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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.

  1. Chips – French fries
  2. Tube – subway
  3. Mate – friend, pal or chum
  4. Telly – television
  5. Loo – bathroom
  6. Ice-lolly – popsicle
  7. Brilliant – great
  8. Wicked – cool
  9. Chuffed – proud
  10. Rubbish – garbage
  11. Whinge – Whine
  12. Going across the pond - going to North America, going to the UK or vice versa.
  13. Jolly good – extremely good
  14. Kerfuffle – a fuss, commotion
  15. Fortnight – a period of two weeks
  16. Blimey – exclamation of surprise similar to “Oh my goodness!
  17. Boot – the storage area of a car, in North American terms the trunk of a car.
  18. Dodgy – iffy, suspicious, illegal. “That store looked really dodgy.
  19. Proper – good, right, went well, legit. Example: “I had a proper sleep last night.
  20. “How are you getting on with…?” – “How are you doing with…?
  21. Having a row with someone – having a fight with someone
  22. Blinding – an adjective for excellence. Example: “That was a blinding episode of that show!
  23. 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!

 

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