10 EXPRESSIONS TO GET YOU INTO BRITISH

CULTURE
If you go to UK to improve your English, or even just for a holiday, these 10
expressions might help you recognise some popular British sayings.

You might think you know the meaning of some of them, but the different situations
where you can use them and their double meanings might just surprise you!

 Cheeky: is a word used by English people to describe somebody who says

something insolent or irrelevant in an amusing way. You might say “Don’t be
so cheeky!”

 Fancy: If a friend invites you for a drink, there isn’t a big chance you’ll hear the
question: “Would you like to go out for a drink?”, instead, they are much more
likely to say: “Fancy a drink?”

 Knackered: Do you feel extremely tired or exhausted? Then you might say: “‘I
am absolutely knackered!”

 Being funny: “Being funny” can mean so many different things. As you

probably know, it can mean something is comical, but a smell can also be
funny: “it smells funny in here”. This means it doesn’t smell very nice, or there
is a weird smell. Also the British expression: “ I am not being funny but…” is
used to soften a complaint which follows the phrase.

 Smash it!: Apart from its literally meaning (e.g. “I smashed a glass”) this
expression can mean “Go for it!” or “to achieve/win something”. For example, if
you have an exam and you feel pretty nervous, your friend might tell you:
“Good luck! Smash it!”. On the other hand, if your friend gets a good mark, you
might say “He smashed it!”.

 Nice one!: British people will use this expression both sarcastically and
sincerely. When being used sincerely, it can be used to express feelings of
gratitude, recognition and likeability… But sarcasm? Imagine your friend spills
a drink. You might say “Oh nice one!” – in this context, it loosely means “That
was silly…”
  Dodgy: When you hear the expression “this looks a bit dodgy!”, remember it is
nothing about dogs!. It actually means that something doesn’t look very
honest, legal or simply “not right”.

 Loo: You will be surprised how many words you will find for bathroom and loo
is one of them! Loo, toilet, washroom, bathroom, ladies’, men’s… the list goes
on.

 Bloody: Don’t worry, it’s not a violent word… it has nothing to do with
“blood”.”Bloody” is a common word to give more emphasis to the sentence,
mostly used as an exclamation of surprise. Something may be “bloody
marvellous” or “bloody awful“. Having said that, British people do sometimes
use it when expressing anger…

 Boss: You might know the meaning of this word as your supervisor or person
in charge at work, but it also has another meaning: you can say that
something is “boss” to say something is extremely cool: “Dude, that’s so boss”.
Also, if someone achieves something with a high level of success, you can say
that they did it “Like a boss”.

 
So there you have it – as if the English language wasn’t complicated enough. Listen out, and
enjoy!