Today you’ll meet our guest David Peachy from Australia and he’ll show you three English phrases you need to know if you want to talk with Australians.
We are excited to have David on the show today because we haven’t had many Australian native English speakers on the show!
David describes the Australian accent as warm.
They drop a neutral sound between the consonant and the vowel.
Listen to the episode to see what it sounds like.
Australian expressions you must know!
- “Mate”: This means “friend.” This can be used with pretty much anyone. It’s a standard term. It can be used with strangers when we ask for directions. It’s used as a form of address.
- “Heaps”: This means piles of something. It means “a lot.” You can say, “I have heaps of work to do” or “There were heaps of food in the fridge” or “There were heaps of people at the party.” This can also be used to mean “very much” so you can say “I am heaps pleased” or “It’s heaps scary.” You can also say “I love you (ya) heaps.”
- “Yeah…nah”: This means “yes, no.” A lot of people get confused by this. This is about disagreeing with someone. They use it in conversations as a filler. It usually comes just before someone contributes a sentence to the conversation and wants the other person to stop speaking and to listen to them.
David‘s Bio:
David comes from sunny Brisbane in Australia. He graduated with a degree in Theatre over 20 years ago, and has since travelled the world, learnt several languages, and taught general and business English in central Europe, Turkey, Russia and Thailand. He has also been an italki teacher for the past five years.
David is currently working with students to improve their natural speech, using vocal techniques from his theatre background. He also does speaking workshops for IELTS candidates, and is more than happy to have a general chat, of course!
What questions do you have about the Australian accent?
Let us know in the comments below.