Transcript of AE 1105 - Expression: Go Off Like A Frog In A Sock

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.

Guys, how's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. I've just tried to open a can of Pepsi and realised that I cut my nails today and I cut them a little bit too short. And I don't know if women listening to this will ever know this plight that men who cut their nails right back to the... Nub? I don't know what you would call it. Right back to the cuticle sort of face.

It becomes almost like a torture when you try and open a can of something when you've cut your nails all the way back to the, yeah, to the cuticle because you- To get purchase on that little flap thing, the metal thing that opens the can you kind of have to pull back, you push your nail over the top and it pushes the skin back.

And it's almost like that bamboo torture that, you know, was used against people in certain wars in the past, you know, to get them to tell you certain things they probably didn't want to tell you. But yeah, it's brutal. Anyway, sort of a side note.

Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, guys. I'm your host, Pete. Before we get into it, as always, guys, remember if you are learning English and you want to study effectively and you would like the entire transcript to this episode, as well as over a thousand other episodes that have been on the podcast, this allows you to download the PDF.

You can print it out, you can highlight words, look up vocab, take notes, write the notes on the paper. It's a very effective way of learning. I actually like doing this with e-books and other podcasts that I listen to. Everything like that. You can get every single transcript to all of the episodes that have been transcribed at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

So, go sign up there. And besides that, I'm kind of just enjoying the day. It's summer at the moment, it's nice and toasty. It hasn't been too hot this summer, to be honest. It- We haven't gotten past- I don't think we've had a single 40 degree day this summer, which has been interesting.

There have been a few years where we've had, you know, a dozen or so, right. There was a heatwave that we had back in probably 2008, maybe around that period where it was like 8 days in a row over 40. And it was brutal. Absolutely brutal.

Anyway, let's get into today's question, and this one comes from Jodie from China.

Hello, Pete. I'm Jodie. I'm from China. And could you please tell me that what's the difference between "here you go" and "there you go"? Because I quite often to hear, but most of the time I feel confused. What are they? Is there a difference?

Okay. So, Jodi was asking about the phrases "here you go versus there you go", which is a great question. "Here you go versus there you go". There's no real difference in the meaning. Right, it's sort of, "this is what you wanted, here you go." Or that is what you wanted; there you go." And we use "here" and "there", "here" being closer to you, "there" being far from you, right?

Like, we use pronouns like, "this" meaning "this unspecified thing close to me". And then we use "that" as "that unspecified thing far from me". So, for example, "that'll be $5." And if you're the person handing over the $5 to pay for something, you could say, "here you go." As in, "here's the money." Or you could say, "there you go." As in, "there's the money." You know, it's sort of six of one, half a dozen of the other.

You know, to use a really good expression. So, yeah, you use "here" if you want to emphasise the fact that the thing is close to you. You use "there" if you want to emphasise the fact that it is away from you. So, yeah, there you go.

The other interesting thing, you may have just noticed me use one of these expressions, is that we can use "there you go" as well as "there you are". And I should mention, before we get into that, "here you are" and "there you are" are exactly the same as "here you go" and "there you go".

But we can use "there you go" and "there you are" as an expression to show confirmation, triumph or resignation, right. So, sort of accepting something. So, this is really interesting. Let's give you a few examples. So, maybe someone says, "sometimes it's really embarrassing to make errors in English, but there you go."

Right, that's kind of showing resignation, you know, that's life, so it's embarrassing to make errors in English, but you know, that's life. "There you go". Another one, triumph as an example. Dad, I did what you said, and I won the race at school. "There you go, mate." Well done. So, that's kind of like, you did what I said, you triumphed, I'm really happy. "There you go."

And lastly, confirmation, I think the answer is actually B and not C. "Ah, there you go. There you go." It's sort of like, ah, I'm confirming what you said. You're right, you are correct.

So, yeah, these are really cool little phrases that you can do, or that you can say, rather than, you can do. You can say in order to sound much more natural when interacting with people. "There you go" is one that I find myself saying all the time, and again it's to express confirmation, triumph or resignation. There you go.

All right, slap the bird, guys, and let's get into today's joke. All right, so today's joke is going to take the piss out of Tasmanians, but not just that, it takes the piss out of non-Tasmanians. You're about to see how it kind of swings both ways. Okay, let me just tell you the joke. Maybe that'd be the best thing, Pete, and then explain it afterwards. All right, so here's the joke.

Why did Tasmanians evolve to grow two heads? Why did Tasmanians evolve to grow two heads? So, that they could have an intelligent conversation when they visit the mainland. So, I wanted to include this because there's kind of quite a bit of cultural-* What would you say? *Meaning behind this joke.

So, Tasmanians, because they live on a small island compared to the rest of Australia, the mainland of Australia, often get poked fun at as being inbred. Right, that they're a, you know, smaller population of them there, they all marry each other's brothers and sisters and uncles and aunties, and therefore, you know, are all really, really inbred, all very related to one another.

And as a result, you end up with mutants who have two heads, right? So, why do Tasmanians evolve to grow two heads? They'd been inbreeding, right? They've been having children with their relatives. So, we're making fun of Tasmanians in the first line there, but then the subversion in the answer is that it's flipped on its head to make fun of everyone else in Australia on the mainland.

Suggesting that for Tasmanians to come to the mainland and find someone to have a conversation with, that's intelligent, they have to have grown a second head so that they can talk to themselves because everyone on the mainland is a moron. Sorry, it's a clever little joke. I like this one. Why did Tasmanians evolve to grow two heads? So, that they could have an intelligent conversation when they visit the mainland.

All right, so let's get into today's expression, which is "to go off like a frog in a sock. To go off like a frog in a sock." This is a very colourful Australian expression. It's a beautiful one. I don't know if you'll hear this overseas and other English-speaking parts of the world, although I think they would understand the meaning if they heard it. Okay?

Just because it's kind of got that "go off" phrasal verb, at the start and then a comparison "like a frog in a sock". Anyway, we'll get into that in a bit. Let's go through the words in the expression and define those. So, "to go. To go." This is to move from one place to another, to travel. "I go to school. She goes to work. We go home."

But we can use "go" with many different prepositions to create phrasal verbs, and that's the case in this expression where we use "off" with "go", "to go off". And this has many different meanings, right. You could have a gun or a bomb that "goes off", and that just means for it to explode or fire, right. You fire a gun, it "goes off".

The bomb explodes, it "goes off". You could use "go off" to mean to begin to decompose and become inedible, right. If you leave an apple in the fridge for too long, it "goes off". It rots. It perishes, you know, it's no longer edible. We could also use it to mean to begin to dislike something. So, you know, my pregnant wife or my wife when she was pregnant "went off" broccoli.

She was like, ew, not going to eat this. You could also use it to mean, get angry. You know, my dad's "gone off". He's "going off" at me. So, this is, I guess, associated with exploding, right. "The guns gone off. My dad's gone off". But here it means to go wild or for something to be very exciting.

So, usually something like an event, a party, the party is "going off". We may also use this when, say, going to the beach and looking at the surf as a surfer or someone who body boards, you might say, man, the surf is "going off" today, right. It's wild, it's exciting. It's "going off".

"Like" something. So, we use "like", the word "like" to compare something to something else that is similar, right. It has the same characteristics or qualities. It's similar to something else, it is "like" something else. She's "like" me because we both like chocolate. Oh, there you go. Confirmation.

And lastly, "a sock. A sock"- In fact. No, not lastly. "A frog". We've got to do "frog" first. "A frog" is an amphibian, right. We have many different "frogs" in Australia, and they are- They're known for hopping around, they don't have tails, they lay eggs in the water. "Frogs", right. They're very stereotypical food is flies. "Frogs" eat flies.

Lastly, "a sock" is a garment that you put over the foot or lower part of the leg before you put it, say, in a shoe. And it's usually made from wool, cotton or nylon. So, what do you wear and then put your shoes on? You wear "a sock", you put the "sock" on first.

I mean, some people may wear shoes without "socks", but that's a bit weird. That never sat well with me. As a younger boy trying to put my shoes on with no "socks" it was always a bit uncomfortable and weird.

So, guys, we went over the phrasal verb, "go off". So, if you are interested in learning phrasal verbs, don't forget to check out my effortless phrasal verb course. You can just get this at AussieEnglish.com.au/phrasalverbs.

It's an easy-to-follow step by step course that teaches you concepts behind how Phrasal verbs are formed. So, forget about learning long lists of phrasal verbs, and trying to memorise all of them individually. This course specifically teaches you how when you take prepositions like, "away, up, in, at, down" and add them to a verb, they change the meaning of the verb.

So, this allows you to learn, say, 16 of these prepositions and how they're used, and then you can just spontaneously create verbs whilst speaking so you don't have to worry about memorising any massive lists. Okay? So, if you want to go check that out, go to AussieEnglish.com.au/phrasalverbs.

All right, so I wonder if you guys understand already what the expression "to go off like a frog in a sock" means, right. It's effectively the same as just "to go off". So, "to go off like a frog in a sock", depending on the context, is either used to describe erratic behaviour of someone or something that is really good, something that is amazing, exciting, usually an event.

So, after getting a high tackle on the field, "he went off like a frog in a sock". That would be the idea of being erratic. The party the other night "it went off like a frog in a sock". It was an amazing party. But we'll go through some more in-depth examples shortly.

I guess I was trying to look into the origin of where this would come from, and I don't think there is anything written down. You know, there was nothing that I could find. The idea, I guess, must have come from someone who just compared putting a frog in a sock to something really exciting.

I guess the idea being that if you put a frog inside of a sock, it's going to be pretty unhappy and it's going to hop like crazy to try and get out, right, to try and escape. It's not going to be happy whatsoever. So, I guess that's an exciting event to watch. I don't know. Would you buy tickets to a show where they're like, yeah, tonight we're going to put a frog in a sock and see what happens.

Anyway, let's go through some in-depth examples of how you can use this expression. So, example number one, you go to a party with friends one night, it's at a mate's house after his parents or family have gone away. Because you shared the party details on Facebook, every man and his dog found out about the party, got the invitation and decided to rock up.

Right, and "rock up" is another phrasal verb, that's very common in Australia, and it means to arrive at a location. "You rock up". So, heaps of people rock up to this party, they show up, even some famous people, maybe actors like Paul Hogan and Hugh Jackman, or an actress like Nicole Kidman.

They come out of the woodwork and somehow found out about this party and showed up. A band walks in, music starts playing, it just goes wild. Right. And because everyone's having so much fun and it's so wild, exciting, amazing, awesome, "things are going off like a frog in a sock".

"The party went off like a frog in a sock." It was amazing. Example number two, imagine you take your dog for a walk down the local beach and he's obsessed with the beach. Absolutely loses it when he gets there, you know, runs around like a psycho, kicking up sand everywhere, going and running over to different humans, other dogs, picking up sticks, you know, dragging seaweed around.

Just absolutely losing his nanas, right. Losing- Going bananas, absolutely going ballistic, he's loving life. So, every time you go to the beach, and you take your dog off the leash, "he goes off like a frog in a sock". You know, he's very excited, maybe he sort of shows some erratic behaviour. He just loses it, loves life. He's impossible to get back on the leash until he's calmed down. "He goes off like a frog in a sock."

Example number three, imagine you go to a friend's house on a scorcher of a day, right, one of those 45-degree Celsius days in summer here in Australia that we fortunately haven't had this year yet. And your mates the only person you know, with a backyard swimming pool. So, obviously he's invited heaps of people around, everyone's gone over there, they want to get in the water, they want to cool down.

When you arrive, there's music playing, there's a barbie cooking up food for everyone. Loads of people are already in the pool. There's lots of commotion. People are having a great time. They're laughing, yelling. There's loads and loads of, you know, noise. "The party is going off like a frog in a sock. The pool party went off like a frog in a sock."

So, there you go, guys. Hopefully now you understand the expression "go off like a frog in a sock". Depending on the context, it can either mean erratic behaviour, for someone to go wild, or it can mean an event that was really good. That was awesome. That was really exciting. That went wild. So, as usual, guys, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise.

This is where I'm going to read out a few different phrases, and I want you to focus on things like the pronunciation of the consonants and vowel sounds, stress, intonation, rhythm, that sort of stuff. I mean, you don't have to pay too much attention. If you want, just read these out after me as best you can. Let's go.

"To. To go. To go off. To go off like. To go off like a. To go off like a frog. To go off like a frog in. To go off like a frog in a. To go off like a frog in a sock. To go off like a frog in a sock. To go off like a frog in a sock. To go off like a frog in a sock. To go off like a frog in a sock.

I've gone off like a frog in a sock. You've gone off like a frog in a sock. He's gone off like a frog in a sock. She's gone off like a frog in a sock. We've gone off like a frog in a sock. They've gone off like a frog in a sock. It's gone off like a frog in a sock."

Great work, guys. Now there's some interesting stuff going on here in terms of stress, we can talk about stress today. And I guess this is linked in with rhythm. So, when you say something like the phrase "to go off like a frog in a sock", you're going to notice those kind of hard beats and soft beats, that... (Soft & hard beats) ...Right.

That's the sort of rhythm of English, and we're stressing the important words. I guess if you say the word or the phrase "hard beats", those stronger beats that come forward from the phrase... (Hard beats) ...They're the important words.

So, the words we're stressing are the phrasal verb, "go off or gone off, frog and sock". So, the important words here are the verb and then these nouns, "it's gone off like a frog in a sock"... (Hard beats) ...And it's almost like, 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. "It's gone off like a frog in a sock." And yeah, thinking about it, the phrase verb "to go off, to go off".

It's almost like you stress- I guess you could stress both words equally, or potentially the preposition may get the stress, the stronger stress, the primary stress. "To go off, to go off". Yeah, I have a feeling it may be the preposition that's getting more of the stress here. "It's gone off like a frog in a sock."

So, don't forget, guys, if you're trying to improve your pronunciation in English, reduce your foreign accent, sound more Australian and speak more confidently, be sure to grab my Australian pronunciation course at AussieEnglish.com.au/APC. Inside, you'll learn how to use the IPA, the international phonetic alphabet, so that you can improve your pronunciation without a teacher.

You can do this by yourself, with a dictionary or with the internet. You'll get access to dozens of detailed tutorial video and audio lessons that teach you how to pronounce all the different sounds in English, and you'll also get heaps of exercises to work on in your spare time. So, just go to AussieEnglish.com.au/APC. So, lastly, guys, I've got a little clip here for you, and this clip comes from the classic Aussie movie Crocodile Dundee.

Have you seen this one? If you haven't, it's a classic and it's a must see. It's a must see, it is a film that you must see. So, the rules of the game, I am going to play a clip for you twice and your goal is to listen and write down on a piece of paper...* ...With a pen, with a pencil, with whatever you want, could be a paint brush it's up to you. *What you hear being said.

Okay, so it's a great way to train your listening comprehension. Listen to this multiple times, you know, if you need to rewind or pause or go back, it's absolutely fine. Keep doing it and really hone your ears in, okay?

And remember, you'll be able to check your answer if you download today's worksheet PDF, which is free, or if you have the premium podcast membership and you're accessing the transcript for today's episode. Okay, so are you ready to go? Here's the first playthrough.

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

All right, how did you go? Did you get all of it? Time for the second playthrough. Let's go.

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

Alright, there you go. There you are. That's it for today, guys. Thank you so much for joining me. Don't forget if you want all of these episodes and the transcripts, you want to be able to take notes, highlight everything.

You can sign up for the Premium podcast, just go to AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast and for everything else, check out the website, check out Facebook, Instagram, YouTube. All that jazz. Everything like that. I hope you have an awesome week, and I will see you next time. Bye.