Transcript of AE 1401 - Expression: Go Down In Flames

You ever have one of those days where everything just goes pear-shaped? You start off confident. Maybe you're baking a cake, pitching a big idea, or trying to impress someone, and then suddenly, boom! The cake collapses, the laptop crashes, the date walks out halfway through dinner. Total chaos.

Wouldn't it be great if there were an expression in English that summed up that beautifully disastrous moment when everything goes wrong in spectacular fashion? Well, there is! And today I'm going to teach you what Aussies say when things don't just fail, they explode gloriously.

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! Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. I am your host, Pete, and this is the number one podcast for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English.

So I hope you guys are well. I am surviving the heat. Yesterday was, at least inside my car, it was 44 degrees. 44°C. It was a scorcher. We were roasting. My kids went to a water park nearby called Adventure Park and spent at least the first half of the day before lunch, just splashing around and enjoying the different rides and, events and all that sort of stuff there, which was cool.

Whereas I was at home staying out of the heat with the aircon on. So that was, that was an interesting day and we have the same thing tomorrow. It's been really weird. There's been these three days in a row, right? We had one day. So yesterday would have been Wednesday, the 7th of January. 40 something degrees.

Today it's like 20 something degrees. And then tomorrow it's going to be the potentially the hottest day on record in Australia in January. So go figure. I don't know why it's going so much sort of like up and down. It's very weird. But yeah. So it's an interesting few days at the moment. The weather has been, um, dramatic down here in Victoria as usual.

Anyway, welcome to the episode. Today we're going to go through the expression "to go down in flames", "to go down in flames". The structure of the episode is going to be that. I will tell you a little joke. We'll go through the words one by one and break them down. In this expression, we'll go through the meaning and usage. Some real life examples.

We then have a little pronunciation and speaking exercise. And then lastly we'll have an Aussie fact of the day.

Don't forget there will be a free PDF for you to download for this episode. That'll have a lot of the vocab and the speaking exercise inside of it. So you can go to the website or into the description. Click the link and you'll be able to download this free PDF.

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Okay, anyway, slap the bird guys. Get that kookaburra laughing and let's get into the joke. All right, so the joke today, "Why did the match go to school?" So a "match", right? You strike a match, usually against a box to light it. And then probably, I don't know, light a cigarette, start a fire. Whatever you want to do, start the, the oven. Start the barbecue.

"Why did the match go to school?" Hmm. "It wanted to be a little brighter."

Do you get it? "It wanted to be a little brighter." So the joke here is the pun on the word "brighter". "Brighter" can mean giving off light. You know, if you strike a match in the flame lights up, it's going to be very bright. And if it wants to get more bright, if it gets brighter.

But we can also use "bright" in English or "brighter" to mean smart or smarter. So your child might be very bright. They're very smart. And if you want them to be even more smart, smarter, they will become more bright, brighter. Okay. So, "Why did the match go to school?" "It wanted to be a little brighter." Ah, okay.

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

All right, so let's get into the words in today's expression "to go down in flames", "to go down in flames".

So, "go" here is a verb, obviously, to move or change state. Here it means to end up in a particular situation. "Things can go wrong quickly if you're not careful." To "go".

"Down", this is an adverb here. So I guess to go down we're using it as like a phrasal verb. So "down", toward a lower position. Figuratively here, toward failure or defeat. "The company went down after the scandal."

"In", this is acting as a preposition in this phrase, "to go down in flames", "in", and this expresses the situation or condition something occurs within. "He finished the race in record time."

And lastly, "flames" or "a flame". If you want to use the singular, this is a noun. "Flames" are the visible part of a fire. Here, symbolic of disaster, destruction or failure. "The house went up in flames."

And there's a little interesting expression there, "to go up in flames", as opposed to "go down in flames".

"To go up in flames" would be like to catch fire and burn. Whereas when we talk about today's expression "to go down in flames", this means to fail spectacularly, often in a very obvious, disastrous or embarrassing way, "to go down in flames".

It's often used for things like projects, plans, performances, or attempts that end up in a big mess. It can be serious, like a business collapsing. It "goes down in flames".

Or it can be light hearted, like someone trying to cook an amazing meal. And it's a disaster. "The meal goes down in flames", "the cooking attempt goes down in flames". So it paints a vivid picture, not just failing, but doing so in a big, fiery, memorable way.

So, "to go down in flames", to fail dramatically and often publicly, "to go down in flames".

And I tried to look up the origin of this expression. And like many of these vivid English idioms, "go down in flames" began as a literal description before it became a metaphor for failure.

So the phrase is strongly linked to early aviation, especially during World War One and World War Two, when fighter planes, often made from wood, fabric and fuel tanks could catch fire in mid-air after being hit. You know, shot, hit, hit with a rocket, whatever it was when a pilot's aircraft was struck and began to burn before crashing, eyewitnesses would describe it as having "gone down in flames".

Over time, that powerful image of a fiery fall came to represent any kind of spectacular downfall not just an aircraft going down in flames, but also businesses performances, personal efforts that ended in dramatic failure.

And by the mid 20th century to the 1900s, the phrase was being used figuratively across the English speaking world, appearing in journalism, literature and later pop culture, including songs like "Go Down in Flames" by Semisonic and Kiss.

So it's one of these expressions that grew naturally out of a vivid, real world event that people witnessed first hand, probably back in the First and Second World War. So it's pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, "to go down in flames": to fail dramatically or publicly.

All right, let's get into some real world examples of how to use this expression in day to day life. Okay. Example number one: a cooking disaster. You're trying to impress your friends with a fancy dessert, a chocolate soufflé. Of course. You follow the recipe carefully set the oven timer and wait confidently, only to open the oven and discover a blackened smoking crater where dessert used to be. "Well, that soufflé went down in flames." Probably time to order pizza. So it's used when something you tried to do ends in complete disaster here, but you can laugh about it.

A more serious example. Example number two: a business situation or project. A new Aussie start-Up launches with heaps of hype.

They've got investors ads and a big social media push. But a few months later, the funding dries up. Customers disappear and the dream comes crashing down. "The company went down in flames after the investors pulled out." So here, this is perfect for describing a project, a business or plan that fails dramatically and publicly, not just quietly fading away in the background.

And lastly, example number three. So perhaps a relationship or romantic example here. A friend confesses their feelings to someone they like and plans a big romantic dinner. You know, candles, flowers, the whole shebang, right? Everything. But halfway through the evening, the other person says, 'Look, I like you. I just see you as a friend'. You know, that 'ouch'. Kind of, 'Thanks, but no thanks'. So you might say "This person's romantic plan went down in flames before the main course had even arrived." So this shows the idiom can be used for emotional or social situations here that end badly, with a touch of humour or sympathy to go down in flames.

So these examples show "to go down in flames" can describe both serious and light hearted situations, from cooking and comedy to love business or everyday stuff ups. It always suggests a big, visible dramatic failure, often with a touch of humour or exaggeration.

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

Okay, now it's time for a little pronunciation and speaking exercise. So I am going to read out a bunch of sentences conjugating through different pronouns. I, you, he, she, we, they, it.

Your goal here is to read these out, out loud after me and try and work on your pronunciation, okay? So try and match the pronunciation of the different sounds, the rhythm, the stress, all of that sort of stuff. Okay, find somewhere away from other people. If you're sort of a bit, you know, self-conscious and just find a place where you can do this confidently and comfortably. Okay?

So listen and repeat after me.

I went down in flames.

You went down in flames.

He went down in flames.

She went down in flames.

We went down in flames.

They went down in flames.

It went down in flames.

Good job. How did you find it? Were those ones a little difficult or a little easy? You know, it might be a bit too easy. Maybe I have to mix things up, or these episodes might go down in flames. You never know. See what I did there?

Okay, so a little pronunciation tip here. Let's talk a little bit about linking and connected speech. So I wonder there's sort of two things that I want to mention here in today's series of exercises in this sort of phrase that we were going through went down in flames.

The T at the end of the word "went". Do you hear it as a hard T /t/? Or do you hear it being muted? /wɛnt/ down in flames. /wɛnt/ down in flames. /wɛnt/ down in flames. It's been muted.

So because N and T are kind of in the same position in the mouth, the tongue goes into the same position. It lifts up and blocks the air flow from out of your mouth. /wɛnt/ /wɛnt/ /wɛnt/. We just don't release the T because the next word starts with a consonant, D, in this case.

So you mute after that N /wɛnt/ and you mute, you sort of stop the T sound. /wɛnt/, /wɛnt/. And then you go straight into the D went down without releasing your tongue. So you go, /wɛnt dæʊn/, /wɛnt dæʊn/, /wɛnt dæʊn/. I /wɛnt dæʊn/ in flames.

Now the second thing to mention is "down in". How do these link together. /dæʊn◡ɪn/, /dæʊn◡ɪn/, /dæʊn◡ɪn/. We kind of take the N off the end of the word "down" and start the next word "in" with this consonant so that it flows better. So instead of "down in", you get /dæʊn◡ɪn/ /dæʊn◡ɪn/ /aɪ wɛnt dæʊn◡ɪn flæɪmz/, /juː wɛnt dæʊn◡ɪn flæɪmz/.

Good job. So go back. Listen to that exercise again. See if you can mute the T at the end of the word "went" /wɛnt dæʊn/ and then try and link "in" to the end of the word "down" by moving that N from "down" to the start of the word "in".

So instead of saying "in", try and say /nɪn/, /aɪ wɛnt dæʊn◡ɪn flæɪmz.

Good job! Cheeky little plug. Remember, if you want to work on your Australian pronunciation, check out my Australian pronunciation course, the Aussie English Pronunciation Course. You can get this for $100 off when you use the link AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100

It'll take you through how to use the International Phonetic Alphabet to learn and improve your pronunciation. It'll take you through every single consonant and vowel sound in Australian English, and then in the last section, it'll take you through advanced sounds and linking and connected speech, everything like that.

So go check it out at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100 the link will be in the description.

So now let's get into the Australian fact of the day and then we'll finish up. Did you know that Australia has one of the largest aerial firefighting fleets in the world during bushfire season? Because bushfires can literally go up in flames and spread like wildfire, literally. Australia uses massive water bombing aircraft like the Boeing 737 Marie Bashir and the DC-10 air tankers to fight fires.

The 2019-2020 Black Summer bushfires were so intense that flames reached 70m high and some towns experienced firestorms, walls of flames moving faster than cars.

These events gave real visceral meaning to the phrase go down in flames. Entire regions were devastated in catastrophic fire events. Thankfully, Aussies have also become global leaders in bushfire response and community resilience. And yeah, we have this huge aerial firefighting fleet that tries to deal with any bushfire that might flare up in summer.

So while go down in flames is usually figurative in Australia, we sadly know the literal version all too well and hopefully this year we don't have too many bushfires in Australia. Knock on wood.

Anyway, thank you so much for joining me today, guys. I hope you're enjoying these episodes. Be sure to download the free PDF. Remember that'll be in the description. It'll have the vocab, the examples and the pronunciation exercise in there.

And if you want to support the podcast whilst improving your English quickly and effectively, sign up for the Premium Podcast membership at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

Thanks for listening. Drop us a review if you can and I'll see you in the next episode. Tooroo!

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