
People have been sharing uniquely British words and phrases that totally confuse and amuse outsiders – 23 top notch befuddlers
If you’ve grown up with a language you’ll be so utterly used to it that you won’t consider whether particular words and their usage might sound strange and amusing to people from abroad who are learning to speak it.
However, a Reddit user called AnalogueSpectre took to the AskUK page recently to ask people about phrases that are peculiar to British English, and provided some examples of their own:
‘What are some common words and collocations used in UK English speech that are very British, and uncommon in Englishes from elsewhere? I’m not talking about the run-of-the-mill biscuit x cookie things or spelling. But words and collocations/phrases you use everyday and, when you read or hear someone use it, you know the person is a Brit.
‘Since I (native Portuguese speaker) started learning British English, I realised there’s lots of words and collocations I wouldn’t usually hear, or never heard at all, in the English-language media from the Americas. Here are some words and collocations that sound very British to me:
absolute, massive, proper, lovely (in the sense of ‘kind, pleasant’ instead of ‘cute’), chuffed, gutted, gobasmacked, hammered, cheeky, minder, utter(ly), one-off, to take the piss, (can’t) be arsed (to), cock-up, have a nice one, lad, bloke, revise (for exams), fit (sexy), fancy/to fancy, have got, sick (meaning vomit), to get sick (with the sole meaning of vomiting), to be/feel poorly, chap, dodgy
And lots of people jumped in with turns of phrase that are deeply British, like these…
1.
‘Fanny about, meaning to act in an indecisive fashion.’
–AlRedux
2.
‘Also faff about meaning the same thing. Unless something is ‘a bit of a faff’ meaning it’s overly and unnecessarily complicated.’
–gandyg
3.
‘Not necessarily because its very British, but my Polish other half who was fluent in taught English, had to learn the word ‘reckon’ quite quickly over here. It doesn’t really have a translation into other languages and is used so often, yet isn’t really one of those words you could ever imagine ‘non-English’ people being taught as part of their lexicon.’
–Educational_Way3900
4.
‘Absobloodylutely.’
–Shitelark
5.
‘Scottish so still technically UK: ‘Outwith’
‘Fuck knows why none of you use this fantastic word.’
–RBisoldandtired
6.
‘Fortnight is so useful, I wish it was more common abroad.’
–AnalogueSpectre
7.
‘Old usage — short for ‘fourteen nights’. In previous centuries a week was called ‘a sennight’, on the same principle; interesting that one survived while the other didn’t.’
–LandofGreenGinger62
8.
‘Muppet, a fairly casual insult.’
–OllyDee
9.
‘Shag. Very British. Also shagged meaning tired, or of an object no longer at its best.’
–AlRedux
10.
‘Not a word but adding -ish to something: We’ll meet at 5ish.’
–01000010-01101001
11.
‘Whilst. Never heard any American use it.’
–bjb13
12.
‘Mardy – meaning moody, grumpy. I don’t know many people who use it here in the South, but my gosh is it useful.’
–decisiontoohard