In this Aussie English Expression episode I teach you guys how to use the expression TO HAVE A BLAST like a native Australian!

Expression: To Have a Blast

G’day guys. Welcome to this Expression episode on Aussie English.

As usual, I am here videoing the Expression episode now. I’m trying to play with this little lapel mic. I’m trying to see how this goes. So, I’m using this in a few episodes. And, yeah, I’m facing my window, (I’ve) got the light on me. Hopefully these episodes are a little nicer. Although, you have the backdrop of my desk. So, not the nicest thing to look at, but beggars can’t be choosers, and I’ll save that expression for another episode.

Today’s expression is TO HAVE A BLAST. TO HAVE A BLAST. Obviously, you’re going to know what the verb TO HAVE means. That’s one of the first things anyone learns in any language, whether it’s English or not, you learn how to use the verb TO HAVE, TO HAVE SOMETHING.

A BLAST is just a (an*) explosion, a massive sound, some kind of bang, A BLAST. If you light some dynamite and throw it somewhere and it goes off, it explodes, it makes a bang, that’s A BLAST. That’s A BLAST.

So, the definition of the phrase TO HAVE A BLAST is just to have a great time, to have an amazing time, to have an incredible time, an awesome time, to really enjoy yourself. So, obviously, then this is associated with events or some kind of thing that you’ve done for the day, that you have had a lot of fun doing, that you’ve really enjoyed, that you would say WAS A BLAST. And, so that event WAS A BLAST. You can say that. But you yourself HAD A BLAST at the event. So, you HAD A BLAST and the event WAS A BLAST.

This is also similar to the expression A BLAST FROM THE PAST and I went over this in one of the 1-Minute Expression episodes. So, I’ll make sure I link that below. And so, yeah, it’s similar to that idea. Just to go over it quickly, A BLAST FROM THE PAST is just something or someone that evokes, that causes you to have a sense of nostalgia. So, you think of something from the past that you loved when you were young and you were like, “Oh man! Remember… you know, having these chocolates as a kid, this brand of chocolate. This was friggen amazing! You know, like, that IS SUCH A BLAST FROM THE PAST.”. Anyway, go watch that video if you want to see more on that.

Let’s go through some examples, guys, about what we could say when we’re trying to use the expression TO HAVE A BLAST. And again, this is going to be associated with doing things, with having things happen to you that are related to events, whatever it is.

So, for example, number 1. This is probably the most common example. You go to a party, and someone says at the end of the night, you know, you’ve been drinking, you’ve been seeing old friends, you’ve been partying hard, dancing, maybe got a little crazy and you took your shirt off. Anything could have happened. You had an amazing time thought. And at the end someone says, “Oh! You went to this party last night.”, you know, “How was it?” or at the end of the party itself they could say, “How was the party? What did you think? Did you like it? Was it fun?”, you know. It could be the person who actually ran the party, it could be the person whose house it was who organised the party, and they could be asking you, “What did you think?”. If you really liked it, if you really enjoyed yourself, if you had an amazing time you could say, “I HAD A BLAST! I HAD AN ABSOLUTE BLAST! It was an amazing night. What A BLAST! I HAD A BLAST!”.

Example number 2. Imagine that you go to a music concert and it’s a band you’ve never seen before. You aren’t sure. “Is it going to be good? Is it going to be an awful?”, you know, “I don’t know what this music’s like, I really hope it’s good.”. You end up going and you love it. You have an amazing time, you really enjoy yourself, you had your beer, the music turned out to be exactly the kind of music that you love listening to. You had no idea beforehand. Your friends had just brought you there and they’d said, you know, “You’ve got to check out this band, but we’re not telling you who it is. You’ll just come and you’ll…” Maybe you were a little skeptical at first and you were thinking, “Oh… it’s going to be horrible.”. Anyway, you had a great time, and at the end of your night your friends could say, “Well, what did you think? It was pretty good wasn’t it?” and you could say, “Far out, man! That WAS A BLAST! I HAD A BLAST! I HAD AN ABSOLUTE BLAST! What a crazy band. They’re amazing. It WAS A BLAST. I HAD A BLAST!”.

Example number 3. Could be that you try surfing for the first time. And this happens obviously where I grew up, you know, you would see people getting taught how to surf all the time on Ocean Grove main beach. If you haven’t seen that Google Ocean Grove, down near Geelong, so in Victoria, Australia. Ocean Grove beach. And there were… we used to have cars that would show up, or big trucks. Trucks? Maybe, vans. And they’d be filled with Malibu surfboards. So, the big surfboards and the ones that end in a round sort of tip that are really easy to stand on, not the sharp ones. Those are Malibus. Anyway, those trucks or vans used to show up all the time with trailers or just full of all the wetsuits and the different boards that you can use, you can hire, and you could get lessons on how to surf. And so, you would go to the beach on a lot of these days in summer and you would see a whole team of people out in the waves, not necessarily out the back of the waves, so in the really really big surf, but towards just the shallow end of the beach with the very very small waves that you can still catch. And these guys are learning how to surf, you know. Maybe they’re awful. It doesn’t matter. The whole point is that they’re in there. They’re having a go. And they’re always… they were always laughing, smiling, and you would see them come out and, you know, I would walk up and say, “What did you think? Was this your first time surfing? Did you love it?”. One of them could simply say in return, “It WAS A BLAST! I loved it. I HAD A BLAST! Surfing IS A BLAST! I HAD AN ABSOLUTE BLAST!”.

So, those are some of the examples, guys, for how you would use the expression TO HAVE A BLAST, and that was all obviously in the past tense. You could use this in the Present Tense, I’M HAVING A BLAST, I HAVE A BLAST when I do something. Or you can use it in the Future Tense, I WILL HAVE A BLAST tomorrow at this party, I’m sure. It’s going to be good. I know I’M GOING TO HAVE A BLAST.

And, just to change things up a little bit here, guys, I’m going to make this a substitution exercise where I’m going to use a number of different synonyms for A BLAST. So, in the case of A BLAST as in a good time you could say, an incredible time, a great time, an amazing time, etc., etc.. I’m going to go through the different pronouns in this example, and the first sentence is going to end with, for example, “…a great time”. And I want you to change that into “A BLAST”.

So, you’ll work it out. Let’s dive in.

Substitution exercise:

I had a great time.

I had a blast.

You had an incredible time.

You had a blast.

He had a splendid time.

He had a blast.

She had an awesome time.

She had a blast.

We had an amazing time.

We had a blast.

They had a terrific time.

They had a blast.

So, that’s really all there is to it guys. A BLAST, a good time, an amazing time, an incredible time. You went to something, you really enjoyed yourself, or maybe you’re going to something and you know you’re going to enjoy yourself. That is that you are going TO HAVE A BLAST. Something WILL BE A BLAST. The event’s going to be amazing. It’LL BE A BLAST. You know you’re going to have a good time. You’LL HAVE A BLAST.

Anyway, make sure you comment down below and use this in an example. Try and use this in language. Try and use this every day, you know, in order to learn these things you have to be using them. And also, jump on Facebook, send me a message, send me a comment, just say hello. I love hearing from you guys. Tell me what you’re up to. Tell me what you’re doing with English at the moment. Have you got anything that you’re finding difficult that you would like an episode done on? Can I answer any questions for you? And until next time guys, all the best!