Toodle-oo, or Common American phrases :)
After numerous Olya's questions I decided that I need to brush my 'everyday' English a little too. So I opened my "Super-Mini Common American Phrases Dictionary (A guide to conversation and small talk)" by Richard Spears. It's supposed to teach me "общепринятым разговорным выражениям, используемых в современном англ. яз. в США".
But some examples at the early beginning made me cringe:
- See you later.
- After while, crocodile.
and
- After while, Mary.
- Toodle-oo.
My school teacher (years and years ago) told me, that this alligator/crocodile stuff is outdated. And what's with "Toodle-oo"? Do people really use it? It sounds... well, I don't want to offend anybody, who may use it.
Should I trust this dictionary?
Re: Toodle-oo, or Common American phrases :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by gRomoZeka
After numerous of Olya's questions I decided that I need to brush up my 'everyday' English a little bit, too.
But some examples at the very beginning made me cringe:
- See you later.
- After while, crocodile.
and
- After while, Mary.
- Toodle-oo.
Should I trust this dictionary?
It would be hilarious to hear a Russian say "after a while, crocodile!"
And to my knowledge it's "after a while, crocodile." "After while crocodile" sounds like a Russian messing up the articles.
I would say steer clear of this; it's something you might say on the schoolyard - "After a while crocodile!" the response being, "See you later alligator!"
Another one is, "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!"
"Toodle-oo" sounds like a kind of British thing. Or maybe what the giant Caterpillar says to Alice in Alice and Wonderland. I mean, you can say it jokingly...but if you've got an accent and you're young, people are going to simply think you don't know any better and they'll laugh at you.
Yeah, young guys do say "slap me some skin," but I haven't said or heard it since the 90's. It's kind of gone by the wayside, like "talk to the palm 'cause you ain't my mom/the bomb." I mean, I might personally whip a phrase like that out as kind of an ancient artifact which we can all appreciatively mull for the sheer novelty of it, and reminisce. It doesn't sound bad, either, like that crocodile crap, it's not childish so I'd say you could get away with it.
"Skin me" is just daft. Just wait until you find the psychopath who takes it literally.
I would say "Give me a five" or "Show some respect/love" (with your hand out - although this might come across as rude if you're not careful). That stuff never goes out of style. Or you can pull the "up high, down low, too slow!" bit, whereby you evade someone else's high five.
But yeah, trash the dictionary. There're better ones out there. I'd recommend looking at Borders, Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com. They have all kinds of ESL stuff in addition to idiom and slang dictionaries.
Re: Toodle-oo, or Common American phrases :)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Trzeci_Wymiar
Another one is, "See ya, wouldn't wanna be ya!"
Oh, that's, like, so 1992.
Re: Toodle-oo, or Common American phrases :)
Quote:
It would be hilarious to hear a Russian say "after a while, crocodile!"
And to my knowledge it's "after a while, crocodile." "After while crocodile" sounds like a Russian messing up the articles.
I would say steer clear of this; it's something you might say on the schoolyard - "After a while crocodile!" the response being, "See you later alligator!"
I agree that it makes more since to say "after a while crocodile" and in any other context you'd say "after a while" but in the case of this expression it really is just "after while crocodile."
Regardless, it's definitely not something to say unless you're ten years old. (But I agree, it would be hilarious to hear a Russian say that just because it would be so cute)
I wasn't aware that many people still asked for high fives but if one were to do so, I think you would just say "High five" or "give me a high five." Even better, I'd just stick my hand out in the high five gesture and hope the other person caught on. (And if they don't you can always say "don't leave me hanging" but that's a little silly and I'd only say that in jest.)
