Transcript of AE 1214 - Expression: Get a Grip

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, you guessed it, Australian English! So guys, it is a bit of a overcast day today. An overcast day. It's really cloudy at the moment. It's a little cold. It's getting colder. We are descending slowly through autumn into winter. And yeah, my wife is definitely happy. She prefers the colder weather. Me? I'm not, I'm not so sure. I don't mind it to some degree, but I do definitely enjoy warmer weather when we have it. But you know, there's an upper limit to, I think, you know, mid 20s, mid 20 degrees. That's sort of my happy spot. Whereas my wife, I think is much happier when it's below 18 degrees. But yeah. What about you guys? Do you prefer it cold? Do you prefer it hot, humid, dry? What do you prefer?

So before we get into this episode, guys, as always, don't forget if you would like all of the transcripts to these episodes, if you would like to get access to the premium podcast player so that you can listen and read at the same time, if you want access to the bonus episodes, be sure to sign up for the Premium Podcast membership. You can do so at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

But besides that, let's just get into today's Q and a question and answer. So the question today comes from Karla_pepi. So Karla asks, "What's the past tense of the word 'break', as in related to driving a car?", right. If you 'brake' while driving a car, you push on the brake and stop the car and it is 'brake' spelt B R A K E.

And this is an interesting one. I hadn't really thought about this prior to obviously being asked this question. I was like, Yeah, I wonder if I was driving the car, would I treat this verb 'to break'. Like, the other verb 'break' as in B R E A K, which is an irregular verb. When I talk about the past participles, right. When I talk in the past, would I say I was driving and then suddenly I broke? Or should I say braked? Hmm. So, yeah, let's have a look. Okay.

So, 'break' B R E A K is an irregular verb. "Separate, or cause to separate, into pieces as a result of a blow, shock, or strain", right. So if you fall over and put your arm down on the ground and you put too much pressure on it and you hear a snap, you may have 'broken' your arm, you 'broke' your arm. You know, if you fall on it, it 'breaks'.

If you pick up a stick and you snap it so that you can fit it into your fire, you 'break' the stick. "Oh, I've 'broken' the stick." "I 'broke' the stick." So you'll hear there irregular past participles: "I broke", "I have broken", and in the present tense "I break".

But when we talk about a car, right. Or a moving vehicle and we use the word B R A K E, which is pronounced the same way. Brake, brake, brake. This is "to slow down or stop that vehicle using the break, which is the pedal that causes it to slow down, usually in most vehicles".

But the past participle is actually a regular past participle 'braked'. And yeah, it sounds a bit weird. I guess it's one of these verbs that you just don't use too much in the past participle or the past form. And so I wouldn't often say 'I was driving my car and I braked suddenly'. Yeah, I'd probably say 'I hit the brake' or 'I had to stop suddenly'.

But yeah, it turns out 'brake', as in 'to brake while driving a vehicle of some kind' is a regular verb. And so if you were to talk about it in the past, 'I have braked.' 'I braked.' Right. Or even 'I had braked.' So regular past participle there. 'I brake the car as I was driving down the road.' So anyway, hopefully that helps, Karla!

And now let's get into the joke, guys. So, give that bird a cheeky punch. Give it a slap, give it a pinch. Make it scream out. Make that kookaburra call and let's get into the joke.

So today's joke is- and I'm already laughing because I can read it on the screen here.

"Where did the pirate Captain Hook buy his hook from?" So, 'where did Captain Hook buy his hook?', right. So he's a pirate. He lost his hand, and as a result, he got a hook put on his hand. Like, I guess it's the easiest form of a prosthetic limb. Back in the day when pirates were sailing around the oceans.

"Where did the pirate Captain Hook by his hook from?" "The second hand store!"

"The second hand store." Oh, do you get it, guys? The 'second hand' store. So the pun here is on the phrase 'second hand', although compound word. 'Second hand' compound noun, 'second hand'. Or is it an adjective? Far out! I need to sit down and think about this.

It could be an adjective here. 'Second hand store'. So a 'second hand store' is a shop where you can go and purchase used items, right? They are 'second hand' as opposed to 'first hand'. If they're 'first hand', it's like that the first person to place those items in their hand, they are brand new. When they reach that person's hand, when they get to the 'second hand', I guess they're no longer new. That's the idea, right? 'Second hand'.

So if you go around Australia, anywhere here, you're probably going to see loads of 'second hand stores', especially ones like the Salvos, right? The Salvation Army, they're all over the shop. So a 'second hand store'.

But if you get a 'second' hand, the idea here would be that you lost your hand. So you got a 'second' one, right? So you went to a store that sells 'second' hands. It's a 'second' hand store!

So- ah, it's not that funny. It's not that funny, but I don't know. Dad jokes, man. It's so weird. The older you get as a male, the more the stupider the joke, the funnier it is.

All right, so where did the pirate Captain Hook get his hand? Get his, get his hook from? The second hand store! All right.

So leaving that horrible joke behind, let's get into today's expression, which is "to get a grip". Hopefully you see how that links to 'hands' and 'hooks', right?

If you 'get a grip of' something, this literally would be to grab on to something, right? But it has a figurative meaning, which we're going to go through shortly. So, 'to get a grip', let's go through the words in the expression.

"Get". My gosh, the word 'get', it has so many different meanings. But here, it's a standard common meaning for the word 'get' G E T. To succeed in attaining, achieving or experiencing something right? To get something, to obtain something. "It's time that I 'got' some help." "Did you guys 'get' your results yet from the exam?" Right. So, I need 'to obtain' some help. I need 'to experience' some help from someone else and I want 'to get' my results from an exam. I want 'to obtain' them. I want 'to have' them, right. "To get".

"A". "A" is an indefinite article, right? It's 'a dog'. 'A piece' of cake. "I'm looking at 'a' window", "'a' bird through the window". It's a non-specific single noun. Right. 'A' something.

And, "grip". Here, it's a noun. It can also be a verb, right? You can grip onto something, and that is to grab it in your hand and hold onto it. 'A grip' would be a firm hold, a tight grasp of something. So I currently have 'a firm grip' on the table. Right? I've grabbed the table. I have a firm 'grip' of the table.

So, the meaning of this phrase, literally, 'get a grip' would be to grab on to something, right? So 'get a grip' of this rope, 'grab' it, 'grab' the rope.

But if I use it figuratively, it has two meanings. The primary meaning that I would most of the time, probably 99% of the time use this phrase for is 'to keep or recover your self control'. To get ahold of yourself, to control your emotions, to make an effort to control your behaviour, emotions and act more calmly. Right. 'Get a grip'. "Get a grip, dude, you know, calm down". Recover your self control. Calm yourself down. Get your emotions back. Get a grip, get a grip.

But the secondary meaning, if you 'get a grip on' something, this would be 'to understand how to deal with something'. So like if you study, I don't know, Economics at university, you're probably going to 'get a good grip on' how the economy works, right? You're going 'to get a good grip'. It's like you can hold on to that thing and understand it, 'get a good grip on' that thing.

But yeah, primary meaning: to keep or recover your self, control your emotions. Right? 'Get a grip', 'Get a grip'.

So let's go through three examples of how I would use this expression in day to day English. So imagine you're a young kid at high school and there's all these hormones flying around. You know, kids are always gossiping all the time, bitching about so-and-so dating so-and-so. You know, people are trying to find themselves, discover who they are, you know, these young kids.

So imagine while you're at high school and while you're one of these kids, one of your friends is kind of lagging behind a little bit in terms of maturity. Right? So they're always acting like a bit of a kid, like a bit of a child. They get upset easily. They get really jealous all the time. Maybe they're they just do things that is a little, a little immature compared to the rest of you. Right. So if you think this person needs to learn some control, they need to mature a little bit.

They need to grow up. They need to control their emotions a little bit better, get some self-control. They need to 'get a grip'. So you might grab them and be like, "Get a grip, mate!" You know, "Grow up a bit, get a grip." "Stop acting like a kid. Get a grip." "Get a grip."

Example number two. Imagine you're out on a hike with friends, right? You've gone camping. You guys are out hiking in the bush. And for whatever reason, you end up off the trail, off the track, and you get lost. So you start walking around, you know, for ages and ages, trying to find this track, but you can't find it. So you have to keep everyone calm.

But unfortunately, one of your mates that's with you starts having a panic attack, right? They start freaking out. They start crying, yelling, "Oh my God, we're all going to die. We're all going to die!" And you are like, "Mate, get a grip." You need to have a cool head. You need to calm down, get your emotions in check. Snap out of it, Get a grip. You know, stop freaking out. This isn't going to save us, you know. Freaking out, screaming 'We're all going to die' isn't going to help us. Can you please 'get a damn grip' of yourself? "Get a grip."

And example. Number three. Imagine you're in a relationship with someone. And it's been it's been a couple of months, maybe a year or so.

The other person is wanting to take things a little more seriously. They want to go to the next step. They want you to move in with them. Maybe they're thinking about, you know, making it a little more official. Maybe they even use the marriage word. And you're like, "Woah, God." But you decide that for whatever reason, this relationship is not working right? It's not working for me. So I think I'm going to have a chat to this person and tell them it's time to break up.

So you do, you sit them down and you're like, "I've got some bad news. I think it's time we break up." And they lose their temper. They lose their shit, they get upset, they cry, they scream, they shout. They lose control of their emotions. And you might say, "Mate"- well, you probably wouldn't use 'mate' if it's someone you're in a relationship with. You might be like, "Darling", "Love" "Sweetheart, 'get a grip'. You need to 'get a grip'. You need to control your emotions. Speak to me more calmly. Please, 'get a grip'."

So hopefully now you understand the expression "to get a grip", guys. This is to keep or recover your self control. To get a hold of yourself, to make an effort to control your emotions, to behave more calmly. "Get a grip".

So as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is where I'm going to read out some words and phrases, and your role is to speak out loud, repeat after me, and work on your Australian pronunciation.

My God, there is- the orange cat next door has just... It's just walked across the fence in front of me carrying a dead rat in its mouth. So, that was so random. I think it's always walking across the fence when I record these episodes. Anyway, it must be proud of himself. Oh, Pete, 'get a grip'!

Okay, so listen and repeat after me. To. To get. To get a. To get a grip. To get a grip. To get a grip. To get a grip. To get a grip. To get a grip. I need to get a grip.

You know what? Let me do that again. I'll speed it up a bit and use a bit more connected speech for you guys.

I need to get a grip. You need to get a grip. He needs to get a grip. She needs to get a grip. We need to get a grip. They need to get a grip. It needs to get a grip. Good job, guys!

Now, there's some interesting connected speech going on there. So if you hear me say the phrase 'to get a grip', but saying it fluidly in connected speech, what do you hear in terms of the T at the end of the word 'get'? To geT◡a grip. To geT◡a grip. It's a T flap, right? There's a vowel at the side of it. GeT◡a grip. GeT◡a grip. GeT◡a grip. I need to geT◡a grip. You need to geT◡a grip. He needs to geT◡a grip.

Now, when I say it in those phrases, what do you hear happening to the word, or to the words, 'need to' and 'needs to'? So if I say 'you nee◡To geT◡a grip', 'you nee◡To geT◡a grip', 'you nee◡To geT◡a grip'. In both instances, I'm using the T flap, right? So in the words 'need to' I combine these and say nee◡To, nee◡To nee◡To. Because you've got a D and a T next to one another, they kind of become a T flap and you have vowels either side. nee◡To, nee◡To, nee◡To geT◡a, nee◡To geT◡a, nee◡To geT◡a grip.

And then with the word 'needs' and then the word 'to'. Now we combine these, but we say need◡stə, need◡stə. He need◡stə get a grip. He need◡stə get a grip. He need◡stə get a grip. He need◡stə get a grip.

So if you master these kinds of things, these contracted words and fluent way of speaking, I guess this is how native speakers would speak. And I think this would be common in all dialects of English. The nee◡Tə, need◡sTə, get◡tə, using the T flap here. You'll definitely understand native speakers when they're speaking really quickly and you'll also sound more like native speakers.

So guys, if you want to master Australian English pronunciation and you want to speak more fluently, you want to sound more natural when speaking, go and check out my Australian Pronunciation course at AussieEnglish.com.au.

You will learn all the sounds of Australian English, the vowels, the consonants. You'll learn how to use the international phonetic alphabet to be able to study on your own and improve your own pronunciation. And then you'll also have a whole bunch of really advanced lessons at the end to go through things like consonant clusters, the Dark L, the dark N, all these more advanced things that personally I haven't seen many people, or resources, elsewhere teaching, so go check it out.

And whilst you're signing up, be sure to sign up and get the Spoken English course when you get this one. Because it'll teach you things like the /nee◡Tə/ /need◡stə/ contractions. It's a shorter course that goes through all the different spoken contractions that we use with the different modal and auxiliary verbs, right? So you'll be able to get that at half price at the checkout when you're buying the pronunciation course. So go check it out, AussieEnglish.com.au/apc.

So, in the final section today, I have a little clip that comes from a recently released Aussie film called True Spirit, which is available on Netflix. And the excerpt is "An Australian teenager plans to become the youngest sailor to have travelled the world alone. In doing so, the intrepid 16 year old not only seeks to fulfil her dream, she also faces her greatest fears at the same time."

So today's clip is a bit of a short one, but it might test you as it's a young kid speaking really quickly. Okay! So, remember the rules of the game. I'm going to play the clip for you two times and your goal is to listen and write down what you think you hear being said. And remember, you can check the answer by either being a member of the Premium Podcast, because the answer will obviously be in the transcript that you can download, if you remember.

Or go to the website and download today's free worksheet. And there's a little space at the end where you can write out what you think being heard, right? There's some lines on a page and the answer is also at the bottom of the page. And there's a link to go and check out this new movie as well. So are you ready? Here's the first playthrough.

Jess has made it through the storm. She suffered no serious injuries or damage and is on her way home.

Good job. Did you get all of it? Here's the second playthrough.

Jess has made it through the storm. She suffered no serious injuries or damage and is on her way home.

All right. So that's it from me today, guys. It's been a pleasure, as always. I am your host, Pete, Thank you for joining me. And I will see you next week. Tooroo!