Worksheet from The British English Podcast

Pub
Worksheet
Colloquial Dialogues
1 At the bar

So if you remember the setting is of a busy local pub on a Sunday lunchtime. We

have two punters at the bar and behind it we have the publican serving them. The

publican pulls a pint of bitter and passes it to regular 1 who hands him some money:

Regular 1 (to Publican): “Where’s meat and two veg, then?”

Publican: “Dunno, mate - should be here by now.”
Regular 2: “Must be doing a Harry” – All laugh –
Regular 1: (to Publican) “Put one in the wood for him, then – and
yourself?”
Publican: “I’ll have one for Ron, thanks.”
So as I said “meat and two veg” is a nickname for regular 3 who is not within eye’s

sight and as his name is Harry and he often gets lost they said he’s doing the usual

thing that Harry does….getting lost!

Remember meat and two veg means he is boring or unadventurous which mimics

the dull Britisih dish of literally a piece of meat and two pieces of veg on a plate.

“Put one in the wood for him” is a version of a more common pub-phrase, meaning

‘reserve a pint of beer to give him when he arrives’. You may hear “Put one in for…”

or “Leave one in for…” in many pubs, but “Put one in the wood for…” is a regional

variation, found mainly in parts of Kent.

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Worksheet from The British English Podcast

The phrase “and yourself ” is a contraction of ‘and one for yourself ’, the standard

formula for offering a drink. The “Ron” referred to by the Publican, however, is not a

person. ‘Ron’ is short for ‘later on’. So, Regular 1 is buying a drink now, to be served to

Meat and two veg when he arrives and he is also offering the publican a drink.

Remember Brits don’t tip much, especially in a pub. The best tip bar staff can hope to

get in a British pub is a cheeky pint for the end of the shift.

So the publican accepts the pint, but won’t consume it until later on, when he is less

busy. Hence the “for ron” for later on...laterron...lah-(glottal t) erRon...forrr Ron. for

Ron. See the shortcut?

2 At the table
Alright, this next one is actually quite rude. So you might not want to study it if you get

offended by strong language but it is the language locals use with each other. So it is

3 guy mates at a table in their local and their glasses are looking a little empty but

regular 1 asks his friend about his wife to begin with...

Regular 1: How is she then, still milking you dry?

Regular 2: You could say that again, fuck me!
Regular 3: Guess I’ll get the next one in then. You fannys still sticking with
your pints of piss?
Regular 2: Ha, yeah but I’ll have a half.
Regular 3: Jesus, knew you were bent.
Regular 1: He’s got his missus’ piece of shit parked out front.
Regular 2: I think you’ll find it’s a 1.8 litre mate so you can jog the fuck on!
Wow, okay. So let’s help you out here!

1. Milking you dry - imagine how you milk a cow and it has no more milk but
replace milk with money. So this guy’s woman is spending all his money.
2. The next one - the next round of drinks
3. Fanny - non-masculine man

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Worksheet from The British English Podcast

4.Pint of piss - remember from the video? Weak beer.

5. Half - half a pint
6. Bent - rude way of offending a straight person suggesting they are gay. (this is
getting less acceptable in cosmopolitan areas but in a local pub with mostly straight
men this is still commonly used in 2020.
7. Missus’ piece of shit - his wife’s terrible car
8. Out front - in the pub car park
9. 1.8 litre - talking about the size of the engine which is “relatively” powerful in the
group of people.
10. Jog on - go away. You can use the malleable swear word fuck in lots of places to

add emphasis to a comment. E.g shut the fuck up.

Have a read back over the conversation and see if you can answer this
comprehension question…

Why does Regular 3 suggest he should get the next round of drinks?
If you wanted me to respond then comment the answer under the youtube video.

I’d love to see you go the extra mile!

Well done, and see you soon!

Best,
Charlie

IF YOU HAVEN'T LISTENED TO THE PODCAST EPISODE I DID ON BRITISH

PUBS THEN YOU CAN LISTEN TO IT HERE:

www.thebritishenglishpodcast.com/S1-E2
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