# Can you guess what these British phrases mean?



## Taggart

It has been said that the United States and Great Britain are two countries separated by a common language. Now is your chance to see if you understand what we Brits are on about.

Can you guess what these British phrases mean?


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## Guest

15/15

"'Gee, you can't swing a cat in here"...

No self-respecting Englishman would say, "Gee!"


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Well, I got 12 out of 15. More than half I hear fairly regularly, others were made really easy to guess and few I just didn't know.


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## Ingélou

I got full marks and got the verdict 'You could be British'. Wasn't sure how to take that...


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## Headphone Hermit

15/15 ... Gee! I could be British .... although the 'Gee' would be a real giveaway that I wasn't


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## Jos

I could be British..... 14 out of 15. 

Shall we have tea now......


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## SixFootScowl

13 out of 15. Guessed on some. Others were familiar. 

We (USA) have one where a guy says, "I have to go see a man about a horse." That means he has to go to the bathroom.


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## ptr

..a mere 10/15 and gee, I still could be British!









/ptr


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## Guest

Well shiver me timbers! I waved my socks around, kicked the horse, went to see Bob and his aunt, had a quick go on the swings, dried my sheets in the wind, had a nice cup of hot choc, pleasured my majesty, flogged the cat, spent a fortune in the loo, warmed up my sick friend Penny, then tried to escape on the back of a dead horse via a punting stick or oar, got my teeth pulled by a dentist wearing no trousers and talking too much with the clock running on a pro-rata basis ... and I still got 15/15 !!


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## Ukko

My score was 15-15. Most of the sayings are not unknown in my neck of the woods. The others are close enough.


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## Figleaf

I love TalkingHead's take on 'at Her Majesty's pleasure'. :lol:

I would have thought that 'as much use as a chocolate teapot' would be fairly self explanatory...

Scored 15/15 anyway. My life has not been in vain.


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## Kopachris

14/15. The one I got wrong was "putting her oar in." Quite a few of them are common idioms in the US (and most of the English-speaking world, I would imagine), and others were very easy to guess.


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## senza sordino

15/15 living here in the commonwealth, being an expat, and only watching Downton Abbey, Heartbeat, Inspector Frost, New Tricks, Inspector Gently, I was bound to do well. 

Cheerio


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## schigolch

15/15, too.

Not bad for a foreign guy, that learned much of his English in the US, anyway.


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## QuietGuy

14/15 correct for me. 

I'm a great fan of British sitcoms, and what I know of British slang, I learned from them.


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## musicrom

Well, I got 12/15. Thank goodness for multiple choice!

Otherwise, I probably actually knew like 5 of them.


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## Guest

15/15. Some I had to guess, but I had a graduate advisor who was British (London, thick working class accent, who actually didn't say that many of these, but did throw in some rhyming slang for fun).


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## Skilmarilion

As a supposed Brit, I was guessing many of those and got only 13, lol.


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## omega

10/15
I actually knew 4. The rest was more or less chance...

Where can I find the solutions?


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## MoonlightSonata

I could be British - a relief, since I am.


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## Sloe

I got 13 out of 15


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## Headphone Hermit

*Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs!* ..... so many people getting high marks


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## GioCar

I got 13/15, but I had to guess most of them. 
The obvious answers were "obviously" wrong so I had 50% chance to get the right ones. 
Some are not as different in meaning as the equivalent in Italian, with different words.


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## Kivimees

15 out of 15! 

Although "spend a penny" must be a bit old-fashioned, no?


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## Ingélou

Yes, a lot of these phrases are 'older generation', and young Brits may not know them.

When I was a child, my granddad used to talk about a time - 10.25 - as being 'five and twenty past ten', and he called the Jacks in a pack of cards 'Knaves'. That's completely gone now.

And when I was a teenager, the 'in-phrase' when you thought someone was trying to trick you was 'pull the other one - it's got bells on'. We had a French exchange teacher who'd trained over here in the 60s and 70s, and came in using that confidently to our sixth-form students, only to receive blank stares. :lol:


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## PetrB

No guessing; I knew them all.

I might be British because I knew them all?

I so doubt that; I mean, I would never dream of wallpapering a room and also the ceiling without a second's thought


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## clara s

Jos said:


> I could be British..... 14 out of 15.
> 
> Shall we have tea now......


of course sir

cornish cream and St Ives scones will be served immediately


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## pianississimo

Headphone Hermit said:


> *Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs!* ..... so many people getting high marks


nobody south of Derby would get that one...


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## Guest

Kivimees said:


> 15 out of 15!
> 
> Although "spend a penny" must be a bit old-fashioned, no?


Definitely...dating back to the time when you literally had to pay a penny to use a public 'convenience'.


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## Vaneyes

You got: 14 out of 15! You could be British!


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## Vaneyes

TalkingHead said:


> Well shiver me timbers! I waved my socks around, kicked the horse, went to see Bob and his aunt, had a quick go on the swings, dried my sheets in the wind, had a nice cup of hot choc, pleasured my majesty, flogged the cat, spent a fortune in the loo, warmed up my sick friend Penny, then tried to escape on the back of a dead horse via a punting stick or oar, got my teeth pulled by a dentist wearing no trousers and talking too much with the clock running on a pro-rata basis ... and I still got 15/15 !!


You've implied that two wrongs (or several) do not make a right...and if you spill the beans you open up a whole can of worms. I mean, how can you let sleeping dogs lie if you let the cat out of the bag? You bring in a new broom and if you're not very careful you find you've thrown the baby out with the bath-water. Change horses in the middle of the stream, next thing you know you're up the creek without a paddle. Then, obviously, the balloon goes up. They hit you for six. An own goal, in fact. Ah, well. That's the way the cookie crumbles -- we can talk like this till the cows come home, but we can't change the ways of the world. :tiphat:


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## pianississimo

MacLeod said:


> Definitely...dating back to the time when you literally had to pay a penny to use a public 'convenience'.


got charged 40p to visit the toilet Birmingham New St train station a couple of weeks ago! 40p!!!!


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## MoonlightSonata

Ingélou said:


> Yes, a lot of these phrases are 'older generation', and young Brits may not know them.
> 
> When I was a child, my granddad used to talk about a time - 10.25 - as being 'five and twenty past ten', and he called the Jacks in a pack of cards 'Knaves'. That's completely gone now.
> 
> And when I was a teenager, the 'in-phrase' when you thought someone was trying to trick you was 'pull the other one - it's got bells on'. We had a French exchange teacher who'd trained over here in the 60s and 70s, and came in using that confidently to our sixth-form students, only to receive blank stares. :lol:


I have heard my grandmother refer to Jacks as 'Knaves' many times - I wasn't sure if it was obsolescent or just something I hadn't heard of.


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## Ingélou

In Dickens' *Great Expectations* Miss Havisham and Estella consider Pip to be vulgar because he calls the knaves 'jacks'! And there's the children's rhyme - 'the knave of Hearts, he stole the tarts...' Maybe that will keep the word alive a little longer, but who knows...?


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## Vaneyes

pianississimo said:


> got charged 40p to visit the toilet Birmingham New St train station a couple of weeks ago! 40p!!!!


Either that or a 8 GBP cleaning bill.


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## Guest

pianississimo said:


> got charged 40p to visit the toilet Birmingham New St train station a couple of weeks ago! 40p!!!!


Er...I think you must mean 8/-

(That's shillings)

Inflation applied to 1d since decimalisation (in 1971)...that would be a bout right, wouldn't it?


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## Ingélou

Amazing. In 1970 you could get a meal in a restaurant for 8 shillings!


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## TurnaboutVox

Headphone Hermit said:


> *Well, I'll go to the foot of our stairs!* ..... so many people getting high marks





pianississimo said:


> nobody south of Derby would get that one...


Or indeed north of Carlisle. I'd never heard that one before moving south to Lancashire.


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## Badinerie

pianississimo said:


> got charged 40p to visit the toilet Birmingham New St train station a couple of weeks ago! 40p!!!!


When I were a lad you could get quite a lot for 40p in a public convenience.....and have enough left over for fish and chips on the way home....


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## Ingélou

You could have two seats at the cinema - say, 2/6d each - then the three shillings left would buy two fish suppers!


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## Headphone Hermit

pianississimo said:


> got charged 40p to visit the toilet Birmingham New St train station a couple of weeks ago! 40p!!!!


40p? *At least Dick Turpin wore a mask*!

I hope you got your money's worth .... but no, I don't want to know any details :lol:


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## elgar's ghost

pianississimo said:


> got charged 40p to visit the toilet Birmingham New St train station a couple of weeks ago! 40p!!!!


That's because you're paying for the privilege to use a toilet that is actually cleaned these days.


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## Ingélou

What got me was when I paid 40p in a holiday town - walked round for an hour - then went back again, and was charged another 40p, despite my eloquent peroration on the subjects of hospitality and tourist etiquette!


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Ingélou said:


> Amazing. In 1970 you could get a meal in a restaurant for 8 shillings!


That you weren't on the decimal system _IS_ amazing!


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## elgar's ghost

I was only seven when Decimal Day arrived but even at that tender age the 'imperial' system was so ingrained in me that converting to decimal currency felt akin to having to re-learn to read and write. The old system must have been baffling for the tourists.


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## Taggart

elgars ghost said:


> I was only seven when Decimal Day arrived but even at that tender age the 'imperial' system was so ingrained in me that converting to decimal currency felt akin to having to re-learn to read and write. The old system must have been baffling for the tourists.


And then once they understood £sd, you switched to guineas to really confuse them!


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## elgar's ghost

Taggart said:


> And then once they understood £sd, you switched to guineas to really confuse them!


Yes, I always thought the idea of the guinea was an obsolete leftover which even the anti-decimalists would have been better off without. What was the point of it?


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## Taggart

elgars ghost said:


> Yes, I always thought the idea of the guinea was an obsolete leftover which even the anti-decimalists would have been better off without. What was the point of it?


Put 5% on the bill by changing from pounds to guineas.


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## Guest

elgars ghost said:


> I was only seven when Decimal Day arrived but even at that tender age the 'imperial' system was so ingrained in me that converting to decimal currency felt akin to having to re-learn to read and write. *The old system must have been baffling for the tourists*.


Dear Edward, _everything_ about the British is baffling !


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## elgar's ghost

TalkingHead said:


> Dear Edward, _everything_ about the British is baffling !


Dear TalkingHeadward, but that's the beauty of being British in this instance - we can't see the bafflement objectively from the 'inside'.


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## joen_cph

13/15. Had actually only heard maybe 2-3 of the expressions before. Seems to be a good day today.


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## Wood

When young, a common expression was 'Get off and milk it!'

I don't hear it any more.

Do any non UK citizens know what we were yelling about?


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## Ingélou

elgars ghost said:


> Yes, I always thought the idea of the guinea was an obsolete leftover which even the anti-decimalists would have been better off without. What was the point of it?


It was to gain more money, as Taggart says, but also it was a class marker. The upmarket or 'posh' dress shops always put their prices in the windows in guineas. 



Wood said:


> When young, a common expression was 'Get off and milk it!'
> 
> I don't hear it any more.


It maybe sounds a little rude these days.


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## Taggart

One of the delights of the old currency was jokes like £8 paid for 1920 pennies. (Work it out  )


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## Wood

Ingélou said:


> It maybe sounds a little rude these days.


Yes, back then too, but that was the Seventies!


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## Headphone Hermit

Taggart said:


> One of the delights of the old currency was jokes like £8 paid for 1920 pennies. (Work it out  )


we had 'tanners' instead of sixpences , and 'two bob' instead of florins 

anyone here remember groats or farthings? :lol:


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## Badinerie

I missed off the Farthing and the Crown from either end but here's what they look like for size.


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## pianississimo

I've compiled a short list of phrases from the great county of Yorkshire in case you are in the area. 
Eyup! Hello
Sithee. Goodbye
Naywatthebluddyell! Oh no!
Gerineer! Please come inside
Put t'wood int oil. Close the door
That's alfcocked! That was misguided. 
Am flummoxed. I'm confused!
She's a rightun! She has questionable morals
By Eck it's parky! My goodness it's cold!


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## Taggart

Headphone Hermit said:


> we had 'tanners' instead of sixpences , and 'two bob' instead of florins
> 
> anyone here remember groats or farthings? :lol:


Oh well, strange Southern expressions. 

I can, just, remember using farthings. There was still a remnant of this when I was a kid when sweets would be four for a penny or two for a halfpenny.

Aren't groats a sort of porridge oats?


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## Jos

I have a friend from my motorcycling days. He is seriously into Triumph and Nortons, and a very good mechanic.
One day we were tinkering with our bikes, mine a Moto Guzzi at the time, and I asked him for a spanner m13, about the most common size with us here on the continent.
"Euh what ? Oh, that one must be in the box with the WEIRD sizes". Duh........:lol:

How do you Brits do it, Withworth, UNF, Unc. BSF , threads per inch in 5 decimals. Madness, I tell you 

Lovely bikes though.....


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## Ingélou

pianississimo said:


> I've compiled a short list of phrases from the great county of Yorkshire in case you are in the area.
> Eyup! Hello
> Sithee. Goodbye
> Naywatthebluddyell! Oh no!
> Gerineer! Please come inside
> Put t'wood int oil. Close the door
> That's alfcocked! That was misguided.
> Am flummoxed. I'm confused!
> She's a rightun! She has questionable morals
> By Eck it's parky! My goodness it's cold!


Brilliant! :tiphat:


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## Mahlerian

15/15

The most time I ever spent in the UK was a few hours' layover in Heathrow between Germany and the US. I had to guess at a few of them, but I knew a number right off, and the rest were not that hard to get.


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## TurnaboutVox

Is this now officially the 'Eee by gum, it were better in the old days' thread?


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## Ingélou

Not 'better' exactly. I think it's the L.P. Hartley 'The Past is a foreign country' thread.


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## TurnaboutVox

Well, I'm sure there are members of the international oil community who are also members of TC, so in the event that you find yourself there, here's my useful guide to having a conversation in Aberdeen


Ay ay, fit like? = Hello, how are you?
Nae bad. Yersel'? = I'm very well, thank you, and yourself?
Aye chauvin awa' = Fine, thanks (literally "still working away")
Far aboots are ye fae? = Where do you come from? 
(for this reason, and because it is b***dy cold, Aberdeen is sometimes nicknamed "Furry Boots City" by Glaswegians. Glasgow, for comparison, is extremely soggy, year round. 'Welly Boots City', perhaps)
Far div ye bide? = Where do you live?
Hiv ye a bidie-in? = Do you have a co-habitee / significant other / life partner?
Fit's adee / fit wye are ye greetin' ? = What's wrong / why are you crying? (most likely because it is so cold!)
I'll hae a rowie an' a softie = I'll take one each of those delicious-looking local baked delicacies
Awa' an' bile yer heid = You are wrong, sir; please reconsider your opinion


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## Cosmos

14/15! 

Some of these are also said in America, most aren't. Though, a lot of them were a bit obvious due to the options, and others seemed common sense


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## Wood

Jos said:


> I have a friend from my motorcycling days. He is seriously into Triumph and Nortons, and a very good mechanic.
> One day we were tinkering with our bikes, mine a Moto Guzzi at the time, and I asked him for a spanner m13, about the most common size with us here on the continent.
> "Euh what ? Oh, that one must be in the box with the WEIRD sizes". Duh........:lol:
> 
> How do you Brits do it, Withworth, UNF, Unc. BSF , threads per inch in 5 decimals. Madness, I tell you
> 
> Lovely bikes though.....
> 
> View attachment 61956


Nothing that an adjustable spanner can't sort. 

Try getting one of these, then you have all of the above *plus* metric!


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## sospiro

Tour de France French-Yorkshire translation guide


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## chalkpie

12.

I spent a semester studying music at the Birmingham Conservatory in 1993 AND I'm an Everton FC fan. Merseyside Derby Saturday!!


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## Headphone Hermit

^^^ "we've played the Toffees for a laugh, and left them feeling blue: five-nil" :devil:

sorry, chalkpie .... I actually *do *like Everton too and used to watch them when the Reds were playing too far away to travel to their game .... but even though they are my 2nd favourite team, there is no doubt who I want to win on Saturday :tiphat:


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## Celloman

Wow, I must be British...








I'm from the American midwest. Go figure.


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## chalkpie

Headphone Hermit said:


> ^^^ "we've played the Toffees for a laugh, and left them feeling blue: five-nil" :devil:
> 
> sorry, chalkpie .... I actually *do *like Everton too and used to watch them when the Reds were playing too far away to travel to their game .... but even though they are my 2nd favourite team, there is no doubt who I want to win on Saturday :tiphat:


First derby this season was as close as you're gonna get. I don't have super high expectations with Everton's recent form and the fact that Sturridge is back - but miracles do happen  Should be fun anyway.


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## elgar's ghost

I gather Sly Stallone supports Everton - maybe he's spreading the word in the US (just don't let him play Dixie Dean or Tommy Lawton in a movie about them, though - it would be the equivalent of Ray Winstone portraying Ty Cobb).


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## sabrina

12/15 considering English is second language for me and unfortunately I have never been in UK...I am happy...It could have been worse...


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## Dave Whitmore

I got 15/15. It's nice to know I could still be British even though I've been living in the US for ten years now!


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## Piwikiwi

14/15

I watched too much qi I think


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## Dave Whitmore

pianississimo said:


> got charged 40p to visit the toilet Birmingham New St train station a couple of weeks ago! 40p!!!!


Oh well, that's inflation for you!


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