Transcript of AE 1213 - Expression: Pull It Off

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 guys, it is another week. Very little has changed since last week. Oh man. Still getting over this cough. So I've got my little trusty glass of water here or well, it's a plastic cup of water. I'll just take a sip, a slurp, and hopefully that'll keep me good throughout the episode.

But yeah, it's a beautiful day today, actually. We're obviously in autumn. We are getting closer to winter. It's getting a little cooler, but today it is all sunshine. So I'm looking out the window. Wow. At the sky and at the neighbour's roof. But it is definitely a beautiful day out there. So I need to get this done and then go out and enjoy the most of it, you know, the best of it.

So anyway, before we get into today's episode, guys, as I always tell you, don't forget that you can sign up for the Premium Podcast membership if you would like to get access to bonus episodes. The transcripts for all of these episodes, where you can read and listen at the same time. You can print them out, you can write on them, you can take notes, you can highlight all that sort of stuff.

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Okay, time for a Q&A. So Question and Answer. Today's question comes from Fang, who asks, "Why do I always see shoes hanging from power lines in Australia?" So this is a good question and it was something that I didn't think was necessarily unique to Australia. I'm assuming that it's not unique to Australia, but it's something you will see when you come here.

And I was looking into it because I'm thinking, well I think there were two reasons that came to mind. People do it because they're bored and they have old shoes, so they tie the shoelaces together and they, you know, challenge themselves to kind of throw them at the power lines. What would you say? Kind of like a spinning stick or something, right? Like a boomerang and trying to get it to sort of curl up and get stuck on the power line. So doing it as a bit of fun.

But then also I'd heard a rumour all throughout high school and when I was younger that it was a sign of, you know, there was a drug dealer nearby, you know, a dodgy group of young kids selling drugs. On the streets, marking their territory by throwing used shoes at the power lines. I don't know why I change the voice up. But that was something I heard when I was a kid.

Anyway, so I dived in and tried to do a bit of research with good old grandpa Google. And there are so many different explanations. So apparently it's something that, yeah, it takes place all over the country, but there's no simple explanation as to why you will see it. There are a whole heap of different reasons. People do it because they are trying to be annoying. Some people do it as a memorial, apparently, to a dead friend. Or perhaps a friend who's been murdered, apparently. I hadn't heard that one before. Some do it to advertise drug dealers territory. Some do it because they've seen others do it. And they think it's funny.

Apparently high school students might do it on their last day of high school as a way of sort of, I guess, accepting that they're finishing and celebrating a bit. And then apparently it can also be a warning or a reminder. So, yeah, apparently there are a whole bunch of reasons that people will throw shoes at power lines, but it is something you'll see from time to time.

The other thing that I saw that was weird recently. So I live in a, in a town called Curlewis and it's near Geelong. That's sort of the second biggest city here in Victoria. Anyway, I was driving along the Princes Highway and there's a bridge that sort of leaves, as you leave the main CBD of Geelong. You go across this bridge. I think the trains might go under it. But yeah, anyway, so I'm driving across this bridge and there were some shoes sort of on the median strip between the right and the left side of the road. And they'd been kind of like nicely placed on this median strip. And over the following weeks, more and more shoes appeared lined up next to those original shoes. I think they were like high heels or, you know, some women's shoes of some kind.

And I don't know if they're still there. Now, I haven't driven across recently. Probably I should do it today. Right. And see if they're still there. But I think at one point, there was at least like 15 pairs of shoes all lined up. And I wonder if it was the same group of people or person doing it. Or if someone had kind of set a trend and everyone else had started sort of copying it.

I guess it's kind of like the when I was in France, we went across the Seine, right. La Seine, the river there in Paris. And there's a bridge with all these locks on there. And I think it's all about like love and relationships. So you write your names on a lock and you lock it onto the bridge. Probably adding quite a significant amount of weight to the bridge. But that was that sort of thing, you know, 'Oh, romance and Paris' and, you know, love. Maybe that's, this is the Geelong version of it. You know, leaving your shoes on a bridge.

Anyway, so yeah, hopefully that helps, Fang! Slap the bird, Guys! Let's get into today's joke. Okay, so today's joke is "What did they say about the couple who had the same shoe size?" Hmm. "What did they say about the couple who had the same shoe size?" "They were 'sole' mates!"

Oh, do you get it? 'Sole-mates.' Here, sole is spelled S O L E. So, 'soul' space 'mates'. As in friends who have the same 'sole'. And I guess here to explain, a 'sole' or the sole of your foot, or shoe. It's the under surface of a shoe, or of your foot. Right?

So you might step on something sharp and you've injured the 'sole' of your foot. You try on a bunch of different shoes to see if they have the right size 'sole'. Okay. Right. So hopefully that makes sense. S O L E.

So, 'sole' mates would be friends who have the same shoe size. A 'soulmate' as one word but spelt S O L E M A T E. Soul as in. Yeah. What? That, that part of your spirit, right. That goes on. People believe goes to heaven or to hell after you die.

A 'soulmate' is a person ideally suited to another person. So, it could be a close friend or a romantic partner. So, Romeo and Juliet could be considered 'soulmates'. So there you go. Hopefully you understand the joke, guys. "What did they say about the couple who had the same shoe size?" And they're a couple, right? "They must be 'sole' mates." Uggh.

So today's expression, guys, is "to pull it off". "To pull something off". "To pull it off". So let's go through the different words in this expression.

'To pull'. This is to exert force on something or someone so as to cause movement towards yourself. Right? It's the opposite of push. If you put your hands on someone, and push them away from you, that is, that you are trying to create distance between you and the person.

If you grab on to the person and bring them in towards you, you're pulling them towards you. So you are, yeah. Exerting force, causing them to come towards you. 'To pull'.

'It'. I'm sure you'll know what the pronoun it means. It's just a, I think third person pronoun with no specified gender. So we don't usually use it for people. We'll use it for objects. Or maybe animals, you know, things that are not human. 'It'. "What's 'it' doing over there?"

But yeah, if you said that about a human being, it's kind of pejorative. It's a little nasty, right? As if they are less than human because you decided you didn't want to use 'he' or 'she'' or 'they'.

'Off'. The word 'off'. This is so is to be removed or separated from something. So maybe you 'get off' something, you 'push something off' the table. Right. If I had a glass of water here, which I do well, plastic cup of water, if I accidentally knocked it and it 'fell off' the table, I've 'knocked it off' the table. It's become separated from the table. So, 'off'.

And then if we combine this with the word 'pull' to create the phrasal verb 'pull off', this is to remove something by exerting force, right?

So you just take the verb and what it means, 'to exert force on something and bring it towards you or, or move it in a certain direction'. And then the preposition 'off'. We combine the two and we create a phrasal verb.

So, to 'pull something off' is to remove something by exerting force. I might 'pull my jumper off', right? 'To pull something off'.

However we can use this as an expression and it kind of has a different meaning. It doesn't necessarily have this literal meaning of to remove something by force. Instead, it means to succeed at what you are trying to do, right? To attempt something and achieve it successfully. To 'pull something off' or to 'pull it off'. If you're referring to the thing that you're trying to achieve as 'it'.

So let's go through three examples. I'll see if I can clarify how you would use this in real world examples.

So example number one, imagine you are obsessed with athletics, right? You're a young boy or young girl. You've trained your entire life loving, you know, the sport of athletics. Running, jumping, all that sort of stuff. But as you go through high school, you do a little bit more training, you get a lot better. You kind of decide, you know what, high jump is my preferred sport. So anyway, you've done this since you were a young kid, since you were a mere whippersnapper, right? A very young kid. You've always wanted to go to the Olympics, though, ultimately, right. To compete for your country in high jump.

So you go through all the tournaments and competitions locally, then at the state level, then at the national level, and you end up winning so much, you end up doing so well that you qualify for the Olympic team. So you get to live out your dream of competing at the games, the Olympic Games, and you make it to the finals whilst you're there. During the finals, you really push yourself to the limits, right? You take it to the max, to the extreme. You go to the edge of your abilities and you attempt to jump higher than you've ever done before. You want to achieve a personal best, right? A PB.

But also in the process, break a world record, right? It's going to be something insane that no one's ever done anyway. You line up and then you go, you take off and you jump as high as you can and you succeed without knocking down the high jump bar. So you don't knock it off. You don't knock it down. You do it. You clear it, you 'pull it off'. You did it. You succeeded. You attempted something and you did it successfully. You 'pulled it off'.

Example number two, imagine you are a crook, a thief, a crim. Right? Aussie slang for a criminal. You are some dodgy crim from Down Under. And you are planning a huge bank robbery in Australia, right? So you get a group of other crack criminals, so insanely talented criminals together, other crims. And you plan out how to commit this heist to steal $10 million from, say, the Westpac Bank and you decide, "You know what we're going to do? We're going to wait one day and all the transport cars that have the cash in them right there, pick up the cash at the banks and they take it back to the central bank and we're going to rip them off."

"We're going to rob them. We're going to hold them up at gunpoint and take the cash, mate. We'll take the cash and we'll live happily ever after. Rich as can be." I don't know why I'm putting these voices on, but hopefully it's entertaining for you guys.

So it's going to be incredibly hard to do this well. You're planning to go out in multiple cars and rip off, rob. Steal this cash from these cars simultaneously whilst they're on the road, on the highway. So you do all this planning, practice. It's going to take a lot of precision, but you hope you're able to 'pull it off'. The day finally comes where the robbery is meant to be taking place, and unfortunately, it starts pissing down, right? It's raining cats and dogs. There's this freak storm that comes in. It rolls in and it shuts down all of the traffic throughout the city, wherever you are, right?

So as a result, you can't get to the cars that you're trying to rip off. Right. The cars that you're trying to rob. So you can't 'pull it off'. You had to call off the robbery. You'll have to do it another day. You'll have to give it a rain check. There's a good expression for you, meaning it's raining, so we'll have to try and do it another time. You couldn't 'pull it off'. You failed 'to pull it off'. You didn't succeed.

Example number three. Imagine you're in prison for a crime that you didn't commit. It turns out you were framed for a crime. Maybe you had a mate who you were partying with one night, but you got blind drunk. And this mate ends up murdering someone, and you wake up next to the person who's dead. The cops knock on the door. They find you with this dead person, and you're the one who gets, you know, done for the crime.

You're found, they think, red handed, right? You found next to this person and your mate, the one who actually killed them, has just buggered off. Disappeared. He's run for the hills. So anyway, you end up in jail, and you think the only way to prove your innocence is going to be to break out of jail, capture the real criminal, the real crim, and drag him to the cop shop to the police station and explain everything that's happened.

So you spend a few weeks and months planning your jailbreak. You know, you're like, "Oh, I'm going to smuggle in these tools so that I can break out of my cell. I'm then going to wait for the guards to change their duties, you know, change shifts, and then I'll break out and make a run for it." The day comes and it all goes to plan. You manage to saw through the bars in your window. The guards are going from cell to cell, changing shifts or whatever, and you manage to slip out of the prison and get away and yeah, go catch up with your mate and take him to the cop shop.

So you 'pull off' the escape, you 'pulled it off', you did it. You succeeded. You attempted to escape from the prison. You managed to do it. You were successful. You 'pulled it off'.

So hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression 'to pull it off', 'to pull something off'. Right? 'To pull something off' means to succeed at what you're trying to do to attempt something and achieve it successfully.

So as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is where I'm going to read out a bunch of words and phrases. I want you to listen to my pronunciation in the Aussie accent, you know, and copy me if that's what you're working on. You know, speaking with an Australian accent, focus on the connected speech as well.

So how I'm linking different sounds and then maybe if you can a third thing intonation. Which words am I stressing? How am I changing my tone? Is it going up? Is it going down? What's going on when I say these phrases? Okay, so are you ready? Let's go.

To. To pull. To pull it. To pull it off. To pull it off. To pull it off. To pull it off. To pull it off. I've pulled it off. You've pulled it off. He's pulled it off. She's pulled it off. We've pulled it off. They've pulled it off. It's pulled it off.

Good job, guys. Now, there's some really interesting stuff happening here in terms of connected speech and how the sounds change. So I would have said at the start there 'to pull it' or 'to pull it', right? So I'm either muting the T at the end of the word 'it' 'to pull i(t)' and I'm actually reducing the vowel sound. So it's not /eet/ or /it/, it's /ət/ with the schwa /to pull ə(t)/, /to pull ə(t)/ or /to pull ət/, /to pull ət/ with the hard T.

But the moment I say the word 'off' after the word 'it', because the word 'off' it starts with a vowel sound, I will turn the T sound in the word 'it' or 'it' into a T flap.

So I'll say /t̬/ sort of sound. Okay. It's hard to do on its own. You kind of have to do it in context. So have a listen to this. Do you, what do you hear? Do you hear a hard ? Do you hear a muted T or do you hear a T flap? /To pull ət̬ off/ /To pull ət̬ off/ /To pull ət̬ off/.

So my tongue is effectively just flicking across the top of my mouth really quickly as if to make the T sound and it links the vowel sounds /u/ and /o/ /to pull ət̬ off/ /ət̬ off/ /ət̬ off/ /ət̬ off/ /ət̬ off/ /to pull ət̬ off/ /to pull ət̬ off/.

Now, the next thing that's really interesting in the phrases 'I've pulled it off'. 'You've pulled it off'. 'He's pulled it off'. What do you hear when I say the words with the D and the T in them? Right. So /pull D/ and /it off/. That's the hard D, /pull D/ and the hard T /it/. What do you hear in these phrases? 'I've pulled it off'. 'You've pulled it off'. 'He's pulled it off'.

You can either use the dark L or the light L. But because L is not a true consonant, right? It's kind of a semivowel, semi-consonant sound, the D afterwards turns into a T flap or D flap. If you want to call it a D flap. So /pulD ət/. /PulD ət/.

/lD/ /lD/ /lD/ /lD/. It's not a /D/ /D/ /D/ sound. /PulD ət/, /pulD ət/. And the same thing happens for the T so it's the same sound twice. /PulD ət̬ off/. /PulD ət̬ off/. I've /pulD ət̬ off/. You've /pulD ət̬ off/. He's /pulD ət̬ off/.

And the really advanced thing here, guys, I'm about to blow your mind. So the T flap can actually happen with the tongue flicking forward or flicking backwards. It sounds exactly the same. Well, there's a slight difference, but for all intents and purposes, it sounds exactly the same when speaking quickly.

Now, when I say 'She's pulled it off', 'he's pulled it off'. 'We've pulled it off'. I'm actually going forwards backwards. /pulD ət̬/, that was forwards. /ət̬/ backwards, 'off'. /PulD ət̬ off/ Because it's kind of too hard to do the same direction twice. Too much effort takes too long.

So, we go backwards and forwards like that with T flaps and D flaps come next to one another as consonants like that. Well, with a vowel between them. But you know what I mean. 'I've pulled it off'. 'You've pulled it off'. Forwards backwards with the tongue, right. It's kind of really hard to do.

Anyway, if you want to learn more about Australian English Pronunciation so that you can level up your Aussie accent, go and check out my Australian pronunciation course at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc. You'll learn how to use the International Phonetic alphabet or IPA to level up your pronunciation on your own.

You'll then go through all the different vowel sounds and consonant sounds in Australian English with detailed tutorials and exercises and descriptive videos so that you can learn to master these sounds really quickly and effortlessly.

And then in the last section, the third section, you go through 25 advanced pronunciation lessons, learning things like the dark L, the T flap, the D flap, how to link them together, everything like that. So again, go check it out. AussieEnglish.com.au/apk.

All right! So the final section here guys, I have a special clip coming from a new Aussie TV show. This is only just landed. In fact, I saw it on a sign only a few days ago and looked it up. And it is called Ten Pound Poms. 'Pom' refers to British immigrants. And I think this was a kind of derogatory term that was used back in the 50s and before for migrant Brits that were coming over to Australia to work here.

So the excerpt is "1 million Britons were sold the dream of a modern way of life in Australia and were seduced by a fare of just £10. Follow the story of the largest planned migration of the 20th century." Yeah, so there you go. Okay. £10 was all they had to pay to get here.

So, at the time of recording this podcast, I actually found the first episode of £10 Poms free to watch on YouTube on the History Tube channel.

So I'll include the link there in the free worksheet, which you can download with today's episode for free. This is how you're going to get the answer to this exercise, right? So this is a listening comprehension exercise. I'm going to have a little clip from the series here from the first episode, and your job is to listen and try and understand what's being said.

And if you want to take it to the next level, download the free worksheet. Go to the section where there is space for you to write out what you think you hear and see if you can transcribe this short excerpt. Okay, so I'm going to play it for you twice. Are you ready to go? Here's the first time.

This again, huh? What? You think he's taking Aussie work? We invited him here. He's doing the work that you lot won't, without complaint! Shake hands. Shake hands!

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

This again, huh? What? You think he's taking Aussie work? We invited him here! He's doing the work that you lot won't, without complaint! Shake hands. Shake hands!

All right. That's it for today, guys. Hopefully you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much for joining me. I am your host, Pete, and I will hopefully see you next week. Catch ya!