Transcript of AE 1034 - Learn English With Movies: Black Water: Abyss

Okay, who likes crocs? No, not those ones. The man-eating ones. Crocodiles. Today, I'm going to be giving you an English lesson based on the film Black Water Abyss that was filmed in 2020. So, this is a croc film. This is a sort of horror thriller film made in Australia, full of Australian isms, Australian expressions, slang terms, accents, obviously.

So, I sat down, chopped up all of the different phrases in this film and then analysed them to look at expressions, connected speech, spoken English and slang. So, we're going to divide today's lesson up into a list of expressions used, into some connected speech points, spoken English points, some Aussie slang.

And then there's a little listening comprehension quiz at the end where I play you a phrase and we'll see if you understand it. Let's get into it. So, let's first start with the summary of this film. So, we've got a bunch of young, attractive people as always in these films, and they've decided to go to Cairns to check out this cave that a mate of one of the main characters has found because they like caving, they like exploring caves.

This makes it a cave worth exploring. Oh man, we are in business.

So, they obviously get more than they bargained for. Right. That was an expression that we recently did on the podcast. And they go into the cave, and they find out that they are not alone.

Hey, I think there's something in the water.

At the same time, there is a storm that comes through, the cave fills up with water, and so you have a combination of these things' crocodiles...

Go!

...Claustrophobic dark spaces...

...Claustrophobic.

...And water. So, it's a good combination for a bit of a scary movie. I'm not going to give you any spoilers. Go check the film out. Let's get into today's episode. Let's start with expressions. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to play a clip, I'll tell you the expression and then I'll play it again so you can hear it twice.

I cannot believe I let Eric talk me into this.

To talk someone into something. This is to convince someone to do something.

I cannot believe I let Eric talk me into this.

To not like the look of something.

I don't like the look of this.

This is to not find something appealing. It can be used in both the positive, oh, I like the look of that or the negative, I don't like the look of that.

I don't like the look of this.

To miss something.

Did you miss something? There's a massive (beep) crocodile in this water. Yeah.

This is to not notice something or to forget something.

Did you miss something? There's a massive (beep) crocodile in this water. Yeah.

To stumble across something.

I was searching through the forest, and I stumbled across this shaft.

And this is to find something or someone by chance.

I was searching through the forest, and I stumbled across this shaft.

To let someone have all the glory.

You think I'm letting you have all the glory?

The idea here is that you are letting someone win or succeed at something, and then they'll get all the praise for having achieved that thing. So, if you escape a cave where there's crocs eating you and you get help, you've gotten all the glory, right. If you've done that alone, you've gotten all the glory.

You think I'm letting you have all the glory?

To give someone a sec.

Just give me a sec.

This is short for give someone a second, right, which we use to mean to wait a moment. Give me a sec. Just wait. Hold on. Hold on a min. Hold on a minute. Give me a sec. Give me a minute.

Just give me a sec.

To freak out.

No, Eric would freak out.

If someone freaks out, they get upset, they get scared, they get angry, or maybe even they get confused. They freak out.

No, Eric would freak out.

As ready as I'll ever be.

Ready? Ready as I'll ever be.

This is a good one, and it can be shortened to ready as I'll ever be. And obviously, you can change the pronoun there. It doesn't have to be I. This is something you would say when you think you are as prepared as you will ever be for something. So, if you don't think you're ever going to be more prepared for something like an English exam. It's on in a few minutes and I'm as ready as I'll ever be.

Ready? Ready as I'll ever be.

To be in business.

This makes it a cave worth exploring. Man, we're in business.

This is to be ready to do something. So, if somethings ready to go, if you're ready to do something, you're in business.

This makes it a cave worth exploring. Man, we're in business.

To take your chances.

Well, I'd rather take my chances.

This is to do something, even though that thing may fail, right. You are taking the chance that it may fail. I'll take my chances.

Well, I'd rather take my chances.

All right now, it's time for the next part, connected speech. So, there are two things I want to teach you from this episode about connected speech. The first is how we can track the words "out" and "of".

We got to swim out of here, mate.

So, these are both prepositions, and they often get contracted together from "out of" to just "outɐ". So, have a listen to the following lines and see if you can hear how "out of" is being contracted.

We need to find a way out of here. My mate Cash, he runs tours out at Cairns. Well, did you find a way out of here? We're never going to get out of here, are we?

And the phrase that you're going to hear a lot in this movie is "out of here", in particular "get out of here".

We have to get out of here. We need to get out of here. We're never going to get out of here, are we?

Because they're trying to escape the cave. They want to get out of the cave. We want to get out of here.

We have to get out of here.

So, the second tip here for connected speech is how when words that end with "D" are followed by the word "you" you'll often hear /ʤɐ/, /ʤə/ or /ʤʉː/. So, the /d/ and the /j/ sound, the /d/ and the /j/ turn into a /ʤʉː/, /ʤʉː/ sound. This happens with "do you".

Do you have another one of those?

It can happen with any other word ending with "D" when it's followed by "you".

I told you we're lost.

Another example would be the auxiliary verb "did you".

Did you ever find those missing tourists? Did you miss something? Well, did you find the way out of here?

And then also, obviously, if the auxiliary verb "did" is contracted to just a "d", like in "how did, how'd" and then followed by "you".

How'd you find out about it? So, how'd you find this cave?

Don't worry. Don't worry, I know what you're here for. I wasn't going to make you miss out on a few croc attacks. But I'm going to leave the best crocodile attack for the very end of the video. Okay. All right, now it's time to talk about some spoken English. So, I'm going to teach you two things here as well, dropping pronouns and contracting pronouns and their auxiliary verbs. Let's start with dropping the pronoun "it".

Careful guys, gets a bit tighter up here.

So, this often happens at the start of sentences in spoken English, when you're speaking with someone, and the context is very obvious. So, you just don't need to say the word "it", you just get straight into the verb.

Careful guys, gets a bit tighter up here. S'all good, mate.

So, did you hear how the word "it" just disappeared. Instead of "it gets a bit tighter up here. You hear "gets a bit tighter up here".

Gets a bit tighter up here.

Instead of "it's all good, mate". You hear "s'all good, mate."

S'all good, mate.

And that brings me to the next part, which is where we contract "it is" into just the /s/ sound.

It's getting dark soon.

So, this happens all the time with "it's" at the front of sentences. Instead of saying "it's" we'll just say, s'all good, mate. It's getting dark soon.

It's a bit of a swim. It's amazing. That's not too bad. Yeah, it's all good. So far.

This is something that's really common, and you just need to get used to hearing it so you understand fast spoken English. All right, now, we're on to my favourite part, the Aussie slang section, let's talk about the word "mate".

A way around, mate.

So, we can use this three different ways, and that's what I'm going to cover here. You can hear "mate" at the end of a phrase.

We got to swim out of here, mate.

You can hear "mate" at the start of a phrase.

Mate, this is madness.

And you can hear "mate" as a noun.

My mate Cash, he runs tours out at Cairns.

So, let's go through these one by one. So, when you hear "mate" at the end of a phrase, this is generally a way of making something more friendly when you're speaking with someone. Typically, you're talking to a man and you say something like, it's all good, mate. Instead of just saying, it's all good. Just makes it a little friendlier.

It's all good, mate. We got to swim out of here, mate. A way around, mate.

All right. Number two, when "mate" is at the front of a sentence, it's emphasising something, it's showing that you want to draw attention to what you're about to say. And it's often used when you're protesting, right, when you're not happy about something. So, you might say, mate, what are you doing? You could also say, what are you doing, mate? But putting it at the front of the sentence adds a bit of protest.

It shows that you're sort of annoyed or upset about something.

Mate, this cave's getting started. Mate, this is madness.

And lastly, number three, "mate" can be used as obviously a noun. In Australia we have mates. We don't have friends, right. We've got no friends, but we've got plenty of mates.

My mate Cash, he runs tours out at Cairns.

So, I've got a bonus one here for you, too. "Big fella".

You ready, big fella?

I noticed that in this movie and I've actually noticed that recently in a few different movies I've been watching. This is used like "mate" at the end of a phrase to make something more friendly, but instead of just being friendly, it's actually flattering the person, right. You're suggesting they're the big guy, they're the rich dude, the tall guy, the powerful person. They're the big fella.

You ready, big fella?

So, he also could have said, you ready, mate. But he also said, you ready, big fella. Because he's about to dive into this cave, he's about to abseil down, and he's kind of boosting his courage a bit, I think, you know, flattering him, giving him a compliment. You ready, big fella?

You ready, big fella.

Number two, "reckon, reckon". I reckon you probably heard this, if you've seen this film.

What do you reckon?

"Reckon" can be used in Australian English to mean, think or be of the opinion of something, right. So, what do you reckon? What's your opinion?

What do you reckon? Where do you reckon that's coming from? What do you reckon?

So, there you go. That's it for today's episode. Now, at the very end here, I'm going to play for you a line from this film. I want you to listen to this multiple times, so I'll play it for you two times. You can always go back and rewind, obviously.

You reckon, Pete? You reckon they don't know how to rewind?

And I want you to try and write down what you hear. I'm not going to show you the subtitles on the screen, but you can download the worksheet below in order to see the answer written out to check if you heard correctly. Okay. So, here we go.

I'm going to push that out there, and when the croc grabs it, we go. You got it?

One more time.

I'm going to push that out there, and when the croc grabs it, we go. You got it?

All right, guys. That is it for me. Don't forget to like this video if you would like to see more of these movie sort of breakdown reviews and go and check out this YouTube video up here if you are learning Australian English. See you later.

Look.