don’t let it worry you - money over here is ridiculously simple once you get the hang of it. Better yet use a credit card or debit card (e.g. switch - debit cards are much bigger here than they are in america) if it confuses you too much.
Of course be warned that if you trek this far “dahn saff” at any point then here in London we deliberately make it hard for people such as yourself by giving money stupid nicknames. :rolleyes: Garius’ Guide to London Money Slang
Keep an ear out for:
Shrapnel = anything below £1
A nugget = £1 coin (because it is gold and pretty)
A double nugget = £2 coin (because it is pretty, gold and worth two nuggets :D)
A fist = £5 (Usually a note)
A muff = £5 note (a relatively uncommon and obscene piece of rhyming slang for a “fiver” - don’t ask)
An Ayrton = £10 note (“Ayrton Senner” being rhyming slang for a “tenner”)
Well, Its still 2 years away, so I have lots of time to get used to it. I was just worried about making a fool of myself over the slang… we don’t have much slang here in Canada for our coins…
DO you still use the term “quid”?
And **Steve Wright[/b[, what School did you go to? Whats the going rate for a bottle of beer?
Don’t try to use foreign colloquialisms (at least not until you’ve settled in) - it will just appear strained and unnatural - call a pound a pound until you end up doing otherwise completely naturally and by accident.
Miss Magic8ball, I’m an Edinburgh man myself (1981-85).
And if you spend a few years in Scotland, you are going to wind up sounding nothing like garius’s South London accent … I leave it to others to decide whether or not this is a good thing. (And, yes, people do talk like that - even I use “quid” from time to time, and I deplore colloquialisms … )
Educate me. There are a lot of British-owned and British-styled pubs in my neighborhood. I’d like to know if I’m being hit on, picked on, or insulted by the person standing next to me at the bar.
(I swear, BBC America ought to provide "captioning for the British impaired. I’d like to understand more of the jokes.)
Much thanked for the info. And (please note: tongue in cheek) how in the pluperfect to you folks understand what each other is saying with the rhyming stuff?!?! Good grief, I got lost folowing some of the hyperlinks on that second site!
I think it’l be a learning experience. Understanding the accents will become my job; I’m planning on being a linguist. This is a good start, doncha think?
and amanset is spot on, the tourists thing is reward enough.
there is a real twisted pleasure to be had in their looks of complete and utter confusion as you ask for a “couple of britneys and a packet of scratchings” at the bar.
And Steve Wright’s accent is much nicer than mine, Magic8ball i suggest you take vocal lessons from him.
I don’t know anyone that uses rhyming slang very much at all; true, I don’t live in London, but I do know quite a few Londoners - suffice to say that visiting England and expecting to meet lots of cheeky-cockney-pearly-kings, all talking a barrage of incomprehensible coded rhyming slang is about equivalent to visiting Lapland and expecting to meet lots of jolly, tubby red-suited guys distributing presents and saying ‘Ho Ho Ho!’
the slang tends to crop up occasionally as the odd word here and there (in my experience).
I catch myself (for example) occasionally saying things like “you’re having a bubble!” or “Back in a sec, i need a Forest” but i’ve never met anyone who does the full on cheeky chappy slang thing all the time.