Transcript of AE 1158 - Expression: Get Wind of Something

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! What's going on? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. This is the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. My name is Pete, I'm your host and if it is your first time listening to the podcast, welcome. If you are a repeat offender, someone who has come back multiple times, it's good to see you again. Although I can't see you. But yeah, glad that you're back.

Anyway, guys, I hope you're going well. Don't forget, if you want the transcripts for all of these podcast episodes that come with transcripts and you want the bonus lessons, the video lessons that come with the premium podcast membership, then sign up for that www.aussieenglish.com.au/podcast

Now anyway, let's get into today's episode, guys. I hope my voice is going to hold out. I seem to always be complaining in these expression episodes, so forgive me for that guys. But yeah, I have recently sort of become a stay at home dad.

My wife Kel got a part time job recently, so congrats Kel! I'm not sure if I've mentioned that on the podcast or not, but she is now working four days a week and the kids are at day-care a few days a week. But it's up to Daddy Pete to stay home and hang out with them. And as a result, as you can probably tell from my voice, I've ended up quite sick recently, so I tend to just be really susceptible to these day-care diseases that keep coming home.

And I have a feeling this time that it was COVID. I didn't get it tested because initially it didn't feel that bad and we had run out of rap tests. So I kind of just let the cold do its thing and disappear within a few days. And I was right. But after that, this cough has just hung around and my lungs have been really bad. So for the last two and a half weeks, I haven't been able to record anything. I haven't really been able to do much because I've lost my voice and I've been coughing like a maniac. So yeah, that's, that's what I've been up to. So anyway, if you guys have noticed that the podcast is kind of slowed down a little bit recently, forgive me for that. The main reason is being a stay at home dad and also getting quite sick quite frequently this year.

So again, I'm going to do my best to sort of come back in full force and keep delivering the awesome content to you guys. But I really thank you for your patience.

Anyway, let's get into the question and answer. This comes from Ave who asks, "What's the difference between come on time and come in time?". Come on time, to come in time. So if you come 'on time', 'on time' means at the time that something begins, right? So you are 'on time'. You've arrived when that thing begins, you're punctual. You've arrived on time.

To come 'in time' is to arrive before or at the time that something begins so that you don't miss it. So, 'He came just in time before the film started, so he wouldn't miss it'. 'He came just in time.' 'He came in time to see it.' So he arrived before or at the time that it began. Whereas if you came 'on time', it would be like the film started at 7:00 and you came at 7:00, on time. On the time that it began, right, 'on time'. So hopefully that makes sense. Good question, Ave!

So slap the bird guys, and let's get into the joke today. So here's the joke for today. Why did the tornado take a break? Why did the tornado, whoosh, take a break? You're gonna hate me. You guys are going to hate me! Because it ran out of wind. Because it ran out of wind.

All right. So hopefully you get that. A tornado is a mobile, destructive vortex of violently rotating winds, having the appearance of a funnel shaped cloud and advancing beneath a large storm system. So a tornado, you know, they're very destructive, not very common here in Australia, though they do occur. They're very common in places like the United States.

If you run out of wind, this is to breathe fast and hard, right? It's to be out of breath. So if you are running really hard in a race, say you're doing 100 metre sprint. At the end of the race, you're going to be out of wind, right? You're going to be out of breath. The wind is your breath. And so the joke here is, you know, a tornado is caused by wind rotating around and around and around, causing a vortex. So why did it take a break? The tornado, that is, because it ran out of wind. So literally there's no wind left. So the tornado stops. But if it was a human and it ran out of breath, it's run out of wind and it had to stop as well. So hopefully that makes sense.

All right. So let's get into today's expression "to get wind of something". And you'll see that this is kind of associated with the definition of wind that we just went over, kind of associated with breath, with speaking, with talking, right.

With wind. Because you can imagine if you are talking, you're exhaling, you're blowing out the air that's in your lungs, you are creating wind. Anyway, we'll get into that shortly. So, "to get". 'To get' means to receive or obtain something. 'I got some lollies at the shops', right. I obtained them, I received them, I gave them money. Hopefully I didn't steal them. I gave them money and I got the lollies from the shop. I bought them, I obtained them.

'Wind'. This is the perceptible natural movement of air, especially in the form of a current or of air blowing from a particular direction. So if I go outside right now, there isn't a great deal of wind. But imagine a cold front comes through this afternoon. With it comes a lot of wind. Cold fronts usually bring a lot of wind. So I'm going to feel that wind in my beard, not in my hair, because I don't have any hair, but in my beard on my face I'll feel that air movement, the 'wind'.

'Something'. 'Something' is an unknown thing, right? An unspecified thing. So he's got something in his hand. 'What's he got in his hand?' 'I don't know. Something.' 'Something.' Some unspecified thing. 'Something.'.

So if you "get wind of something", the definition here of this idiom is "to hear a rumour" or "to learn of something".

So "to learn of something" here means to hear information about something, usually a secret. And it's sort of like "learn about something", too, right. If you 'learn of something', 'learn about something', 'learn of something' is to hear information about something. 'Learn about something' is to gain knowledge of that thing. Hopefully that makes sense.

There's a slight difference between the two, 'learn of something' is to be informed about something happening, to receive information that it's going to occur, right. 'He learnt of the birthday party', he knew that the birthday party was going to take place, whereas if 'he learnt about birthday party' could be that he learnt that it was going to take place. But he could also learn about what was going to happen at the party, who was going, what was going to be there, all that sort of stuff.

Okay. So the expression 'to get wind' has been used in this form since the first half of the 1800s and is an allusion to the fact that animals become aware of predators and prey by sensing a scent on the wind. So that's interesting. I thought originally it would be that you were receiving someone's speaking, right? They're giving you wind, they are exhaling all of that sort of stuff. Whereas, I guess the actual meaning is that if you are out and about in the forest and you're upwind from something, the wind travels from you to that thing, it's going to smell you and know that you're there. Whereas if you're downwind, you're the thing receiving the wind. You can smell whatever's upwind.

That's a really cool sort of set of phrases here that you'll often hear when talking about wildlife. So 'downwind', the wind is blowing from someone or something towards you. So 'He was downwind from the bear and it couldn't smell him.' 'Upwind' is when the wind is blowing from you towards something or someone else. So if you were upwind from the bear, the bear is going to smell you and maybe it'll start chasing you.

Okay, so let's go through three examples of how to use 'get wind of something.' So imagine you're planning a surprise party for your mother. You have to be very secretive about it, very subtle with your plan and arrangements for her birthday, because you don't want her finding out. You need to somehow invite all her friends, all the family members without letting her clue on to what you're doing. So you create digital invitations online, you email them out to everyone, and you hope that no one tells her about the party, that no one lets the cat out of the bag and no one reveals the secret that you're planning. You hope she doesn't 'get wind of' the party. You're hoping she doesn't hear about it, that she doesn't learn of it. You don't want her to 'get wind' of it.

So yeah, if you unfortunately have a relative or a friend who's a bit of an idiot and accidentally spills the beans, right? Lets the cat out of the bag, tells the secret to your mum. She learns of it, she'll hear about it, she'll discover it. She gets wind of it.

Example number two. Imagine you are at war with another nation and you have come up with a great plan to try and sabotage some of their infrastructure, right? You want to blow up a bridge or maybe an air base or something like that. So maybe the enemy is trying to fly supplies from one air base to another air base. And you want to send in a crack team of spies to sabotage one of the planes so they can't move the supplies around. If they capture one of your spies and they torture him and learn about your plans to sabotage their planes, they 'get wind of' the plan. They 'get wind of' the operation. They 'get wind of' everything you were trying to do. They learn of it. They hear about it, they 'get wind of' it.

Example number three You've started dating someone, but it's a little hush hush. It's meant to be a secret. No one's meant to know. Maybe you're both young teenagers, and his or her parents are very strict and don't want their child dating anyone until they finish school, right. They want them to devote all of their attention to their schoolwork and not to chasing boys and girls. One day you're out with your girlfriend or boyfriend, the person you're dating, and one of the friends of their family sees you together and messages or calls the parents to let them know. So they find out. They discover. They get told that their child was seen holding hands with someone in the street. They 'get wind of' the relationship. They learn of the relationship, they hear about it, they 'get wind of' it.

So hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression to get wind of something. This could be to hear a rumour or to learn of something or about something. To 'get wind of' that thing.

So as usual, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise. Guys, this is your chance to work on your speaking skills, your Aussie accent, if that's something you're trying to develop. So listen and repeat after me. Let's go. To. To get. To get wind. To get wind of. To get wind or something. To get wind of something. To get wind of something. To get wind of something. To get wind of something. I got a wind of it. You got wind of it. She got wind of it. He got wind of it. We got wind of it. They got wind of it. It. Got wind of it. Great job, guys. Great job.

Now there are a few interesting things going on there with connected speech. In the phrase 'to get wind of something', you can say 'of' as either /ɒv/ with the V sound at the end there, 'of something', 'to get wind of something', 'of something'. Or you can just not say the V sound, the "vv" sound and use a schwa sound instead. 'To get wind of something'. 'To get wind or something'. Either one of those is okay.

The other thing you'll notice quite a bit in both the phrase 'to get wind of something', and then all the other phrases we went through, 'I got wind of it', 'you got wind of it', 'he got wind of it', etc., is there are quite a few different muted Ts because they are at the ends of syllables.

So let's take the example 'It got wind of it', 'it got wind of it'. Every single T in that sentence is not a hard T, like a /t/ sound, nor is it a t flap like a /ɾ/ sound. Instead they're all muted Ts. 'It got wind of it'. So effectively what a muted T is, is where your tongue goes to make the T sound. It stops the air moving through your mouth and instead of releasing and saying the /t/ at the end, it just stops the air and you go into the next sound. So 'it' 'got' 'wind of it'. So the way to know that you're doing this correct, is that you will notice the air stops moving and the sound stops - 'it', 'it'. So instead of 'it got wind of it', none of the /t/ sounds are there. It's all muted Ts. It got wind of it. It got wind of it.

If you want to learn more about this guys, be sure to check out my Australian Pronunciation course. We go through all these sorts of advanced aspects of Australian and more broadly, I think this sort of pronunciation is used also in British and American English, this muted T. But there are many things inside the course, many lessons that will teach you advanced aspects to broad English pronunciation, but then focus also on Australian pronunciation.

So things like the T flap, the Australian R sound, everything like that. So go check that out. It is on www.aussieenglish.com.au/apc

So anyway, guys, let's finish up. I'm going to play you a clip. And the goal of this section is for you to listen to the clip, get a piece of paper, write down what you think is being said. So the clip today comes from the sequel to the legendary Aussie film Crocodile Dundee, which is uninspiringly named Crocodile Dundee 2. So the excerpt for this film is Sue's ex husband sends her photos of a brutal crime desperate to destroy the evidence. The gangsters follow her to Australia, where Mick, Crocodile Dundee, demonstrates his outback skills to keep her safe.

So remember, guys, I'll play this clip for you twice. Try and write down what you hear. If you want to read the transcripts, if you've got a premium podcast membership, you'll be able to see the answer. And if you download today's free worksheet, you'll also be able to see the answer too, okay? So are you ready? Here's the first playthrough.

It was a piece of cake, really. I mean, it's just a question of timing.

Good job, guys. How did you go? Did you get all of it? Time for the second playthrough.

It was a piece of cake, really. I mean, it's just a question of timing.

Okay. So that's it for me today, guys. Thanks for joining me again. Once again, a big apologies for my voice. I hope that it's held up okay and that you can hear everything alright and it wasn't too annoying.

Don't forget, if you want to get access to all the transcripts for these episodes, go to www.aussieenglish.com.au/podcast

Go check out my courses there as well and stay up to date with The Academy, which is going to open in a few more months and you'll be able to join me and a bunch of other awesome Australian English teachers teaching you every single week. So anyway, guys, thanks again and I will chat to you soon. Peace!