(retrieved from http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/01/05/yanks-and-brits-is-america-really-the-best/)

So as I mentioned in my previous post, over in Singapore, I have loads of British friends and that’s who I hang out with the most. One of the most fun parts of this, for me, is learning the dialect differences–as there are many. My friends have also unknowingly been my research subjects! They’ve helped me write a bunch of my characters in my novel, which is set in the UK. Today I’m posting a list of some of the words my friends use that I find awesome but don’t feel I have the street cred to use. It would just sound weird if I said it. This is by no means meant to be an exhaustive list of vocabulary differences, though perhaps some day……

Gutted (this is my favorite I think): like you’re devastated. Like “Arsenal lost and I was just gutted.”

(retrieved fromhttp://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2013120/JLS-left-gutted-forced-cancel-T4-On-The-Beach-performance.html)

Knackered: tired/beat

Shattered: tired

Dodgy: sketchy, questionable

(retrieved from theinspirationroom.com)

Posh: upper class and likely snobby. Yeah, like Posh Spice, but I’m not sure why she was called Posh Spice. My friends don’t use it in a complimentary fashion, particularly when talking about posh Londoners. There’s also posh accents. I’d say that posh British people are what Americans might stereotypically think of all British people as being (which is obviously not true lol). We’d probably consider those old money Martha’s Vineyard types that play polo posh in the US.

 

 (retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/stage/2012/may/23/posh-duke-yorks-review-billington)

Wanker: idiot. Wank means to masturbate, so wanker would be one who masturbates, but this is used as a generally insulting term.

(image retrieved from www.kitschagogo.com)

Rubbish: garbage or crap. This can refer to actual garbage, like “Put it in the rubbish bin” or generally to desribe a situation or thing that is crap or no good, like “That’s rubbish.”

Chav: white trash. Also maybe like a poser, too.

(retrieved from hfboards.hockeysfuture.com)

Bollocks: literally means balls, but is used in many ways. Used in isolation, I think it means like bullshit. Examples of uses in sentences: “Bollocks you do” “That’s a load of bollocks” “Made a bollocks out of it.” “Bollocksed it up.”  Also, that’s the dog’s bollocks, which apparently means it’s awesome.

(retrieved from www.thecalmgallery.com)

The loo: the bathroom. Example: I’m going to nip to the loo. I’m going to quickly go to the bathroom. I will say I’ve stopped calling it a bathroom and call it a toilet instead as, at least in public places, there is no bath in it

A few phrases I’d like to use:

• Couldn’t be bothered
• if you/do you fancy…: would you like to…
• I’m keen to…: I’d like to….
• I’m going to the cinema to see a film

Also, I’d like to use those little xx after text messages or other messages.  like “See you tonight! xx”

I’m sure I’ll have a follow up post to this.  Not sure what next post’s topic will be, but I’ll definitely do one about words I say my British friends don’t know 😛

Have you encountered words other people say that you either started using or wished you could use? Also, did I get any definitions wrong?