Transcript of AE 1285 - Expression: Blow the Froth Off a Couple

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 flippin' hell were 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? I hope you're having a good day. It is freezing here this morning. In fact, as my wife was leaving to go to work this morning and take the kids to day-care, I had to heat up a bit of water in the kettle and then take it outside and pour it over the windshield, or windscreen, of the car, because there was all this frost and ice built up all over the front of the car. So it was obviously a very, very cold night, at least for us. You know, I'm sure there's loads of you guys that live in places where it snows regularly and you have blizzards and all that sort of stuff, but that's not very common in Australia, at least in most of Australia, maybe up in the mountains. But yeah, so that was an interesting morning.

Anyway, I am your host, Pete. Guys, I hope you're having an amazing week. Don't forget, if you want to support the podcast whilst learning Australian English and levelling up your Aussie English, check out the Premium Podcast membership.

You can get this at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. When you sign up, you get access to Members Only episodes of the podcast, as well as the normal episodes. You get the transcripts for all of the episodes that have transcripts, so you can download these, print these out, take notes on them, everything like that. And you also get access to the Premium Podcast player on the website that allows you to read and listen simultaneously so that you can. Yeah, really level up your listening comprehension rapidly. So check out the Premium Podcast membership. It's less than a dollar a day. Check it out at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. So anyway, uh, jump on the sheep, make it go [sheep sounds], and let's get into today's Q&A.

So today's question comes from Matt_routine. "What's the difference between 'how you're goin' and 'how's it going'? Right. So 'how you going?' As in 'how are you going?' A common greeting or the greeting, 'how's it going?' And we can say, 'how's it going?' 'How's it going?' 'How's it going?' 'How are you going?' 'How are you going?' 'How's it going?' There's no difference. So these are both common greetings in Australian English. And, uh, yeah. I'm not sure how common they would be in Britain or America.

But in Australia, you know, nine times out of ten you're going to hear one of these when you get greeted by someone that you, you know, maybe that, you know, someone at work, they're going to say, how are you going? How's it going? It's an informal, common greeting in Australia.

'It' in the phrase, 'how's it going?' I think this would refer to your day. As in, 'how is your day going?' How- yeah. Your day. 'It', right. 'How's it going?' Because it is a good question. You sort of like, What is 'it'? You know, when you say 'how is it', 'how is it going?' What 'it' are you referring to? It's your day. How's your day going? Is it going okay or good?

And obviously if you say, how are you going? How are you going? You're talking about the person. So the person versus their day. So yeah Matt, you can use either of these. I- in fact I encourage you to use both, and you can pair them up with 'G'day'. So you can say 'G'day, how are you going?' or 'G'day, how's it going?'.

And to make him even more Australian, chuck 'mate' on the end if you're a bloke, right. "G'day! How's it going, mate?" "G'day! How are you going, mate?" So there you go. All right, slap the kookaburra and let's get into today's joke. [kookaburra sounds]

So today's joke is "Why do beers never argue?" Mm. Beers. As in the alcoholic beverage. That is very- well, it's common everywhere, right? But Aussies definitely love a good beer.

"Why do beers never argue?" Mm. "Because they always come to a head." [drum sounds] Ugghh. "They always come to a head."

Okay, okay, let's go through it. So the pun is on the word 'head'. So, 'head'. Okay. In the phrase 'come to a head', this is an expression that means to reach a crisis, right? So, uh, "The violence came to a head in the streets of New York after the election", right? You know, um, 'to come to a head'.

So the idea here would be if they 'come to a head', if the beers argue and they 'come to a head', they reach crisis point.

However, 'head', when thinking about a beer, refers to the layer of foam that forms at the top of the beer in the glass. And it's it's produced by bubbles of gas, typically carbon dioxide, that are released when the beer is poured out into the, well, usually a glass, right. I guess you could have it in a plastic cup. That's a bit strange. So yeah, 'head'.

And obviously you can also use the word 'head' to mean the 'head' on your shoulders, right? A human head, or animals have heads too. But that's why we call it the 'head' of a beer, because it's at the top of a beer. Okay, so- and everyone loves it. Everyone loves a beer. Um, that has a good head. And there's definitely an R rated version of 'head' as well, but, um, we might save that for another time. So, yes. "Why do beers never argue?" "Because they always come to a head." [That was good, wasn't it? It was good for a bit of a giggle, anyway.]

Yes, that was rather funny. Hmm. Okay, so let's get into today's expression 'to blow the froth off a couple'. I wonder if you've heard this. 'To blow the froth off a couple'. It's a bit of a tongue twister, linking all the the different consonants to the vowels in the phrase: 'to blow the froth off a couple'. I think it's mainly /frothofah/. That is hard to say. /frothofah couple/ /frothofah/.

Anyway, before we get into the meaning of the expression itself, let's go through and define the different words in the expression. [Youse. Collective noun. All of your friends.].

So 'to blow', 'to blow'. [Pete blows air into his microphone] That is 'to blow', right? Hopefully that wasn't too loud. To expel air from your mouth, 'to blow'. But the wind can 'blow' as well. It's sort of just the movement of air. So, "He likes to blow on his coffee to cool it down before he drinks it." And I can remember my grandmother used to always do this with her tea. In fact, she probably, she probably still does it at the age of 90. She's still drinking tea, so I'm sure she's going [Pete blows air] over the top of the tea to cool it down.

'Froth'. 'Froth' is the small bubbles that form on the surface of liquids. So like the creamy froth. Jeez. Tongue twister today. Like the the free me. The free me comb- the creamy foam on top of a beer, right. Um, you can also see 'froth' if you go to the beach. Sometimes there might be, you know, froth caused by the waves breaking on the shore. So, 'froth' are those bubbles on the surface of a liquid.

'Off'. Off is a preposition used to indicate movement away from the surface. So, "Take your feet off the table." "He blew the froth off his beer."

'A couple'. 'A couple' is a small number of things, but often two. So it's a weird one, right? Literally, I think it would mean two things. You know, "There's a couple of cookies or biscuits bickies on the table." There's a- "There's a couple outside waiting to talk to you", you know, two people.

But you can also kind of use it if you're saying you have a small number of something, you know, like, "Have you got a have you got any cars?" "Oh yeah. Couple." "Have you got many friends?" "Yeah, I've got a couple." You know, it could be two, but it could be three. It could be four. You know, um, it's just a small plural kind of number, I guess. So, yeah. 'Couple'.

Anyway, so 'to blow the froth off a couple', can you insinuate what we're talking about here? We've, we've talked a little bit about beer and we've talked about froth which is on the top of beer. So if you 'blow the froth off a couple', it's a colloquial, kind of informal way of saying you're going to have a few beers.

You could probably also use this to mean just drinking alcoholic drinks in general, but typically froth here is going to refer to the foamy head on top of a beer that has been freshly poured. So the phrase is sort of humorous and focuses on the act of, you know, getting a beer, having the froth on the top and blowing the froth off your beer. And obviously, if you want to have multiple beers, you're going to have a couple, so you're going 'to blow the froth off a couple'.

And I think I remember hearing this from Crocodile Dundee. That would have been like the first time I heard this, that movie Crocodile Dundee, where Mick Dundee, I think he's in New York and he's at a bar and someone's like- an Americans like, "How are you going?" And he's like, "Oh yeah, not too bad. Just blowing the froth off a couple", uh, as in having a few beers. And the guy's like, "What?"

Anyway, let's get into some everyday Australian scenarios where I would use this expression. So after work, you know you're in Adelaide and you've clocked off. You're in the CBD and you're going home and a group of co-workers are like, you know, "Guys, let's unwind. It's Friday", you know, thank God it's Friday, TGIF. "Let's go get some beers." And one of them might yell out, "Yes, let's go blow the froth off a couple at the pub down the road, right at the pub just nearby, down the road, down the street. Let's go blow the froth off a couple before everyone goes home. We should go and hang out."

Example number two. Imagine you've got a weekend barbecue out in the sticks, right? Someone's got a nice little farm somewhere in the middle of nowhere, in the sticks, in the forest in Australia. And they're like, "You've got to come out this weekend. We're going to have a Barbie." We're going to have a barbecue. A"nd we would love for you to bring the beer. We'll bring the meat because we know you love to blow the froth off a couple." Man, there's tongue twisters killing me. "You love to blow the froth off a couple, I know that. So you bring the beer, we'll bring the food and we'll see you at the barbie."

Example number three. So imagine you're in Brisbane. You've just gone to a local rugby match and there's a post sport celebration, right? There's a post-match, a celebration that goes after the match, a post-match celebration. So the team all get together to celebrate their win at the match and they go to a nearby bar and the coach is like, "You know what? Everyone's going to blow the froth off a couple tonight we're going to celebrate and the drinks are on me. It's my shout." The drinks are on the house, you know, they're well, you'd say 'on the house' if you work there. Maybe he works there too. But they're free. "I'm going to pay for them, you know. Everyone kick back, relax, blow the froth off a couple and enjoy your beers."

So there you go, guys. Hopefully now you understand the colloquial Australian expression 'blow the froth off a couple'. This is the kind of expression I want to teach this, because if you are going to go hang out with some mates in Australia and they are Aussies and you know you're going to have some drinks, if you use this kind of phrase, it's going to put a smile on their face, right? It's going to make them laugh. They're going to be like, This guy gets it. He's just used something very, very Aussie, you know, and you could pair it up with, you could pair it up with last week's expression. I think it was last week's 'we're not here to fuck spiders'. So it could be like, "All right, we've got to stop mucking about. Let's go blow the froth off a couple. We're not here to fuck spiders, guys. Let's blow the froth off a couple." Uh, if you're in an informal situation, obviously that is going to make a lot of people laugh. I think so, yeah, give it a go and report back to me.

Anyway, let's get into today's pronunciation exercise. [Would you like a car-donay, Kylie? Kim, it's not car-donay. The correct pronunciation is chardonnay. Mum, it's French! The H is silent! Back me up here, Kylie!]

Okay, so as usual, guys, we are going to read through or I'm going to say these words and phrases out loud. And your goal here is to say them after me in your best Australian accent. Obviously, as I always say, if you are not working on an Australian accent, if you are working on British English or American English, whatever, just use the words and phrases I am saying as a prompt and then say it in your desired accent. Anyway, Let's go.

To. To blow. To blow the. To blow the froth. To blow the froth off. To blow the froth off. Are. Air. To blow the froth off a couple. To blow the froth off a couple. To blow the froth off a couple. To blow the froth off a couple. To blow the froth off a couple. I'm gonna blow the froth off a couple. You're gonna blow the froth off a couple. He's gonna blow the froth off a couple. She's gonna blow the froth off a couple. We're gonna blow the froth off a couple. They're gonna blow the froth off a couple. It's gonna blow the froth off a couple.

Great job, guys. Now I've done something a little cheeky there. I've just noticed this. When I've said the word 'coupl' that was using the light L, but I also said it as /coupɫ/ using the dark L. So I've rotated between these in different places here.

And a good little exercise will be to go back and have a listen to how I was saying both the phrase to blow the air, to blow the froth off a couple, or to blow the froth off a couple. So light L, then dark L.

And then also to the phrases, /I'm gonna blow the froth off a coupl/ or /coupɫ/. /You're gonna blow the froth off a coupl/ or /coupɫ/. Listen through and see if you can hear when I'm using either one. Because I've changed halfway through there, okay. So it's a good little listening exercise.

And remember we can use the dark L at the end of a word like /coupɫ/ because there's no vowel coming after it. If there was a vowel sound coming after it, like 'a couple of beers', you couldn't use the dark L because you have to link to the vowel sound, and you do that with the light L in Australian English. /coupl◡of beers/, /coupl/, /coupɫ/.

Okay, so again, if you want to learn Australian pronunciation you want to master how to speak Australian English just like a native speaker, check out my Australian pronunciation course. We go through all the different sounds in Australian English, the vowel sounds, the consonants, and we also talk about the more advanced aspects of spoken English. Spoken Australian English like the dark L and the light L, when to use them, when not to use them, connected speech, all that sort of stuff.

Go and check it out at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. The link will be in the description. Hopefully I'll have to remember to chuck it in there. If not, just go to AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. And remember, if you use that link, you will save $100 off the normal price of the course. Okay, 33%. So anyway, let's get into today's little listening comprehension exercise. [That's not a knife. That's a knife.] [Here, there's no cash, all right? Cash? No! Robbo? No cash.] [You're terrible, Muriel. Tell him he's dreaming.].

Okay, so today's clip comes from the classic Aussie film Crocodile Dundee. So definitely go and check that out. I'm sure you'll know what it is. But just in case you don't, a reporter travels to Australia to interview an eccentric crocodile poacher. He- when he rescues her from an attack, she invites him to return with her to New York City. Um, so that's Mick Dundee in this. Okay, we've covered this film before, but I had to do it today because this is where I first heard that expression 'to blow the froth off a couple'. And I think I've actually used it in this little clip. Okay, so have a listen out.

And just for your for your information, FYI, the scene involves the interaction between Mick Dundee and an American man in a bar where they don't really understand each other's expressions, and it's used to showcase these differences in colloquial Australian English versus American English. So yeah, again, it's just such a good movie if you are interested in those nuances, the difference in culture and language between Australia and America, it highlights that, okay?

Anyway, before we do it, just remember you can check your answer in today's free worksheet. You can download that via the description or on the website. You'll be able to find the free worksheet. And it's also obviously in the Premium Podcast membership transcript. For this episode you'll be able to read the answer. So your goal is to listen and then write down what you hear being said. Okay, we're ready to go. Here's the first playthrough.

Hey, my man, what's happening? Ah, where? What's going down, bro? Going down? Oh, yeah, just blowing the froth off a couple. Alright! Hang loose, my man. Mmm, flat out like a lizard drinking. Say what? What? He's cool. Yeah, I'm cool. I'm cool.

How'd you go? Did you get all of it? Time for the second playthrough.

Hey, my man, what's happening? Ah, where? What's going down, bro? Going down? Oh! Yeah, just blowing the froth off a couple. Alright! Hang loose, my man! Mmm, flat out like a lizard drinking. Say what? What? He's cool! Yeah, I'm cool. I'm cool.

All right, awesome work guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode. I am your host, Pete. This has been another episode of Aussie English. I hope you have a ripper of a weekend and I'll see you next time. Tooroo!