retzie

F**kwit! There is nothing remotely as satisfying in American, and I have been complemented by many a discerning listener.


I was very pleased when I discovered that my new mobile had Australian English as a language option, which results in it telling me it is in Aeroplane Mode


I learnt this one early, but somehow it still catches me all the time. There is simply no acceptable alternative for 'fortnightly pay'

steveq

I know a group in PA. that do....
Linguistic re-colonialism is what I call it.

SultanOfSwing

Yeah, I confused a lot of people with that one when I first came over. Likewise with talking about weights in stones rather than just pounds.

That is a good one. It has a great percussive sound that conveys disdain very effectively. Likewise ****nuts, for variety.

Or Mr Weeze's classic - cocksocket.

robin1234

According to this, "fortnight" has seen a sharp uptick in American English usage in the last few years. https://www.quora.com/Is-fortnight-c...ed-archaic-now

The writer puts it down to Harry Potter readers etc., I'd say more generally, the Internet, TV, globalised popular culture has brought in a lot of British usages to the U.S...

dj6372

Exactly the context I was using it for, fortnightly rings better than bi-weekly which just sounds odd.


Maybe its just me!

Bob

Knob jockey, seems to amuse the locals.

Also, greeting the folks the missus works as "slags", they all loved that. For years. Till the new person actually checked Urban Dictionary to see what it meant.

markonline1

LOL

Wintersong

"The dog's bollocks"

Not a phrase, but my pronunciation of 'zebra' is the one my friends come back to every time they feel like taking the mickey out of my Englishness.

"Now you're asking!" has caused some misunderstandings. Friend asked for ideas for my daughter's birthday gift and was a bit put out, as she thought I was telling her off for not asking sooner. The fact that I was drunk while trying to explain probably didn't help.

jambey2510

Not a saying as such - but do any of you guys get shocked looks when you don't drink water whilst getting drunk and also get shocked looks when they realise how much you're drinking in comparison? There's always comments like "I knew the Brits had a drinking reputation but what the heck" etc!

Wintersong

mikelincs

A few years agi I was on a course in the UK, run by an American company via it's UK subsidiary, and one of the US people was over just to meet people, well we had a free bar at the local pub, and the yank couldn't get ove the fact that the person ordering was ordering two pints for everyone, the yank stuck to his half pint while the rest of us had pints in each hand. After about 4 rounds we went back to the hotel, and the bar there was still open, we all went in, and me and chap from Scotland saw a single malt whisky at the back of the bar, with about three inches of whisky left, so we asked the bartender to just split it between two glasses, and she did, we were all putting bar tabs on one specific room number, when he got his bill the morning we were leaving the bar tab was well over £400 for a group of 6 people for just three nights.
The morning after the pub incident I went down to breakfast and ordered a full English, the yank was there nursing a coffee and had just a slice of toast, he was amazed that we could face breakfast after the night before.. yank pussy.

jambey2510

My point exactly! I attended my fiances brothers wedding with her the other week, and I drank from 4pm until 3am, with an open bar and plenty of free drinks at the after wedding party for close family. I had around 8 champagnes, a lot of vodka lemonade, spiced rum, beer and more beer after. My girlfriend and her family kept saying you need some water, you'll have a bad hangover! The next morning, her parents cooked us all breakfast and my fiancé was still asleep as she was hungover, and her sister and her sisters date were both struggling to eat at all, whilst I ate two huge platefuls!

Rete

You can add Canadians to that reputation, as well. I thought my hubby was an alkie until I understood that the huge amount of alcohol he consumed was normal for him and his comrades in arms. I've not seen him drunk yet even after he has consumed a few glasses of Harps before dinner, 2 bottles of red wine with dinner, two large brandies after dinner and an Irish coffee. Note: I don't drink. Must be the Brit and Irish in him plus 16 years of living in Europe.

jambey2510

There's a bar near my girlfriends that have a "passport" scheme, and it's to encourage you to drink as many different beers from around the world so you tick off the checklist within your passport. Each milestone you hit, you get a freebie. I hit my free t-shirt in my first two nights of owning said passport, which required 20 beers The same barmaid who set me up with the passport was the one who gave me my t-shirt, she looked at me like I'm already well on my way to hitting the next milestone (78/100) for my long sleeve tee! I only joined the bars passport scheme in May...

Gordon Barlow

Bending the theme of this thread just a wee bit, to cover an Australian saying (which may or may not be English; I don't know) that a Caribbean client of mine found hilarious... At a company meeting I expressed irritation at some weekly sales figures, which were surely way too erratic to be accurate. "Look at the line chart", I said scornfully. "It's up and down like father's pants."

So there's now at least one company in the Caribbean familiar with the expression.