a biscuit shooter a blabbermouth a biso a bivy British slang can be very
confusing even for me but today I'm going to teach you some of the most
common slang words that are used in everyday conversation
now slang is such an important topic because if you want to understand
native speakers native speakers use a lot of slang in conversations so if you
speak to a native speaker or you do come to England using these phrases will be
very very impressive as they are very natural and they are of course very
British but you can of course use them in your own country as well perhaps with
friends who are learning British English or with your teacher or anybody who is a
native speaker that is a good idea now you may have quite a few questions about
these slang words and phrases and that is why we have a great question and
answer website that we would like to share with you and tell you about today
and we will be answering your questions on there for the next couple of days so
the website is called Ninjama and it is a question box website and
they have sponsored this video as they've recently made an
english-speaking version of their website and they want us to share it
with you as it's such a great way to easily be able to get your questions
answered by us but also to practice your English with friends it's a very great
chat network or even a way to ask for example a teacher something or if you
have a business to communicate with your clients in Asia it's crazy popular 1.2
million people are using it every single day and 16 million people per month so
it's going to be big also here in Europe now to use it all you need to do is to
create a log in and you can quickly do that within 5 seconds you can also log
in with Twitter for example and then once you've created your page you can
share a link in order to get questions or you can start asking other people
questions and set up chats with them so it's super easy to use now to ask us
questions the link is down below in the description box so our link there to
access us so we look forward to seeing you on there it's also anonymous so if
you're somebody who doesn't want to reveal your identity on the internet
which is fine then that is perfect for you so it's a great way to practice your
English cause you can go on there and start chatting to people perhaps asking
them questions about their English and practising
together so once you've watched this video guys you can start asking us
questions we will be live on there answering your questions for at least
the next couple of days also add the link to our Instagram to answer your
questions on there so be sure to check that out as well and of course the link
to follow us on Instagram is at love English UK and of course don't forget to
subscribe so number one is gone to pot to go to pot when we say something has gone to
pot or it's going to pot it means it is deteriorating a situation or a place
that has deteriorated in quality or in some way is not as good as it used to be
basically becoming worse so if you say hmmm that restaurants really gone to pot
the waiting staff are not as good as they used to be and the food it's just
not as tasty anymore you're saying it used to be good but now
it's not it's gone to pot I hope your English hasn't gone to pot guys I hope
it's improving all the time with us right number two three and four are all
slang words to talk about men so different ways to say the word man the
first is bloke a bloke this is a very common way to talk about a man quite
similar to how the Americans would say an average Joe it just refers to a
normal ordinary bloke so you might say oh there's a bloke coming round today to
come and fix the broken pipe for example meaning there's a man coming round today
we often will say that somebody is a lovely bloke so you might say Dave's a
great bloke what a nice guy now another way to talk about a man is of course the
word chap but this is a little bit posher you could say oh hello chaps
fancier a spot of polo? so chap was much more used amongst the
upper classes to talk about a man good day chaps things like that
however today it's usage is much more general so you could say Dave's a lovely
chap for example instead of Dave's a lovely bloke the next one is a lad a lad
now lad has a little bit more of a negative connotation it can mean that
men are behaving in a bit of a boyish manner
or sometimes their even misbehaving or seeming like they could misbehave for
example if we say there's a group of lads over there having a drink
there might be the suggestion that they could misbehave or that they're behaving
in quite a young way it is usually used to describe younger men in general so to
call somebody of 40 or 50 a lad would be a bit strange it's probably up to about
25 where you can still refer to somebody as a lad however if you refer to a boy
as a lad there it doesn't have a negative connotation because it does
literally mean somebody who is younger so if you say oh my neighbor's son he's
such a nice lad there's no negative connotations there it's just a way to
say young man but in the negative way you might hear sentences like this a
group of drunken lads crashed the party a group of drunken lads crash the party
look out girls right number five is probably one of the
most common British slang phrases ever it's used all the time it's used by all
ages and it is the word bloody now we use this in so many ways it can be about
something which is positive or negative it's like an exclamation really so we
want to add emphasis to something we can add the word bloody however it is still
a swear word but it is a minor swear word but if you know your work
colleagues well or you know your boss well it is the kind of swear word which is
acceptable because it is minor so you might hear I've got so much bloody work
to do or have you seen the bloody weather or that TV show last night I
loved it it was bloody brilliant so we use it all the time so if you want to
sound a little bit more British try adding bloody in the right circumstances
and often describing a noun or describing a situation but add it in and
hopefully you'll start to feel a little bit more British right number six is
chuffed to be chuffed and this means to be very pleased or proud about something
if you say I'm chuffed to bits about this you're really pleased or proud
about it for example I could say I'm chuffed to bits that love English is
about to hit 100,000 subscribers Leila and I are
chuffed to bits that's an understatement actually we're probably closer to being
over the moon but we are also chuffed to bits now you can say this about other
people so you might say I'm chuffed to bits that my daughter's getting married
right number seven is just the word do a do and when we use this in the noun this
actually means a party or an event so if we say we're having a work due on Friday
night we're celebrating the new contract this means there's a party at work
there's some kind of event you'll also hear British men and women talking about
stag and hen dos now these are the typical parties that take place in
England before you get married and men have one separately
and women have one separately in American English it would be bachelor
and bachelorette party okay number eight is the word dodgy now this is an
adjective this means something that is suspicious or untrustworthy so if you
hear somebody saying don't go to that part of town because it's a bit dodgy it
means that the area may be a bit unsafe maybe crime is a bit higher in that area
and there's more chance of things going wrong when it comes to food if we say
that food is dodgy we mean that the food is off and maybe the food would make us
ill so if you hear somebody saying oh I had a dodgy curry last night and my
tummy's a bit funny it means that the curry they ate was not good maybe some
of the ingredients had gone off now if you hear us talking about a person as
dodgy this means again that we think that they're
untrustworthy or suspicious number nine is a nice easy one it is a fortnight and
a fortnight in British English means two weeks it's a that simple
so if we say I'm going away for a fortnight we mean I'm going away for two
weeks but is very commonly heard in England and I'm sure they understand it
in America as well number ten is a great expression it is everything's hunky-dory
or it's hunky-dory and this means that everything is going well everything is
great so if you say everything's hunky-dory for me at the moment I've got
a promotion at work I'm buying a house it's all hunky-dory
this means everything's going well kind of the opposite really off gone to pot so
are things hunky-dory with your English guys ?I do hope so
tell me below in the comments if you feel that things are hunky-dory with
that number 11 is to lose the plot or to say that someone has lost the plot and
this is where we kind of mean that somebody has lost their mind
so if we say I can't believe you just did that if you lost the plot we mean
have you gone crazy but this can be in a serious way or in a funny way
so if Lela says to me Sabrah I've just had have gone on a shopping spree
and I spent a thousand pounds I would say oh my goodness Leila have you lost
the plot it's very similar to have you lost your
mind have you gone crazy this kind of thing but usually it's used in a jokey
context right number 12 is to know your onions to know your onions now if you
regularly go shopping for fruits and vegetables you will know that you have
to carefully examine them and smell them to know if they are good or not so if we
know our onions this means that we know something very well that we're
knowledgeable about the topic so if you say my professor really knows his onions
about economics he studied it before and he's worked in a bank so I really feel
that he knows his onions Leila and I can say that we know our onions about
English grammar I think we do anyway so it's a phrase to say that you're
knowledgeable about something what do you know your onions about? tell me below
in the comments if there's something that you feel you know your onions on
right number 13 is wonky wonky and this means that something is not straight
it's an adjective something is not straight or not right for example if you
see a painting and the painting is hung on the wall but it's on a slant
so it's not straight it's on the side slightly you might say now that painting
looks wonky for example or that line looks wonky
basically means something that isn't straight if we say we feel wonky we mean
we don't feel quite right so if we say I feel wonky today it means I feel I
feel not right to feel not myself maybe a little bit unwell
even number 14 is to whinge to whinge and this is typically what teenagers and
children do it's like complaining or moaning so it's
a slang verb but very commonly used so if you hear a teenager saying oh but you
said I could go to the party no everybody be going and always not fair
enough I don't want to go to book club then they are whinging also children
whinge but adults could also win jazz well it's when we complain and we really
go on about it so I annoy my boyfriend because I whinge a lot about the British
weather I hate the British weather I'm a sun lover I get sick of the rain and
so I whinge to him about it and he gets a little bit annoyed with that because
he loves England he doesn't mind the weather so much and so it annoys him but
I like to have a good whinge about the weather number 15 is a tad a tad which
just means a little or a small quantity of so we can say I'm a tad jealous or
I'm a tad disappointed and use it to describe an adjective or if someone
offers us food or a drink you can reply if you just want a little by saying
just a tad for me meaning just a small quantity
I'll just have a tad of that cake just a tiny little bit please just give me a
tad like that for example okay number 16 is a tenner and a tenner of course means
10 British pounds very common to hear people saying I've got a tenner instead
of 10 pounds the same goes to for the next one which is of course a fiver
which is 5 pounds and again it's very common to hear people saying have you
got a fiver instead of 5 pounds you can't really say a 20 or a 50 or it only
works with tenner and fiver 20 doesn't really sound right number 18 is a quid
and a quid of course means one pound but we can use it for example to say 5 quid
10 quid a million quid so it's just a slang word for pound but it's very
common and it's not rude at all you'll hear it all the time so it's a really
good one
to know actually particularly if
you're coming to England it'll mean that you're not surprised when someone sells
you something and they say that's 2 quid please mate number 19 is a verb it
is the verb to skive to skive and this means that you take time off work or
school but you're not really ill you're staying at home because you're feeling a
bit lazy or you're trying to avoid something or something like this so
people might tease you when you come back to work and maybe you have really
been ill but people might tease you and say where were you were you skiving? for
example children of course can get into trouble if they skive from school but it's
very common of course some children do skive I occasionally used to skive and
I'll tell you something funny guys I used to put my head on the radiator
so it was really hot then I would say to my mum Oh mom I'm not well at all I'm so
so hot I can't go into school and she would believe me I know I'm a terrible
person number 20 is loo the loo which is a slang word for the toilet but it's not
really impolite it's something that we all use actually but maybe avoid in
informal situations for example with your boss that you don't know very well
or your boyfriend's parents if you're meeting them for the first time or your
girlfriend's parents etc but apart from that it's used all the time in fact it's
very common to hear the phrase to pop to the loo which means to go to the loo
you might hear someone saying hang on I'm just going to pop to the loo meaning
I'm going to go to the toilet number 21 and 22 I've put these two together as
they are quite similar so these both mean when something is rubbish they're
both adjectives to describe something being rubbish something being not good
one is pants pants and the other is crap so if we say oh that movie was
pants or that movie was crap we mean it was rubbish
now pants in American English are of course your trousers but in England
pants mean underwear for the bottom half can cause some confusion if you don't
know that and you go to America but basically it's more for men so it's
underwear usually for men underpants now crap means the same but it's a
little bit stronger and it's almost a swear word crap but again super common
23 and 24 again they're together because they're very similar and they are
bonkers and nuts bonkers and nuts and these are both slang words or funny ways
to say that someone is crazy so if you say oh my goodness she's bonkers we mean
she's she's crazy she's lost the plot for example and of course if we say
somebody is nuts or we can say somebody is a nutter a nutter
meaning that somebody is a little bit crazy but of course these are not often
used literally they're more used as a joke number 25 is a noun and it is a
shambles but it is actually used in a descriptive way so we will often say
that party was a shambles so the meaning is that something is a
mess or a disaster something is not organized so if we say it was a shambles
at work when that manager left unexpectedly we mean it was a disaster
it was crazy it was probably very disorganized okay guys I hope you're
feeling hunky-dory after that and you're not feeling pants I wish you all a
lovely day we've come to the end of our 25 slang words and phrases don't forget
to go and ask us a question on the Ninjama website the link is in the
description box below and of course if you want to try and practice using these
phrases or these words in a sentence you can leave me an example in the
comments below thank you very much for watching everybody and we'll see you
soon on love English bye bye