Transcript of Expression: Where the Rubber Meets the Road

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. So, guys, man, I have had a first today. A first. I did something for the first time and that was to make a terrarium. A terrarium. Now you guys will probably know the word "aquarium", right? "Aqua-rium, aquarium".

This is a tank usually that you have aquatic organisms living in. Right, an aquarium, whereas a "terrarium, terra-", right, or "terra-" is for the land. So, I made a little terrarium out of an old mason jar, and I got some charcoal, put that at the bottom, a little bit of Sphagnum moss. It's a sort of- What would you say? It's like a dead moss that you can use.

You just- Keeps the moisture in and you can use it when propagating plants and stuff. Found some mosses and some other small plants around the house. I had to sort of sneak out the side where the laundry is and its sort of out of sunlight. And there's all these interesting plants that actually grow on the ground there.

Some of them are probably weeds and some of them aren't, and they're sort of interesting plants that don't like sunlight and like to be moist. Put them inside this little jar, gave it a bit of a spritzing, gave it some sprays of water, closed it up and wham-bam, thank-you, ma'am. She's finished. So, yeah, I just sort of felt like doing that. Zenning out, you know, being a little meditative.

Better put some T-flaps in there, "meditative, meditative". And just relax for the day. And yeah, did that. That was about half an hour of fun. So, yeah, that's what I've been up to. I hope you guys are having a great week.

Don't forget, as always, guys, as I always say, if you want to get access to the transcripts so that you can read and listen to these episodes at the same time, you know, we've got over probably 1,200 episodes now on the podcast that you can read at the same time as listening to in order to level up your English, learn the different expressions, phrases, collocations, Aussie slang terms, everything like that.

Be sure to sign up for the premium podcast membership. If you are not currently a member, go to AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. You'll get access to bonus episodes that come out, to episodes that have video lessons, everything like that. The premium podcast player so that you can read and listen at the same time using the player on the website, on your phone, however you like.

And it's a good way of supporting Aussie English so I can keep doing what I'm doing, building terrariums. Anyway, guys, as always, let's get into the Q&A to kick off today's lesson. This one comes from Jasmine who asks, "what's the difference between the words 'fairly' and 'rather'?" "Fairly and rather". So, in this case, these two words can be used as synonyms, right?

So, words that can be used to mean the same thing. "Fairly" means to a moderately high degree. So, "I'm 'fairly' certain it's going to rain tomorrow." Right. I am moderately- Well, moderately high degree. To a moderately high degree, I am certain that it will rain tomorrow. "I am 'fairly' certain. It's a 'fairly' big fish he caught whilst fishing."

Right. He was out on a pier. He had his fishing rod. He put some bait on his hook. Cast the fishing rod- The fishing rod? Hopefully he didn't cast the rod out, cast his line out into the ocean. If he casts the fishing rod, he's just thrown it into the ocean. Cast his fishing line out, and then caught a fish. And it's a "fairly" big fish. It is big to a moderately high degree, "fairly" big.

I'm trying to avoid using "rather" as a synonym before defining it for you guys. "Rather" can mean to a certain or significant extent or degree. So, yeah, it means the same thing as "fairly" here. "I'm 'rather' certain it's going to rain tomorrow. I'm 'fairly' certain it's going to rain tomorrow. He caught a 'rather' big fish whilst fishing. He caught a 'fairly' big fish whilst fishing." So, there you go.

The only thing I would mention here is that "rather" can also be used to show your preferencing one option over another. Right. So, "I would 'rather' go fishing than go camping." And the construction there is "'rather' something than something else." And it's the same as here, I would prefer something to something else. Okay. Prefer something to something. "'Rather' something than something." Be sure you get those- What do you call them?

They are prepositions, I guess, that are associated with "rather and prefer", "'rather' something than something, 'prefer' something to something." If you were to say, "rather something to something", it sounds a bit weird. And if you said, "prefer something than something", it also sounds a bit weird.

But you know, people would understand you. So, there you go, guys. There you go. Let's get into today's joke. So, today's joke, are you ready for this? "What's the biggest cause of road rage? What's the biggest cause of road rage?" Road rage is when you get angry as a driver, right? You rage.

You go into a rage. You rage up at someone, to get angry at someone. Someone cuts you off and you rage up. That is "road rage". So, "what's the biggest cause of road rage? Cross roads." Cross roads, right. So, a "crossroad" is an intersection of two or more roads, right? It is where two roads, at least. At least two roads cross. Right, they cross one another. So, that is a "crossroad". We can use "cross", though, to mean angry, upset, annoyed.

"I am rather 'cross'. I'm pretty 'cross'. Like I am really, really angry. I'm really, really 'cross'." So, a "cross road" in this sense, the joke is that we're using "cross" as a pun. We're using "cross" to mean angry here, as an angry road. "What's the biggest cause of road rage? Cross roads." Angry roads as opposed to crossroads where two roads intersect. Hopefully that makes sense. But yeah, good old dad jokes.

Good old dad jokes. I like these because they're puns, right? The whole point here is to play with words and get you guys thinking about their different meanings and how people can use them in these sorts of simple jokes to be funny. And hopefully you can take these jokes, go away, use them with your English-speaking friends, family, whoever it is, and hopefully put a smile on their face.

And if they ask, where did you learn these? Be sure to tell them "Aussie English". All right let's get into today's expression. So, today's expression is related to roads, not necessarily crossroads. It is "where the rubber meets the road, where the rubber meets the road." I wonder if you've heard this before. So, as usual, let's go through and define the different words in this expression before we then define the expression itself.

So, "where". "Where", this is a place or situation in which something is, right. So, "this is 'where' I live". This house, I might be pointing at a house. "That house is 'where' I live." It is the location that I live at, the place, the situation, the location. That is "where" we are. But you can use it obviously to not mean a physical location could be a situation. "This is 'where' we are."

Maybe someone says to you, "'where' are you at the moment in this movie you're watching?" And you might say, oh, I'm at about an hour and 2 minutes into the movie. "That's 'where' I am." That's the situation or location that I am within this film. You can also hear this expression, I should mention, as "when the rubber meets the road". So, we better define "when" as well.

And this is at or on which. So, referring to a time or a circumstance, a time taking place, this is the time it takes place at. "This is 'when' something takes place." So, "I was in France 'when' I was 16 years old, at the time that I was 16 years old."

"The". "The" is the definite article, right? A specific thing. "The" thing. "This is 'the' building where I grew up. This is 'the' building where I live. This is 'the' school that I go to. This is 'the' street that I live on." Right, if you were to say, "this is a street that I live on", it's like, wow, okay. So, you've got multiple houses. You live on many streets, and this is just one of them. Wow.

Whereas if you were to say, "this is 'the' street", it's the only one, it's the specific one. "Rubber". "Rubber" is a tough elastic, polymeric- Polymeric? This is one of those weird examples where the word I'm not sure where the emphasis is. Polymeric. It's a polymeric substance made from the latex of a tropical plant or synthetically. Right. So, I'm sure you guys all know what "rubber" is. It's kind of like soft plastic.

Car tires are made out of "rubber". And let me just quickly Google "polymeric definition", type this into Google. Maybe not definition polymeric. Let's see if it comes up, give me the emphasis. Where is the emphasis on this word? I need to know. I want to see if I got it right or not. Right, because you've got the word polymer. Polymer. Okay. So, the emphasis is actually on "mer". So, it should be "pol-ee-merr-ik, polymeric, polymeric".

That's so weird. See if I can hear it. Yeah. Polymeric. Polymeric. There you go, guys. Learning something new every single day. See, even native speakers have trouble with these kinds of things at times. You come across a word and you're like, uh, I'm not sure where the emphasis goes. I'm just going to guess. Okay. Alright, where are we up to? We did "rubber".

To "meet" something. This is to come in contact with something, right? So, you can "meet" someone as in to greet them, say hello to them, come in contact with that person. That's, you know, to "meet" someone. But you can "meet" something where you could physically come into contact with it, right? So, if you trip over, "your body is going to 'meet' the ground", right? "Your wrist 'meets' your arm above your hand." Right.

That's where those two things come into contact. And then lastly, a "road". I'm sure you guys will know what a "road" is. It is something you drive your car on. "Cars drive on the 'road'." So, "where the rubber meets the road or when the rubber meets the road", this means when or where the action really begins, when or where you begin the job, when or where you get really serious.

It refers to that moment when or where theory becomes reality. Okay, "this is where the rubber meets the road", where everything begins, the action begins here, this is where it begins. So, I looked into the origin of this and apparently it comes from the 1950s. It originated in the jargon of the advertising business, jargon in which "let's get down to where the rubber meets the road" meant how much is this going to cost?

So, I got this from wordhistories.net. But yeah, that's effectively where this originally came from. People would obviously be going to a business, talking about buying something, purchasing something. And if they were to say, "all right, let's get down to 'where the rubber meets the road'."

I guess you could imagine it like they're talking about a car and they're getting down on their hands and knees looking at where the tires actually touch the road. They were saying, how much is this going to cost? Let's get down to it. So, let's go through three examples of how I would use the expression "where the rubber meets the road".

Okay, example number one: Imagine you're a shipbuilder, someone who builds ships and you've come across a new concept, a new way of making an amazing yacht. Right. You want to create this and then sail it around the world. You work really hard designing the plans, then you build the yacht up in a shipyard and eventually here comes the day where you're all done and dusted and it's time to launch your newly built vessel.

So, you're a bit nervous because you're worried something might go wrong. You know, when you finally put the vessel into the water, you launch it, something could go wrong. It could sink, right? There could be a hole in it. Water could get into it. "But you've got to bite the bullet and test your boat because this is 'where the rubber meets the road'." You launch it and it's sink or swim.

It'll either float and sail well or it'll sink literally. It won't do very well. "So, this is 'where the rubber meets the road'." This is where you guys finally get to the action. The job begins. "This is where the rubber meets the road".

Number two: Imagine you're an electrician and you have a huge job coming up. Someone's hired you to wire up their 15th century castle in Scotland, right? You know, some rich lord has bought this unimaginably huge castle up on a mountain, and they've hired you. This poor little electrician, this poor little sparky from Australia for some reason to go over to Scotland and wire it up. Right.

You've got to put all the lights in, you've got to connect it to electricity. So, prior to now, it's just had fires and candles to produce light in this castle. You and your team might rock up to the castle, you arrive one day, and you realise, Jesus, this is going to be a huge job, a mammoth task.

But you've got to get to it. Right. You've got to get to it. So, "this is 'when the rubber meets the road', boys." You might say that to your team. "This is when the rubber meets the road." This is when we get started. We get down to it. Let's complete this job. Let's knock it out of the park. Let's hit it for six. Let's do really well. "This is when the rubber meets the road."

Example number three: You're a particle physicist trying to discover the next unknown particle in physics at the Hadron Collider. Right? So, there are electrons, there's protons, neutrons, there's quarks, and there's probably more out there yet to be discovered. And you want to become famous and discover something yourself. So, maybe it's even trying to design an experiment to discover what dark matter or dark energy is.

You know, any of these sorts of interesting things in physics that still aren't quite pinned down. We still really don't know what's going on. So, you come up with this awesome experiment and you've gone over to the Large Hadron Collider to set everything up and collect massive amounts of data from your experiment.

As you're there with everything ready to go and you're about to click the button and start the experiment, you might say, "here's hoping it works. Fingers crossed. This is 'where the rubber meets the road'. When I hit this button, that is 'when the rubber meets the road'. This is where the theory or the idea gets tested. This is where the process begins. This is 'where the rubber meets the road'."

So, hopefully now, guys, you understand the expression "where or when the rubber meets the road". This is where or when the action really begins. You begin the job, you get serious. It refers to the moment when theory becomes reality. So, "this is where the rubber meets the road. This is when the rubber meets the road."

So, as always, guys, let's get into a little pronunciation exercise. This is where you can work on your Australian pronunciation, your Aussie accent. Focus on how I pronounce the different vowels and consonant sounds. Focus on the stress, the rhythm, connected speech, everything like that. So, I'm going to read out the phrase "where the rubber meets the road" word by word, we'll make it a little phrase pyramid. Right?

We'll, slowly build up to the full sentence and then we'll go through the phrase. "I reckon it's where the rubber meets the road. You reckon it's where the rubber meets the road." We'll conjugate through. Okay, so are you ready? Let's go.

"Where. Where the. Where the rubber. Where the rubber meets. Where the rubber meets the. Where the rubber meets the road. Where the rubber meets the road. Where the rubber meets the road. Where the rubber meets the road. Where the rubber meets the road.

I reckon it's where the rubber meets the road. You reckon it's where the rubber meets the road? He reckons it's where the rubber meets the road. She reckons it's where the rubber meets the road. We reckon it's where the rubber meets the road. They reckon it's where the rubber meets the road. It reckons it's where the rubber meets the road."

Great job, guys. Great job. So, let's talk about stress in the phrase "where the rubber meets the road". Which words do you hear being stressed? Every single word except for "the", which is said twice, right. Both the times that "the" is said it becomes "thə" with the schwa vowel sound. "Where thə rubber meets thə road. Where thə rubber meets thə road"... (Mimics Rhythm) ..."Where thə rubber meets thə road." Good job.

And then with the phrases that we were going through, "I reckon it's where-, you reckon it's where-, he reckons it's where-". Pretty much the only thing here connected speech-wise that I wanted to talk about was how "reckon or reckons" links to "it's". So, you'll hear "I recko' nit's, I recko' nit's, you recko' nit's, we recko' nit's, they recko' nit's".

And then with "he, she and it" we conjugate "reckon as reckons" so it links to the /ɪ/ in "it's" after the /s/ sound. "He reckon' sit's". Actually, it's a /z/ sound. "He reckons, he reckons", yeah, it's a /z/ sound. "He reckon' /z/it's, she reckon' /z/it's, it reckon' /z/it's". Interesting.

All right, so now let's finish up with the little clip that we do at the end here, guys, where I show you a clip out of a film or a TV show from Australia so that you can work on your listening comprehension. This clip comes from a B-grade Aussie horror film about crocodiles called Rogue. I actually kind of enjoyed this film, to be honest. I like crocodiles and I like people getting attacked by crocodiles. In fiction. In fiction, right.

In stories. If you like crocs, the Aussie Outback and people getting hurt by animals, then this is probably the film for you. So, the rules of the game, guys, I'm going to play a clip for you twice. Your goal is to listen and then write down what you hear being said. It's a great way to train your listening comprehension.

Remember, you'll always be able to check your answer if you download today's free worksheet, which you can get on the website for this, the web page for this episode. Okay, so just search the episode on AussieEnglish.com.au, or if you've got the premium podcast membership or Academy membership, you'll be able to look at the transcript for this episode and see the answer as I'm saying it.

Okay, so are you ready to go? Here's the first playthrough. "Okay, so one of the rules of my tour is that you have only one chance to complain about the heat and the flies." All right. Good job, guys. Good job. How did you go? Did you get all of it? Time for the second playthrough. "Okay, so one of the rules of my tour is that you have only one chance to complain about the heat and the flies."

All right. Well, that's it for me today, guys. Thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget, if you want the transcripts for all of these episodes, check that out at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. Just search for the premium podcast membership. You can get my courses on the website, check out the academy, that'll be open in another month or two.

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And if you have any critical feedback, if you have any suggestions for how I can improve things, I'm always open to hearing those too. So, send me a message, send me an email and I will take that info on board. Thanks so much for joining me, guys. It's always a pleasure and I'll chat to you soon. Tooroo!