Wednesday, April 25, 2012

more British slang

The whole month of April has looked like this...


except for seeing two pictures of a sun with temperatures close to the 60s! It has been raining all day everyday the past month with temps in the mid 50s and gray skies, per usual.
I have been sick with a cold the past few days and finally recovering only to see that now my little one is sick too with a fever and who is currently taking her second nap of the day! Not how I envisioned spring.

In lieu of HM Queen and Prince Philip visiting my little Greenwich today, (which I totally wanted to go to but couldn't because of my poor sick baby), I thought I would share a few more British slang that make me laugh!




lie-ins = sleeping in
rubbers = erasers (If you go to America asking for rubbers...haha)
snogging = making out (I learned this term after Tim told me about him witnessing first hand two women co-workers snogging after having one to many drinks at a work event and then people gossiping about it at work the next day. Classy.)
re-jig = re-work
pile of sick = throw-up
diary = calendar

I hear a lot of funny/cute things while on the bus, while walking, while at the store, that make me just smile to myself. Nothing really weird actually but to an American, it is just slightly different. Especially when said with a British accent.
For example, while waiting for Marisa's ballet class to start a little 4 year old girl burped out loud and quickly said, "Pardon me" in her cute British accent while her mum gave her the "eye". Ha! How proper!
Another time I was walking past a few teenage girls when one says to her friend, "Oh, stop mocking me!" I just had to laugh to myself. What teenager says that?

Not only do Brits have different words for things than we do but there are also slight differences in writing. The usual words like favourite, immunisations, organisations, centre, theatre, are some of the obvious ones, but here are a few more I learned.

maths = math
driving licence = driver's license
chewing gum = gum

And although things may be spelled the same way , some things are pronounced differently. I'm no English major but I will try my best.

Like the word "advertisement" is pronounced,

 ad-vur-tiss-ment or ad-vurt.

and "leisure" is pronounced,

lej-ur.

"schedule" - shhedj-ule
"assume" - uh-shhoom

Lastly, one day at work Tim's coworker said, "I'm going to nip off to the loo for a wee." We asked some family members what they thought it meant and we got some hilarious responses. We know what it means, but what do you think it means? :)

1 comment:

L said...

Running to the bathroom to pee? lol... I don't know! So funny!!

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