Transcript of AE 1399 - Expression: Every Man and His Dog

You ever had somewhere thinking it'll be pretty quiet? Maybe the beach, the shops or a local cafe. And the moment you get there you realise you've completely misjudged it. There's no parking. There's a line out the door, kids running around like mad dogs everywhere.

And you're standing there thinking, how did everyone in town have the exact same idea at the exact same time? It'd be great if there were a simple expression, one short idiom that summed up this whole situation perfectly, right? Well, there is, and I'm going to teach you it in today's episode. Let's get into it.

G'day, you mob! Welcome to Aussie English! I'm 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 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, how's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. I'm your host, Pete, and I hope you're having an awesome day. This is the podcast that is designed for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. I almost forgot to say the tagline! Just in case you forgot, right? Just in case you forgot what this podcast is for, who it's aimed at helping.

So what have I been up to? Today has been an interesting day. I had the second half of a root canal transplant or root canal procedure. One of those dental procedures when you've got a dead tooth that gets infected.

So long story short, when I was a kid, I had braces. When they went on, my teeth were all alive, and when they came off, one of them was dead. Don't know how, don't know why, but that was the case. Didn't have any issues. So for 20 years, that tooth just sat there and was fine. Didn't have any issues.

But all of a sudden, about two months ago, I noticed a little pimple on my gum which suggested that the tooth root was infected, which is not good. And I also had sensitivity around the tooth when I was washing my mouth out with water. So I was like, oh, uh oh. Went to the dentist and they were like, yeah, you need a root canal done on your tooth, or it'll just have to be pulled, you know, you'll have other problems. You'll get an abscess, you could get a blood infection.

So anyway. Yeah. Did that. Had the rest of it done today. So they did it in two halves. They did the first half of like cleaning it out and everything and then putting disinfectant and antibiotics in there, sealing it up. They did that in December. And then today I went back and they did the second half of finishing it off.

But yeah, one suggestion I have. So my tooth because it was dead, I didn't need anaesthetic. Because obviously there's no nerve that's alive inside the tooth, so it doesn't hurt. However, I would totally suggest getting one, at least for the second half of the procedure because they put a clamp over your tooth and they use this kind of like blue plastic to isolate the tooth from the rest of your mouth. I assume it's to protect it from getting infected, or having bacteria go into the tooth while they're doing what they're doing.

Anyway, the clamp is the thing that hurt the most because they put it over your gum, it clamps onto your gum, and when they were putting pressure on that and moving it around, oh my god. So yeah, in in future if you guys need to get a root canal and they're like, Your tooth's dead, you don't need anaesthetic, just get the anaesthetic.

So anyway, welcome to this episode guys. Today's expression is a classic Aussie one. "Every man and his dog". I wonder if you've heard this one before. "Every man and his dog".

Before we get into it, though, don't forget that you can grab a free PDF for this episode, so a downloadable PDF via the link in the description, or just head over to the Aussie English website AussieEnglish.com.au. Look for this episode and you'll be able to download it from the page there. It'll have information about the different words we talk about, defining it, the joke and the exercise at the end.

If you want the full transcript of this episode so that you can listen to it and read every single word that I am saying. This is part of the Premium Podcast membership, which you can get access to at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

When you sign up to that, you not only support the podcast and what I do here and help me keep the lights on. You also get access to over 1300 other episodes, their transcripts, bonus episodes, the premium podcast player so you can listen and read at the same time. Everything like that. So go check it out. Give it a go. It is at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast. The link will also be in the description. So slap the bird, guys. Let's get into the joke of the day.

All right. Are you ready for this? They're always crackers, right? I hope you enjoy it. Okay. Why did the dog sit in the shade?

Why did the dog sit in the shade?

Because it didn't want to be a hot dog.

Did you get it? You didn't want to be a hot dog, right? So the joke. The joke works because of wordplay. Specifically a pun on the phrase "hot dog", right? A "hotdog" could be a sausage that you put in a bun, and you might add onions and sauce. If you're in Australia, maybe you'll put it in a piece of bread.

If you're at Bunnings, that's a "hotdog". Well, I guess it's a sausage in bread here, but Americans would call it a hot dog. Uh, but a "hot dog" could also be a dog that's, you know, not not sitting in the shade. I almost said not shitting in the shade. Could be doing that as well, I guess!

Shitting in the shade. Sitting and shitting in the, in the shade? All right, we're getting distracted. Um, but yeah.

So obviously, if it's if it's a "hot dog" because it's a "hot day", it might want to sit in the shade. So. Yeah. Why did the dog sit in the shade? Because it didn't want to be a "hot dog". Oh, what a cracker. What a cracker.

[That was good, wasn't it? It was good for a bit of a giggle anyway.].

Okay, so now, as usual, let's go through the different words in the expression that we're going to tackle today. "Every man and his dog".

"Every". This is a determiner. It refers to all members of a group without exception, right? Every single one. Every student passed the exam. No one failed. Everyone passed the exam. Every student.

"Man". This is a noun. Traditionally refers to a person only male in the original phrase, right? But here it means "everyone". When you say "every man and his dog" in this expression, it just means everyone. It's not literally just men.

"And", this is a conjunction used to connect words or phrases, right? "I bought apples and oranges."

"His", a possessive pronoun for he, belonging to him. Example. "He forgot his keys."

And lastly, a "dog". I am sure you know what a dog is. At least I hope you do. It'll be interesting if you understood everything I was saying on this episode and you were like, what's a dog? That would be a interesting situation to be in with your English. It's a domesticated animal, often kept as a pet or companion, a dog. "Their dog loves going for walks."

Okay, so what is the expression "every man and his dog" mean? Hmm. I wonder if you know, "every man and his dog".

"Every man and his dog" is this colourful Australian idiom that means a huge number of people, often unexpectedly too. So they're present in a certain place or involved in something. And you weren't expecting there to be this many people there, right? So it often implies a place is really crowded or an activity has become mainstream or very popular.

And you'll hear it a lot in Aussie English. When people talk about public events, beaches, shops, trends that have drawn a big crowd, okay. "Every man and his dog." A large number of people. Often more than you expected.

So let's talk a little bit about the origin of this expression. "Every man and his dog" is an English idiom, obviously meaning a huge number of people, usually more than you expect. It dates back to at least the 19th century.

So the 1800s, when similar phrases like "everybody and his dog" were already being used in informal English to exaggerate how many people were involved in something. And the idea is obviously simple: if every man is somewhere, even his dog would be there too. A humorous exaggeration suggesting basically everyone showed up.

It's similar in spirit to older emphatic phrases such as "every Tom, Dick and Harry". And I guess at the time "Tom, Dick and Harry" would have been very, very popular names. So by saying this phrase "Oh, every Tom, Dick and Harry was there". It meant again, everyone was there.

So over time, gender neutral variants like "everyone and their dog" or "everybody and their dog" have become common as well. But yeah, in Australia it is very popular to use "every man and his dog" to mean that there are unexpectedly loads of people here doing this thing at this place.

Okay, so let's go through some examples of how to use this expression in everyday Aussie English.

Example number one: beach on a hot day. So you rock up to say Bells Beach on a scorching 35 degree Saturday hoping for a quiet swim, you know. But as soon as you hit the sand, you realise the whole coastline is covered. Umbrellas everywhere. Kids running around, surfers lined up in the water, heaps of dogs splashing in the shallows. You might say something like.

"Mate, every man and his dog's at the beach today. It's absolutely packed."

"It's just chockers. Every man and his dog have come to the beach today."

Example number two: a local footy game. So the situation is your small town footy club normally gets a small relaxed crowd on the weekend, but this time it's the grand final and when you arrive the oval is buzzing. It is going off. Families, old blokes in club scarves, kids kicking balls around. You know, women and wives having a yarn, food trucks and a line at the gate, right?

"Every man and his dog has turned up to watch the grand final this year. It's just. It's insane. Everyone is here."

Example number three, the last one today. So sales and events. So the situation you head to the Boxing Day sales thinking you'll get in early and snag a bargain. But instead, the car park is full. It's chockers. It's packed to the rafters. Cars are circling like sharks. People are lined up outside the stores. And it feels like half the city had the same idea. You might tell a friend later.

"We went to the shopping centre, but left straight away. Every man and his dog was there. You couldn't even find a park."

"There were more people there than you could poke a stick at. Every man and his dog had come to the shops."

Alright, so hopefully now you understand the expression. Every man and his dog. Remember, we use this to mean everyone. Loads of people.

Especially when it's unexpected. Okay. "Every man and his dog."

[Would you like a cardo-nay, Kylie? No. The correct pronunciation is Chardonnay. Mum! It's French! The H is silent! Back me up here, Kylie!].

So, as usual, let's go through a little pronunciation exercise here, guys. Your goal is going to be to read these sentences out loud after me and try and match my speaking, pronunciation, connected speech, rhythm, stress, all that sort of stuff, right? You don't have to necessarily think about it individually, like, oh, how is he pronouncing this letter? Where's the stress? But just try and mimic it. Try and copy it. Try and say it like I say it. Okay. All right. So are you ready? Let's dig in.

I saw every man and his dog at the beach.

You saw every man and his dog at the beach.

He saw every man and his dog at the beach.

She saw every man and his dog at the beach.

We saw every man and his dog at the beach.

They saw every man and his dog at the beach.

It saw every man and his dog at the beach.

Great job. So I know it was a slightly long sentence, and there's quite a bit of linking happening in there. "I saw /evry man ’n iz dawg/ at the beach." Okay, let's go through the pronunciation tip for today's episode.

So in natural Aussie English, the phrase and his gets heavily reduced when spoken quickly. The word "and" almost never appears as a full "and", right, with the vowel. The N sound and the D. Instead, it's reduced to a quick unstressed /’n/ with the schwa sound, or it could be the syllabic N /n/ just by itself.

Then, after the word "and" becoming /’n/, in this case, you get H deletion at the front of the word "his", the H disappears. So instead of hearing "and his" with all of these sounds clearly said, you'll hear /’n iz/ /’n iz/, right. So "and his" = /’n his/.

And then we get rid of that H. /’n iz/ /’n iz/. /evry man ’n iz dawg/, right.

If I do it quickly. Every man and his dog. Every man and his dog. You'll hear me say them really quickly, too. /’n iz/ /’n iz/. /evry man ’n iz dawg/ /evry man ’n iz dawg/.

Okay, so go back over that exercise, have a listen again and see if you can hear me doing it. And now I'm thinking, gosh, I'll have to go back and listen myself and make sure that I actually did say it that way, because sometimes I leave things more uncontracted is that even a word more spread out? I might say "I saw every man and his dog at the beach". No, I didn't do that. I didn't do that.

Anyway. Connected speech is really good to learn, guys. It does really help you sound more natural. And by training this, even if you don't want to necessarily use it, you'll train your ear so that you can hear it when Australians speak like this. So I always suggest practising it to some degree. All right.

So now let's finish up with the Australian fact of the day. And today we're going to talk about the dingo, Australia's wild dingo.

So Australia's only native dog is the dingo. And it's one of the most fascinating animals on the continent. Dingoes aren't just wild dogs wandering the outback. They've been part of Australian ecosystems for at least 3500 years, and some genetic studies suggest the lineage may go back even further.

They're thought to have arrived with early seafaring people from Southeast Asia long before European settlement, and over thousands of years became perfectly adapted to Australia's deserts, forests and coasts.

Dingoes are apex predators. The top of the food chain in many areas, and they play a massive role in keeping ecosystems healthy. They help control kangaroo, wallaby and feral goat populations. They suppress invasive species like foxes and feral cats, which means more small mammals and birds survive.

In some regions, removing dingoes has led to overgrazing and landscape damage because herbivore numbers explode without a natural predator.

There's even research suggesting that where dingoes thrive, endangered native animals like bilbies and bandicoots stand a better chance. Despite the ecological importance, dingoes sit right in the middle of a modern Australian debate. To farmers, especially in sheep and cattle regions, dingoes can be a major threat to livestock.

Because of this, in some states dingoes are protected as native wildlife, while in others they're classified as pests and can be trapped, poisoned, or shot.

Then there's the issue of hybridisation. Dingoes are breeding with domestic dogs, making pure dingoes rarer. Conservationists want to protect them. Some states want to remove them, and others try to manage the balance.

Love them or fear them? Dingoes are woven into the Australian story. Indigenous cultures have seen them as companions, hunters and spiritual beings for thousands of years. They appear in dreaming stories, art and traditional knowledge across the continent.

So anyway, guys, I hope you've enjoyed this episode. It's a pleasure as usual. Definitely let me know what you think of these episodes. Are you enjoying them again? Would you prefer me to do something else? Do you want me to expand them? Make them shorter? What do you think? Send me a message on Instagram. Send me an email at com.au or send me a message on Facebook. I love chatting with you guys and besides that, I hope you have a ripper of a week and I'll see you in the next one. Tooroo.

All right, that's it for today. If you found this one helpful, leaving a quick review really does help other learners find the podcast. And if you know someone who's learning Aussie English, feel free to share this episode with them too, mate. Thanks for listening and I'll catch you in the next one.