AE 968 - AUSSIE SLANG:

A Basket Case

Learn Australian English in each of these episodes of the Aussie English Podcast.

This is the Aussie Slang series where I teach you slang that is commonly used Down Under.

In today's episode...

I am going to teach you the Aussie slang phrase “a basket case”.

You may have heard of this before. In a song? Yes, that metal-heady song perfectly describes the slang term “a basket case”!

Learn what it means and how you can use it in your daily conversations.

Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

Watch & listen to the convo!

Listen to today's episode!

This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

Listen to today's episode!

Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

Transcript of AE 968 - Aussie Slang: A Basket Case

G'day, you mob! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, this is the Slang Series that I am currently doing on the podcast and the YouTube channel where I teach you different Australian slang words and terms that you can use in day to day conversation to sound more like an Aussie. So if you want to check out the second episode that will be released with this one this week, remember that it is for members of the Premium podcast. You can check that out up above. But let's get into this episode, guys.

So today's episode is about the slang term or the slang expression "a basket case". A basket case. This is a bit of a confusing one, right? Because the words in the expression don't really point directly to the meaning of the expression. Right. It's not a case that's made out of baskets.

A basket case is a crazy person. Right, a crazy person. So maybe you are going for a jog in the street one day and some guy just comes running around the corner and he's naked and drooling and screaming. And, you know, he he looks like he hasn't showered in days. You might jog to the other side of the road and just think, "Oh, my God, get out of the way. There's a basket case running down the road. Watch out for this guy. He's crazy. He's a basket case."

But we'll often use this to talk about people who are kind of hopeless. Right? So they may not necessarily be 'crazy' crazy, but that they're kind of, you know, they're kind of someone that you don't like and they sort of- they have no hope. Right. So you think that they're not going to do well in X, Y, Z.

So maybe if you don't like a certain politician, you know, not to make it political, but imagine you don't like our current politics, our current politician, our current prime minister, Scott Morrison, ScoMo. If you didn't like him and you thought he was a little bit nuts and figuratively a little bit crazy, not necessarily literally, you might say "He's a bit of a basket case. You know, I don't think there's any- there's no hope for him. He's he's a bit of an idiot. He's a basket case."

So there you go, guys. That's the expression basket case in Australian English. Have you heard this before? And more importantly, I challenge you down in the comments below to use this in a sentence. Give me a sentence, an example of how you would use a basket case in English. Besides that, guys, for everything else, Aussie English. If you are learning Australian English, go and check out the podcast and don't forget to like and subscribe, ok? So anyway, thanks for joining me. See you next time.