Transcript of AE 1180 - Expression: Do Your Head In

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. I hope you guys are having a ripper of a week. We have just gotten back. Well, a few days ago from our little family holiday at Inverloch. This is a little town down the coast of Victoria, sort of between- halfway between Phillip Island and Wilsons Promontory if you have been down there.

So, it's a lovely coastline. It was really cool. And my parents, for my dad's birthday decided to rent this huge house. It was like a five bedroom house on a double block. I mean, they made sure that it was just one story because we all, all three families, me, my parents' family, and my sister's family, were all in the same house, hence needing the five bedrooms. And yeah, the kids. Usually we don't like going to houses now where there are multiple stories because the kids are so young, going up and down them, they're likely to sort of injure themselves.

But yeah, it was a beautiful weekend. It was so cool to have my kids playing with their cousins and their grandparents and their uncle and Auntie Heaps. They were hanging out. We went down to the beach, we went to playgrounds, we got coffee and we just sort of, yeah, drank whisky, drank beer and hung out together. It was a great time. But I hope you guys have been having a great week. It's a little rainy today, so wherever you are, I hope you're- I hope the weather's nicer for you.

At the moment, I am tucked up inside, nice and warm with the central heating on, as it is a little brisk, a little cold outside. And yeah, there's a storm coming, apparently. So I have to go get the kids from day-care in about an hour or so and hopefully dodge the storm. Avoid that before it comes.

So anyway, guys, before we get into the meat of today's episode, the meat in the sandwich, don't forget, if you want the transcripts for this episode, remember you can get them by signing up to the Premium Podcast Membership. So this is where you will get transcripts for all of the transcribed episodes. You'll be able to read these either online or as PDFs or using the Premium Podcast Player.

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Besides that, I want to say thanks to all of the new members inside The Academy. So we opened the doors at the start of October and it's really cool to see so many of you joining up and jumping into the WhatsApp group, chatting away with me and with the other teachers like Ian, Leo and Tara, and also meeting the virtual assistant that sort of runs the show behind the scenes, Kate. I really appreciate her help, as well as the work that all of my other employees do. I don't really like thinking of them though as employees. It's more like colleagues. These guys are my friends who, who work with me to hopefully deliver quality products to you guys to help you improve your English. But it's been great meeting you guys and I know that you guys are having a great time in there. So yeah, it just makes me so chuffed, so happy to see you guys and to get to know you better.

So anyway, guys, let's get into today's Q and A. This one comes from Hadrz2, on Instagram, and Hadrz asks: "Do Aussies sometimes use the greeting 'howdy' instead of 'g'day'?"

So, 'how'dy' is what I would consider to be an American greeting. I guess it's short for 'How do you do', right? 'How'dy' - 'How do you do'. 'How do you do'. 'How do you do'. 'Howdy', 'howdy', 'Howdy'. So they would say that more frequently. Much more frequently than Australians. We would usually say, you know, the standard 'g'day'. If you're being a little more Aussie than usual or just, you know, 'Hello, how are you?' 'How are you going?' We rarely say, 'how do you do', unless you're meeting someone for the first time and it's incredibly formal. Sometimes we will say 'how'dy', but it's probably mostly the influence of American TV and movies and podcasts and everything like that on us. And it may be a bit tongue-in-cheek, you know, if you hear the average Aussie saying 'Howdy', 'howdy', 'how do you do?' 'Howdy'. It's- yeah, it's not that common, but it's not unheard of. So I would just go with g'day'. Anyway, let's get into today's joke, guys. Slap the bird and let's get you giggling just like this kookaburra!

So today's joke is: "Dad, why did you put lipstick on your head?" And he responds, "Because your mother told me to make up my mind."

You get it, guys? "Dad, why did you put lipstick on your head?" "Because your mother told me to 'makeup' my mind."

Makeup. Makeup. Okay, so the joke here is on the word- or I guess it could be a- it's either a noun, makeup, cosmetics, such as lipstick or powder applied to the face. Right. But it can also be a phrasal verbs, where it's two words: 'make up', as in 'make up your mind'. And this is to decide on something, to choose something. You know, decide what you want to do. Make up your mind.

Which movie do you want to watch? Do you want to watch Predator or Aliens Make up your mind! Decide. So, "Dad, why did you put lipstick on your head?" "Because your mother told me to 'makeup' my mind." A good one. Good one.

All right, so let's get into today's expression: 'to do your head in'. 'To do your head in'. I'm going to break down the words in this expression. I'll tell you its meaning. We'll go through some examples of how to use it. Then we'll go through a pronunciation exercise and then a tiny little listening comprehension exercise at the end.

Okay! So, to 'do' something, I'm sure you guys will know this verb. This is one of the first verbs I imagine any of you learn when you're learning English. If you 'do' something, you perform an action, you perform something that is, I guess it could be unspecified, right? It could be anything. So you're not saying the verb that that action or performance is, you're just saying 'do' it, right? So, "I want you to clean the house." "I want you to 'do' it." "I want you to get down." "I want you to do it." Right. Do it, get down, do it. It's like, it's an unspecified action to do something.

'Your'. I'm sure you'll know the word 'your'. This is the second person possessive pronoun, right? "This is 'your' house". "This isn't my house. This is 'your' house." "Are these 'your' sunnies, mate?" "I found these sunglasses at the beach. Are these 'your' sunnies?"

'Head'. This is the upper part of the human body, right? It is the thing that has your eyes, your nose, your mouth, your ears, Everything like that is housed in, or on, your head. Right. So you might put your sunnies on your head, and then you might lose them. "Where are my sunnies? They were on my 'head' a minute ago."

And then 'to do something in'. So, 'do your head in'. 'Do something in'. This is another phrasal verb: to bring about the defeat or destruction of something, to ruin something or to kill someone.

Right? So it's not that common that you'll hear this in sort of spoken English that commonly. I think it's more like, you know, if someone was done in, it's like they're in trouble and they've died or they've gone to jail. You know, "it really did him in". You know, he got the- "he got the pox, he got this disease, and it did him in", you know, killed him. It ruined him. It destroyed him. He was 'done in' by this disease.

So if you 'do your head in' or if something 'does your head in', usually it's going to be something else, or someone else doing your head in, it's that that thing or that person is irritating you. It's causing you to be infuriated. It's making you angry, confused, frustrated, annoyed. It's 'doing your head in'.

And I guess the idea here is that it's hurting your head, right? It's ruining your head, your brain, it's destroying you. It's making you feel mentally, I don't know, distressed, angry, annoyed. So it's doing your head in and it's kind of an informal expression that is often used by English speakers, I think, all around the world. But we definitely do it in Australia.

So, let's go through three examples of how I would use the expression to do your head in, to do your head in. So a good example that came to mind was my son Noah.

At the moment he keeps doing this thing that I'm about to tell you about all the time and it does my head in. So he'll ask for something, you know, he'll say, "I want some apple juice. I want some juice, give me some apple juice. I want some juice, Dada." And I'll be like, "Mate, firstly, that's not how we ask. Can you please say, 'Please, Dad, may I have some apple juice?'" And he'll be like, "Please, Dad, may I have some apple juice?" Anyway, I'll go get him the apple juice, I'll bring it back and he'll say, "I don't want it. I don't want this. I want orange juice instead."

And I'll be like, "Mate, you just asked for it. What do you mean you don't want it? It's juice. Everyone likes juice, you know, It's just sweet juice. You drink this all the time", and then I'll take it away and I'll get him orange juice and he'll lose his you-know-what. He'll lose his shit. He'll get angry, he'll get upset, and he'll be like, "I want the apple juice" and I'll be like, "This behaviour is doing my head in. Noah." It's confusing me, it's irritating me, it's infuriating me, it's frustrating me, it's making me very annoyed. "It's doing my head in." "You're doing my head in, mate, What do you want?" "What do you want? Just tell me what you want and I will give it to you." "Stop doing my head in."

Example number two. The internet at our house is often on the fritz. It's often playing up. It's often not working properly. One minute things will be fine. You know, you'll be streaming Netflix, watching movies like Crocodile Dundee. Everything's going well, everything is going to plan. And then all of a sudden the internet carks it, conks out. Doesn't work anymore and I'll have to ring the company and be like, "What the hell's going on? You know, it was fine one minute. Now it's not. Can you help me fix it?"

Sometimes they can, sometimes they can't. And the other problem is that my reception on my phone is atrocious here, so I can't usually pair my phone with my computer so that my computer can access the Internet through my phone. So it's- it's infuriating, right? So when this happens, it 'does my head in'. When the Internet goes on the fritz, when it plays up, when it's not working properly, it really 'does my head in'. It irritates me. It annoys me, it frustrates me. 'It does my head in.'

Example number three. Politics in Australia 'does my head in', right. The pollies, the politicians, whether on the left side of politicians in the Labour Party, whether on the right side, the Liberal Party, they tend 'to do my head in'.

Politicians tend to be known for not speaking directly, and not speaking the truth. They speak from both sides of their mouth. They'll promise one thing, and then never deliver on it. They'll say they won't do X, Y, Z, and then later do a backflip and end up doing what they promised they wouldn't do. It's confusing, it's annoying, it's frustrating. It really 'does my head in'. And I'm sure it 'does the head in' of many Australians and migrants in Australia, people travelling here, everyone, I think, probably has their head 'done in' every now and then by Australian pollies. And I'm sure it's not unique to Australian politicians.

So there you go guys. Hopefully now you understand the expression 'to do your head in' or for someone 'to do your head in' or for you 'to do someone's head in'. This is to infuriate or irritate someone. It is to become or be made to be angry, confused, annoyed, frustrated, to do your head in.

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 goal is to speak them out loud after me and work on your pronunciation. Focus on things like connected speech intonation. Which words are my emphasising in these sentences? You know, English is a stress timed language, which means certain words get reduced, certain syllables get reduced, other words get emphasised or stressed.

And yeah, if you can get used to this, it is going to make you sound a lot more natural when speaking. Okay, so are you ready? Let's go.

To. To do. To do your. To do your head. To do your head in. To do your head in. To do your head in. To do your head in. To do your head in. It really does my head in. It really does your head in. It really does is head in. It really does ahead in. It really does our head in. It really does their head in. It really does its head in.

Great job, guys. Now, there's quite a few things going on there. If I say the phrase 'to do your head in'. 'To do your head in'. Which words do you hear are being emphasised? It's going to be the content words of the phrase, right? So the interesting words: 'do', the verb; and then 'head', and maybe 'in'. "To do your head in". Yeah, slightly. "To do your head in", so 'do', 'head', and 'in', to an extent.

So what happens to the words 'to' and 'your'? They get reduced and instead of hearing /o/ and /'or/, you hear the schwa sound 'tə do yə(r) headin'. Tə do yə(r) headin. Tə do yə(r) headin. Hmm. Interesting, huh? Then we have some other stuff happening in terms of connected speech in the phrases: "It really does my head in." "It really does your head in." "It really does his head in."

So, 'it', we're going to mute that T and we're going to go straight to the R sound at the start of the word 'really'. I(t) really. I(t) really. And we can either stop the T in the throat using a glottal stop, i(t), i(t) really, i(t) really, i(t) really, i(t) really. So I'm stopping that in my throat.

Or we can stop it in the mouth where the tongue goes into the position of the T, 'it', 'it', 'it', and then straight into the R instead of saying 'it really', we'll say i(t) really i(t) really i(t) really.

Then you're going to hear words like 'doz(h)is' and 'doz(h)er', you're going to hear them linked together with that Z sound at the end of the word 'does', and the H at the front of 'his' and 'her' is removed so it's H deletion. So, 'doz(h)is' 'doz(h)er' 'doz(h)is' 'doz(h)er'. 'It really doz(h)is headin.' 'It really doz(h)er headin.'.

So hopefully guys that helps you pay a little more attention to connected speech and stress in English learning to master these things is really going to help you: A. Sound more like a native speaker if that's your goal and to develop your Australian accent and B. It's going to allow you to understand native speakers or advanced speakers of English when they speak quickly and use these kinds of things, like stress and using connected speech when they speak quickly. By practising it yourself, you develop the ability to notice when others are doing it, and that will improve your comprehension as well as your speaking abilities.

And remember, guys, if you want to work on your Australian accent, you want to reduce your foreign accent, go and sign up for my Australian Pronunciation Course. We go through these sorts of lessons step by step. You'll learn all the sounds in Australian English, the vowels and consonants. You'll learn how to use the international phonetic alphabet so you can study on your own. And you'll also go through the advanced lessons showing you things like H deletion. The linking R, Reductions, everything like that. So go check that out. It is at www.aussieenglish.com.au/apc

All right, to finish up, guys, I have a little clip here from the film Crocodile Dundee. So this film is about a journalist travelling to Australia to interview a unique crocodile poacher. When he rescues her from an attack, she invites him to New York and despite the cultural differences, they fall in love. So it's a very cool tongue-in-cheek film from the 80s. We sort of grow up on this film in Australia, or at least I did, my generation did.

It was- I think it came out the year before I was born, in 1986, and it's a really cool look at sort of country life in very regional Australia up in the north and then the city life, the hustle and bustle, of New York City.

So I'm going to play a line from this film for you guys. The goal for you is to listen to the line and try and write down what you hear. Okay? And remember, if you want to check the answer, you can download today's free worksheet or if you have the Premium Podcast Membership, you will see the transcription of the phrase in the transcript. So you're ready to go? Let's do it.

I mean, any normal man would have just turned up his toes and died.

Okay, How did you go? Did you get all of it? Time for the second playthrough. Let's do it.

I mean, any normal man would have just turned up his toes and died.

Awesome work, guys. Awesome work. Thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget, remember if you want to read whilst you listen to these episodes, take notes, highlight new words and expressions, get access to the bonus episodes and everything like that, sign up for the Premium Podcast www.aussieenglish.com.au/podcast

Besides that, guys, thank you for joining me. I hope you have a ripper of a week and I'll see you next time. Tooroo!