The Most Common British Slang Phrases and Expressions | English Slang Vocabulary

is your grandmother a bit of a nosy parker can your mother be a bit full-on have you got someone at work that's rather cocky when was the last time you made a dog's dinner of something or what about the last time someone was talking a load of codswallop if you'd like to know what these phrases and more mean then keep watching in today's lesson we will be looking at 50 of the most popular british slang phrases and expressions some quintessentially british expressions and obviously some that are rather strange so keep watching to learn more and to broaden your vocabulary for those of you that really want to improve your vocabulary particularly when it comes to more spoken colloquial english there are so many ways you can achieve this one watch our youtube lessons two speak with native people learn english with a native teacher or you can find ways to immerse yourself in the english language whether that's through television reading or in the case of our incredible partners of today's lesson sensations english you might choose to read watch videos and of course learn through exercises and games it is not enough to simply read or watch television but by doing exercises to accompany these activities and even better games you'll not only be enjoying learning english but you'll also be learning it more effectively because you're enjoying it sabre and i have chosen to partner with sensations english because as experienced language teachers we know the benefits of having access to an interactive platform where you can learn at your own pace test your level and immerse yourself in interesting authentic up-to-date articles and content that are not only going to broaden your knowledge but also your vocabulary there are hundreds of lessons in five different levels so if you think that sensations english might be too difficult for you choose the easier level to start with and see how you progress through the levels as you practice there is always new content with three lessons 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feedback so there's no excuse you can go right now pay nothing enjoy it for a week and share your experience with us now before you go to sensations english to learn new expressions and vocabulary i've got plenty to teach you right now in fact i have got 50 british english slang expressions and phrases to teach you some of them are in fact informal but be careful because some of them can be quite rude so be careful who you direct these expressions towards whether you're talking about someone with another person or whether you're directly addressing a person just be aware of how rude some of these expressions could be and of course some of them are a little bit vulgar [Music] right let's start with one of the best topics when it comes to slang expressions describing people yes there are lots of wonderful creative and quirky meaning strange ways to describe people in english using some of these slang expressions number one to be a sandwich short of a picnic a sandwich short of a picnic as strange as it may seem we still use this expression regularly essentially we're referring to someone being a little bit crazy or maybe stupid and yes it can be quite insulting so be careful how and where and when you use it she's okay but she's a sandwich short of a picnic if you know what i mean number two to be a nosy parker a nosy parker now when you call someone nosy you are essentially saying that they are interested in other people's business when really they shouldn't be they are curious and want to know what's going on in other people's lives and it isn't any of their business so if you call someone or refer to somebody as a nosy parker you're saying they're the kind of person that really put their nose where it doesn't belong don't be such a nosy parker i'm not telling you how much i earn now this one is actually probably a little bit sexist it's referring only to women or perhaps young girls when they expect other people to do exactly what they want or how they want it to be done she's a proper little madam she's a right little madam either of those expressions means the same thing she is a proper little madam she was adamant that i had to lay the table exactly as she wanted it and she's five have you ever found somebody that was rather difficult to deal with difficult to please perhaps if you refer to somebody as a right so and so you're referring to them as being rather difficult but trying not to insult someone too badly i heard you had an argument with the man around the corner shop don't worry he's a right so-and-so now oddly enough a very similar expression actually means that you think someone is clever or interesting you old so and so you old so and so you managed to get an extra day working from home oh you old so and so number six a lovely adjective when you want to avoid calling someone stupid or an idiot it's much more endearing softer way to say you're stupid rather you can say oh you wally you wally what a wally don't be a wally you don't need to drink that much tonight really you're gonna feel sick in the morning right number seven and this really is one that i use a lot to describe a particular member in my family although i'm not telling you who this expression is used to describe somebody that is mean with money that doesn't like to share or spend their money easily and certainly it doesn't want to be paying for things a tight ass a tight ass it sounds bizarre um but yeah it's a very common expression for example she wasn't willing to pay for the meal she's such a tight house her boyfriend had to pay for everything now number eight if you refer to somebody as being toffee nosed it doesn't mean they've got a sweet sugary nose no no no it simply means they're a bit snobbish stuck up they think they're better than other people so if you say mrs smith down the road is a little bit toffee-nosed she always likes to brag about how expensive her cars and jewelry are then you're saying you think she's a snob she's stuck up and she thinks she's better than other people it's pretty strong so don't use it directly to somebody's face it's just a really nice and simple way of explaining the behavior the personality of an individual number nine something that i have often been accused of can't think why to be gobby or to have a gob on you now gob is your mouth and can you guess what it means yes it means you're very outspoken and probably quite loud really can't understand why people would call me gobby it is rather vulgar so again it can be quite insulting if you use it directly to somebody's face and to be honest it's probably quite true i am a little bit opinionated and loud i don't shy away from saying what i think so you might say oh she is so gobby after a couple of drinks she just keeps talking and has no problem saying exactly what she thinks number ten if somebody is full on you're describing them as being rather intense so at christmas time if all the family gather there's always one member of the family that's pretty full on that might be a little bit too much to take either because they're gobby full of energy or simply have so many questions about your life that you really think they're a bit of a nosy parker his new girlfriend is a little bit full on she keeps bombarding me with questions meaning asking a lot of questions comment below let me know who's the most full-on character in your family number 11. if somebody's rather strange their behavior is a little bit peculiar not quite the norm normal then you might describe them as a bit of an oddball you can say an oddball but often we'd say a bit of an oddball to soften the expression a little bit so strange weird or eccentric the old man down the road is a bit of an oddball he doesn't seem to go out at all and doesn't smile when you walk past total oddball number 12. i am teaching you one here that's a little bit vulgar to be cocky a cocky get or a bit cocky now actually refers to a part of the male anatomy i'll leave it to your judgment to guess which part so when you're describing somebody as being cocky usually a guy you're talking about them being arrogant overly confident sam's a little bit cocky he's always talking about how much money he's earning so there we have it great expressions to help you describe people now emotions and behaviors we don't just need to say angry annoyed shocked no there are lots of expressions in slang that we can use to describe our emotions and behaviors more creatively shall we say so instead of saying that somebody got a bit angry you could say that they got a little bit shirty yes to get a bit shirty is to get angry when i asked him to double check if the booking was made correctly he got a little bit shirty with me now i've already taught you what gob means but how many of you know the expression to be gobsmacked gobsmacked yes if you smack your gob please don't do it it simply means that you are shocked think about it so when you're shocked you can say i was gobsmacked when i heard your news congratulations so it can be positive or negative it's not necessarily one or the other 13 is one that i have referred to before in previous lessons but it is so commonly used that i have to use it in this section looking at emotions and behaviors to be gutted i was absolutely gutted i didn't get into the university of my choice to be very disappointed number 14 when someone gets a little bit grumpy perhaps because they're not getting their own way you can say that they are in a bit of a strop to be in a bad mood about something what's wrong with her she's in a rights drop oh her dad wouldn't lend her the money she wanted oh she's a right little madam right number 15 i'm giving you two expressions because one of them is rather vulgar if you want to refer to somebody as annoying you as being irritating yes you get very annoyed by their behavior or whatever it is they're doing you could say oh they really get up my nose or and yes commonly used by me is oh they are really getting on my tits now tits is a very vulgar term for breasts for boobs so use this phrase this expression very carefully and in the right situation you wouldn't use it directly talking to somebody and you certainly shouldn't use it in formal situations so if someone gets on your tits or gets right up your nose they are irritating you and annoying you quite a lot she did not stop talking through the movie she was really getting on my tits number 16 an expression that my grandmother and i both use quite frequently more to help us calm down and realize that perhaps we're getting a little bit stressed and anxious for no reason and of course it can also mean a little bit angry to get your knickers in a twist to get your knickers in a twist now imagine if your knickers were in a twist knickers by the way are what we refer to as female underwear so pants would be for guys in british english and knickers would be for girls so if you got your knickers in a twist literally it would be very uncomfortable and you would be rather annoyed but in this case we're not talking literally it is an expression slang to express that you're rather anxious annoyed or perhaps a little bit angry oh come on don't get your knickers in a twist it's not that big a deal emotions and behaviors we cannot leave this one out of the list to be knackered i referred to it in my previous lesson on slang words but in this lesson i just got to include it really quickly you need to know it if you didn't watch my previous lesson then you might not realize what this means to be knackered is to be extremely tired and yes i do use it regularly you will hear it in films in television series and amongst native english speakers oh i was so knackered after being on my feet all day at work i just had to have a lie down the alternative remember is cream crackered cockney rhyming slang cream crackered knackered i was cream crackered after playing football never happened i was cream crackered after playing football all day so i had a nice hot bath now ass ass pronounce it with me ass is a very british slang word we use it in so many different colorful ways of course in american english they're more likely to use ass but we would say ass does make you sound rather british so three expressions that we use with us one i can't be asked i can't be asked meaning i can't be bothered i don't want to do something oh i really can't be asked to go and see my mother today i'm just a bit cream crackered 19 to be rc is to be difficult in a bad mood and uncooperative whoa she was a bit arsey today what's wrong with her she wouldn't help me out at all or if you're referring to someone as an ass you're basically saying that they're behaving in a rather stupid and unacceptable way you were really rude at dinner last night you were such an ass number 21 if you lord it over someone to lord it over someone now lord is a kind of noble aristocratic that's the word aristocratic title so you can be lord and lady snowden like the duke and duchess of sussex so lord is a title lord the masculine lady the feminine if someone says you lorded it over them it means that you acted in a way that shows you feel superior to that person or people or perhaps to boss someone around he's always lording it over his little brothers and sisters and getting them to do all the boring jobs around the house those poor kids 22 again another one that i've included before but as we are looking at behaviors and emotions to take the piss or to take the mickey out of somebody to make fun of someone or to mock them so it really is a horrible way to behave they were taking the piss out of her for the dress she wore on her date she really did look like minnie mouse 23 to skive off to skive off now do comment below and let me know if any of you have ever behaved and done this thing so to skive off is to avoid working or going to school so basically i called up work and skived off told them i had a headache i just could not face going into the office to skive off 24 to do a runner to do a runner to run away to escape from a person or situation her husband did a runner now she's on her own with two kids terrible what an ass 25 to nick something to nick something to nick something means that you steal is commonly used in spoken informal english she nicked a chocolate bar from the shops without her mum knowing and her mum made her walk back and apologize and give back the chocolate bar now it can also be slang for being arrested by the police he was nicked for i don't know driving whilst drunk right our next slang topic work and results work and results now number 26 my boss actually used in our last meeting dogs dinner a dog's dinner and specifically to make a dog's dinner of something simply meaning to make a complete mess of something and we're not necessarily talking about a physical mess but rather making a big mistake so for example i made a right dog's dinner of the presentation today at work i don't think anybody understood what i was talking about you can also look like a dog's dinner and do be careful because clearly this is going to be very insulting sarah went to the party looking like a right dog's dinner i didn't have the heart to tell her number 27 and i think this is one of my husband's favorites to not be able to organize a piss up in a brewery now let me explain the vocabulary in this sentence piss-up is referring to an event where everybody gets together and gets very drunk to get pissed means to get drunk so a piss up means a party a celebration of some sort where everyone gets very very drunk and a brewery is where they make beer so if you can't organize lots of people to get drunk in a brewery where they make the actual beer then clearly your organization skills are pretty poor now we don't necessarily use this literally in a sense of talking about parties etc now we can talk about it in terms of work or day-to-day life michael was in charge of the travel arrangements but honestly he couldn't organize a piss up in a brewery he made such a dog's dinner of it 28 to do a bodge job to repair something badly or unprofessionally she put a shelf up by herself and wow what a budge job everything just rolled right off it now similarly to bodge job you can also say a cock-up or a right cock-up now again you know this word is pretty vulgar so better to stick with bodge job but of course you might hear what a cock-up pretty strong very vulgar so be careful when you use it it means to make a mistake to get it wrong and pretty big much bigger than bodge job she got the times of the flight wrong and we missed it what a cock-up number 30 if something is pants you're saying that it's rubbish really really bad that film was pants i didn't enjoy it at all and how predictable now 31 all referring to something being easy easy to be a doddle to be a piece of cake or more vulgar to be a piece of piss now piss is referring in a very vulgar way to urine we so it doesn't sound very nice and you would make sure that you use it in very informal situations in fact avoid using it if you can that exam was a doddle why did we need to study so hard don't worry you'll pass the test it's a piece of piss 32 to be a faff faff is a great british slang expression it can mean to faff around meaning to waste time doing something and not be very productive but if something is a faff it means it's too much effort or bother oh do you really want to go to london for your birthday it is such a faff to organize everything sort out the transport pay for the hotel really and 33 i was jumping the gun a little bit there i was getting ahead of myself too faff about to waste time to spend time doing stuff that really is not very productive she was faffing about getting ready it took her an hour and we were late for the movie now moving on expressions in slang to talk about certain situations number 34 to take the biscuit to take the biscuit when a situation is made worse by somebody usually taking advantage well that really takes the biscuit he couldn't even fix the car and now i get this massive bill in come on number 35 sod's law sod's law now this is actually the slang informal expression taken from murphy's law it's more common for us to use sod's law in british english than it is to say murphy's law now basically murphy's law suggests that when something can go wrong it usually does we spent a fortune going on holiday and sod's law it rained every day number 36 if something goes a bit pear-shaped it goes very very wrong i made a cake for your birthday but it's gone a bit pear shaped and basically it looks a little bit like a volcano number 37 bog standard bog standard if something is bog standard it means it's very ordinary and of basic quality i needed a black uniform for work so i went to the shops and just bought a book standard t-shirt number 38 to be in a pickle in a pickle essentially if you're in a bit of a pickle you are in a difficult problematic situation i'm in a bit of a pickle i borrowed my husband's car the other night and got a scratch on it help what do i do number 39 jammy jammy and no we're not talking about the sweet stuff that you put on your toast for breakfast jam no we are talking about being lucky and really unfairly lucky you don't deserve that luck he wasn't even trying to score a goal the ball just bounced off his head jammy now you can also refer to somebody as being a jammy git which again git is kind of informal slang and quite insulting so avoid using it too often but if you call someone a jammy git usually referring to a gentleman not a woman then you're essentially saying in a kind of banter friendly way it's not too rude that they've been unfairly lucky his new girlfriend is so attractive what a jammy get right coming towards the end the last 10 looking at talking and communication number 40 to grasp someone up to grasp someone up or actually you could say dub someone in which is 44 and it basically means to tell on someone to inform somebody else that's in a position of authority so it might be that you dub your little brother in for breaking the vase or you could grasp someone up because they did something illegal she grasped him up to the police and he was nicked you can also call somebody a grass again very insulting not very nice so avoid using it but basically it's referring to a person who does dub someone in or grass someone up in fact you can call someone a dog as well or a dobber i think grass is probably more related to crimes and dobb is probably a little bit more common when it comes to kids at school number 42 rather rude to talk bollocks or to talk utter bollocks now bollocks again this lesson seems to have a theme is referring to a part of the male anatomy and if you talk bollocks then you are talking rubbish and usually because you don't have much knowledge or information on the subject in fact donald trump is often talking a load of bollocks and it is vulgar it means testicles guys you can also say bollocks when you think something is rubbish or untrue similarly you might say to somebody that they are talking out of their ass and of course if you can't already understand this is rather rude and vulgar if someone's talking out of their ass they're now clearly not thinking with their head because it's coming out of there donald trump frequently talks out of his ass when he's giving a press conference number 44 to have a chin wag to have an informal chat commonly used amongst ladies we had a lovely lunch and a long chin wag we had a lovely lunch and a great chin wag this afternoon it was so nice catching up number 45 to talk cobblers to talk cobblers not too bad here not as bad as talking bollocks so you could say to talk cobblers to talk rubbish or nonsense so really to not make a lot of sense and again probably because you don't have much information on the topic i have never heard such a load of cobblers in my life what was she talking about 46 codswallop you would say what codswallop again this is very british and not too rude but still slang codswallop again it's nonsense it's not true now number 47 if someone likes to complain a lot and really just doesn't stop complaining then you might say that they are going on about something or really stop going on about it i know he was late last night but it wasn't his fault there was bad traffic number 48 when you want somebody to be quiet to shut up and stop talking you could say oh put a sock in it put a sock in it referring to put a sock in your mouth clearly you won't actually do this but basically you're asking someone to be quiet again clearly very rude no matter how or where or why you say it so for example the kids might be asking for something complaining about something and you might say come on put a sock in it and it is often used by parents with children number 49 to keep your hair on now there isn't any real reason that you would take your hair off even if you do have a wig but simply to keep your hair on means calm down don't get so overworked and stressed out about it if someone is angry or agitated and they really need to calm themselves keep your hair on dad i'm not staying out all night i'll be home by half 11. so there we have it in fact 49 phrases and expressions and what i would like you to do is comment below and share a slang phrase that you know and love in english and it doesn't matter if it's british or american english comment below and share your knowledge with the love english community and don't forget that seven day free trial with sensations english click below while there's still that free trial and test out their platform see how many slang phrases expressions and idioms you can learn by reading and watching their content as well as playing their games and doing the activities thank you so much for watching this rather mammoth lesson it has been a bit of a marathon but hopefully you've learned a lot of new expressions and enjoyed it thanks for watching bye

Channel: Love English with Leila & Sabrah

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Keywords: Love English with Leila & Sabrah, Love English with Leila & Sabrah YouTube, YouTube Love English with Leila & Sabrah, learn English, love English, English, English slang, slang phrases, British slang, slang expressions, British slang expressions, british slang vocabulary, learn English slang, slang in English, British slang phrases, common slang, popular slang, how to, how to use English slang

Id: C-Zxvk0tD_k

Length: 31min 24sec (1884 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020