Transcript of AE 1403 - Expression: Not Give a Rat's Arse

You ever hear someone carrying on about something? Gossip, drama, an argument online and you can feel your interest drop by the second? They're passionate. They're invested. They're waiting for a reaction. Meanwhile, you couldn't be less bothered if you tried.

That feeling, total indifference, zero emotional investment, is so common in Australia that we've got a classic expression just for it. And today you're about to learn exactly what it is and how to use it like an Aussie.

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! Pete here. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Man. Today is a scorcher! An absolute scorcher! I am recording this on the 27th of January and my god guys, it is 42 degrees here in Victoria. And I think in central Australia, may have been central New South Wales. It was estimated it was going to get over 50°C. And I think Victoria, I was reading the news earlier today and it was saying that Victoria had broken a record of like 49 point something degrees somewhere.

And so yeah, times are changing. Life's getting hot here in summer, late summer in Australia. Oof! Good times. Anyway, if you guys are here, I hope you survived it. Okay, I hope you didn't, you know, get caught outside if your aircon broke. I hope you went for a cruise and just went into Myers or Target or some store somewhere. Woollies or Coles and just hung out in the aircon.

Anyway, welcome to the episode guys! Today I am going to teach you the expression "to not give a rat's arse".

Why a rat's ass? I don't know, maybe we'll find out! But it's some cheeky Aussie slang that I think you'll enjoy using, especially if you're a bit irritated about a situation that someone's bringing up or talking about. You just don't care.

So the structure of today's episode, I'm going to tell you a joke. It's going to be hopefully a funny, rat-themed, warm up joke. We'll go through the expression words, the vocab in the expression and break it down word by word. I'll give you the meaning of the expression. We'll go through some real life examples of how to use it, and then I have a little speaking practice exercise for you to work on your Australian English pronunciation. And finally, we'll go through a little Aussie fun fact about Australian native rats.

Before we get into it, don't forget there is a free PDF download for this episode.

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And one final note, "to not give a rat's arse" this expression we're going to cover today, is a little informal. Okay, mild profanity because we're saying arse. Best for casual settings okay, not formal ones.

All right. So slap the kookaburra guys! Get it calling, get it singing, get it laughing. You see? You see it's related to the joke! It's anticipating how funny this joke is gonna be. Slap the bird. Let's get into it.

All right, all right, so this one's a pisser. It's hilarious. You're gonna love this joke. Oh, God. I read these jokes ahead of saying them. They're just so bad. I'm sorry, guys. All right.

"What's a mouse's favourite game?" "What's a mouse's favourite game?"

"Hide and squeak!"

Get it? "Hide and squeak", right. "Squeak" as in like [sounds like a mouse] "hide and squeak".

"What's a mouse's favourite game?" "Hide and squeak."

I told you it was bad. I told you it was bad.

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

Okay, let's get into the words in the expression and break these down. So, "to not give a rat's arse".

"Not". This is an adverb. We use it to negate or reverse a statement. So you would say "I am interested" and the negated form would be "I am not interested". Okay.

"To give", this is a verb meaning to hand over, to offer, to provide. In this idiom, it means to care or show concern. "I don't give a damn", right? "I don't give a rat's arse". "I don't give a crap".

So you'll hear it in a few of these expressions. "To not give a damn", "to not give a crap". "To not give a rat's ass." You'll hear it quite a bit, okay.

"A", this is an indefinite article. Refers to one thing, a non-specific thing. "I went outside and I saw a bird".

"Rat's" here. "Rat" with the possessive S on it. It means something belonging to a rat, which is a small rodent, right? Rats and mice. They are rodents. "The rat's tail is long." The tail that belongs to the rat is long. "The rat's tail is long."

And lastly, "arse", we say this is /ɑːs/. Americans would say "ass" with no R in the spelling, so they would spell it A S S. We spell it A R S E like the Brits. This is sort of informal slang for your butt, your buttocks, your backside.

Yeah, so if you're angry at someone, you might tell them to sit on their ass, right? Or you might say to them, "Why are you just sitting around on your arse?" You know, "Sit your arse down, mate." Arse.

Remember, informal! It can be used rudely. So keep this out of formal situations.

So the expression "to not give a rat's ass", I guess the literal image. Imagine someone offering you the bum of a rat, a rat's ass, as if it was something valuable. And obviously it is not. It is merely a rat's bottom.

The figurative image is when you say, you know, "I don't give a rat's arse", it means you absolutely don't care at all. It's cheeky, it's blunt. It's very Australian. "Mate, I don't give a rat's arse", you know. Very, very blunt.

So "to not give a rat's arse", it means to not care about something in the slightest. It's emphatic. It's stronger than just I don't care. It's informal.

Often said with humour, attitude or defiance. Common variants are: "I couldn't give a rat's arse". "I don't give a rat's arse." "Who gives a rat's arse?" So yeah, "to not give a rat's arse". To not care at all. Informal. Cheeky. A little bit rude.

So where does this come from? It's an interesting one, right? Like many great slang expressions, "to not give a rat's arse" doesn't have one confirmed origin. But we can trace its development through English slang history.

The phrase belongs to a long line of sayings meaning to not care at all. Things like "to not give a fig", "to not give a damn", "to not give a farthing". I think a farthing is like a unit of money. I don't know. From a long time ago.

Each one uses something effectively worthless or trivial to show indifference that you don't care.

And the rat version seems to be a 20th century twist on that pattern. You know, according to IdiomOrigins.org and English.StackExchange.com, the American form, "to not give a rat's ass", appeared around the 1940s 1950s, possibly in military slang or working class speech.

And the Oxford English Dictionary even cites one of the earliest printed examples in Leon Uris's 1953 novel Battle Cry.

Some linguists also note a link to all the 19th century phrases like "not give a dead rat", found in Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884. That earlier version may have inspired the latter funnier one.

From there, the expression spread through the English speaking world. Australians adopted it, readily, swapped "ass" for "arse", and by the 1970s it had become a staple of Aussie slang, perfectly suited to our love of irreverent, down to earth expressions.

So hopefully now, guys, you understand the phrase "to not give a rat's arse". You can use slightly more polite versions, like "to not care", "to not give a damn", "to not give a toss". But again, it's kind of blunt and rude because you're saying I just- I do not care at all, right?

It's almost like it doesn't matter how polite you are. That scene is kind of a little bit rude, you know?

"Would you like this?" "Uh, absolutely not. I do not care at all."

"I do not want this. I don't give a damn."

"Don't give a rat's ass. Don't care."

"Don't give a toss. Do what you want. I don't want it."

All right, let's go through some example scenarios where we would use this expression to not give a rat's ass.

Imagine someone sitting with a group of friends while one person goes on and on about celebrity news. You know, who broke up with who, who or what? Who said something embarrassing online?

Everyone listens politely for a while, then someone finally shrugs and says, "Honestly, I don't give a rat's arse what celebrities are doing."

It's not said angrily, just plainly. They've got bills to pay, dinner to cook, real problems to deal with, and someone else's designer shoes are just not high on the importance list.

So that's exactly how the expression works. It's blunt, dismissive, straight to the point. Mate, you're talking about rubbish. I honestly just don't give a rat's arse."

Example number two: footy season gone wrong. So picture a mate whose footy team has had an absolute shocker of a season. They've done really bad, loss after loss. Same mistakes. Every week someone asks if they watched the game last night, they don't even hesitate.

"Mate, I don't give a rat's ass about footy this year. My team has been atrocious. It's been awful. I'm just- I've tapped out. I'm not interested. I don't give a rat's arse this year."

It's half a joke, but it's half genuine frustration. At this point, caring feels like more effort than it's worth, and the expression perfectly captures that total lack of enthusiasm. "Ugh, I just don't give a rat's ass about footy this year. Maybe next year."

Example number three. Imagine an office where someone's always stirring things up, always causing problems, never "letting sleeping dogs lie". See what I did there? That's a callback!

Whispers about who said what, speculation about promotions. Endless opinions that don't actually change anything. A co-worker listens for a bit, then just cuts in through it and says, "Mate, I'm starting to get frustrated. Who gives a rat's ass? Let's just finish the job and go home!"

Again, it's kind of a little bit risky, a little bit rude because you're at work, you know, it's very informal. The room might go quiet, people may nod.

And in this case, the phrase might shut down all the pointless drama, which is maybe the point of using a little more of an informal phrase in a workplace like that, right? It signals that whatever's being discussed is simply not worth the energy and the person's angry.

So yeah, that's where you could potentially get away with it in a formal situation, if you're not too worried about offending anyone or losing your job, I guess.

And lastly, a bonus example today: online arguments! Picture someone scrolling through social media stumbling into a heated comment section on Facebook. People are arguing. Insults are flying. Inevitably, as they always do: paragraphs! Written by strangers who'll never, ever change each other's minds, are just appearing on the screen. Comment after comment.

They read for a moment, then close the app. You know they just tap out when someone asks, why didn't you reply? I was I was reading that comment section and you just stopped talking.

They might say, "Oh mate, I gave up. Couldn't give a rat's arse anymore." "I don't care anymore. I'm out of it. I'm over it. I'm done."

So not because the topic's not interesting or not important, but engaging with it would add nothing to their life. That's the expression in its purest form, right? Choosing not to care. "I don't give a rat's arse."

So hopefully now, guys, you understand this expression and how to use it in day to day life. "To not give a rat's arse" is to not care in the slightest.

[Would you like a car-donay, Kylie? No, the correct pronunciation is chardonnay. Mum, it's French! The H is silent! Back me up here, Kylie!].

Okay, so let's go through a little speaking exercise where you can work on your Aussie English pronunciation. So find somewhere away from people where you can say things out loud aloud so that, yeah, you can practice your pronunciation, your speaking. You can use the muscles in your face to say these sounds the way that I say them.

If you're working on a different accent, then just use these sentences as a prompt to practice that. Whether it's British English, American English, a mix of all of them, whatever you want, we're going to use the phrase "I couldn't give a rat's arse."

So relatively simple one. Today we're using the different pronouns I, you, he, she, we, they, it. And the modal verb "could". All right. So when you're ready, listen and repeat after me. I'll say the sentence, give you a gap and then say the next one. All right, let's go.

I couldn't give a rat's arse.

You couldn't give a rat's arse.

He couldn't give a rat's arse.

She couldn't give a rat's arse.

We couldn't give a rat's arse.

They couldn't give a rat's arse.

It couldn't give a rat's arse.

Great job guys, great job. So, pronunciation tip wise today I love talking about connected speech. You will have noticed a bit of it. A few different things happening here.

Call back to the previous week where we talked about linking consonant sounds to vowel sounds, and there's two instances of that in the phrase "couldn't give a rat's arse", "couldn't give a rat's arse". Hopefully you just noticed them, right?

So "give" and "a" will become like "giva", "giva", "giva", "giva". We're linking that V to the start of the syllable with "a" "giva", "giva", "giva".

And then, "rat's arse". So you'll get this "sɐːs" right. /ræts ɐːs/ /ræts ɐːs/ /ræts ɐːs/. /ˈkʊdn ɡɪv ə ræts ɐːs/. So those are the two instances of consonant sounds linking to the following vowel sound.

And then we have an interesting thing happening between "couldn't" and "give". And I wonder if you just noticed. I tried to sort of point out the T there, /ˈkʊdnt/, if I really want to enunciate it clearly.

But something you may notice, when you have a contracted "not", so /n/ on the end of "could" "couldn't". And then the next word starts with either a consonant or vowel. So pretty much anything, right? There's sort of only two options.

You'll notice the T disappears and we bounce off the N. So you'll hear /ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv/, /ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv/, ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv ə ræts ɐːs/. You won't hear the T at all.

And that's because the N and the T are sort of the same position in your mouth. The tongue is in the same position, so the easiest thing to do is just say the N as a Syllabic N as a /n/ sound. /ˈkʊdn̩'/ /ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv◡ə ræts ɐːs/ and then just link to "give".

/ɑe ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv◡ə ræts ɐːs/.

/ɑe ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv◡ə ræts ɐːs/.

/ɑe ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv◡ə ræts ɐːs/.

And you may notice that N briefly stopping to show that it's a T, okay. /ˈkʊdn̩'/, like that. /ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv/, /ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv/, /ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv/, /ɑe ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv◡ə ræts ɐːs/. /juː ˈkʊdn̩' ɡɪv◡ə ræts ɐːs/. So yeah, very advanced stuff here that we're talking about this week, guys, with the Syllabic N and the muting of the T.

If you want to learn more about this stuff, I would really recommend checking out my Australian Pronunciation course. You can get this at AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100.

Follow that link and you'll save 100 bucks off, but you will be able to learn about the more advanced aspects of connected speech and linking in the third section of the course, okay.

The first one goes through the IPA, the International Phonetic Alphabet. The second section goes through the pronunciation of all the vowel sounds and all the consonant sounds in Australian English.

And then the third section covers a lot of really advanced pronunciation things to sound more natural when you speak, and it actually makes speaking a lot easier because you do all these rules that we use to make it easier so we can speak more quickly, right?

So go check it out. AussieEnglish.com.au/apc100. When I say APC 100, it's the Australian Pronunciation Course APC, and 100 to save 100 bucks off. Okay, 100. The link should be in the description. If you have a problem finding it, just send me a message.

And also I cover these in private lessons. If you're ever interested in private lessons, send me a message on Facebook or Instagram or just shoot me an email [email protected]. It's the stuff I love nerding out on, you know? I love talking about pronunciation and helping my students sound more Australian.

So if you're interested in that, shoot me a message. Anyway, shameless plugs aside, let's get into the Australian fact of the day.

So today we're going to talk about Australia's native rats, the unsung eco heroes. Did you know that Australia is home to some truly unique species of rats? And they're actually pretty important for the ecosystem.

While we do have introduced pest species like the black rat and the brown rat, Australia also has more than 60 native rodent species, including native rats and mice. These native rodents are often larger, furrier, and friendlier to the environment, helping to spread seeds, aerate soil, and keep ecosystems healthy.

Sadly, many have become endangered due to habitat loss and competition from invasive species. Here are three incredible native species you might not know about!

Rakali. Species name: Hydromys chrysogaster. Also known as the water rat, this sleek, semiaquatic rat is sometimes called Australia's answer to the otter. It has webbed feet, waterproof fur, and hunts fish, yabbies or crayfish, and frogs. Once hunted for its luxurious pelts, it's now protected and can even be seen in city waterways.

Two: the spinifex hopping mouse, Notomys alexis. Found in the red deserts of central Australia, this little legend has long, kangaroo-like legs for bounding across the sand. It rarely drinks water, surviving on moisture from seeds and insects that it eats, and its kidneys are the most efficient of any mammal on Earth, conserving every last drop.

And thirdly, the bush tailed tree rat, Conilurus penicillatus, a rare northern native with a tufted tail like a paintbrush, it builds leafy nests in the trees and even carries its young in its mouth when moving homes. Sadly, it's now listed as vulnerable due to habitat loss.

So even though the idiom uses "rat's arse" to mean something worthless, real Aussie rats are actually pretty valuable! Next time you say "don't give a rat's arse", remember the native Aussie rat might just take offence.

So anyway, guys, a bit of a long one today. I hope you enjoyed it. Don't forget to grab the free PDF download if you want to work on the vocab, the speaking exercise, and the definitions of everything in there today. And if you want to support the podcast, check out the Premium Podcast membership at AussieEnglish.com.au/podcast.

Besides that, thanks for joining, mate! If you enjoy the episode, share it with a mate. Please leave a review, give it a thumbs up or maybe five stars. Whatever you want. Yeah. Anyway. Thanks, mate. See you next time!

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.