Thread: Slang and Swearing in UK, US and other countries

@Kamka - Oh I see! Restaurant industry in the UK is NOT a good place to learn English, too many non-English. But you already speak it well by the sound of things though.

Another word that's used a lot is "git" but I don't know exactly what it means and I don't use it myself.
Example "He's a real git" (negative).

Originally Posted by Johanna

@Kamka - Oh I see! Restaurant industry in the UK is NOT a good place to learn English, too many non-English. But you already speak it well by the sound of things though.

I actually worked with quite a lot of Scots, so it wasn't that bad. This one time on a quiet night, I even had a customer teaching me some Scottish slang! Good times )
May I just ask, how long have you been in Britain?

I was really hoping this would make it to Youtube, because I am not certain if you all have "rights" to view MSNBC....

"peppercorns" this was a new one for me!!!!

http://www.popeater.com/2009/09/24/m...er-today-show/

Haha "Peppercorns"!
Never heard that before!

And Martha Stewart is out of prison!
(for a brief period in time I rather admired her as I tried to keep a perfect house... enough said!)

Originally Posted by fortheether

Originally Posted by Johanna

Maybe an American person can explain DUDE and YA' LL (??) and some other American expressions.
I kind of like "dude" but I don't use it myself.

I recently noticed that young girls (teens to early 20's) are calling each other dude, which is kind of cute. To me, it has a impolite, disrespectful ring to it; I don't appreciate being addressed as dude.

Originally Posted by sperk

Originally Posted by fortheether

Originally Posted by Johanna

Maybe an American person can explain DUDE and YA' LL (??) and some other American expressions.
I kind of like "dude" but I don't use it myself.

I recently noticed that young girls (teens to early 20's) are calling each other dude, which is kind of cute. To me, it has a impolite, disrespectful ring to it; I don't appreciate being addressed as dude.

"You call me me DUDE ONE MORE TIME!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GgWrV8TcUc

Listen closely at the end at what he says..."You got that camera on? If I find myself on..."

This took place in Baltimore in the Inner Harbor area. The case was in the news here again this past weekend as the case was thrown out of court.

Now about the teens..hehehe.. My girls were going to write a posting here about that. They DO in fact call each other and their friends "dude" and say, "What's your problem dude" or just "DUDE!" to each other ALL the time. To them "dude" is almost as common in a sentence as "like" these days.

that cop looks like a proper psycho to me.

Originally Posted by kamka

that cop looks like a proper psycho to me.

Ohhhh, the jokes going on around here when this first came out! People blamed it on his having to drive a "toy" cop car and wearing shorts. Of course, the boy did not help by calling him "dude" over, and over, and over.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Originally Posted by kamka

that cop looks like a proper psycho to me.

Ohhhh, the jokes going on around here when this first came out! People blamed it on his having to drive a "toy" cop car and wearing shorts. Of course, the boy did not help by calling him "dude" over, and over, and over.

I didn't understand what did the cop get so upset about in first place

Originally Posted by kamka

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Originally Posted by kamka

that cop looks like a proper psycho to me.

Ohhhh, the jokes going on around here when this first came out! People blamed it on his having to drive a "toy" cop car and wearing shorts. Of course, the boy did not help by calling him "dude" over, and over, and over.

I didn't understand what did the cop get so upset about in first place

The kids were skateboarding in an area where you could not. The one boy had his earphones in from his iPod and did not hear him or just did not "want" to hear him. It set him off. He was having a really bad day....

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Originally Posted by kamka

Originally Posted by rockzmom

Ohhhh, the jokes going on around here when this first came out! People blamed it on his having to drive a "toy" cop car and wearing shorts. Of course, the boy did not help by calling him "dude" over, and over, and over.

I didn't understand what did the cop get so upset about in first place

The kids were skateboarding in an area where you could not. The one boy had his earphones in from his iPod and did not hear him or just did not "want" to hear him. It set him off. He was having a really bad day....

The cop needs some anger management training . But, frankly, the kid was acting like a moron. I don't know if he is one, or if he was just being a teenager (always on the defensive, like typical teenagers are, etc), but his behavior wasn't smart.

Originally Posted by rockzmom

The kids were skateboarding in an area where you could not. The one boy had his earphones in from his iPod and did not hear him or just did not "want" to hear him. It set him off. He was having a really bad day....

oh, alright! that's for clearing that one up for me

translationsmr - most of 14-year-olds are morons, it's just a phase we all go through, when you act all cocky just for the sake of it, 'cause you feel oh-so-grown-up and fail to see why would anyone have any right to question whatever it is that you're doing. And I'd exepct a police officer to show just a wee bit more empathy, after all it's not like the kid was harmful in any way, or actually insulting the cop, he was probably just being his 14-year-old self.
That cop, on the other hand, acts as if he has not only some anger amangment issues, as you've pointed out, but also a huge problem with his self-esteem, hence he's taking it out on someone who's just this much more vulnerable. Scary thing.

Originally Posted by kamka

That cop, on the other hand, acts as if he has not only some anger amangment issues, as you've pointed out, but also a huge problem with his self-esteem, hence he's taking it out on someone who's just this much more vulnerable. Scary thing.

Oh, yeah, I wasn't trying to say that the cop's behavior was alright just because the kid was acting stupid (and, by the way, now that I think of it, he probably acted as he did he was with his friends. He probably just didn't want to look like a wuss to them. Stupid, but understandable). There was absolutely no need to manhandle the boy and yell at him the way the cop did. I wonder if he behaves the same way towards his own children. Maybe it's just his idea of how to handle disobedient children
By the way, law enforcement seems to be a magment to people with security and self-esteem issues. Even in the least corrupt societies, a certain percentage of police officers are liable to be like that guy.

Yeah I agree -- that policeman was a bit unprofessional. It seemed like he was in a very bad mood and partly took it out on the (very stupid!!) kid. He was the adult in the situation, and someone who is supposedly trained to handle such situations calmly. The kid WAS both stupid and disrespectful though. Fool meets fool situation...

What a strange uniform he wore! I didn't realise at first that the fellow who was shouting was actually the policeman...

VERY FUNNY, VERY RUDE (WARNING SENSITIVE PPL!) about London Underground (metro).

(good intro to some very rude and very common words in British English!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84vJ4vEWvAQ

If you really want to know exactly what the rude words are, make a search for the karaoke version which has all the words.

Two expressions I use a lot:

Sweet: another word for "Awesome!". Example: "Sweet! I just won the lottery!"

Sick: Awesome, very impressive. Example: "I just say [insert movie title here], that movie was SICK!" or "did you see what that magician did? That was sick, yo!"

Yazeed - Good ones!

Keep in mind that British slang and American slang is very different. In America we do not use "bugger off" or "bugger", we usually use "f*ck off". British people use "piss off" and "bloody", Americans do not. British also use "taking the piss out of me" which means to mock someone.

Some other words that I hear young Americans use quite a bit are: "stop being a fag" or "thats gay", they don't literally mean that you are homosexual.

Overall I think "f*ck" or "what the f*ck" are probably the most used swear words in the US.

Of course there are books for just about everything, so, too, for learning how to swear:

English as a 2nd F*cking Language

And by the same author: Watch Your F*cking Language

Robin

Originally Posted by Johanna

Well judging from Rockzmom's comments, "brilliant" is a complicated word in the US.

Not really. It's actually simpler. We don't use it for everything. "Brilliant" is more strictly used as a synonym for "ingenious." And even then it sounds a bit pretentious.

Yes, personally, for instance, I might say "That film was brilliant," but only if I were too lazy to say "brilliantly done," or "ingenious," or "exceedingly intelligent plot-wise and in execution." Capische?

Generally, I'd just lazily drop the line "That was f**king good, dude." (nonspecific "dude" here).

Originally Posted by Johanna

The other option is to speak like an American.

The better option. I don't like how Russians sound when their accent has British traces in it. Sounds funky.

when somebody is speaking New York slang

I don't know that the slang differs too much from the rest of the country, although the accent is quite different. Most of my extended family lives in and around NYC.

There are some other tricky accents there too. Real Americans DON'T speak like they do on TV shows and on CNN. Only very few do, those from California I think.

True dat! "Talking heads" and TV personalities are usually trained in their diction, and they go on the "Standard American English" model, or something, which supposedly emanates from Ohio.

Californians, on the other hand, are notorious for slang, especially the youth of Southern California (which is incidentally where I grew up).

However Americans are very chilled, relaxed people though, so usually things work out well anyway.

I beg to differ!

Originally Posted by Johanna

As I understand it there are some pretty big cultural differences between the UK and the US in terms of slang and swearing.

There are big differences. It's nearly impossible for me to get the meaning of someone speaking British slang unless they're using highly stereotypical words, like "bloody" or "bollocks," or unless the context lends clarity. The other day, a guy gamboled into my place of work, said something to me in British English and proceeded to laugh hysterically, while I sat there trying like hell to determine exactly what the f_k he had said. I understood the words (and I forget them as of now) but they made no sense to me whatsoever.

I suppose it's the same in reverse for Brits ... so ...

Speaking of slang ... as a young person (22 and under) living in the United States, slang and profanity are my fundamental building blocks of daily communication!

Here's an abbreviated list of some common American "slangisms" that you might be interested in:

I'm bummed out = I'm feeling a bit sad

Today sucks = I don't like how today is going

So, my grandpa croaked last night = My grandpa died

It's pretty dead here = There's not much activity going on

She's ditsy as hell = She seems quite vacuous, unintelligent, and bubbly

Come again? = What did you say?

Did you see that car? That sh*t was off the hook! = That was a really cool car

Stop power tripping! = Stop trying to control everything

Man, I just went and took the five minute diet! = I relieved my bowels to a vast extent in the toilet

OK - obviously, there are millions more than these, and ones that are much, much more profane. However, I'll only post extreme profanities upon request. Highly profane verbiage is very, VERY common in everyday situations between men and, increasingly, women, or even between women and men.

Generally, I'd say, profanity and slang comprises a great majority of my words when I'm talking about mundane things. But if I'm having serious conversations, or discussing something a bit more high-flown with some friends, I'll invariably switch to exceedingly high-form English. I kind of swing between the extremes and occasionally intermix them.

But, whatever!