British-isms.

The American's Guide to BritSpeak

By: assorted British folk
with examples by actual Brits



"Are you alright?"
phrase. Hey, what's up? How are you doing?


pants
n. underwear
"I'm not wearing any pants today. And you can't even tell!"


"I can't be bothered." or "I can't be asked."
phrase. I don't feel like it; It doesn't matter enough to me to ..
"Oh, I can't be bothered to decorate my house for Christmas."
"Oh pff, I can't be asked to study for my supervision."


"Have you got ____?"
phrase. Do you have _____?
"Have you got football boots for tomorrow?"


"Have you gone ____?"
phrase. Did you go ____?
"Have you just gone to the grocery?"


washing up (liquid)
n. dishwashing (liquid)
"Well, since I cooked, you should do the washing up tonight."


fortnight
n. two weeks
"See you again in a fortnight for our semi-monthly pub crawl."


toilet
n. bathroom
"Where's the toilet? I seriously drank too much wine tonight."


buttery, canteen
n. cafeteria
"The canteen's closed tonight, so we'll have to go to Nandos for dinner!"


"sort it out" or "(get it) sorted"
phrase. get it figured out, get it organized/fixed
"New phone is a twat. Why does it automatically type 'ame' instead of 'and'? Non-word vs. most common word in the English language ... sort it out Samsung, seriously."


mental
adj. ridiculous, crazy, off the sheezy
"Mate, that concert tonight was absolutely mental!"


lash/pre-lash
n. big drinking night/pre-game
"Yeah the morning was rush cause we'd been out on a lash the night before."
"Let's hit the club at 10, but pre-lash at my place at 8!"


supper
n. dinner or snack
"Let's go to the dining hall for supper."


eggy bread
n. french toast
"Mm, delicious, eggy bread! That just sounds so delicious .. and descriptive."


custard
n. pudding
"This gooey, yellow, viscous custard will be served for dessert."

pudding
n. cake
"X: For dessert tonight, I'm making pudding.
Y: ooh, delicious, viscous gelatinous sweetness.
X: actually, no. that's custard. this is pudding.
Y: huh?
X: seriously. pudding. it's like, dough, and baked, and sweet. get with the program."


fringe
n. bangs
"I kept the fringe with my new haircut!"

football boots
n. soccer cleats
"did you see that midfield wearing the bright yellow boots on the field at the football match today?

kick-about
n. scrimmage
"the football team is having a kick-about on the back fields."