Transcript of AE 1060 - Expression: As Thick As Thieves

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. What's going on? I'll just open my drink here. Just a little can of soft drink there to wet my whistle, wet my whistle. Hold on, let me have a sip. So, that may be something you guys notice, we don't say things like Americans, they seem to have all these weird names for what we call soft drinks, right, or fizzy drinks, right. The carbonated beverages.

They have like soda pop, pop sodies, it's quite weird. But yeah, in Australia, you're going to hear soft drink, soft drink. I don't know why we call it soft, right? It's a liquid after all, it's not really soft or hard. It's just- Maybe it's soft because it's not alcoholic. Maybe, maybe that's why. I don't know.

Anyway, guys, welcome to this episode of Aussie English. This is the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English, as well as get a fair dinkum dose, an authentic true dose of Australian culture, history, news, current affairs, all that jazz, everything like that. So, guys, I hope you've been enjoying these episodes.

I'm thinking about changing it up soon. I mean, to sort of give you a little bit of insight into what's going on inside my mind, at least as best I can. So, I created with these episodes, I've been creating these really elaborate videos, right, where you can listen, you can watch at the same time, you can see the graphics come up on screen defining the different words and expressions that come up.

You can see images, videos, everything like that helping you learn. But the interesting thing is, I went and had a look at the stats the other day. So, this is a video- These videos are generally for members only, right. Sometimes I release free ones to give you a sample, I put them on YouTube.

But all of the member ones I went and had a look at the stats of people, you know, and how much they were consuming them, how much they were watching them, and they were getting bugger all views. So, I think I'm going to drop these, the video version of these episodes and just have to adapt. But yeah, it's just one of those things, I guess.

You got to try and keep your finger on the pulse, right, keep your finger on the pulse, be aware of what's going on and don't be afraid to change or adapt. And I think what I'm going to do is instead of just giving up on these videos and just, you know, letting them disappear into the expansive premium podcast membership.

I think I'm going to repackage them and turn them into a 30-day intensive course where I'll add a bunch of other content to them so that you can study an expression episode every single day for 30 days, develop some great habits, go through the vocab, do some other lessons, pronunciation, all that sort of stuff.

So, stay tuned for that. But yeah, I'm thinking about turning them into a 30-day course. So, I guess I'm sharing that story to just give you an idea of what's coming, but also tell you, you know, if things fail at times, try and see how you can adapt. How can you pivot. How can you change. How can you learn from what you've done. How can you gain from what you've done and make the best of it. Make the best of it.

Anyway, that's enough. Let's get into today's Q&A. Alright, so today's question comes from Win from Myanmar. Let's have a look.

G'day, Peter. I am Win, I'm originally from Yangon, Myanmar. Currently, I'm living in Sydney, Australia. For this time, I would like to know about the Australian traditional food. Let me know about this because wherever I go, I can get the fish and chips and steaks. That's all, though, so I just want to try the new things, new delicious food. So, if you have any chance, please let me know. Thank you, Peter.

Awesome work. So, thank you so much for your question, Win. I really appreciate it. Remember, guys, if you would like to ask me a question so that I can have it on the podcast here, showcase your amazing English skills and be able to actually answer it, go to AussieEnglish.com.au/AskPete. So, anyway, let's get into the answer today. So, Win was curious about traditional Australian foods.

What should he try, now that he's in Australia? This is always a difficult one to answer when I get asked about traditional foods because Australia kind of has the odd traditional dish or dessert or meal, but it has a lot of influences from all over the place. And so, we don't have this long-standing history of really specific foods unless you were to say talk about indigenous food.

Anyway, what I'm imagining you're talking about is, you know, modern Australian food. So, there are heaps of things that you can try, desserts like pavlova and lamingtons. They're really traditional. Having an Aussie barbie, an Aussie barbecue with things like snags, that's sausages, lamb chops, steaks, chicken kebabs, those are all great things. And obviously you can chuck fish on there too.

A really good meal is the roast, a meat and three veg, so usually a roast chicken, turkey, lamb hock or leg of ham and then three veggies, often potato, pumpkin, carrots, broccoli, you know, a mix of those things. The chicken parmigiana or the chicken parmi or parma is a really good meal that you can get from a lot of pubs.

Burgers, burgers with the lot from takeaway stores, fish and chip places, they're great. And then eating a lot of fish like barramundi, whiting, flake, trevally, mullet and flake. Yeah, flake is really good if you go to fish and chip shops. And then to be honest takeaway foods, like the Thai food we have, Indian, Chinese, Italian food, the fish and chips we have.

Whilst it's not unique to Australia, obviously you can get Thai food in Thailand. Australian restaurants have their own kind of take on these things and it's worth trying. So, yeah, hopefully that answers your question, Win. And I look forward to hearing back from you in the future about what foods you went out and tried.

And remember, guys, if you want to ask your own question for me to be able to showcase on the podcast and answer, go to www.AussieEnglish.com.au/AskPete. All right, so great question. That was fun, that was fun. That's the first one I've gotten to do, so I'm looking forward to getting more in the future. So, let's get into this week's news story. So, this weekly news story didn't actually happen in Australia.

It happened in Spain, but it was incredible, and it made me think of today's expression, so I thought I'd include this story. An insane theft has taken place this week on Wednesday morning. Two thieves stole 45 bottles of wine from an upscale hotel and restaurant in southwestern Spain.

You might be thinking, so what? 45 bottles of wine, who cares? Which, you know, would be fair if you were to say that, but for the fact that these bottles of wine are actually from the 19th century, at least many of them dated back to the 1800s. One bottle of wine that was stolen was a 215-year-old Chateau d'Yquem, first bottled in 1806 and valued at more than half a million US dollars.

So, that's about $700,000 Australian. The suspects, who included a man and woman, spoke English and portrayed themselves as refined guests. After entering the hotel, they spoke with the front desk clerk about being served some food, and he entered the kitchen, leaving the security cameras unattended. That's when the male thief sprung into action and slipped into the cellar and stole the exy wine bottles.

The thieves are suspected of having been hired by a private wine collector as they only stole the most expensive bottles, which were so rare they couldn't be sold on open market without being easily recognised. Needless to say, these two must have looked as thick as thieves when they were pulling this robbery off, or they'd have been spotted a mile away.

All right, so loads of expressions in there for you guys to look up and learn. All right, guys, time to slap the bird and get into today's joke. And I should add, guys, I'm wearing the "Slap the Bird" t-shirt.

So, if you guys want to grab yourself a slap the bird t-shirt, be sure to go over to AussieEnglish.com.au/shirt, S-H-I-R-T. Here's the joke. What did the grape say when the elephant stood on it? What did the grape say when the elephant stood on it? Nothing. It just let out a little whine. So, the joke here is obviously on the words whine and wine. So a whine is a long, high pitched, complaining cry, and it can be a verb as well, right.

You can whine. So, this is W-H-I-N-E. To whine or a whine. Your dog might whine if you stepped on his tail. Although he might yelp or bark as well. And then we obviously have wine, the drink, which is made from fermenting grapes. So, you've got whine and wine. If I don't get my wine, I have a bit of a whine. All right. So, let's get into today's expression, which is "as thick as thieves". We'll break down the words first.

We'll go through the definition of the expression. We'll go through some examples of how I use it, and then we'll go through a pronunciation exercise and a little clip at the end. Are you ready? All right. So, "as", "as thick as thieves". "As". "As" is used in comparisons to refer to the extent or degree of something, right. "I'm as fast as him. You're as tall as your father." These things are compared, and they are equal in these cases.

"Thick". "Thick" has quite a few different meanings, right. So, with opposite sides or surfaces that are far away, this is thin. This is "thick". But you can also use this in sort of Australian slang to mean that someone's a bit stupid or dumb. Right. Yeah. He's as "thick" as a plank. There's another good example of using "as" as a comparative. As "thick" as a plank of wood.

So, he's very thick. He's very dumb. Here it's conspiratorial, so the first meaning closely allied with in the 18th century. Here "thick" means conspiratorial, first meaning closely allied with in the 18th century. So, I think you're probably understanding a little bit about where the expression "as thick as thieves" comes from at this point. And "thieves", a thief, two or more thieves.

These are people who steal another person's property, especially by stealth or without using force or threat of violence. A thief, two "thieves". So, "as thick as thieves", if you look "as thick as thieves", it's usually two or more people, right. "They look as thick as thieves. They were as thick as thieves." This is having a close, intimate friendship or alliance with another person.

Being very close friends, sharing confidences. So, that's the idea of "thick" meaning conspiratorial, like you're conspiring together to do something closely allied with one another. So, back in the 1800s, many other expressions used "as thick as" and then, you know, something. "As thick as inkle weavers."

These were people who worked together at a loom weaving. "As thick as peas in a shell. As thick as three in a bed." And if we look at phrases.org.uk this is what they had to say about the expression. The association of thieves with conspiratorial and secretive language was well established in England in the 18th century.

Many of those on the fringes of society, for example, poachers, homosexuals, street hawkers and thieves used secret words and phrases to converse furtively amongst themselves. Back slang was one example of this, the best-known survival of back slang being yob for boy. Several lexicographers had published dictionaries used by those- This gets a bit boring.

But yeah, the basic idea is that this expression dates back long ago to the 1800s, where thieves were very conspiratorial, they had their own language. And this expression, "as thick as thieves", came to mean that you had a very close bond with another person. All right, so let's go through some examples. Example number one.

So, when I go to my sister's house, we hang out with her quite often and she's got two young children, we've got two young children. My eldest son- My eldest son? My only son, who is the eldest, Noah loves playing with their eldest, Izzy. And so, the two of them are always playing, they're always hanging out, they're always up to no good. Every time we hang out together as families, it's like those two are "as thick as thieves", right.

It's like they're very closely bonded. They love hanging out. They love talking to one another, and they're always up to no good. They're "as thick as thieves". Another example might be say you get a new job and you get to meet everyone on the first day that you hang out, you know, you go there, you start working away.

And after a while, after days, after weeks, you develop a very close relationship with another worker there, just as friends. But you guys are always hanging out together. You're always working alongside one another. You're always chatting to each other. You are "as thick as thieves".

The last example might be, imagine you're a police officer and, you know, you're doing the rounds, driving your car around and you- You know, it's midnight, you're seeing who's on the street. Are there any sort of baddies around? And you end up going down one street and seeing two kids hanging out together, they've got hoodies up, they look a little dodgy, a little sketchy.

You might pull over and be like, oi, you two. You look "as thick as thieves". What are you up to? What's going on? You know, it's a bit late to be out hanging around. Shouldn't you be at home? You're like 12 years old, what are you doing? You're "as thick as thieves".

So, there you go, guys. Hopefully now you understand the expression "as thick as thieves". This is having a close relationship, an intimate friendship or alliance with another person.

So, now let's go through a little listen and repeat exercise where you can work on your pronunciation. Remember, just listen and repeat after me. Find somewhere quiet, away from other people so you can speak out loud without worrying about yourself, without getting too self-conscious and work on your pronunciation. Let's do it.

"As. As thick. As thick as. As thick as thieves. As thick as thieves. As thick as thieves. As thick as thieves. As thick as thieves. I said they were as thick as thieves. You said they were as thick as thieves. He said they were as thick as thieves. She said they were as thick as thieves. We said they were as thick as thieves. They said they were as thick as thieves. It said they were as thick as thieves."

Good job, guys. Good job. Now there's some interesting stuff going on there in terms of connected speech. "I said they were as thick as thieves". Firstly, you'll notice that the words "were" and "as" are linked together with an R sound. So, usually if I say the word "were", I don't pronounce the R. This is because English, Australian English is non-rhotic, similar to British English.

But American English they always say the R. So, why am I saying they R? I'm pronouncing the R in the word "were" because the following word starts with a vowel sound. So, we do pronounce the R every single time in Australian English when there's a vowel sound after it.

So, that doesn't matter if it's in the next word or if it's in the same word, we pronounce the R to link the two vowels. /ɜː/, /æ/. Were. As. Were as. Were as. Were as thick as thieves. The last thing you're going to notice here is that the words "as" get reduced to just "as". So, they're not emphasised in these sentences, we're emphasising the verbs, we're emphasising "thick" and the nouns "thieves".

So, the important words, verbs, adjectives, nouns, those are the things that rise to the top and you can hear clearly. And the other words, the sort of helping words like "as" or "were" they get reduced down. So, have another listen to me say a few of these lines. "I said they were as thick as thieves." "As" almost disappears, right, you can barely hear it, you just hear the "-s" sort of sound.

"You said they were as thick as thieves. As thick as thieves." Interesting. Huh? All right, now it's time to finish up, guys. So, today's clip comes from an Australian movie 'West of Sunshine'. I really recommend that you go and check this out if you're looking for more Aussie films to watch.

The 'West of Sunshine' exert is, a father has less than one day left to come good on a debt to a dangerous loan shark, while at the same time taking care of his young son. Remember, guys, this is a listening comprehension test. Try and listen and write down what you hear.

So, get a bit of paper, you know, pull out a notepad somewhere and a pen, and try and write down the sentence that you hear. I'll play it for you twice, once and then I'll give you a break, then you can listen again. Remember, you can rewind, you can pause, you can do whatever you need, but try not to look at the words.

So, if you want to, you can find them in the worksheet or you can obviously read the transcript if you are a premium podcast member, do that after though. Test your listening. So, here we go, first time.

Work it out! Otherwise, I get a driver in here to replace you ASAP.

All right. How'd you go? Did you get it? Did you get all of it yet? Time for the second time. Let's go.

Work it out! Otherwise, I get a driver in here to replace you ASAP.

All right. Great job, guys. Thank you for joining me. Don't forget if you want to leave me a question, go to AussieEnglish.com.au/AskPete. If you would like to grab one of these t-shirts, "Slap the bird" on it. It's got this little cute kookaburra getting slapped by a hand. Go to AussieEnglish.com.au/shirt.

And if you would like the Premium podcast or any of my other memberships or courses, obviously go to the website and you will find the details there. Thank you so much for joining me, guys, and I'll see you next time.