4 of my coworkers are Brits and I have picked up several things from them. Just today I told someone to bugger off.
There are some phrases I’d like to use, but I don’t feel I have any right to them. My coworker tends to say “bloody 'el” but it sounds so fake coming out in her Kansas accent. I know it’s an affectation (everything about the woman is an affectation… blech), because she’s obessed with all things British and French and hates all things American, though refuses to move and whines about not being able to move.
If I were lucky enough to spend a great deal of time in the UK or in Australia, I’d probably feel more comfortable. I know I’d pick up the accent, unintentionally.
I get a kick out of saying “shedule” and “lesure” whenever I’m trying to sound pretentious (which is always).
I used “Shite” and “arsehole” and “sod off” from Monty Python and The Pogues for a while, but I was an impressionable lad at the time. I want to start affecting the use of “stroppy” after reading it on Scary Go Round.
And one of my best friends is from Melbourne, and he’s got me saying “good on ya” and “cheers” to the point I’m not even aware of it anymore.
I’ve been saying “Brilliant!” for a long time, and had no idea it was considered a Britishism until recently, when someone asked me if I picked it up during my London trip last year. I honestly don’t recall hearing anyone use it that way while we were there.
I say “bloody hell” and “bollocks” a lot. I think I picked those up at the Renaissance Festival. Oh, and “wanker.”
arsed
bugger
on holiday
sometimes “at university”
Sometimes I use “prat.”
bloody hell (though I’m more likely to just say, “Well, fuck.”)
To be fair, it’s not that easy to move to another country.
Sometimes I say “Cheers” for “Thanks”
Laboratory instead of laboratory
I work in one, and I started doing it because I thought it was funny, and now it doesn’t seem right if I say it with the American pronunciation.
I was born in Australian, lived for about 8 years in England as a child, have lived the last 5 years in the US, and lived the rest of the time in Australia. So my dialect is in between English and Australian, and living in the US I’m used to code-switching. If I write for myself (like now), I write in Australian; if I write for work, I write in American. In the US, I’ll ask for the men’s room or the bathroom; in Australia, I’ll ask for the toilet; and in England, I’ll ask for the loo.
Is ‘toilet’ British, then? That’s the way I ask for it. Of course when I’m around friends I’ll say, ‘Excuse me while I urinate.’
I have a little trouble now with khaki. I’ve always pronounced it as ‘kakky’. My helicopter flight instructor (from Ireland, but with an English accent) didn’t know what I was talking about. When I explained it to him he said, ‘Oh! CAH-kee!’ (To which the other instructor, als Irish with an English accent, piped in with ‘Cah kee? Isn’t that what you start your cah with?’) Ever since then, I never know how I’ll pronounce it until it comes out.
‘Toilet’ is used across the board in Britain. ‘Loo’ is very middle-class.
I’d have been stumped by ‘kakky’, too. I think the second instructor was just winding you up 
I got in the habit of saying “flat” instead of “apartment” when I lived in Prague years back. Still slips out ocassionally.
Too many Britishisms to count, here. Where I am from, there were many, many British immigrants, they were our teachers, doctors, shopkeepers, etc. So naturally, most of us picked up on the Britishisms, and vice versa.
A few I use are bloody, blinking, wanker, rubbish, bin, tin, jacket potato, calling people “love” (common) or sometimes “mate” (rarer), telling porkies, snog, shag, fag, arse, nick, queue, mum, telly, brolly, holiday, knackered, aluminium, certain instead of sure, etc. Many, many more.
I’ve been told, since moving out here, the way I speak is “British style”, but I’ve no idea what that means, exactly.
Conversation goes:
“You have a kind of…sort of… British style when you speak.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah.”
“Like what?”
“You don’t sound like me. But you speak English and everything. You don’t sound like the Canadians on TV.”
“They sound like they’re from Minnesota.”
“I have a cousin from Minnesota. She sounds Canadian.”
…
I’ve also been told I put R’s on some ending vowel sounds, ie: vodker (vodka), sar (saw), Liser (Lisa). This doesn’t seem to happen all the time, but happens most often when I’m either excited and begin talking fast, or on “autopilot” - saying things as I’m thinking them out loud.
And, of course, the spelling, which is how we were taught.
My commonly used Britishisms / Aussy-isms:
'right then, as a means of concluding a point.
no worries
'cheers, instead of good-bye, (or buh-by, which drives me stark raving mad)
*
…bloody…* usually part of a string of invective
I use “no worries” a lot, it seems to work especially well instead of “no problem” when someone thanks you for a very minor favor or apologizes for a very minor slight.
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’m also known to say “ciao” instead of “bye,” I think I picked that up from the Austrian as well.
“No problem” by the way, I’ve found out has made its way into Bulgarian as “nyama problemi” (literally, I have no problems).
Not so much verbally, but I will start adding the letter “u” to words after reading a British author. I’m still convinced “behaviour” is meant to be spelled that way. Stupid spell check.
I tend to say ‘shite’ quite a lot, refer to trash cans as ‘bins’, and speak of putting things in the ‘boot’ of my car (although I don’t seem to call what covers the engine a ‘bonnet’). I also find myself frequently usings the phrases ‘Bob’s yer uncle’ and ‘It’s gone all pear-shaped’, mainly for the consternation that ensues amongst my friends and family.
I’ll also say ‘whilst’ every once in a while, even though it just sounds wrong.
I try to avoid any Americanisms as far as possible.
I wear “jumpers”, never “sweaters”. Sneakers are people who sneak, not things you wear on your feet. I go to see “pictures” or “films” at the cinema, never “movies” (which I always equate with the defunct “talkies”).
A “guy” is the thing you burn on Bonfire Night - we have too many of our own words for an unidentified man (“bloke”, geezer", “chap”, to name but 3) to resort to using one of yours. And don’t get me started on British people saying “you guys” when referring to a mixed crowd of men and women!
In my previous employment, I worked with a large document which was split into “schedules”. As noted above, British people are tending to say “skedule” these days - I’d say about 75% of the people I dealt with on a regular basis did (and they were from all over Great Britain), and I fear that “shedule” will die out very, very soon.
But, of course, I am a pedantic pillock.
[QUOTE=SolGrundy]
I want to start affecting the use of “stroppy” after reading it on Scary Go Round.QUOTE]Great word: “in a strop” is excellent value too, as in “Don’t talk to Miller. He’s in a strop”. (Sorry, couldn’t resist - feeling a bit frisky this morning.)
Fuck it. I thought I was unique.