Transcript of AE 1119 - 5 Expressions To Sound Fluent in English - Part 2

Have you ever gone off like a frog in a sock? Like a what in a what? A frog in a sock. Why would you put a frog in a sock? Who would do that? No one dopey, it's just an expression. Well, it's confusing as- All right, I'll make a video explaining it.

G'day, guys, I am Pete and if it's your first time here, I am the host of Aussie English, where I've been helping people level up their English for over half a decade. If your goal is to take your English to the next level, this is the channel and podcast for you. But before we start, guys, don't forget to grab today's worksheet if you want to follow along, learn all the expressions, take notes and read the example sentences.

You'll also get all of the future worksheets for other episodes and lessons sent to your email inbox. And a reminder, every single one of today's expression is covered in depth on the Aussie English podcast. The links will all be in the description. So, are you ready to rock? Let's go. Expression number one, "to fall victim to something. To fall victim to something".

Figuratively this is to fail or suffer because of something, but literally it would be to be attacked or injured or killed by someone. So, for example, "the man fell victim to an online scam." So, he suffered from that scam. "He fell victim to the online scam."

Expression number two, "to egg someone on. To egg someone on". This is a great little expression and phrasal verb that you probably might find difficult to understand the meaning of from the literal words in it. You're not throwing eggs at anyone; you're not cooking them eggs. When you "egg someone on", you're encouraging them to do something risky or foolish.

So, for example, "the opponent egged on the MMA fighter." So, imagine there are two men fighting MMA, and the other one is almost teasing the person, encouraging them to do something stupid, risky or foolish. "They are egging the other person on." Expression number three, "to go off like a frog in a sock". This is a great Aussie expression, "to go off like a frog in a sock".

So, depending on context, this expression is used to describe erratic behaviour or something that was really good, really wild, really exciting. So, for example, "the party I went to on Friday went off like a frog in a sock." Or you could say, "when I went to the party on Friday, I went off like a frog in a sock." So, I guess the idea here is you've put a frog in a sock, literally.

The frog is obviously not going to be too happy about that and he's probably jumping like crazy, right. But figuratively, it's to go wild, to be erratic, to have a lot of fun, to be excited. All right, guys, before we continue, can I ask you a teensy-weensy little favour? Could you give a little boop to the like button?

It'll send those good vibes to the algorithm at YouTube and hopefully end up showing this video to other English learners just like you. Thanks. Four, "sink or swim. Sink or swim". So, this is used to refer to a situation where someone either must succeed by their own effort or fail, right. So, if you were to think about it, you're swimming. You're either going to keep swimming, succeed, or you're going to sink and fail.

So, for example, "in this job, it's sink or swim." So, in this job, you really have to try hard to succeed or you're going to fail. "It's sink or swim." The last expression, guy's, number five, well done making it all the way through. This one is, "any port in a storm. Any port in a storm". This is used to say that someone or something will use anything it can for help or comfort when in a difficult situation.

So, it's like being in a difficult situation, any solution will suffice. Anything that will help me overcome this situation is good enough. "Any port in a storm." So, for example, "why would you go out with a guy like that? Well, you know what they say. Any port in a storm." So, the idea there being that you're dating someone, anyone because you just don't want to be single. So, anyone will do. "Any port in a storm."

All right, so before we continue with the little exercise here at the end of the video, I've got a challenge for you. Pause the video. I'll show the expressions that I just taught you on screen, and I want you to create your own example sentence with one of these expressions. Alright, are you ready? See you in a sec.

All right, welcome back, so in the last episode, we focussed heavily on stress and linking when we went through example sentences of each of these expressions. In today's exercise I'm going to test your ability to turn statements into questions using inversion. Okay, so for example, saying "you are going home", we would turn that sentence into, "are you going home?" But we will use sentences that include the expressions from today's episode.

Three pro tips. Number one, remember that the auxiliary verbs "do and did" need to be inserted when forming questions in the simple present and simple past tenses. Number two, generally, statements are going to end with descending intonation, the intonation is going to go down. And number three, yes/no questions, even with inversion, are going to have an intonation that goes up at the end of the sentence.

"Are you going home?" As opposed to, "you're going home." All right, so I'm going to say the statement and then afterwards I'll say the inverted question. And I'm going to give you time to invert the statement and create a question, and then you'll see the answer. Okay? Hopefully, that makes sense. Let's go.

"They'll fall victim to the crime." And say these with me, practise your pronunciation. "They'll fall victim to the crime." All right, so how would you invert this? You ready? Three, two, one. "Will they fall victim to the crime?" Pay attention to the intonation at the end there. "Will they fall victim to the crime?"

Number two, "he was egging the students on all day. He was egging the students on all day." Notice the intonation descending at the end. "He was egging the students on all day." Now, let's invert it. "Was he egging the students on all day? Was he egging the students on all day?" Rising intonation at the end there. "Was he egging the students on all day?"

Number three, "the party went off like a frog in a sock. The party went off like a frog in a sock." Descending intonation. This statements in the simple past, "went off like a frog in a sock." So, what do we do? Let's invert it. "Did the party go off like a frog in a sock? Did the party go off like a frog in a sock?" So, we use the auxiliary verb "did", and we also have that rising intonation at the end.

"Did the party go off like a frog in a sock?" Number four, "I thought it was sink or swim. I thought it was sink or swim." And notice that intonation there, it's actually within the word "swim", you start high and go low. "Swim, swim". "I thought it was sink or swim." Let's invert it. "Did I think it was sink or swim? Did I think it was sink or swim?" Again, we're using the auxiliary verb "did", because it's in the past simple.

And what happens with the word "swim" at the end of the sentence that's now a question? "Swim, swim. Did I think it was sink or swim?" So, practise that, that intonation really hits on both examples, statements and questions. It's that last word. Maybe a few words at the end of sentences, but quite often you're going to hear it on the last word. "Did I think it was sink or swim?"

All right, and the last one, guys. Number five, "she says any port in a storm. She says any port in a storm." "Storm". Descending intonation. Now let's turn it into the inverted question. "Does she say any port in a storm? Does she say any port in a storm?" So, what happens? Simple present tense this time for the statement, so we need "does" when we form that inverted question.

"Does she say any port in a storm? And again, on the last word "storm". "Storm, storm". Rising intonation. All right, that's it for today, guys. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Don't forget to go and check out all of the episodes for each of these expressions on the Aussie English podcast. You can download my app for free in the Android or Apple Store, just search "Aussie English podcast".

You can listen anywhere, any time. Use your dead time when you're at the gym, when you're on the toilet, when you're cleaning the house, whatever you want. And in the meantime, if you want to keep learning with me, check out this video and I'll see you next time. Peace!