In today’s episode of Aussie English I teach you guys how to use the expression “To Scrape By”.
G’day guys. Welcome to this episode of Aussie English. Today’s going to be an expression episode, and it’s just started raining outside. So, I hope that’s not too loud in the background. It should be ok.
Um… Today’s expression is going to be “To scrape by”, “To scrape by”, and it has two different sort of definitions, two different instances where you may use this expression.
The first is to manage to live when you don’t have enough money or you don’t have a lot of money for the necessary things that you want in life, or um… other resources that you may need. So, if someone lost his job and his family is having to live on just the salary of his wife then you could say that “They are just managing to scrape by on his wife’s salary.” If they only just have enough money to get the food they need, the water they need, to pay the bills. They’re only just scraping by.
So, that’s the two different definitions and I guess I’ve already given you some examples there, but I’ll run through a few more detailed examples. I’ll get a little more into how you can use these expressions.
So, another example could be that you have a pretty average job, you know, say you make 50-60 thousand dollars Australian every year. That’s probably the average income here for the average person. You’ve saved up a lot of money and you’ve taken a big loan out at a bank. So, you’ve asked a bank to loan you some money because you want to buy a really really expensive car because it’s just your favourite kind of car. You’ve always wanted one, and it could be, you know, a Ferrari, a Porsche, a Lamborghini. It’s definitely beyond your means of paying for this car easily. So, you can’t just, you know, you’re not making a million dollars a year so you can’t just buy this and it’s only a tiny portion of your yearly income. It’s way way way more than your yearly income, and that’s why you’ve had to get a loan. You bought the car and now you’re only just managing to pay for one, the car. So it’s taking a lot of your income in order to pay for the loan and to pay for the upkeep, the repairs of the car. So, “You’re scraping by paying for the car”. And then you could also say “As a result you’re scraping by paying for your food, paying for your rent, paying for your bills, and just in general you’re only just scraping by.” So, you’re only just able to afford to live after having bought this very very expensive car and paying for it.
So, that’s that first one of scraping by with regards to money and being able to afford to live or afford to buy the things that you need to live.
The next two examples are more talking about only just scraping by with regards to say an exam score or just just just being able to get into something like a team or something. So, we’ll go into the other two examples here guys where it’s more about just being able to get a successful result, you know, in the face of difficulty, in being able to reach an acceptable standard.
So, this time for example, say you’re trying to get a spot on a famous football team, say it’s Australian rules footy and you’re trying to get into the AFL, which is the main league, the AFL, as opposed to the VFL of the teams below the VFL. AFL, the Australian Football League, they’re the main teams. You’re trying to get a position on say Melbourne, the team Melbourne, The Demons, and there’s only twenty something spots on the team that are available. So, you’ve got to compete with potentially 100s of different guys in order to try and get a spot on this team. And say, all but one spot was filled on the team. So, they selected 19 of the 20 players that were going to be on the team and then finally selected you. You were the 20th selection. You only just got in. You could say, “I only just scraped by in the selection for the 20 spots on the football team.” Or you could say that “I only just managed to scrape through the selection”. And, you can often hear this phrase with “Through”, the word “Through” if it’s something like a selection that you have to go through. “You only just scraped THROUGH the selection.” So you could also say “I scraped by IN the selection” but you might also hear, “I also managed to scrape THROUGH the selection”.
And, ok, say the last example here, you’re competing in the Olympics, say in a sport like boxing or sprinting, it could be swimming, and say that the competition is set up in a way that it is a knock-out style. So, every time someone loses they get knocked-out of the competition and whoever ends up winning hasn’t lost a single time. So, it’s a knock-out style tournament, or a knock-out style competition. So, say you get into the finals. You’ve won every single one of your boxing fights or you’ve won every single one of your races. You’ve got into the finals and you only just win, you know, by a second or by a certain number of points. You’ve only just managed to win but you get gold medal and you’re the world champion. You could say that “I only just scraped by to get into the finals. I only just scraped through into the finals. I only just scraped through the finals to win in the end. I just scraped through to win a gold medal.” So, that’s how you would use this phrase, “To scrape by” or “To scrape through”.
I’m managing to scrape by.
You’re managing to scrape by.
He’s managing to scrape by.
She’s managing to scrape by.
We’re managing to scrape by.
They’re managing to scrape by.
So, that’s the episode for today guys. I’ll try and keep it short and sweet. We’ll end it there, and I’ll chat to you soon. All the best!
Check out all the other recent Expression episodes below.
In this Aussie English episode of Walking With Pete I tell you guys about what I’ve been up to recently as well as my recent plans to develop an online membership page for Aussie English.
Hey guys, what’s up? Welcome to this episode of Walking With Pete. It’s been a while. I’ve been a little caught up with a few other things in life. I mean, I’ve been doing a few episodes as you’ve probably all noticed. [I’ve been] Doing things like the Uluru episode. That’s been a bit of fun but it takes a bit of time to get that done. [I’ve] Smashed that out. But yeah, aside from that, I’ve just been studying like a machine, getting back into training as well and getting back into doing weights and getting back into doing jiu-jitsu several times a week, and yeah it’s funny how once you get back into that regular routine of just working on your body and exercising in general you just feel so much better about yourself and about things in general. I feel like I have a much more positive outlook when I’m doing that on a regular basis than when I get to be a bit more lazy and stop training as regularly and find myself sitting at home or going home straight after work to eat and being a little more lazy in general, and it’s funny how you kind of get a bit more down in the dumps and depressed as a result of being inactive but then as soon as you start being active again, once you drag yourself out of that slump you feel friggen amazing! So, that’s where I’m currently at. I’ve been doing that. [I’ve been] Trying to smash out the podcasts and I took on a new student recently for tutoring, and I’ll give a shout out to him. Juan I just want to say thank you. I had a good chat with him the other day for our first lesson and he really got me to nip it in the bud and work out a way of monetising Aussie English finally. So, I really want to say thank you to him. We were just chatting about things in general, helping him with his English, and he just had all these really really good ideas and encouragement for me to, I guess, get out of my comfort zone and work towards producing products that I can sell on Aussie English or on the website on The Aussie English Podcast that you guys will really benefit from and hopefully be able to further support myself doing what I love doing, which is obviously creating content for Aussie English and helping you guys improve your Australian English and learn to speak English like an Australia, with Australians. And so, yeah, [a] massive thank you to you Juan, and I’m getting on it. So, I spent all of today trying to smash out, trying to get done a new website theme. I had to download this website theme which will allow me to setup a members section on the website where I haven’t worked out all of the details yet but ultimately the aim is to setup a members section where you guys can have the opportunity to subscribe to that members section and have access to exclusive Aussie English material. So, I’m still yet to work out all of the details, but it will I think definitely encourage me to do more, obviously if it’s generating an income and allowing me to first and foremost support myself obviously and keep a roof over my head, keep food on the table, keep me warm at night, but also obviously to spend less time working in say the restaurant and more time at home working on free products for you guys, more videos on YouTube. I’d love to do some more packages. As you probably know I’m working on that pronunciation package at the moment where I will keep releasing all of those for free obviously for you guys to listen to and get the most out of as a sort of thank you for all of you guys who have joined me from the beginning. So, that’ll keep happening but membership wise I’m thinking about just potentially releasing more content more regularly on the website for anyone who signs up. But then also potentially creating lessons like more in depth lessons whether it’s about Australian history with MP3s that go with that as well as PDFs and exercises as well as also wanting to create an Aussie English group where you guys will have access to me whenever I’m awake, obviously. I was going to say at any hour of the day but I’m… obviously not when I’m asleep. But you’ll have access to me to ask me your personal, you know, issues, your questions to get verification of certain things in English, and yeah, just I would love to foster a kind of Aussie English community where we can all work together and discuss things and just help each other, and work towards improving all of your English.
So, that’s where the basic idea is at the moment. And so, step one, today after watching a bunch of tutorials on YouTube and reading quite a lot on how to set this up, step one was switch the Aussie English website theme over to a new theme, which will be able to house these things, the membership site as well as have other parts of the website that I can setup for selling products, as the theme I had previously didn’t have those options. So, I spent all of today redoing the theme and trying to make it look nice and cleaner too. It was just a bit messy previously I thought. So, I did that. That’s step one. And then, step two is having to buy and download and set up some kind of system where I can house all of the stuff and make it available to everyone who is a member, or who signs up to be a member of the website. So, that’s the next step, but I thought I would just get this theme sorted, play around with it until I’m happy, take things as they come, and then once that’s good I’ll sort out this… the next step, I guess. So, that’s where I’m at with that. And then also I wanted to take a little time to work out how I could best serve you guys if I am to create something that you end up paying for. So, remember if you have any suggestions, any tips, any ideas, I am totally open to anything and everything that you guys have to say, ‘cause at the end of the day, ultimately, I’m doing this to serve you guys, to help you guys. So, you may have a better idea of what you want than I do. So, don’t feel like you can’t tell me exactly what you think or what you feel. Maybe I’m going down the wrong track. Maybe I’m doing the wrong thing. Maybe you’ve got a much better idea. Please feel free to tell me. I do not mind at all being corrected by you guys or being put on a different path. I just want to help you guys improve your English.
So, yeah, [I’m] currently crossing a huge roundabout that I cross every single day going home, just walking. Today was a beautiful day. [It’s] time to actually talk about something probably more interesting than just what I got up to with setting up the website. It was the first day in months and months and months, I think, of above 30oC. So, it was absolutely beautiful. The sun was out. There’s not much wind. It’s incredibly warm. Everyone’s running around in shorts and t-shirts. I went out at lunchtime and had a nice ice cream from one of the stores down Lygon st, which was amazing. [I] went out there with two of the girls from work and we all had ice cream. And, yeah, [I] spent all of today working on the website. So, [I] might go home now as I’m walking home instead of going to the gym and give my brain a rest as well as my body as I’m bit burnt out, I’m a bit wrecked. Anyway, I’m not sure how you guys are going to hear me. Hopefully this recorded ok. I’ll have to check it out when I get home. I’m just doing it on my phone as usual. But I can tell that there’s a lot of background noise. So, anyway, yeah, that was the update for where I’m at with things, what I’ve been up to recently as well as what is in the near future, in the foreseeable future with Aussie English. So, what I’ve got planned. So, yeah, I might leave it at that guys, and I will chat to you soon. Stay tuned. See you later!
In today’s episode, Ep066: Expression – Step by step, Piece by piece, Bit by bit, etc., you’ll learn how to use the common form or pattern in english of “Something by something”, e.g. “Step by step”, “Piece by piece”, “Bit by bit”, etc.
Hey everyone from Aussie English!
Today is another expression episode and I’m going to talk to you again about an expression that I heard myself say in the previous episode of Walking With Pete where I talked about breaking things down into their most manageable parts so that things become a lot easier to deal with, to process, to improve upon, and then hopefully, you know, break things down, solve one bit at a time, and then eventually realise that you have completely finished the task that you previously thought was incredibly difficult or even impossible, such as becoming fluent in English.
So, today I want to break down the ah… the phrase or the sort of form of phrase, “Brick by brick”. So, in the last episode of Walking With Pete I talk about building um… a brick wall “Brick by brick”. So, one brick at a time, and I used a few analogies in that episode but one of them was that learning a language is much the same as building a brick wall. You can’t build a brick wall all in one go. You can’t learn a language all in one go. You have to just pick up one or two bricks at a time, place them in the wall, and then slowly build that wall over time the same as with learning a language. It’s so much easier to learn a language if you focus on one piece of grammar, one area of vocabulary at a time, and work hard at getting good at that area, conquer that area, do well in that area, and then get to the next one and focus on that, and slowly build your brick wall that is the language that you’re trying to become fluent in, that you’re trying to conquer, and within no time at all, well… within a bit of time, it takes months or years but if you do it bit by bit it seems like no time eventually and you’ll look back and all of a sudden behind you you’ll have this metaphorical um… analogy of a brick wall that is the language that you can now speak um… fluently, that you can speak better than you could have a week ago, a month ago, a year ago. Anyway.
So, I wanted to kind of break down that “Brick by brick” piece of… of English, that expression, because we use this [pattern/form] quite a lot and it’s often a noun that we’ll pick and we’ll use such as “A brick” and we’ll say “Brick by brick”, “Step by step”, “Bit by bit”, “Piece by piece”, “Tree by tree”. So, it’s… it’s a pattern you’ll see quite a bit when we’re talking about doing something in stages. So, trying to complete a process with individual stages like learning a language bit by bit, or building a wall brick by brick. So, it will be something that’s happening or that is done in a series of steps or stages. So, in order to accomplish it you have to do it piece by piece, bit by bit.
So, it’s analogous to the expression “One *something* at a time”. So, you could say, “Brick by brick” or “one brick at a time”. You could say, “Step by step”, or “One step at a time”. You could say, “Bit by bit” or “Piece by piece” or “One bit at a time”, “One piece at a time”. So, it’s a pretty simple…. It’s a pretty simple form that you guys can use when you’re speaking and I guess I’ll just run you through some exercises, ‘cause there’s not really that much more to say about it really.
So, I’m going to say a series of sentences that end in the… in the form “One something at a time”. So, “One bit at a time”, “One step at a time”, “One piece at a time”, and I want you guys to listen to what I say and then repeat it, but instead of saying the “One bit at a time” I want you to turn that into “Bit by bit”, “Step by step”, “Piece by piece”. So, an example could be, and I’ll say this one just to start with and then you guys listen and repeat after me, “I finished the game one bit at a time”, and then you guys would say, “I finished the game bit by bit”. So, here we go. Listen and convert these sentences after me.
I finished the game one bit at a time.
I finished the game bit by bit.
He built the wall brick by brick.
She made the cake one step at a time.
She made the cake step by step.
He dismantled the machine one piece at a time.
He dismantled the machine piece by piece.
She learnt the song one line at a time.
She learnt the song line by line.
We flicked through the magazine one page at a time.
We flicked through the magazine page by page.
They felled the forest one tree at a time.
They felled the forest tree by tree.
The police searched the town one house at a time.
The police searched the town house by house.
They solved the puzzle one piece at a time.
They solved the puzzle piece by piece.
The new couple took their relationship one day at a time.
The new couple took their relationship day by day.
So, there’s a few verbs that I used in there that may be a little more complicated in some of those examples, and I might explain them now. I forget to do it before hand. Um… so, often when people flick through a book, or flick through a magazine, it just means that you’re rather hastily going through the book um… or the magazine, or anything like a newspaper, anything that you read effectively, that’s like full of pages. If you flick through it it gives the impression that you’re literally [the sound of flicking through a book] doing this through the book, or through the magazine. So, you’re like flicking from one page to the next page. Flick, flick, flick, flick, flick. So, we’ll often say that if you’re browsing through a magazine say in a hairdresser’s or while you’re waiting, you know, for a dental appointment or something like that where there’s a lot of magazines around that you can read. If you flick through them it means that you’re not necessarily reading every single thing on the page of every single page. You’re just rapidly going through he magazine looking for something interesting.
And also, I said the phrase, “They felled the forest one tree at a time.” This is a rather advanced verb that you probably won’t hear very often, but if you’re chopping down trees, or cutting down anything that’s like wood related, you’ll “Fell” it. So, it sounds the same as the past tense of “To fall”, “To fell”, but it’s actually the verb in this case for chopping down something. So, you… you fell a tree. You fell the trees in a forest. A forest can be felled. It means that they’ve all been cut down. So, “To fell something”, and in the past tense it becomes “Felled” or “To have felled”. So, that’s just another interesting verb that you guys probably won’t hear very often but I just thought I would tell you now what it means. Anyway, that’s probably enough for today’s episode guys. I hope it helps. Um… let me know what you think on Facebook. Send me a message to say hello anyway, ‘cause I love hearing from you guys, and stay tuned for future episodes. All the best guys!
Haha yeah I’ve heard German is a tricky language too!
What a beauty of episode. I loved it, thanks for your insights. It’s quite impressive how easily you guys can talk fluently about so many different things. Great work!
Hehe glad you liked it Ana! Are you living in France at the moment?