Your Favorite Slang

You ever think about that? 

Nah, I can't be arsed. 

Nah, I can't be arsed. 

Me either, really. 

THANK YOU for pointing that out. 'Can't be asked' is one of my pet peeves, and I see it typed that way far too much. ARSED!!! ARSED!!! ARSED!!!! 

Ooo, my delicate virginal ears/eyes!!     

Love it. I know we've had these threads before but I still really enjoy them.

Yes! Can't be ARSED!

I love 'big girls' blouse' and 'plonker'. I also love some of the Geordie expressions such as 'pet' which is really short for petal. DH also calls people (often me) who do something utterly daft a 'barn pot' which is a variation of the Scottish 'bam pot'.

Geordie can get very colorful though. For example:

'ars* like a Mackem rosette' - Inflamed haemorrhoids --- which shows off the fierce rivalry between those from Newcastle and those from Sunderland.

Also noticed that most Brits tend to say "two seconds" whereas Americans tend to say "one minute"...when asking someone to hold on.

I've always said 2 seconds even before I ever knew any British people.

I've also noticed that (with my personal friends), Brits seem to use less words to say the same things...I guess this kinda feeds into that stereotype that "Americans love to talk just to hear their own voices." 

Actually, my husband says the opposite, that we leave out words because we are lazy.

British: Look out of the window.
American: Look out the window.

So if I were to say a sentence, it might come out like this, "Honey can you hang on a minute?  The dog is scratching at the door and I think he needs to go outside so he can use the bathroom."  My hubby might say something like this, "Two seconds...dog needs out."

I don't draw my sentences out like that, with long explanations. I would just say something like "I'm taking the dog out. Back in 2 seconds." Unless we'd had some big argument about how I take the dog out for walks too much and I felt I had to explain myself, I don't see the point.

I wouldn't call "bird" common where I live, though, at least not in the sense where it means "woman."  I'd be surprised to hear someone say it.

"Bird" meaning "woman" is relatively common where I live.  It usually seems to be said in a misogynistic manner - when talking about women as sex objects or creatures that exist to cook and clean. For example, my husband's ex-flatmate has a sign in front of the door of his flat that has a picture of a bird and says "no big birds" - meaning I don't like fat women. Which is probably why it is rarely said directly to the woman.

An analogy would be the old-fashioned American way of calling women "broads".

I have always said "quarter to". I never knew that any Americans said "quarter of" until hearing about it on this board.

My husband likes to call idiots 'donuts'.

As far as time, my husband says 'half-past twelve' I say 'twelve thirty, twelve fortyfive, twelve fifteen', etc.

Not sure I'd call these ones slang - they are just phrases used in the UK that aren't used in the US.

When I said "slang"...I meant as in:  language peculiar to a particular group...so phrases (or words) that are used in the UK but not in the US is exactly what I was talking about...as well as the other definition of the word:  an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech.

So saying things like "ring" instead of "call" or "half twelve" are exactly the type of examples I was looking for.

Actually, it's 'can't be arsed', not 'asked' (ars* = ass).

I had to ASK (not ars*) my hubby about this one this morning...great to know that after all this time, I STILL can't understand his accent.   

Well, 'bird' is basically the UK equivalent to saying 'chick' or 'babe' - so you're most likely to hear men saying it when talking about an attractive woman (can be considered derogatory, just as some women don't like being called a chick) - it's not something a woman would say about another woman.

I know that already...I guess I should have used an example...such as when sitting at the pub with male friends, "Did you see that fit bird that just walked by?"

Actually, my husband says the opposite, that we leave out words because we are lazy.

British: Look out of the window.
American: Look out the window.

My hubby would never say "look out of the window"....he doesn't even say "the"...EVER...lol!  I guess he might if it were a job interview or something but I have NEVER heard him use that word.  I always pick on him and say he talks like a caveman...which is said in good humour and we both laugh about.  My hubby's British version of the above mentioned words would be "look out window"...or even "looking window" (which confuses the hell out of me sometimes because I think he means that he's looking AT the window as opposed to OUT OF it).  I don't know if that's a West Yorkshire thing or local to the village he lives in or just a habit that him and his friends have formed that has nothing to do with anything...but a lot of them (meaning my hubby's friends and family) talk like that.  Very simple and straight-forward and to the point...so much, in fact, that I feel they leave out important words that you need to understand the sentence! 

I just love the fact that sometimes I still have trouble understanding the actual words that are being said...and the half of the time that I can understand the accent, I don't comprehend the meaning of the slang terms.  I'm sure it will take some getting used to.  It's amazing now that I'm married to a Brit though, I've gone back and watched so many British films and had a totally different perspective...now that I can understand what some of the slang means.

I also love it when my hubby says "zed" instead of "zee"

Or "engaged" instead of "busy" (when talking about the phone line)

It's not universal (I don't think it's really used outside of Derbyshire, is it?), but I love duck.

Where I'm from in America..."duck" is a VERY negative word...not to be too graphic but basically used to describe a woman who performs a "certain act" so often that her lips are puckered out like a duck's beak.  Isn't it amazing how the same words can mean something so different?  Another example:  "I'm going out to have a fag"....NOT smoking a cig in America, for sure!

My hubby's British version of the above mentioned words would be "look out window"...or even "looking window" (which confuses the hell out of me sometimes because I think he means that he's looking AT the window as opposed to OUT OF it). 

That's really bizarre.

I think I'm nearing the point that I don't really notice if the slang I use is British rather than American. Except when my colleagues point out something I've said that tickles them. I was home for a wedding over the summer and pretty much everyone I spoke to said they thought I sounded English - when I pushed them on this (because I definitely don't have an accent) they said maybe it was just the phrases I use - "cross" instead of "angry", "at the end of the day...", "brilliant", "quite" rather than "very" - that sort of thing. I've also (thankfully) dropped a lot of my California-speak - "like" in every sentence, "goes" instead of "said", etc.

When I said "slang"...I meant as in:  language peculiar to a particular group...so phrases (or words) that are used in the UK but not in the US is exactly what I was talking about...as well as the other definition of the word:  an informal nonstandard vocabulary composed typically of coinages, arbitrarily changed words, and extravagant, forced, or facetious figures of speech.

So saying things like "ring" instead of "call" or "half twelve" are exactly the type of examples I was looking for.

Ahh, okay - differing interpretations of the word 'slang' . The way I think of it is how it's described on Wiki:

'Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language.

The key being that it's not standard in the speakers dialect/language - in the UK, ring and half twelve are standard for UK English, so they are not technically slang. However, if Americans living in the US started using these phrases, then they would likely be considered slang because they are not standard in US English.

My hubby would never say "look out of the window"....he doesn't even say "the"...EVER...lol!  I guess he might if it were a job interview or something but I have NEVER heard him use that word.  I always pick on him and say he talks like a caveman...which is said in good humour and we both laugh about.  My hubby's British version of the above mentioned words would be "look out window"...or even "looking window" (which confuses the hell out of me sometimes because I think he means that he's looking AT the window as opposed to OUT OF it).  I don't know if that's a West Yorkshire thing or local to the village he lives in or just a habit that him and his friends have formed that has nothing to do with anything...but a lot of them (meaning my hubby's friends and family) talk like that.  Very simple and straight-forward and to the point...so much, in fact, that I feel they leave out important words that you need to understand the sentence!

Yeah, that's probably unique to the area he's from. Down here in Bristol, everyone says 'out the window', which leaves out the 'of', lol.

I also love it when my hubby says "zed" instead of "zee"

Living in the US this year, I would find myself switching between zed and zee halfway through a sentence, lol.

Or "engaged" instead of "busy" (when talking about the phone line)

'Engaged' is used on public toilet doors too - they are often either 'vacant' or 'engaged' .

The key being that it's not standard in the speakers dialect/language - in the UK, ring and half twelve are standard for UK English, so they are not technically slang. However, if Americans living in the US started using these phrases, then they would likely be considered slang because they are not standard in US English.

I guess that's why my hubby always say I don't speak English, I speak American

LOL!

"looking window"

Is that regional or just a quirk of your husband's? I've never heard anyone say that!

Is that regional or just a quirk of your husband's? I've never heard anyone say that!

This is regional because I hear things like that all over the village he lives in.  I guess it's because a lot of people there still speak some Tyke.  They tend to leave out fairly important parts of a sentence that they "deam worthless" - to use my hubby's words (like prepositions, articles, determiners and quantifiers).  I have literally heard my hubby say "looking window" many times...when the weather was warm and we would talk on the phone, I'd say, "What ya doin?" and he'd say "Looking window at bird outside" (like I said, took me a long time to dicipher)...and I hear things similar all the time...such as:  "I'm going pub" (instead of going down to the pub), "I'm talking boss" (instead of talking to my boss), etc.

Other things I hear in our village but not really in other places of England:

"Were" instead of "was"..."I were eating dinner last night..." (sometimes people are actually saying was but they drop the 's' so it comes out sounding like 'wuh')

Also noticed they say "while" instead of "until" (not sure about the rest of England on this one)...ex:  "It's still 2 hours while dinner will be ready"

They also never tend to make units of measurement plural...as in "We walked three mile", "It cost four pound", etc.

I've never heard any of my London (or other Southern) friends talk like that so I guess it's part of the West Yorkshire dialect...and possibly more local to the village he lives in for some of it.  My Southern friends (jokingly) like to say it's because we are all "commoners" up here.

Also noticed they say "while" instead of "until" (not sure about the rest of England on this one)...ex:  "It's still 2 hours while dinner will be ready"

That's a northern England thing - the 'while' bit.  I used to think it was grammatically incorrect, but then I looked up 'while' in a dictionary that we have and one of its definitions is 'until'.

Yes, a lot of that is Yorkshire dialect, dropping words or sometimes it's something like "going t'pub"...but then further dropping the 't' and just "going pub".

Where I'm from in America..."duck" is a VERY negative word.

  Where in the US are you from?  I have never heard of that before.  The way "duck" is used where I live has no relation to the birds; it's derived from the Anglo Saxon form of address "Duka," which means duke. 

At least, that's what Wikipedia says! 

I'm from Virginia but I can tell you that I have seen/heard that used in the "American connotation" many times on reality tv aswell.