I love watching British shows! I love:
- a) their accent,
- b) their mannerisms & culture,
- c) the awesome architecture/old timey buildings, and
- d) the slangs, which is what this blog post is about.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous blog post about “Jamie-isms” I like listening to not only what people say but also how they say it. The UK’s culture has shaped a lot of the idioms; it has always fascinated me. Some of the slangs I’ve heard are easily understood or have been used in North America or familiar to us, but a bunch of them I had to look up their meaning. So, I’ve decided to collect some in this blog post with a few examples, from the obvious to the not-so-obvious.
- Chips – French fries
- Tube – subway
- Mate – friend, pal or chum
- Telly – television
- Loo – bathroom
- Ice-lolly – popsicle
- Brilliant – great
- Wicked – cool
- Chuffed – proud
- Rubbish – garbage
- Whinge – Whine
- Going across the pond - going to North America, going to the UK or vice versa.
- Jolly good – extremely good
- Kerfuffle – a fuss, commotion
- Fortnight – a period of two weeks
- Blimey – exclamation of surprise similar to “Oh my goodness!”
- Boot – the storage area of a car, in North American terms the trunk of a car.
- Dodgy – iffy, suspicious, illegal. “That store looked really dodgy.”
- Proper – good, right, went well, legit. Example: “I had a proper sleep last night.”
- “How are you getting on with…?” – “How are you doing with…?”
- Having a row with someone – having a fight with someone
- Blinding – an adjective for excellence. Example: “That was a blinding episode of that show!”
- Tickety-boo or hunky-dory – going smoothly, going well. Example: “Is your paperwork tickety-boo today?”
Hope you’ve had fun reading these. I’ve certainly used a few of them once and a while. I shall end this blog post with an appropriate Brit slang: “Cheerio, old chap!” Until next time!
