"All right then?" --Kind of a "Hello, how are you?"

 

Sorted = fixed or corrected. As in "I hope you get your car sorted."

 

"I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar - I am the son and heir."

Viva Morrissey!

Quite.

(not a colloquialism, but only a limey could have written that.)

 

How about "the dog's bollock's"?

Jim

 

Offy - Liquor store
Snog - kiss
Randy - horny

 

As an Australian, I speak "British English," as opposed to the American English I hear all day.
btw, a bob is 10p (or cents in Oz) so 2 bob is 20p, which is actually a coin with no 25cent coin to compete.
A quid is a pound, like a buck only worth a lot more...

Your last comment is rhyming slang. So motor on down the frog and toad in your MINI!

cheers,

 

If you're "pissed" over there it means something different from what it means over here.

 

Well if no one else is going to acknowledge a good Eddie Izzard line I will <golf clap>

 

Similar thing if you start to talk about your "fanny-pack".

Hint, "fanny" ain't in the back, and only half the population has one

 

A few (minor) corrections if I may:

Red Ryder- a **** is a brief, often casual, sexual intercourse. A good **** is one to remember or one that lasts longer than 15 seconds (the average, so I'm told.)

gokartride: Upon arriving in the US from Oz (21 years ago, now) I heard an American grad student in my class refer to his mother being really pissed the other morning... I felt sorry for him having to suffer through her alcoholism until I figured out she was angry for some reason!

On that theme, within a couple of weeks of being at grad school, I asked to borrow a fellow student's rubber...only to be told to go buy one of my own. I simply wanted to erase a mistake I'd made with my pencil. I shagged bareback...

cheers,

 

Few one's I've picked up whiling living here so far:



Tubes = Subway
BHP = @Flywheel (nasty discussion on mini2, if anybody been reading)
Fitted = Installed (Automotive)
Registration = license plate number
bloke = man
bird = chic

 

Bap = Bun (as in Hamburger)
Queue = line
Slip road = off ramp

 

I had a similar one when I arrived in Detroit (from Sydney). Asked an 8-month pregnant co-worker for a rubber coz I'd made a mistake with a pencil. Got an odd look and a response of "If I had a rubber, I wouldn't look like this!"

 

How about the Cockney Rhyming Slang version for "mate" = "Me ol' China"

China = short for china plate and plate rhymes with mate......simple really.

 

Bap = bun only in certain parts of England (e.g. Sheffield). Where I'm from (The "North West", near Liverpool, only 75 miles from Sheffield) a bap = a barmcake

 

This is a great place to look for the Queen's English version of common slang words:

http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/

 

This one always gets me talking to some British friends:

Everything is me, me room, me car...I try correcting my friends with my room, my car etc... I just give up

 

This is fun.

vacation = holiday
apartment = rooms
tv = tele
fish = kippers
french fries = chips
sausage and mashed potatoes = bubble and squeak
taxi = hansom

 

Don't leave out me Mum!

 

Two of my favorites heard from friends over the years -

"That's a real dog's breakfast" - meaning a varied assortment of things

"Stuffed" - which has somewhat the same meaning as to be a "****-ee". I had a friend once relate a story about how after dinner he was complimenting his relative's wife's cooking by saying how absolutely stuffed he and his wife were - which the Brits in the room could in no way understand as being related to table activities....

Bill

 

Lock stock and two smoking barrels is a great movie for hearing some british.

Trainers - Tennis shoes

American - www.hotornot.com
British - http://www.fitorminger.co.uk/

minger had to be explained to me by the british exchange students when I first heard it, and I believe it is usable on both sexes.

 

When my parents (mom= Kiwi, dad=Brit) first moved to the US, my mom aksed a neighbor to drive her to the grocery. The neighbor said that she would take her the next day to which my mother replied "Righto, I'll be 'round to knock you up first thing". The neighbors, a nice Italian New Jersey family, loved this expression and used for years.
Annette

 

My Brit former boss talked of "collecting" his children at the train station, too.

Car park = parking lot
jumper = sweater

 

Don't get your knickers in a twist. = Don't get your undies in a bunch.
Setting the cat amongst the pigeons. = Stirring up quite a fuss.
Don't be an Alice. = (not sure but I think it means "Don't be a wuss.")
whilst = while
righto = right
Yanks = Americans
Brits = Lymmies (sp?)
crackers = crazy
post = mail

....Les

 

Having two English parents and having lived in London for a few years, I can't tell which expressions are English and which are American. Usually it'll take me saying something to a friend and them looking at me like I have two heads to realize it's an English expression

Skive = to play hooky from work/school. Did you skive off work today?

Kip = to take a nap

Take the ****/take the mickey = to make fun of, tease.

Pork Pies = lies

Don't park there it's a raspberry spot. (Raspberry Ripple = cripple)

Good on yah = good job