Transcript of AE 1186 - Expression: The Gift That Keeps On Giving

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 guys! How's it going? Or should I say, 'G'day, you mob'? Man. Changed it up. G'day, you mob. How's it going? I hope you're having a great week. It is a cheeky little Wednesday today. It is a Wednesday. The kids are at day-care, the wife is at work, the house is empty. I've done some cleaning and now it is time to smash out a podcast episode for you guys. So I hope you're having an incredible week. I've got a little bit of news for you guys. I've got a little bit of news.

So, we had a bit of drama this week and I probably need to do an episode in and of itself with my wife on this. I keep promising that I'm going to do it at some point, guys, with the house. But anyway, the long and the short of it, the long story short, is that for the last two years we've been on a waiting list for a Burmese purebred cat. Now, I, I wanted to buy one of these cats because I had one when I was a kid.

And I absolutely loved this little guy. His name was Merlin. And unfortunately, he died years ago, but he was a beautiful little cat. And any of you guys who know these Asian breeds of cats like Burmese or Siamese, I think there's a whole bunch of them. They're kind of like little dogs. They've got really cool little personalities. They're very personable. They'll come and follow you around, hang out with you, meow quite a bit. And yeah, I just really love that kind of doggy personality in cats. I'm both a dog and a cat person. I like both, so a mix is great. Maybe I need to find a dog that's more like a cat.

Anyway, so we put ourselves on the list and after two years of waiting, I got a message the other day saying, 'Oh, we've had a cancellation recently. A kitten is available. Would you like to get it?' I said, Yes, we would love to. It's been two years. We've been waiting for ages. And then during the process of sort of trying to organise things and everything, the breeder of these, these beautiful cats was just like, 'Oh, by the way, the price is increased $700.' And I was just like, 'What?' So we had initially put down a deposit, we'd paid a deposit on the cat and the full price was meant to be $1,950. Full disclosure for you guys.

So yeah, it is expensive. Unfortunately, purebred animals tend to be. But then out of nowhere, after the two years, this breeder was just like, 'Yeah, because I spoke to my accountant and because COVID and inflation, we're going to increase the price $700, which is 36% of the original price. So long story short, we told her where to go. So pretty much 'thanks, but no thanks. Please give us the refund back and we are going to adopt a rescue cat instead.'.

So yeah, we're going to pick up a beautiful new cat, I think is a tortoiseshell. She's a tortoiseshell and we are grabbing her on Friday this week. Hopefully. So hopefully by the time this episode comes out, we will have this beautiful cat at home living with us, getting used to the place. And I will probably put up some photos on Instagram. So if you're listening to this right now, go check out Aussie English on Instagram and see if I've chucked up a photo. And if I haven't, send me a message and be like, 'What the hell, Pete, where's the cat? Send us a photo with a cat.'. So anyway, guys, that was a long intro.

Don't forget, if you want the transcripts for all of these episodes, you can get access to them. If you sign up to the Premium Podcast membership or if you're already a member of the Academy that includes the Premium Podcast. So obviously you don't need both things. But yeah, the premium Podcast Membership will give you access to every single episode on the podcast except for the Pete's 2cents episodes.

Well, you'll have access to them, but the Pete's 2cents episodes don't have transcripts because they are very, very long and I like to record them and get them straight up online so they don't come with transcripts, treat them as listing exercises. But there's over 1200 other episodes or thereabouts that have transcripts. You can take notes, you can print them out, you can use the Premium Podcast player to listen and read at the same time on your phone, tablet or computer, everything like that. Go check it out www.AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast So, I will see you there.

Anyway, let's get into today's Q and A, question and answer. And this one comes from Zakkvv. Z A K K V V. So the question is "What's the difference between 'don't need to' and 'needn't'".

So, 'don't need to' plus a verb. "I don't need to worry." "I don't need to hear about it."

Or 'needn't' plus a verb. So, "You needn't worry" "I needn't hear about it."

So, this was an interesting one. I was thinking about it and I'm like, There is sort of a difference between the two. Not necessarily in meaning, at least most commonly, but in the way that you would use them, and the register of language. So to 'not need to do something' or 'need and do something', these are synonymous. So they mean the same thing. They are synonyms and they are interchangeable in most contexts.

However, 'don't need to' is much more common and informal than the much more formal 'needn't' and then the verb, right? So most of the time, I would never use 'needn't' unless for, say, certain common phrases that I hear frequently using this as sort of like a collocation. So you may hear a sort of formal phrase, something like "You needn't worry you", "you needn't stress about it", "you needn't worry". But it's, it's still very formal. It's very formal. So it's, it's kind of too polite to be using in just standard language and it's, it's not really an impolite-polite thing. It's just a bit, it's a bit fancy. It's a bit fancy-schmancy.

So, for example, it sounds really strange to me. If you were to say "you needn't eat something", you know, instead of "you don't need to eat anything". Or, "I needn't see him today" instead of "I don't need to see him today." It's just too fancy. It's a bit weird.

So yeah, if in doubt, just stick with 'don't need to'. And then the verb.

Where they do differ is when you use them in the past tense. And this was interesting. So I was reading up on this online.

So, "didn't need to" + "verb". "He didn't need to worry." "You didn't need to wear a suit".

And "needn't have" + "the past participle of a verb". "He needn't have worried." "You needn't have worn a suit."

So in these cases they actually mean slightly different things. If you were to say to someone "you didn't need to wear a suit to the party", the person that you're talking to saying 'you didn't need to wear this suit', it may be that they did wear one, but they didn't have to. It wasn't required or they didn't wear one. And you were just reminding them, 'Yeah, you didn't need to wear one. So no problem'.

You know, if someone showed up and they're like, 'Oh, I didn't bring a suit', you'd be like, 'Oh, well, you didn't need to. So it's fine'.

Whereas if you said "you needn't have worn a suit", it's that the person did show up to the party in a suit and it wasn't required. So you, 'you needn't have worn a suit, mate. Why did you wear a suit?' 'You needn't have worn one. It wasn't required.' 'You needn't have worn a suit.'.

So yeah, there are slight differences in the past, but this is very, very, very advanced grammar. So don't stress too much. If in doubt, just stick with, 'don't need to' or 'didn't need to'.

Okay, so let's get into today's joke. Slap that bird, let's get giggling, let's get into it.

So, today's joke is "What do you call presents after you've opened them?" Hmm. So what do you call presents after you've opened them? You guys are going to hate me.

"Pasts." (Pete laughs) Did you get it?

"What do you call presents after you've opened them?" "Pasts!"

So, we call them 'pasts' here. We don't. Actually, this is the joke because you open these 'presents' in the past, right? So as soon as they've been open, they are no longer presents. They've been opened, they are 'pasts'.

So, the joke here is obviously on the word 'present'. It can be a noun, meaning a gift. You know, you give someone 'a present', but it can also be an adjective meaning 'existing' or 'occurring right now'.

So in the 'present' situation, "he is at school", right? That's an adjective. And it can also be used as a noun that way. Right? The period of time occurring now 'in the present'. In the present, in 'the present', the noun, "I'm sitting here in front of a microphone".

So that's the joke. "What do you call presents after you've opened them?" "Pasts."

All right. So let's get into the expression, guys. Today's expression is "the gift that keeps on giving". And the reason I'm doing this episode is for my beautiful wife, Raquel. So Kel sat in the car the other night after I picked her up from work, and she was like, "Pete, Chuck, on your Aussie English hat, I've got an English question for you. What the hell does the phrase or the expression, 'the gift that keeps on giving' mean?" So she heard this. I think she was watching TV or listening to a podcast and someone said it and she's like, 'I think I get the idea, but can you explain?' So we had a full discussion about that and I was like, 'You know what? I need to turn this into a podcast episode. This would be perfect.

And you know, Kel's English is very, very advanced. She's been speaking it now for, I think, at least seven years, living in Australia for seven years, but still comes across things that she doesn't understand. So this is perfectly natural. It's something that happens no matter what language you're learning, you're always going to be stumbling upon new words, new phrases, new collocations, new expressions.

Don't let it get to you. Don't make it, don't allow those situations to make you feel like your English sucks, that you're, you know, you should know better or whatever. Just ask. Ask someone. Use it as a chance to learn. Don't give yourself a hard time. And that's what my wife did.

So anyway, let's go through the words in this expression first. "The" or "the". This is a definite article, "the" specific things. So, "that's 'the' cat we're getting this weekend. And her name is Peaches." That's 'the' cat. It's not just any cat. That is 'the' specific cat.

"A gift". "A gift" is a present. And a present is a gift. "I bought you 'a gift'. It's a six pack of beer."

"That". Now, 'that' has many different meanings, the word 'that'. But in this case, 'that', "the gift 'that' keeps on giving", it's being used as a pronoun.

And you know this because 'that keeps', 'that keeps', the verb is being conjugated with that in the singular. Okay.

So, "the gift 'that' keeps on giving". So this pronoun 'that' is used instead of words like 'which', 'who', 'whom', or 'when' to introduce a defining clause, especially one essential to identification.

So we're identifying 'the gift'. It is 'the gift', and it is 'the' gift 'that' keeps on giving. So we're associating those two things together. So for example, "this is the woman that lives above me", 'that' is replacing 'who'. "This is the woman 'who' lives above me." "I hate dogs 'that' aren't friendly", 'that' is replacing the word 'which'. "I hate, dogs 'which' aren't friendly."

"Keeps on" or "to keep on". This is a phrasal verbs, and it means 'to continue'. "She 'keeps' calling me." "She 'keeps on' calling me." She keeps, she keeps. I'm going to say keeps. "She 'continues to' call me." Okay. So, "she continues to call me". "She keeps calling me". The only thing that's interesting here is that if you use the verb 'continue', you'll use the full verb after it with 'to' in front of it, "she 'continues to' call me". But if you use 'keeps' or 'keeps on', you'll use the gerund. Or gerund. You will say 'calling' instead of 'to call'. So you wouldn't say 'she keeps to call me'. You'd say, "she 'keeps' calling me", "she 'keeps on' calling me". Either of those is fine. We need to use the gerund though.

And then "giving". "She keeps on giving". So we're using the gerund here 'to give'. This is to freely transfer the possession of something to someone. So, "I gave my kids some lollies today". I freely transferred the possession of those lollies from myself to my children. I gave them to my kids.

Okay, so if we go through what the expression, "the gift that keeps on giving" means, you may get the idea just from the expression itself. "The gift that keeps on giving" or "a gift that keeps on giving" is something that continues to have a payoff or to have consequences or other such impact on you after you've received it.

So we'll go through some examples. Example number one, imagine you buy a new car, and this was the example I gave to my wife. So imagine it's a sports car. And you've always wanted this car, you know, it's a Ferrari, a Lambo or a Porsche or something. You've finally saved up your pennies and you bought it. A few weeks after you bought it, you've been driving it around and all of a sudden you look under your seat and you find 100 bucks and you're just like, "Blimey! Crikey! How awesome is that? 100 bucks? I bought a car, what a gift! And now I found 100 bucks."

And then a few weeks after that, maybe, you know, you're driving your car around and you get out of your car and there's this drop dead gorgeous woman walking by, and she's like, "Hey, I like your car. Want to go on a date?" And she turns out to be the love of your life then you get married in another week, that always happens. And then maybe a few more weeks after that, your boss calls you into his office and he's like, "Damn, I love your car. I love your new wife. I love the fact that you found 100 bucks in your car. You're awesome. I'm giving you a raise."

So the car has caused all of these awesome things to happen in your life. It's how to pay off. It's had many payoffs. It's had many good consequences. It's had great impacts on your life. The car is 'the gift that keeps on giving', right? So as a result of the car, you keep getting all these positive things happening to you. Great impacts. Great consequences. It's paying off lots. It's a gift. It's 'the gift that keeps on giving'.

Example number two. Imagine you want to become a famous actor, so you move to Hollywood in the United States of America to pursue your dreams. What a cliché, right? What a cliché. So you get a job as a waiter or a waitress there. You work your butt off every day of the week while studying, acting in the evenings and trying out for as many roles as you can find to try and make, get, get your break, right. To try and become famous.

So for a long time you keep getting knocked back for these different roles and they keep telling you that ultimately, you know, 'We'd love to give you these roles, but you're not handsome enough', 'You're not pretty enough. You know, it's just we really need you to get some plastic surgery'. So anyway, you save up your pennies, you work your ass off at your day job as a waiter, and you decide to go to the best surgeon and get some plastic surgery on your face. And this is not necessarily something I support or recommend anyone do, but it was a good example.

So imagine after you get this surgery, all of a sudden you start getting job offerings, you start getting in big movies, you start making it big, you start making money. All of a sudden you're meeting heaps of famous people, making famous friends, getting a girlfriend or a boyfriend, buying a house, getting a car. So as a result of your decision to get plastic surgery, you're getting all these positive things happening to you. So the plastic surgery was 'the gift that kept on giving', right? You kept, it kept paying off for you. It was 'the gift that kept on giving'.

Example number three, and we can use this phrase sarcastically to mean the opposite, right? So not necessarily positive things that keep happening as a result of something, but negative things. So imagine you're a young athlete at high school.

You know, you're just finishing up your final year in high school. You're applying for scholarships all over the place because you want to study at university, be paid to study there, and also pursue your sporting skills. Right. Like try and make it big in the sporting world. So you end up getting a scholarship offering at a university and you end up moving there. But shortly after moving there, things just go from, well, good to bad to worse.

So maybe you get robbed shortly after you move there, or your boyfriend breaks up with you. Maybe you break a leg falling down some stairs near your house, and then you, your car gets stolen, and everyone keeps you know, everything keeps going wrong for you. So if some someone asks you, ;How's the scholarship going, mate? How's everything been?' You might say, 'Yeah, it's it's really 'the gift that keeps on giving', you know, like it keeps, 'all these bad things keep happening to me'. I keep having these horrible things, these these bad consequences, these bad impacts on my life as a result of getting the scholarship. Ever since I've got this damn scholarship, everything seems to be going wrong. The scholarship is 'the gift that just keeps on giving'.

So, guys, hopefully by now you understand the expression, 'the gift that keeps on giving'. It's something that continues to have a payoff or consequences or other such impact on your life after you've received it or done it, or whatever it may be.

Okay. But remember, we can use this sarcastically to mean the opposite. When you've had a lot of negative things happen in your life and you're kind of being like, I guess the sarcasm, the joke there is you're saying, you're suggesting like they're great things, but they're obviously horrible things.

So as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. This is where I am going to read some words and phrases out loud. It's a chance for you guys to work on your fluency, your spoken fluency, connected speech and your Australian English pronunciation. Okay, so find somewhere quiet, shut a door, walk down an alley, hopefully a safe one somewhere, turn a corner and get away from people in public. And let's practice our speaking. You ready? Let's go.

The. The gift. The gift that. The gift that keeps. The gift that keeps on. The gift that keeps on giving. The gift that keeps on giving. The gift that keeps on giving. The gift that keeps on giving. The gift that keeps on giving. I'm the gift that keeps on giving. You're the gift that keeps on giving. He's the gift that keeps on giving. She's the gift that keeps on giving. We're the gift that keeps on giving. They're the gift that keeps on giving. It's the gift that keeps on giving.

Good job, guys. Now, there's some really interesting stuff going on here with connected speech, and I'll see if I can go through each of the points step by step.

So firstly, you'll notice the word 'the' or 'the' being pronounced as /ðə/, right, with a schwa vowel sound. So it's being unstressed, or de-stressed, reduced. Right. So we're using the schwa, /ðə/, /ðə/ gift. /ðə/ gift, /ðə/ gift, /ðə/ gift.

If it was followed by a word that starts with, or that started with a vowel, you would use the gift potential. Sorry, not the gift, but the right. So /ði/ apple. /ði/ apple, /ði/ apple. But because it's the word 'gift' starts with a consonant, we say /ðə/ gift. /ðə/ gift. /ðə/ gift.

Now, the interesting thing that happens with the words 'gift that', you'll notice that I don't release the T at the end of the word 'gift'. So you won't hear /t/. You'll hear 'gif(t) that'. 'Gif(t) that'. So, I go into the T after I say the F sound 'gif', and I stop the air flow, and then I go straight into the TH sound at the start of the word 'that'. 'Gif(t) that'. 'Gif(t) that'. So those two consonant sounds are sort of joining together. You say the first part of the T to sort of mute it, 'gif(t)'. And then you go straight into the TH, 'gif(t) that'.

The other interesting thing you'll see is that the T at the end of the word 'that' isn't released either because there's a consonant after it, just like in the situation with 'gif(t) that'. And so we mute it as well. 'Gif(t) that keeps'. 'Gif(t) that keeps'. 'Gif(t) that keeps'. 'Gif(t) that keeps'. So you won't say 'gift' 'that' 'keeps'.

The other interesting thing there too. Is that the word 'that' gets the schwa sound because it gets reduced, 'The gif(t) thət keeps on giving', 'the gif(t) thət keeps on giving', 'the gif(t) thət keeps on giving'.

And then lastly, guys, you'll notice that 'keeps on' links together. We've got a consonant at the end of the word 'keeps', and it joins to the vowel sound at the start of the word 'on'. /keep'son/, /keep'son/, /keep'son/ giving. /keep'son/ giving.

"The gif(t) thət keep'son giving". "The gif(t) thət keep'son giving".

So go back, have a listen to that exercise. See if you notice how I'm pronouncing things and see if you can make those changes too, and internalise them, practice them. So you sound much more natural when speaking English as well.

And don't forget, if you want to practice each of those specific areas of pronunciation, go check out my pronunciation course www.AussieEnglish.com.au/apc

You'll go through, you'll learn all the different sounds in Australian English, the vowel sounds and the consonant sounds. And then you'll go through 25 lessons that are for advanced pronunciation linking words. When we say consonants, when we mute them, when they disappear, how we link vowels, everything like that. So go check it out www.AussiEnglish.com.au/apc

Now lastly, guys, as usual, I've got a little clip for you to listen to and try and write down what you think you hear and remember. You can check the transcript for the answer. If you're a Premium Podcast member or an Academy member, or you can download the free worksheet for today's lesson, and the answer will be there at the bottom as well. And you've also got lines there that you can write on. So grab the worksheet, print it out, and you can write the line out that you think you hear.

So today's line comes from the Aussie film Oddball. This is one of my favourite films that has been filmed down near where I live. I think I've said this a few times. It's about "an eccentric chicken farmer with the help of his granddaughter training his mischievous dog Oddball, to protect a penguin sanctuary from fox attacks in an attempt to reunite his family and save their seaside town". That was a long sentence, but yeah, it's a very sort of heartwarming kind of kids film.

Anyway, I'm going to play this line for you twice. Try and write down what you think you hear. Let's go.

That's bad news if you're trying to get a lady.

All right. How did you go? Did you get everything? Time for the second playthrough.

That's bad news if you're trying to get a lady.

Great work, guys. Thanks again for joining me. I hope you enjoyed this episode and I will chat to you soon. Peace out!