20 VERY Common BRITISH PHRASES and Expressions #britishenglishphrases

hello everybody and welcome back to love English I'm Sabrah and today I have a lesson for you on 20 very British expressions now these are going to help you guys because if you watch British TV or things like that you're going to hear these expressions all the time and they are things that we use here in Britain on a regular basis now before we get started I would like to say a big thank you to our sponsor talki Italki are a language learning platform which I think a lot of you know that we work with you can learn with an experienced teacher who is also a native speaker and they will help you on a one-to-one basis Italki are also very affordable and if your lifestyle means that you find it difficult to go to actual classes then this is perfect for you as you can learn online and the teacher will do their best to fit around you Italki really also want to help you with your fluency so they're really going to help you build up your fluency level which I know is what a lot of you want as well now we have an offer which Italki have given to love English which you might have heard about before so if you go to this link here go italki.comcom forward slash love English then you get $10 off your first lesson purchase so Italki are giving you ten free credits so you can have a try at the first lesson and you won't have to pay very much so make sure you go and click that link in the description box below and get your $10 off your first lesson purchase go on guys start improving your English today just as a quick reminder guys if you're new to this channel then don't forget to subscribe and also click that notification bell and you can follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more daily love English fun so make sure you have a good brew of British tea at the ready and let's get started okay so number one number one is I'm stuffed I'm stuffed and this means I'm very very full if you say I'm stuffed I'm really full I think they use this in America as well but this is more commonly used in England to be stuffed to be very full to have eaten lots of food perhaps too much food this is very relevant for this time of year as it's nearly Christmas and it's the time of year when people tend to over eat a little bit and so they do get a little bit stuffed next one number two is and gutted I'm gutted gutted means very disappointed very disappointed the literal meaning of to gut is to remove the insides from something usually an animal or a fish to gut it to remove their guts their insides our guts are our insides so if we say we feel gutted we feel like somebody's removed our guts obviously not that extreme but we feel very disappointed we might say I'm gutted that that boy or girl never rang me and gutted or I'm gutted I didn't get that job something like that you are gutted number three I love this expression this is to be in a pickle to be in a pickle now pickle you can see pickle here it's a very British food it is fruit or vegetables that we put in a jar with sugar and vinegar and some other things and we leave it over a long time and the vegetables will ferment and over time this will become pickle when we say we are in a pickle it means that we are in a tricky situation we are like the vegetables that have been covered in sugar and vinegar in a pickle means we are in a difficult situation a bit of a tricky situation I've been going through our finances I'm not sure but it seems that we may be in a little bit of a pickle dick right number four is it's mental or saying something is mental we often say this as a replacement to crazy if we think something's really crazy we can say ah that's mental or it's such a mental situation meaning it's really crazy it's a mixed up situation that's mental we use it all the time but do bear in mind guys it's not a formal word so you wouldn't say at a job interview ah I've just had so much job experience it's mental that would not sound very good so it's for informal situations but it's very very common mental that one I'm telling you number five number five is give me a vowel give me a bell this means get in touch with me or give me a ring it comes from the old days where when you went into a hotel or anything like that or any kind of official place if you wanted attention you would ring a bell there wasn't phones in those days so on the reception there would be about when ring and you would get the attention of somebody so give me a bell number six to be in a mood to be in a mood in a mood means that you are in a bad mood mood can mean a good mood or a bad mood how you're feeling but if we say somebody is in a mood this means they are in a bad mood so if I said Leila's in such a mood I really don't want to speak to her at the moment she's in such a mood this means she's really in a bad mood when Leila's in a bad mood it's a little scary just kidding I love her really number seven these are two very British words which we use all the time when we're surprised about something they're informal but you'll hear them all the time they are crikey crikey I can't believe the weather or crikey can you believe the bad news again about brexit the other one is limey blimey again very common we might say Oh blimey I just can't believe what a long day I've had to or blimey you heard the news about our colleague she's run off with the boss so you leave the word that you're here all the time in films let's look at a quick clip of these in films now blimey Harry's got himself a rogue bludger if you wanted to pop by sometime that might be nice more than nice right crikey number eight this is a very British expression we use it still sometimes but it's not as common as it used to be I'm sure some of you have already learnt it actually it is to pull someone's leg meaning to play a joke on them or to tease them to joke with them to to laugh about them this can be in a harmless way or it can be in a mean way it depends so to pull someone's leg for example if I said to my boyfriend can't see you tonight I'm meeting my new young lover and he said what what's your new young lover what what's happening and then I said oh don't be silly I'm just pulling your leg meaning I'm just joking I'm not serious to pull your leg I would say the phrase that we use more than this today is to take the Mickey to take the Mickey again to joke with somebody to tease I could say I'm just taking the Mickey I'm only making a joke now people are not sure about what the origin of to pull someone's leg is people think it might have been in the old days particularly Victorian times when people wanted to rob somebody so thieves were trying to steal something from someone they might pull their leg to surprise them and make it easier to steal something from them so that could be the origin of this quite famous British expression Point Break or bad boys - which one do you think I prefer no I mean which one do you want to watch first you are pulling my leg okay next one number nine I love this expression because this is something I always do it is too faff around to faff around and this means to procrastinate to waste time doing silly things before you do the things that you have to do so if you are a person who faffs around before you go to work you might go on your phone for a while you might start to tidy up you might worry that you need to check things like check if all the windows are shut you don't quickly do things you faff around you spend your time doing perhaps not that useful tasks before doing the things that you really need to do are you a person who faffs around if you are do please leave me a comment below I would like to know if there are other people out there that are like me number 10 lost the plot I've lost the plot what she's lost the plot he's lost the plot if we lose the plot we lose track of reality maybe we do something a little bit crazy or a little bit silly but we can use this expression just to tease somebody we could say what why are you saying that you've lost the plot and it doesn't necessarily mean that they have lost the plot the plot is the story for example the plot in a play is the story the plot in a film is the story so if we're saying somebody's lost the plot we mean you've lost sense of the story lost sense of reality number eleven is that's rubbish or that crap very very British expressions particularly crap these mean that something is not good we say it was a crap there are more with a crap day or crap whether we mean it's not good and rubbish so this is slang it's definitely slang you would not use it in a formal situation but they are very common and we use them quite a lot what a crap movie or oh what a crap day the weather has been terrible or what a rubbish day do you make sure that you say the pronunciation of crap correctly because it is a p sound at the end not a 'b' and I've heard some Arabic speakers and Asian speakers saying oh that was crab crab is the animal with the pincers crap is the British word so do you make sure that you're saying it correctly you don't want to say oh what a crab movie number 12 this is a very British verb it is to nick something to nick something this is slang really for to steal for example we might say I nicked my sister's pen we can say huh did you Nick my notepad I was just using that it means to steal now if you are a gambler if you like playing poker you may be familiar with this expression it is that somebody or something has had their chips or his or her chips if we say oh you're not going to get another date with that girl now you you messed up you've had your chips meaning you've had your last chance you've ruined it here it would mean that you've ruined it you will not have another chance just like a player who has given their last chips or who has been defeated in a game has had their chips if they're not getting any more chips it's over for them if we say you've had your chips it's over for you for example you're trying to get a job you don't get the job you can say ahh you've had your chips I think that other person's going to get it really sorry you've had your chips on that one number 14 this can be a confusing expression but I'll do my best to explain it to you it is the bee's knees it's an idiom if we say somebody or something thinks they are the bee's knees this means that they have a very high opinion of themselves they think they are the best if they think they are the bee's knees for example you might say ohh she thinks she's the bee's knees just because she went to Oxford we can use this in a positive way as well we can say oh she's just the bee's knees isn't she she's just fantastic at what she does or he's just fantastic what he does he's the bee's knees so we can't also use it in a positive way but quite often we do use it in a negative way saying that somebody has a high opinion about themselves because you could be the ugliest sad sack on the planet but if you're in a rocking band you're the cat's pajamas man you're the bee's knees bee's knees and the bee's knees you're gonna be the most popular guy in school trust me number 15 is to take the biscuit to take the biscuit now this means that you are being rude or offensive in your behavior and you have gone too far with something so if somebody has done something which you consider to be a bad thing and they've gone too far in their behavior you can say this just takes a biscuit meaning they've gone too far with this for example if someone borrows lots of money from you and promises they'll pay it back and then they don't you can say this just takes the biscuit but you promised they'd pay it back it takes the biscuit they think the origin of this expression comes from when games were played and a cake was given as the prize and if somebody who didn't deserve the prize took the cake you could say believe it they they took the biscuit they took the cake okay number 16 these are quite easy ones and Leila and I have actually talked about them before in our video on slang words British slang words which you can see up there these are words to say that we are tired and they are shattered and knackered shattered and knackered we say shattered or I'm knackered it you're very tired number 17 this is so British and I've said this so many times in my life it is I'm not being funny but we use the word funny in England to mean if somebody is being a bit rude to us or a bit offensive and so we can say I'm not being funny but before we want to say something negative so we might say I'm not being funny but could you just move your stuff off my desk I really just need a clean clean desk do you mind if you move your stuff off my desk so we're saying something negative but the other person was saying I don't need to be rude but so funny can also mean rude or offensive it doesn't just mean funny as in ha ha it also means that you could be rude or offensive or a bit off with someone a bit not as friendly as you normally are so if we say ah she was really funny with me I mean she was really off with me she wasn't nice to me as she usually is so this is a way that we would say don't mean to be rude but actually I need to say something to you I want you to look after them don't lose them yes Lauren Miss I'm not being funny or nothing but have you seen what you got on number 18 quite a common one this one this is a spanner in the works a spanner in the works if there was a spanner in the works oh we often talk about a spanner being thrown in the works this is that something unexpected or surprising has come into the situation if you think about a spanner looks like this and if you threw that into a car engine or if you threw that into machinery it would cause it to be disrupted in some way so that is what the the thing that comes into the situation when we talk about this does it disrupts it or confuses the situation for example imagine you're looking for a new job and you go for lots of interviews and you think that the job you really wanted you didn't get it but then you go for another job and you think this is almost as good and you're about to accept it and then the other job that you didn't think you'd got come back to you and say actually we want you this is throwing a spanner in the works it is unexpected but in this sense it's unexpected for good but you might still have a difficult decision to make you might think oh I don't know which job to take now do you have an equivalent guys in your country for a spanner in the works if so tell me below how do you say it number 19 very British expression it is to head somewhere to head somewhere it means to go somewhere we're thinking our head goes there to head somewhere for example we might say I'm heading to work now or I'm heading off means I'm leaving I'm heading off phrasal verb to head somewhere means to go somewhere again quite informal but we use it very very frequently I'm heading to work I'm heading off I'm heading out to meaning I'm going out all of those we will often hear in British conversation number 20 the last one we've got there number 20 is that mint or something is mint that's mint this means something is amazing or fantastic we say oh that's mint or it's in mint condition we mean it's in perfect condition we can say my new car is mint it's in perfect condition even though it's second-hand for example it's in mint condition we can say that experiences are mint oh that's mint I can't believe that you won some money wow that's mint so we can say it as well meaning things are fantastic thank you very much for watching everybody I do hope this lesson will be useful and that you can start to use or at least understand some of these British expressions don't forget to go and get your $10 of Italki you credit and start learning with Italki that amazing language learning platform so the link is down in the description box below do please leave me a comment below trying to use any of these in a sentence or tell me what the equivalent is in your language I'm very curious to know thank you very much for watching everybody I hope you have a mint day I hope you're not too knackered after this lesson and I'm sure that you're all the bee's knees thanks a lot guys bye-bye you're the bee's knees but you do take the biscuit sometimes

Channel: Love English with Leila & Sabrah

Views: 79,188

Keywords: Love English with Leila & Sabrah, Love English with Leila & Sabrah YouTube, YouTube Love English with Leila & Sabrah, learn English, love English, English, 20 BRITISH PHRASES, LEARN ENGLISH VOCABULARY, LEARN BRITISH PHRASES, BRITISH EXPRESSIONS, BRITISH IDIOMS, 20 BRITISH EXPRESSIONS, BRITISH ENGLISH, LEARN COMMON BRITISH PHRASES, english vocabulary, learn more vocabulary, learn british conversation, british conversation phrases, learn english vocabulary, learn english phrases

Id: kkyJSoZ2jHA

Length: 17min 56sec (1076 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 27 2018