# Do you use any Britishisms or vice versa? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 8, 2005, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393 "2005-06-08T02:16:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/81 "2005-06-10T01:32:25Z")
> [@swanky\_glue](#): > > I’m not sure if these qualify, but because I love Red Dwarf , I have added ‘git’, ‘smeg’, and ‘smeghead’ to my daily vocabulary. That’s where I learned what a ‘vindaloo’ is! We may be in a bit of a minority here w/ loving Red Dwarf, but Cat is a scream. ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/82 "2005-06-10T03:28:43Z")
Spent most of my formative years in the UK. We returned to the States for a three-year stint just as I was starting school. Little Black kid with a Norfolk accent, in the Florida panhandle. Anyway, School Registrar lady asks me if I speak any languages aside from English. Not missing a beat, I reply and say, “Well, I know American a little as well.” Favorite story at the Hollow House. I tend to “write” in a British way more than talk. It’s a little pretentious to throw exotic words around that no-one uses. That’s how I feel about “wanker.” I’ve heard far more Americans use the word that Brits. I hear “tosser” far more often. Fave words and phrases I use regardless, because I grew up using 'em: ace/top/brill(iant) twat dual carriageway pram lav/lavvy blummin’ (“bloody” would have earned you a clip 'round the earhole in the Hollow House) Gordon Bennett! (to express shock) Whilst (rather than “while”) aluminium (Grandpa worked for Alcoa in Jamaica and I can’t pronounce it the U.S. way) clingfilm (instead of saran or plastic wrap) can’t be arsed sod naff Most of my swearing is British. Pissed/legless for drunk. A good bollocking or thumping for a fight. Of course the ubiquitous “cunt” comes in handy - but I can only use it in this swearing respect. “Daft cunt” when someone cuts me off it traffic, but I’d never use it in the more… anatomical definition commonly used in the U.S. [slight hijack] I am a huge fan of British comedy, especially sketch stuff (not the shit like Benny Hill, but cool stuff like The Fast Show). Brit friends of mine said, "Get Bo Selecta, you’ll laugh your ass (arse?) off. It is the biggest load of cack I’ve ever seen. Uh, the Michael Jackson impression? Doesn’t look anything, act anything, sound anything like the actual person. I forced myself to watch the whole series DVD and I want that time in my life back. Got the Harry Enfield DVD and was much happier…[/slight hijack] ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/83 "2005-06-10T03:56:36Z")
> [@irishgirl](#): > > Dahling, it is not “toilet”, nor is it “loo”. One asks to go to the “lavatory”. > > …which is pronounced LAV-atree, not LAV-a-TOR-ee. Spoken like a true Protestant! ---
**Author:** ![Hippy\_Hollow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hippy_hollow/32/4841_2.png) [@Hippy\_Hollow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hippy_Hollow)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/84 "2005-06-10T05:27:49Z")
oh, and I still call TP “bogroll.” ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/85 "2005-06-10T05:55:55Z")
> [@Hippy Hollow](#): > > oh, and I still call TP “bogroll.” Go on, spill the beans, you euphemism-loving Mutts. What other expressions are used for toilet paper. I’ve heard of toilet tissue. Let’s see if we can get to the bottom of this, though. Just gotta be more invented by the marketing types. ---
**Author:** ![Sarah\_Woodruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sarah\_Woodruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sarah_Woodruff)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 6:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/86 "2005-06-10T06:18:11Z")
> [@Hello Again](#): > > I also say “shite” a lot – and the German “sheisse” [I’m sure that’s spelled wrong] which I picked up from an Austrian roommate in college. I say “sheisse” too, probably because I’m forced to watch **Commissar Rex** whenever it’s on the telly. Speaking of which, I came across the relevatory phrases “crappy witless bint” and “sod you then” after watching **Men Behaving Badly**. **roger** , to answer your question, I’m the only Australian-born member of my family, so culturally I’m sort of Anglo-Australian-Indian, or something. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 6:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/87 "2005-06-10T06:26:56Z")
My meaning was that, in reference to your writing that you say “garridge” as often as “garage”, I was surprised that as an Anglo-Indian you would say “garage” at all. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/88 "2005-06-10T06:53:17Z")
My speech is fairly loaded with britishisms. Too much BBC packed into my skull. Sometimes I’m a bit self-conscious about it – like last week when I closed an interview with an extremely English fellow with “Good day.” (Despite Bob & Doug, it’s not something that’s really said around these parts.) As soon as it passed my lips, I felt like a complete prat because I was sure he must’ve thought I was taking the piss. Ah well. ---
**Author:** ![FreeRange\_Maniac](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/97f17d/32.png) [@FreeRange\_Maniac](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FreeRange_Maniac)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/89 "2005-06-10T07:03:50Z")
Bloody hell bugger off that’s as may be And i go on holiday, not vacation. Also colour is the proper way to spell the word, just like neighbour 😉 . One of my favourites is a phrase i picked up from my Irish Mum, used when someone mumbles an insincere apology. “Sorry don’t feed the bulldog!” ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/90 "2005-06-10T07:10:24Z")
> [@Hippy Hollow](#): > > Brit friends of mine said, "Get Bo Selecta, you’ll laugh your ass (arse?) off. It is the biggest load of cack I’ve ever seen. Uh, the Michael Jackson impression? Doesn’t look anything, act anything, sound anything like the actual person. Yeah, Bo Selecta was rubbish. If you’re a Harry Enfield fan, have you tried The League of Gentlemen? > [@Rodd Hill](#): > > How about that weird British construction: “Do you have any windows wanting cleaning?” or suchlike. Always stuck me as odd phraseology. That’s another specifically northern expression, I think. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/91 "2005-06-10T08:02:04Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I closed an interview with an extremely English fellow with “Good day.” (Despite Bob & Doug, it’s not something that’s really said around these parts.) It’s not something I heard a lot in my 28 consecutive years in England, nor on trips back since then. I _have_ heard it, or so I fancy, in sitcoms (which tend to be shall we say better as indicators of the writers’ predilections and prejudices than as a snapshot of usage at any given time! Think the execrable Hyacinth Bouquet in _Keeping Up Appearances_.) Aussie “Gooday”, yeah, mate. But “Good day to you, sir”? Doesn’t sound fair dinkum to me. ---
**Author:** ![Nawth\_Chucka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c57346/32.png) [@Nawth\_Chucka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nawth_Chucka)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/92 "2005-06-10T10:38:14Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > Yeah, Bo Selecta was rubbish. If you’re a Harry Enfield fan, have you tried The League of Gentlemen? > That’s another specifically northern expression, I think. If I could go off-topic a bit here and run this by those that know, if I wanted to visit somewhere and find people who actually sound like they do on Coronation Street, where would I go in the North? Sorry for the hijack. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/93 "2005-06-10T10:44:45Z")
> [@Portia](#): > > If I could go off-topic a bit here and run this by those that know, if I wanted to visit somewhere and find people who actually sound like they do on Coronation Street, where would I go in the North? > Sorry for the hijack. Lancashire. Corrie’s set in north Manchester (historically part of Lancashire), but like all British soaps it presents a stereotype of a city which is decades out of date. Young Mancunians don’t sound anything like they do on the programme - you need to get north of the city to find those that do. (I think **Angua** ’s from that part of the world, so perhaps you want to speak to her 😛 .) ---
**Author:** ![seosamh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@seosamh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/seosamh)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/94 "2005-06-10T12:32:59Z")
Some of the Coronation Street characters speak with proper Mancunian accents - Kevin “Shave the back of your neck, please” Webster, Our Ashley (who says stuff like “tittle” for “tickle”, like Percy Sugden used to) and the gorgeous Mari-oh Sutherland spring to mind. But others are from further afield in Greater Manchester/Lancashire. You can tell these from the very broad R’s or, in the cases of Janice Battersby and Fred Elliott, the broad arse. I think Janice is probably from somewhere like Rochdale. [I always wondered where Fred got his catch phrase (“It’s a lovely day, Audrey, I say, it’s a lovely day”): I originally though of Foghorn Leghorn but then decided it was from the old Salford comedian (and pork-butcher) Al Read. Is it a particularly Salfordian thing, I wonder?] God alone knows where our Audrey’s accent is from. The actress is in fact extremely posh - her father is a gen-u-ine Lord (Lord Harmer Nicholls) but her “Brummie” accent in Crossroads was equally astray. ---
**Author:** ![Trunk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/87869e/32.png) [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/95 "2005-06-10T13:35:40Z")
I call fire “hot cockalorum” and water “pondalorum”. I call a cat a “white face simminy” and I call pants, “squibs and crackers”. Just like the British. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/96 "2005-06-10T13:38:40Z")
> [@GorillaMan](#): > > The ‘our _xyz_’ form is a particularly Lancastrian one - ‘your _so-and-so_’ is more widespread. Oh, “our so-and-so” is just as common in the North East (though, or course, “our” is often replaced by “wor” 🙂 ). You’ll sometimes hear first person singular and third person variations as well: “my Trevor,” “their Barry,” “his Carol” etc. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/97 "2005-06-10T14:16:41Z")
The actor who plays Fred Elliot does not have strong northern accent at all. If you hear him out of character he sounds a bit like Brian Blessed with quite a “posh” theatrical voice. The same goes for Jean Alexander who played Hilda Ogden. She has a very high class voice in real life. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/98 "2005-06-10T14:25:12Z")
> [@WotNot](#): > > Oh, “our so-and-so” is just as common in the North East (though, or course, “our” is often replaced by “wor” 🙂 ). You’ll sometimes hear first person singular and third person variations as well: “my Trevor,” “their Barry,” “his Carol” etc. Now I think about it, ‘our so-and-so’ is also Brummie, isn’t it? Maybe it’s just used everywhere except the south-east 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/99 "2005-06-10T15:09:32Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Aussie “Gooday”, yeah, mate. But “Good day to you, sir”? Doesn’t sound fair dinkum to me. I use G’day as a greeting sometimes, but as a pilot I use it more often as a good-bye. Example: Me (leaving Class C airspace): Helicopter Zero-Sierra-Mike, clear to the west. Tower: Zero-Sierra-Mike, frequency change approved. **G’day**. Me: Zero-Sierra-Mike, **G’day**. ---
**Author:** ![Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/41988e/32.png) [@Dazzling\_White\_Diamonds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dazzling_White_Diamonds)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2005, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393/100 "2005-06-10T17:00:18Z")
I use: arsed (can’t be arsed…) bugger chuffed been (pronounced like “bean” instead of “bin”) cheers love (as in calling people “love”) lovely (use of this is NOT common where I live for some reason) git bint piss off [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-any-britishisms-or-vice-versa/307393.md?page=6)