Using British English – 20 words you thought you knew

True, Americans and British speak the same language, but very often they don’t understand each other at all. If you are using British English for the first time, start collecting words and expressions before you leave home. Otherwise, you may be surprised by local expressions that mean something completely different than what they mean at home. Like the friend of travelers, in the photo above. The British call it a fanny pack; If you used the familiar American expression for it, you would get a lot of smiles and giggles.

Read on for 20 words and expressions you probably think you already know the meaning of. Maybe you really don’t.

1. All good? Although this sounds like a question, it is just a way of saying: Hello, how are you? as a greeting It is common in informal situations in London and the South East. The correct answer to “Is it okay?” it is, in fact, “Very good.” Using it is a bit like using the French expression “Ca va?”, Which broadly translated means How are you doing? to which the answer is “Ca va”: it goes.
2. Any way Northerners sometimes say this instead of any way or any way , it means the same thing,
3. Buckle Up If someone tells you this, they are not suggesting you buckle up. In fact, they are being rude. It means shut up . It is most often used by irritated parents who scold their children.

1. Cookies If you expect something nice and thick that is good with sauce or butter and jam, you will be disappointed. In the UK, a cookie is what Americans call a cookie.
2. Bollocks There is no getting around the fact that bollocks are testicles. It is used in exclamations the way Americans might say “Balls!” Usually it means nonsense. Here is an exchange that might help you understand how to use it correctly:
   “I heard that Marilyn Monroe is still alive and living in a nunnery.”
   “That’s just nonsense” or “Now you’re talking nonsense.”

1. Bugger This has a variety of meanings, depending on what word it is combined with. If you just say “Bugger!” That is a sign of mild exclamation of frustration, similar to the way Americans use damned, demons or even cursed. “Bugger all” means “nothing” as in “I returned the wallet I found and put everything in for my problem.” And, if you made a mess tuning in on the television, or the computer just wasn’t behaving the way it should, you could say it was “all messed up.”
2. Fanny Pack What Americans call a fanny pack . But in the UK, a fanny is what a British boy might call a woman’s ‘bottom’. Don’t say it unless you want a funny look and sarcastic comments.

1. Butchers A fun way to say a “look” or a “look” at something. It comes from the Cockney rhyming slang: butcher hook = look . It’s not commonly used, but people occasionally throw it into casual conversation. Instead of “Let me see that,” you might hear, “Let’s have butchers in that.”
2. Chat flirting with the goal of picking up someone. The collection lines are called conversation lines in the UK.
3. Chuffed When you are very happy, proud and ashamed at the same time, you are happy. You may be surprised to receive an unexpected gift or to see your child win a prize. People often say that they are really happy .

1. Dog dinner A disaster. It can be used as an unflattering way to describe someone’s appearance: “Don’t use that combination. You look like a doggie dinner. Or it can be used to describe any unfortunate mix of styles: “With those Tudor windows and the modern addition of glass, that house looks like a dog’s dinner.”
2. Easy pea A snap or a cinch. A common expression to describe something very easy, something you could do blindfolded.
3. Flog No, it doesn’t mean spanking today, although you can. It means to sell. When someone tells you they are going to “Flog the TV on eBay,” they are not suggesting a strange practice, but a way to put something up for sale.

1. Final point A period in grammar. The British never use the word period in the sense of a punctuation mark. The final period is also used in the same way that the period is used, to emphasize: “Belt. I won’t listen to another of your stupid stories, full stop! “
2. Pants Aha, you thought you already knew that pants only mean boxer shorts in Britain and that you should say pants when you refer to clothes that are seen in public. Well I got you! First of all, some people in the north say pants when they talk about pants.
   But recently “pants” has become an expression for anything that is trash, second-rate, or terrible, as in:
   “What did you think of the show?”
   “It was pants!”
   It is not very clear where this use comes from, but it may be related to a British public school expression, a lot of old pants , which means something smelly and useless. A few years ago, a British government minister (who probably went to a British public school) described someone’s asylum application as a pile of pants and then had to apologize for it.

1. Angry Drunk. It can be annoying or get upset and it has nothing to do with being angry. A related term, pissing off is a party that involves a lot of alcohol. And it is said that someone who is poorly organized and clueless is a person who “could not organize a piss in a brewery.”
2. Very to be careful how to use this or you may insult someone. It is a modifier that reduces the power of the moderating word. I once told a British acquaintance that I thought his girlfriend was “quite pretty,” which meant in the American way, that is, very pretty. But what he’d actually said was that she was so-so or kind of pretty.

1. Table For immediate consideration. This is just the opposite of the American meaning. At meetings in the United States, if something is presented , it is set aside for consideration at some unspecified time in the future. If it is presented in the UK, it is put on the table for discussion now. If you are visiting the UK for a business meeting, this usage is worth knowing.
2. Welly Yes, you probably know that a welly is a rubber or Wellington boot. But if someone tells you to “put on some energy,” they are telling you to put in a little more physical effort, try harder. It’s like being told to put some grease on the job.

1. Whinge The British way of saying complain. And just like in America, nobody likes a whinger. If you’re groaning and groaning from doing those ten more push-ups, your coach might say, “Stop complaining and move on.”

And what about the grass?

Discover a nasty piece of jargon from the British underworld that has nothing to do with either drugs or what grows in your front garden.