oh I beg your pardon- I'm not being funny but...- It's really not my cup of tea! -
oh no no I don't want to make fuss! Hi and welcome back to Love English in today's lesson
i'm keeping it simple ten expressions in English, British English that I think will not only
help you sound more native and natural but will actually help you immerse yourself in the culture
language reflects culture reflects behaviours of a nation of a country now what are the brits
actually famous for you might have a few negative things probably most of you will say oh fish and
chips disgusting bad food yes okay there is that but there's also many qualities that we
would associate with british people britishness that that through language we embody we act out
these behaviours language and culture are very much interconnected so think about the brits we
like to cue we're polite perhaps overly polite we don't want to intrude or perhaps invade someone's
privacy we're quite a private nation and then of course there's that famous stiff upper lip
if you don't know what that means keep watching because i am going to explain
that expression to you in just a moment so in today's lesson 10 simple common frequently used
expressions in english to help you not only sound more british but perhaps even behave more british
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10 expressions some you might know some you might not let's get started now focusing on being
polite rather than just saying sorry which in fact we do a lot anyway you can also use
pardon or as an alternative i beg your pardon or even excuse me i would say that i use excuse me
more often than i would use pardon or i beg your pardon so pardon is essentially when you are
either unsure of what someone said pardon i didn't quite catch you or even if you've done
something and you feel you've done something rude oh pardon me i didn't mean to interrupt
i beg your pardon is a little more formal less commonly used but you will certainly hear it
certain tones intonations can actually mean that you're shocked by what someone has said i beg your
pardon what did you just say or indeed when you are trying to be polite oh sorry i beg your pardon
i didn't want to interrupt you there of course for me the easiest one to go to is excuse me
you can use this when you've interrupted someone when you think you've been rude when you need to
get past perhaps in line or into a shop someone's in your way oh excuse me i just need to get past
so excuse me pardon and i beg your pardon all of these are a great way of saying sorry
or you know can i get past i need to get past you're in my way basically um so good
expressions useful expressions to help you sound a little more british and a little bit more polite
now number two we don't want to cause offense we don't want to say anything that will upset someone
but of course we've got an expression for this which isn't particularly exciting or interesting
but essentially no offense no offense but did you actually read your essay before you handed this in
no offense but i do think you're wrong about that so this is a phrase that we would use
regularly in english regularly when we know we're going to say something that will offend
but we don't want to offend but we're going to say the thing that we're going to say anyway
no offense but have you ever actually picked up a grammar book and studied english grammar
essentially you're still going to offend them either way but this is like
i'm trying to be polite here but i still want to say what i think being funny no in this case
i'm not actually talking about haha funny layla's being so funny again no that's not
what i'm referring to here funny has a lot of different meanings oh that food tastes a bit
funny are you sure it's not past its expiration date so this could be strange unusual not normal
she's behaving a little bit funny i wonder if she's a bit stressed at school
but in this case i'm going to teach you how to use it when you are trying to again soften a complaint
we do complain in british english of course but we like to soften our complaints so that we don't
seem too harsh too rude rather than say my hotel room is completely filthy could you get it cleaned
again for me thank you but rather than use this a direct tone we could use the phrase i'm not being
funny i'm not being funny but i don't think our room has actually been cleaned properly
would you mind getting someone to go up there and give it a good clean again
thank you ever so much so i'm not being funny but i'm going to complain i'm going to say something
that you might not like that if i don't try and soften my language you might even be offended by
i'm not being funny but have you actually watched any of our idioms
lessons recently you really don't seem to be using a lot of idiomatic expressions
so number four and five of course we are famous for tea in the uk truth be told the truth is i
think a lot of us actually in the uk now do drink more coffee than tea i think this is changing a
little bit with the american culture and italian culture of course coming over but still tea
is at the heart of our nation we are a country of tea lovers particularly older generations so
number four if you haven't heard it before you're hearing it now i have to include this one
fancier copper fancier cuppa we wouldn't say would you like a cup of tea sounds very strange
colloquial natural spoken english would be fancy a cuppa not even would you or do you
but fancy a copper to fancy remember is an informal colloquial verb that we would use
to say you desire want something and copper would be more colloquial slang for cup of
tea so fancier cuppa oh gray or builders tea there builders too hate it always el grey guys
and remember by offering someone a cup of tea you're of course being quintessentially british
you are embracing the culture and knowing that it's the polite friendly thing to do if someone
comes around to your house offer them a cup of tea number five i think you might have heard this
before but if you haven't my goodness you need to use it it's not my cup of tea again a nice
way to say you don't like something to avoid being rude to be more polite you could say oh
i would love to come and see the film with you but you know horror films not really my cup of tea
much more polite than saying oh horror films hate them horrible don't want to watch any
no i'm not coming so sorry no it's really not my cup of tea but thank
you for asking so again being more polite and more british and embracing that theme of tea
number six now i don't know how true this is for me i tend not to care too much
about what other people think particularly if i don't know them so obviously within
reason i don't want people to think i'm a horrible person or i'm rude or disruptive
but we have an expression in english what will the neighbors think what will the neighbours think now
you're kind of taking this view that you do care you care about the impression you give you want to
be seen as an upstanding member of society in fact my husband uses this expression sometimes with me
not knowingly realizing he's becoming perhaps a bit more british um because i often go outside and
call my cats um call them in for like it's dinner time mili maya or you know bedtime so uh yeah i'm
a little bit crazy and my husband's like what are the neighbors gonna think you're out there
calling the cats and i'm just like well don't really care too much but in british english we
do have this expression what will the neighbors think when we are concerned about perhaps what
our indeed neighbors the people that live around us might think of our behavior or even if there's
a horrible car parked outside that looks a bit run down um not particularly nice we might say
oh what is that van that car doing parked outside what will the neighbors think meaning what kind
of people do they think we've got living here or visiting if the car's really horrible so a little
bit stuck up a bit posh to use this phrase but still again something you might consider using
in some circumstances number seven when you don't want to cause too many problems when you don't
want to inconvenience somebody to ask them request them to do something or complain about something
that may cause them additional work oh i don't want to make a fuss really
i don't want to make a fuss a fuss is like a bother like a commotion so causing problems
basically oh i didn't want to make a fuss but i think you're parked across my driveway
would you mind moving the car at some point again this is really when you're trying to be perhaps
overly polite um sometimes you have to make fuss really if you're in a restaurant and you
get a dish that you didn't order and you want the correct thing or perhaps something is undercooked
you might say to the waiter oh i don't want to make a fuss but i think you'll find my chicken
isn't cooked properly could you send it back to the kitchen please so again just trying to
be so polite not offend or upset anyone but to be honest sometimes in some situations you do
need to make a fuss but nevertheless being british i really didn't want to make a fuss
it's no problem if you're going to be a little bit late but if you could just let me know in future
right do you have a stiff upper lip number eight referring to what is quintessentially
very british behavior showing or really showing a lack of emotion so when we talk about having
a stiff upper lip in british english we're referring to the british ways of not showing
too much emotion whether that is sadness or indeed joy elation happiness think about the royal family
they really do represent the british stiff upper lip so essentially with the stiff upper lip you
don't move your lip very much so you're very much like yes yes i feel very sad about that situation
but you're not showing any emotion when you do show emotion your lip tends to move quiver oh
i'm so sad think about it like that so we can use stiff upper lip in the context of come on
you're in england now have more of a stiff upper lip don't let these things upset you now nine and
ten are really more idiomatic but they are very very british and really do represent how crazy
the brits are number nine mad dogs and englishmen go out in the midday sun mad dogs and englishmen
you can't shorten it down exactly to that mad dogs and englishmen use it as an expression in
passing when you want to comment on how british people can sometimes be a little bit strange crazy
unusual it really refers to the british way of not adapting to certain situations just because
they are so stubborn in this case we're talking about englishmen going out in the midday sun
in the extreme heat with their dogs dogsless pose are a bit crazy too despite the fact it
is too hot think about it when you go on holiday who are the people that are still out during the
middle of the day yes it's the brits out in the midday sun not bothered about the fact it is way
too hot now this expression does come from a song by noel coward but essentially we would still
use it commonly today when we're kind of making a comment on someone's behavior being strange
and odd you might see a group of englishmen out in the sun burning roasting themselves going red
and go mad dog's an englishman you don't need to add that extra go out in the midday sun
it's just a simple way to comment on the strange behaviors of the brits when the sun comes out and
finally bob's your uncle bob's your uncle fanny's your aunt but again we keep this usually short to
bob's your uncle there is a historical meaning to this expression it comes basically from politics
referring to when prime minister robert sissel appointed his nephew to an important position
within the government but what it actually means nowadays is simply done finished that was easy
basically there you have it so essentially you could use this expression when you have explained
how to do something to someone so for example let's use coffee as an example if you want to
use my nespresso machine you simply need to get the capsule place it inside where the little
capsule hole is i don't know what i would call that otherwise you press over a button click the
size of coffee you want so there's large espresso or ristretto i think you would call it that press
which size you want and bob's your uncle coffee so if you do explain anything that's relatively
simple to someone else it's a great expression to use and there we have it 10 fun quintessentially
british expressions that also i think help you integrate with the british culture think
a little bit more like a brit whether you fancy a copper or want to have more of a stiff upper lip
these expressions will help thank you so much for watching and do try and comment below use one or
two of these expressions in a context that suits you that's personal to you and if i've missed
any expressions out that you particularly enjoy do comment and share them below with the other
students thank you so much for watching i look forward to seeing you very soon bye