcast player on each podcast page, too. That appears when you've signed in and you're a member, and it allows you to read and listen at the same time. The text moves in the player for you so that you can, you know, pause, fast forward, you can change the speed, everything like that.

Anyway, let's get into today's Q&A question and answer. This one comes from Ramimhanna. I bet I have mispronounced that, but forgive me. Ramimhanna asks how do Australians pronounce uh, this one's hard because you've spelt it the way the Americans pronounce it: aluminum, but I would say aluminium.

Aluminium. Now, I had to sort of look this up because yeah, it is one of these interesting things. But according to Kwintessential UK, that is kwintessential.co.uk, "Aluminium, with an extra I, is the British English spelling", Australian English too, "defended over decades as being, quote, correct. But the man who discovered and named the element couldn't decide himself what was correct." So his name was Sir Humphry Davy, and he discovered the element in 1807, and he first named the metal "alumium", which was quickly changed to aluminium or alumin- Just- it's so hard for me to do- aluminum, aluminum. It was changed to aluminum and I guess, yeah, somewhere along the way we changed it to aluminium.

But yeah, I would pronounce it as /al-yoo-min(i)-yoom/ /al-yoo-min(i)-yoom/ /al-yoo-min(i)-yoom/. /al-yoo-min(i)-yoom). Americans pronounce it as /aloo-mi-noom/. /aloo-mi-noom/. And yeah, you'll notice the emphasis changes. I think there's a few extra schwa sounds in my version of it. /al-yoo-min(i)-yoom/ /min(i)-yoom/.

Anyway, either way, if you pronounce either one, we're going to understand what you're talking about. So let's get into today's joke, guys. Slap that bird. Give it a kick. Make it a- make it scream. The poor kookaburra, and let's get into it. All right, so here we go. Here's the joke. "All day I drill holes in metal and bolt them together. At first it's boring, but then it's riveting."

Ooh, do you get it? Boring and riveting. So, uh. So. Okay. "All day, I drill holes in metal and bolt them together", right? So I 'drill' holes. I 'bore' holes in metal, and I then 'bolt' them together. I 'rivet' them together, and that's 'boring' and then 'riveting.'.

So the joke here is on the words 'boring' and 'riveting'. They can mean different things. Obviously, 'boring' can mean something that's not interesting. It's tedious, you know, it's just "Ugh, so boring!" But if you 'bore a hole in something' that is to make a hole in something with a tool or by digging, right? So you might- a beetle might 'bore a hole in the wood', you know, if it's living in a tree, it might bore a hole through the wood. That's what it's doing. It's creating a kind of like a cave or a tunnel. It's 'boring' a hole. So I'm 'drilling holes' in metal. I'm 'boring' in metal, right? "I'm boring holes in metal."

And then 'riveting'. This can be something. If we use this as an adjective, something that is 'riveting' is something that is completely engrossing, compelling, really, really fascinating. You know, you are obsessed with it in the moment. You are completely connected to that thing. You know, if you're watching a TV show, it might be 'riveting'. "Wow, this is blowing my mind." You're completely engrossed in that thing. "Wow. Riveting!"

But 'to rivet', if you 'rivet something together', you join or fasten, and it's usually plates of metal with a rivet or rivets. Right. So that's I guess a little kind of chunk of metal that's pushed through a hole, and then it's heated up and squashed so that it can't be taken out. So a good example might be if you go to the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Sydney, obviously in Australia it is connected together with thousands upon thousands, probably millions of rivets. Right. So they didn't use nails, they didn't use screws, they used 'rivets' to rivet together the different pieces of metal. So there you go. The joke was "All day I drill holes in metal and then I bolt them together. At first it's boring and then it's riveting!"

All right, so let's get into the expression. Today's expression is 'to wax lyrical', 'to wax lyrical'. This is a bit of a weird one, because I tried looking up the individual words, and I don't really think that we use them in the way that they are used in this expression, 'wax lyrical'. I don't think we use them independently in the same way. So you kind of can't really define these words without defining the expression, right?

So I looked up the origin of 'wax lyrical', and this comes from idiomorigins.org. "To wax lyrical means to be effusive and enthusiastic about something or someone, and dates from the latter half of the 19th century." So the 1800s.

"The word 'wax' used in this sense means to increase in size, and can be traced back to Anglo-Saxon times. It is the opposite of 'wane'." You might hear that 'wax and wane', I guess. To wax and wane. "It is largely obsolete today, except in the waxing and waning of the moon and in expressions like 'wax lyrical'. Wax lyrical is probably the most familiar, but there is no reason why people should not 'wax poetic' or wax 'philosophical' if they so wish."

So yeah, normally the verb 'to wax'. If you 'wax something', this would be like to cover or treat something with wax. You know, you might wax your car, you might wax the neck of your guitar. I've done that recently. I'll wax that. Typically you polish with wax in order to protect something. You wax it. But yeah, that's the general way that we would use the verb 'wax'. We typically wouldn't use it like 'wax and wane'. Besides it, obviously those expressions 'wax and wane' and 'wax lyrical'.

So to wax lyrical, we sort of already covered it. To talk in a highly enthusiastic and effusive way, to talk about something with a lot of interest or excitement. "To wax lyrical". "Oh, this guy's waxing lyrical again about his wife", "..about his new car", "..about starting a new hobby." He's waxing lyrical. All right, so let's go through three examples of how I would use the expression to wax lyrical in everyday English.

So parents and their children are a great example. Parents are usually really proud of their kids, and as they grow up, they love to see them achieve things, to do things, and then obviously tell the world about it, tell everyone about it. So, you know, I've got an auntie who, every time we catch up, she seems to be 'waxing lyrical' about her kids. She's always talking about her kids and what they're doing, you know? Are they travelling the world? Are they doing this for work? Have they met a new girl? Have they, you know, gotten a job promotion? "She's always 'waxing lyrical' about her kids."

Example number two. Perhaps you've got a friend who's pretty full of themselves and loves showing off. They love tooting their own horn. They love boasting all the time about things that they have or things that they've done. You know, we all know someone like this, really. I remember when I was at university, there was always one kid or one person in the class who, when you would study really hard and you would then have an exam of some kind after the exam, the kid, the person would come out 'waxing lyrical' about how they just absolutely crushed it. Right? Oh my God, I've definitely nailed this exam. That was so easy.

I need everyone to know how good I think I went in this exam. I'm waxing lyrical about my efforts here. I'm talking effusively, enthusiastically, perhaps excessively, to the point of nausea for most people. I am waxing lyrical about my performance in the exam. So yeah. God, I hated those people. Usually the exam was the last thing I wanted to talk about when I finished my exam. Yeah, I was like, well, it's done and dusted. It's finished. I don't want to think about it ever again. Okay, next! Let's go get a beer.

Example number three. The last example might be a person who's got a new hobby that they're really into. This may be me, so I guess I'll use myself as an example. I've got an example written down here in front of me, but screw it, I'll just make up my own. So when I started getting into plants, maybe a year and a half, two years ago, I would always be talking about, you know, plants. I found them fascinating. I wanted to kind of share my enthusiasm, my interest, my knowledge with other people, and I would find myself bringing conversations towards my interests like plants. You know, I think we all do this to some extent, though I think I was probably waxing a little bit too much, you know, I guess. Could you say that waxing a little too lyrically? I don't think you could say that. I was 'waxing lyrical' all the time. I was always talking enthusiastically about this thing. I was talking in an effusive way. I was excited, I was interested in this thing excessively, you know, a bit too much. I was 'waxing lyrical'. I love to 'wax lyrical' about my interests, you know, what can I say?

So there you go, guys. That is the expression to wax lyrical. Hopefully you now understand that it means to talk in a highly enthusiastic way about something, in an effusive way about something. Perhaps you talk about it because you're so interested in that thing, you're really excited about it. You know, what is the last thing? If you were to sit there and think, what was the last thing that you 'waxed lyrical' about?

Was it a car? Was it a person? Was it a hobby? Was it learning Australian English? I don't know, was it the Aussie English podcast? It could be anything. What was the last thing you were 'waxing lyrical' about?

So as usual guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is a good chance for you to work on your English pronunciation skills. Obviously. Specifically the Australian accent. My Australian accent. So listen and repeat out loud after me. Let's go.

To. To wax. To wax. Lyrical. To wax lyrical. To wax lyrical. To wax lyrical. To wax lyrical. I was waxing lyrical. You were waxing lyrical. He was waxing lyrical. She was waxing lyrical. We were waxing lyrical. They were waxing lyrical. It was waxing lyrical.

Good job guys. Now let's talk about the pronunciation of the auxiliary verbs here, or verb to be, which we're using as 'was' or 'were'. How do you hear this being pronounced when I say these phrases? Do you hear it as a clear 'was' and or 'were'? Or do you hear it more like a /wuz/ and /wur/? I /wuz/ waxing lyrical. He /wuz/ waxing lyrical. You /wur/ waxing lyrical. They /wur/ waxing lyrical. Hmm.

So we're completely reducing the vowel sound in 'were' and 'was', and we're giving it the schwa vowel sound. This is because it's not the most important part of what's going on in the phrase right? Like you'll hear if we say a phrase again, I was waxing lyrical. The important words there are the pronoun you know, 'I', 'you', 'he', 'she', 'we', 'they', 'it', and then 'waxing' and 'lyrical'. So the verb and the, I guess it's a noun? 'Lyrical', adjective. Adjective, I think. 'Waxing lyrical'. Yeah. I think it's an adjective. Geez. Early morning, guys.

Because we're using 'was' and 'were' as an auxiliary verb with another verb after it. The one that comes after is the important one that we need to hear, 'was' and 'were' get reduced. And so you'll say /wuz/ and /wur/ using the schwa sound. "I /wuz/ waxing lyrical" and you'll notice we do it quickly.

You don't say "I was waxing lyrical", you sort of skip over it quickly. I /wuz/◡waxing lyrical. You /wur/◡waxing lyrical. I /wuz/◡waxing lyrical. You can almost. You can barely hear it when you speak quickly. I /wuz/◡waxing lyrical. He /wuz/◡waxing lyrical. You /wur/◡waxing lyrical. They /wur/◡waxing lyrical. But we only need that sort of small little bit of sound in there to understand. Oh, it's okay. They said 'was', they said 'were'. They're putting it in the past as opposed to saying 'I'm waxing lyrical' or 'I'll be waxing lyrical'.

So pay attention to those sorts of things. I go over this quite a bit in my spoken English course, so check that out if you haven't already. You'll find that at AussieEnglish.com.au And also, obviously if you're wanting to work on your Australian pronunciation, go check out my Australian pronunciation course on the same website at AussieEnglish.com.au/apk.

So lastly guys, I have a little clip here from an Aussie film that has just come out. I think it's a year old. Maybe it's come out either this year or last year and it's called Talk to Me. And this was one of those interesting ones. I kind of before I watch a film, I usually look it up on Google and try and see if it's got over, you know, 60 to 70% positive ratings. If it's above 6.0 or 60%, I'm like, yeah, all right, I'll give it the time of day. I'll give it a try. If it's below that, usually I'm sort of like, "Um, I don't think I'm going to bother."

So anyway, this one had a really good rating. And so I checked it out and I actually really liked it. Here is the excerpt. "When a group of friends discover how to conjure spirits with an embalmed hand, they become hooked on the new thrill and high stakes party game until one of them goes too far and unleashes terrifying supernatural forces." Um, so yeah, go check out the trailer for Talk to Me. It's probably not for young kids. It's a bit of a kind of horror sort of film. Nothing too gory or anything, but it's pretty, pretty freaky. So yeah, go check it out. And if you do enjoy it, let me know. I'd love to chat to you about it.

So anyway, the rules of the game, I'm going to play two clips. Well, it's the same clip. I'm going to play it for you twice, and your goal is to listen and then write down what you hear being said. Remember, you can download today's free worksheet to be able to print it out, and then have that area with lines where you can write out what you think being is being said, and the answer is at the bottom of the worksheet.

Alternatively, if you are a Premium Podcast member, you will obviously be able to read the answer in the transcript itself. But this is a great way to work on your listening comprehension. Today's one is quite long. Okay, so I hope you go well, you know, if you have to listen multiple times, just do it anyway. Are you ready to go? Here we go. First playthrough.

I swear he stole one of my cigarettes. You smoke now? Nah, I just sell them. I sold like two to him today. He's such a try-hard. He invited me to his house to hang. I thought you hated him. Eh. Do you think they give you cancer straight away? I dunno. Don't smoke it. Don't tell me what to do!

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

I swear he stole one of my cigarettes. You smoke now? Nah, I just sell them. I sold like two to him today. He's such a try-hard. He invited me to his house to hang. I thought you hated him. Eh. Do you think they give you cancer straight away? I dunno. Don't smoke it. Don't tell me what to do!

All right, so that's it for me today, guys. Thanks for joining me. I hope you enjoyed today's episode I'm Pete, this is Aussie English and I'll see you next time.