In this episode of Aussie English I teach you how to use the phrase “The Whole *insert noun* Thing” when talking about something that you do or don’t like.

Ep064: Expression – The Whole insert noun Thing

G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English.

Today I’m going to be talking to you about a phrase or an expression that I used in the previous Walking With Pete episode that was on Pokémon. So, the Pokémon Go episode. You can check it out if you want to listen to this… this expression that I’m about to go over. And the expression is “The whole…” then you say a noun, “Thing”. So, “The whole *insert noun* thing”, “The whole something thing”. So, the phrase that I said in this episode was, “So, the whole Pokémon, different animals, and evolving thing really, you know, inspired me, and I loved… I loved playing that game”. And so, you can see there that I’ve said “The whole…” and then I’ve used a few nouns, “Pokémon”, “Different animals”, and “Evolving” and then said “Thing” at the end. So, that just means, when you try and sort of break down what that sentence meant, it means that I was really into everything related to Pokémon, and to different animals, so everything related to, evolution and evolving. So, the whole Pokémon, different animals and evolving thing. Everything related to those things that I mentioned in between “Whole” and “Thing”. So, any time you say “The whole” and then you put a noun in the middle and then you say “Thing” after it, it sort of means anything and everything related to that thing as well as it itself and doing it. So, I’ll run you through some examples just to explain it a little bit better.

So, say you’ve got a lot of friends who’re really into football, but you aren’t yourself very into football. You’re not really interested in it. You don’t like it. You could say something along the lines of, “My friends are really into footy but I’ve never really gotten the whole footy thing”. So, “I’ve never really been into the whole footy thing”. That just means you’ve never really been interested in any… anything related to footy or the whole footy thing, everything footy.

Another example could be that you have some friends who like doing drugs, you know, they might like smoking a few jays [slang for joints], a few joints. They might like doing heroin for all I know. They like doing drugs. You could say something along the lines of, “You’re not very interested in the whole doing drugs thing, are you?”. You know, if you said to someone, “You don’t really like it do you? You’re not really interested in the whole doing drugs thing are you?” So, you’re not really interested in doing any form of drugs. You don’t really like doing drugs. “You’re not interested in the whole doing drugs thing are you?”

Another example could be that you have friends that like dating, you know, they like going out with guys, they like going out with girls. They’re a bit… a bit into being social and meeting other people. You could say, “She’s always loved the whole dating thing”. So, “She’s always loved the whole dating thing”, that would mean, yeah, she’s always been, you know, interested in dating guys and doing everything related to dating. She loves the dating thing. Everything related to dating.

So another example could be that someone’s really into video games and you yourself aren’t, and so when someone’s talking about you they could say “yeah, he’s never really got the whole video game thing.” So, “He’s never really gotten interested in, he’s never really liked the whole video game thing.” He just… he never played video games in one for or another. “He’s never liked the whole video game thing”.

Another example could be that you have friends who like living near the beach, and they like the culture and surfing and everything to do with the water and being near the beach. So, you could say, “We’ve always liked the whole surfing, beach, and laid back lifestyle thing”, and that sort of just means everything related to, you know, surfing, the beach, being laid back, having a relaxed lifestyle near the beach.

And the last example could be someone’s really interested in learning languages, and they’re obsessed with it. So, you could say, “Yeah, they’re obsessed with the whole language learning thing”, or “With the whole learning languages thing”.

So, you’ll notice there how I used a lot of phrases a long the lines of, to have never been into, to not be interested in, to love, to never get, to have always liked, or to be obsessed with. And so, this phrase, “The whole *insert noun* and then thing”, is often used when you’re talking about something that you like or don’t like, particularly an activity or, yeah, any kind of noun that you can sort of do or not do. So, like video games and dating, all those sorts of things.

So, now I’ll run you through some phrases, and I’ll say the phrase first without the phrase “The whole thing” in there, and you have to convert the phrase that I say to insert “The whole thing” into the phrase. So, I’ll say the phrase first. For example, “I’m into surfing”, and then you say the one after me in converting that one into, “I’m into the whole surfing thing”. So, repeat after me.

I’m into surfing.

I’m into the whole surfing thing.

You’re interested in cooking.

You’re interested in the whole cooking thing.

He’s a fan of mixed martial arts.

He’s a fan of the whole mixed martial arts thing.

She’s not really fond of camping.

She’s not really fond of the whole camping thing.

We adore the great outdoors.

We adore the whole great outdoors thing.

They hate sports and exercise.

They hate the whole sports and exercise thing.

So, that’s the expression for today guys. It’s not an idiomatic expression, but it’s definitely something that’s used quite a lot in colloquial spoken English, and it’s something that I said in a previous episode without thinking about it. So, I just sort of naturally [used it]… and that’s why I thought, “Oh this is important! I should chat to you guys about this and mention it in an episode.” It’s definitely one of those things that if you implement it when you start talking with natives it takes your English to the next level. So, anyway, I hope you’re enjoying these episodes and I’ll chat to you soon. See you later guys!