Transcript of AE 1149 - Expression: Foot The Bill

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 flipping 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. As you guys will know the drill, right? This podcast is not just for those wanting to come to Australia and sounding just like Aussies when they speak English. It's for anyone who wants to improve their English but also obviously wants to get a bit of an Australian twist on things.

You know, you want to learn about Australia, you want to learn about the lingo we use, our slang, everything like that, whether or not you actually want to use it at the end of the day. But if you do, then yeah, this podcast is definitely for you. So, I hope you guys are going well. It's been an interesting week. I got smashed again with another day care disease that came home with one of the kids.

I think it might have been Noah this time as he was a little bit crook, a little bit sick. He was sick as a dog, just like his dad. So, I ended up with Gastro again. So, this is the fourth time I've had, it's called gastroenteritis, right. Effectively a stomach bug where you end up vomiting and doing other less pretty things that you don't want to describe on a podcast. It always hits me at night.

So, anyway, yeah, the other night on the weekend before recording this, this is a Monday at the moment. I ended up feeling a little bit iffy, a little bit strange. I had a bit of a weird feeling in my stomach, and I was just like, yeah, God, again? Again? This can't be gastro again, for the fourth time since my daughter has been born, right, a bit over a year, I've had gastro four damn times.

Anyway, sure enough, within a few hours I was bent over the dunny. I had my face in the toilet emptying out my stomach and it was unpleasant. So, here's hoping that doesn't happen again. So, yeah, that's been the weekend effectively. Some other good news is my wife recently got a part time job, which is amazing. Congratulations, Kel. She has been applying like crazy for different jobs all around Geelong here.

She's been wanting to get into administration, has been applying for different schools, different TAFEs, the medical industry as well, you know, doctors' practises as well as Barwon Health here, which is the hospitals and everything like that and been going to a lot of different job interviews and she finally got offered a job and decided to take it.

So, now she's working part time as an admin person, a secretary, I guess, admin. In working in administration at a music school, which is really cool. So, hopefully that's going to be a nice change of scenery for Kel. She gets to move from the golf course where she was working in hospitality recently. She gets to go out of the kitchen and to a desk behind a computer. So, massive congrats to Kel.

Anyway guys, before we get into today's episode, don't forget if you want the transcripts so you can read and listen, which is the best way to improve your English. You'll learn all the vocab, the expressions, the collocations, everything like that when you read and listen at the same time, be sure to join up to the premium podcast. You can get access to this membership at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

You'll get bonus episodes. You'll get the episodes that came with video lessons. There are extra Goss episodes in there for just members, and you'll also get access to the premium podcast player on the website where you can read and listen simultaneously. But you can also download and print out the PDF transcripts so that you can take notes, highlight things, all that sort of stuff.

So, if you're a serious English learner and you want to study these episodes, I really recommend signing up for the Premium podcast. Once again, just go to AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. So, guys, time to get into today's Q&A. This one comes from Elham. So, Elham asks, "do Aussies use the word 'cranky'? Do Aussies use the word 'cranky'?"

Now "cranky" is I believe it originates from North America, so America and Canada. And it means bad tempered or irritable, right? If you're "cranky", you're bad tempered, you've got a bad temper, you're irritable, you're angry, you're upset. As Australians, we hear this all the time through American TV shows, films, podcasts, music. We read it in their books, everything like that.

So, if you ask the average Australian, even myself, and you said, is this an American word or an Australian word? I wouldn't know. I just know that I wouldn't say this word as quickly as I would say other words, such as "angry, upset, pissed or pissed off" if you want to be a little more informal. "Fuming", those are different ways that I would say "cranky. Cranky". So, hopefully that answers your question.

But yeah, if you were to use the word "cranky" in conversation here down under in Australia, we're going to understand exactly what you're saying. So, time to slap the bird, guys, and get into today's joke. So, today's joke is, "what do you call a foot that always loses?

What do you call a foot that always loses?" So, I guess this is like the foot of a person, and somehow this foot gets into competitions or games where you could win or lose that thing, and it just has really bad luck and always loses. "What do you call a foot that always loses? Defeated. De-feeted." Do you get it? So, the pun here on the word "defeated".

This means beaten or conquered when spelt D-E-F-E-A-T-E-D. Right. If you have a fight with someone and you lose to them, you are "defeated". Your opponent is victorious and you are "defeated". But here it's spelt "de-feeted", right. "Feet" like the plural of foot. De-feeted. And now when we put the prefix "de-", "de-" in front of another word. So, we add this to things like verbs. It denotes the removal or reversal of something.

So, if you have been "de-feeted", the idea here is that someone's removed your feet. Right? So, if someone amputates your feet, they de-feet you, I guess would be the meaning here. So, "what do you call a foot that always loses? De-feeted." Good old jokes. All right, guys, as usual, let's get into today's expression, which is "to foot the bill. To foot the bill".

I wonder if you've heard this expression before. Has anyone ever made you "foot the bill? Foot the bill." Before we get into what it means, let's break down the words in the expression. So, "to foot" this is a weird one. I would not use the word "foot" usually as a verb, right, "to foot" something or "to foot" someone. You're pretty much only going to hear it as a verb used in this expression "to foot the bill".

But here it means to take care of a fee if you "foot" something. Yeah. And it's only really used like this in this expression. So, "go to the bottom of the bill and 'foot' it", I guess would be an example sentence. So, it sounds weird. You would- Yeah. You pretty much only use it in the expression, the collocation "foot the bill. I'm going to foot the bill. He's going to foot the bill."

"The or the", this is the definite article. You know, "the" specific thing that you're talking about. "I can see 'the' cat that you own. This is 'the' house where I live." It isn't just a house. It is "the" specific house, that is "the" specific cat. "The". And lastly, a "bill" in this sense is a printed or written statement of the money owed for goods or services.

So, earlier today I went to Bunnings. I had to pick up some equipment that I was going to use for plants. So, I got a few pots and some other doodads, some other things, bits and pieces. And when I paid for it I was handed a "bill". They gave me a "bill" and it told me how much I'd paid.

So, I think it's probably pretty obvious now what the expression "foot the bill" means. If you "foot the bill", it is that you pay the bill for something. Typically, when the amount is considered very large or even unreasonable, that is when you have to "foot the bill". I was kind of curious. I'm like, where on earth did this come from? Why do we say "foot, foot a bill"? Like it's not like you kick it, right?

What has it got to do with feet? So, I did a little googling, and I went to WritingExplained.org and here's what they had to say. This expression dates back to the early 1800s. "Foot" can mean the bottom of something such as the bottom of a mountain. That makes sense, right? The "foot" of a mountain, though, it's a noun here. The "foot" of a mountain.

In this idiom it refers to the bottom of a column of prices on a bill, originally "footing the bill" meant to add up the prices of different items on a bill and find the total cost. The total cost appears at the lowest part of the bill, or, in other words, at the "foot of the bill". Over time, this changed to mean covering the cost.

So, nowadays the expression often implies covering a large bill, especially for someone else's expenses, such as, say, your daughter or son's huge wedding, right? If you're the dad or the mum and you have to pay for the wedding or you've decided you're going to pay for it, you're "footing the bill".

Anyway, let's go through three examples of how I would use the expression "to foot the bill" on a daily basis in English. Example number one: You go out for brunch with a bunch of your mates, right? Brunch is sort of the meal between breakfast and lunch, hence the word brunch. So, you go out to some cafe, everyone kind of goes a little nuts, right?

They order loads of coffees, loads of food, loads of drinks, loads of cake, and they just go a little overboard, right? They are a bit out of control. Slowly but surely, people keep sort of disappearing, right? They keep sort of waving, saying goodbye and then walking off. And you don't realise until you're the very last person left that no one's paid for anything.

And so, the waitress or waiter comes up to you and is like, here's the bill, mate. Did you want to pay for that with cash or card? And you might look at it and be like, Jesus, it's like $500. How on earth do we spend $500 on a damn brunch? You know, yelling at the mates who aren't there anymore. If you're left there, you're the only one. You got to "foot the bill". You're the one who has to pay for everything.

It's a large amount of money. $500. How the hell do you spend 500 bucks on a brunch? Did you feed an entire team of soccer players or something? You had to "foot the bill". Example number two: When I was a kid, there was a next-door neighbour's kid that would come over to my house every now and then. We got to know each other later on.

But before I met him, sort of straight after we moved in, within a few days, the side window to our house was smashed and there was a piece of wood on the floor. It turns out that we went next door, or at least my dad at the time went next door. I think I was about nine or ten years old, so I didn't go. My dad went next door and found out that the kid and his mate were playing in the backyard, throwing bits of wood around, obviously.

He obviously let one loose without really paying much attention to where it was going and it went through our window. So, at the end of the day, the kid's dad was left "footing the bill", right? The kid had no money. It wasn't like he could pay; he was about eight or nine as well. And so, his dad had to "foot the bill". His dad had to pay for our window to be fixed, for it to be replaced, he had to "foot the bill".

Example number three: Two people go into business together and they open, say, a cafe. Maybe it's a really expensive one where you end up paying 500 bucks for a meal. They've been friends for a long time. They think it's going to be a dream. You know, it's going to be their dream job. It's going to be absolutely brilliant. One day the place burns down because one of them fell asleep while smoking in the business after hours. Right.

They were hanging out there. They were on the sofa. They got a little drunk off the whisky that the business sells, although it's a cafe, so I guess that's a bit weird. Maybe people are having Irish coffees. Right? Coffees with whisky. So, they got trashed, they got soused, they got drunk on the whisky, had a smoke in doors, which is illegal in Australia, but they didn't care, and they fell asleep, and the smoke burnt the place down.

But they got out alive. Anyway, turns out this person who burnt the place down also forgot to insure the place. So, instead of doing the right thing and, you know, paying for the place to be repaired, to be rebuilt, for the business to go, you know, back into work, back into business, I guess. The person just bails, they disappear, they run off, they just leave you holding the bag and you have to pay for everything yourself.

So, you have been left to "foot the bill". You have to pay for everything. It's a huge bill. It's very expensive. You've got to do it all. You have to "foot the bill". So, hopefully, guys, now you understand the expression "to foot the bill". This is to pay the bill for something, to pay the money owed for goods or services. Typically, when the amount is considered large or even unreasonable. $500 at a cafe. 500 bucks, guys. 500 bucks. Jesus.

Anyway, guys, let's get into the pronunciation exercise. So, this is where I read through a series of sentences. And your goal is to read these out aloud after me and work on your pronunciation.

If you're working on your Aussie accent, obviously pay attention to the exact way that I'm pronouncing these things, intonation, everything like that. If you're not and you want to work on your British or American accent, that's cool too. Just use the words, the sentences as a prompt, right?

So, just repeat them out in your pronunciation as you would like after I say them. Okay? Let's go. "To. To foot. To foot the. To foot the bill. To foot the bill. To foot the bill. To foot the bill. To foot the bill. I'll foot the bill. You'll foot the bill. He'll foot the bill. She'll foot the bill. We'll foot the bill. They'll foot the bill. It'll foot the bill." Great job, guys. Great job. Now, to go through a little bit of connected speech here.

What do you notice happening when I say, "foot the"? "Foot the". Do you hear a T? Do you hear a T being pronounced at the end of the word "foot"? "Foot the. Foot the". What happens here whenever you have a word ending in a T or a D and then the next word starts with a TH like "the", right, "foot the". The T or the D gets muted in your mouth. So, the tongue goes into position to say the T or the D, but it doesn't release it.

It doesn't go "foo/t/". You don't hear that /t/ after it. It just goes "foot". So, the tongue stops the air going out of your mouth and stops the sound of the word. "Foot, foot". And then goes straight into the TH at the start of the word "the". "Foot the. Foot the. Foot the. Foot the. Foot the bill. To foot the bill. To foot the bill."

The trick here, the thing for you guys to kind of master is placing your tongue behind your teeth to stop that T or D sound and then sliding it down sort of in the same motion to where you can then say the /th/ sound. So, you need to push a little bit of air over the tongue as the tongue is between the teeth. And so, it has to move downwards in between the teeth in order to make the /th/ sound after you've muted the T or the D.

"Foot the. Foot the". So, I actually feel my tongue descending sort of in a fluid motion from up to down until I can say "the, the, the, the, foot the, foot the, foot the, foot the". So, these are some sort of subtle tricks and tips for connected speech. And I think this would go for any dialect of English. This wouldn't just be specifically Australian English.

Lastly, guys, what do you notice happen with "it will, it will" when I say "it'll. It'll. It'll. It'll. It'll." It's not the T-flap. Technically, this is- It's- "It'll. It'll. It'll." It's the- It goes straight into the L with a lateral release. The syllabic l it's called.

So, this is kind of complicated, but if you want to learn about this go and buy my Australian pronunciation course, there are some advanced lessons in there about the syllabic l and the syllabic n sounds. And if you can master these, it makes a huge difference with you sounding much more native. Okay? "It'll. It'll. It'll. It'll." That's a very advanced sound in Australian English and probably American English, too.

I think Brits might say "it'll, it'll" they'd enunciate the "t" a little bit more. Anyway, guys finishing up there- Oh, no I should have said. I don't think I told you where to go if you wanted to get the pronunciation course. If you want to get the pronunciation course, go to AussieEnglish.com.au/APC, the letters "APC". Go check that out.

Remember guys too, with the premium podcast membership and the pronunciation course, I have a 30-day money back guarantee, so you have nothing to lose by signing up, giving it a go for 30 days, seeing if it's for you. If you decide it's not, just send me an email and I will refund 100% of your money. Okay. I want you to be happy with the products you purchase, so go give these things a go, see if it works for you.

If not, ask me for a refund and I'll give you your money back. All right, last part of this episode, guys. So, today, you know the drill guys. I play a little clip from a film or a TV show or something. You have to listen to this clip, write down what you think you hear.

And if you want to check your answer, get the downloadable worksheet, the free one for this episode, or just open up the transcript for this episode if you're a premium podcast member and you will see the sentence and the words written out. So, the clip today comes from a little-known Aussie horror comedy film called "100 BLOODY ACRES".

So, "100 BLOODY ACRES" is about two brothers who own a rural fertiliser farm, and they resort to using human remains for their business to try and make a quick buck. It's a really funny but sort of, you know, horrifying movie. I definitely recommend checking it out if you like horror films. So, I'm going to play this clip for you two times. Remember, try and write down what you think you hear.

Give it a go a second time. If you need to rewind and do it a third or a fourth or a fifth time, be my guest. Go for it. Here is playthrough number one. "Have you forgotten who runs this joint? I'm just thinking of the business." Alrighty, good job. How did you go? Did you get all of it? Time for playthrough number two. "Have you forgotten who runs this joint? I'm just thinking of the business."

Alright, that's it for me today, guys. Thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget, please go and give the podcast a review if you're enjoying this. It actually makes a massive difference. It makes the podcast more visible on podcast apps like the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher or Spotify. Leave a little note, tell me what you think of the podcast.

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