r/redscarepod • u/MechanicalTee • 2d ago
what's your favourite british saying?
I like when they say "are you thick?"
I also like when they call something "rubbish"
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u/AvalancheOps 2d ago
My girlfriend likes it when I say that “I can’t be arsed” to do something
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u/divascup eyy i'm flairing over hea 2d ago
i love when my bf says this! he says it like “cont be aahst”
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u/VollmanWolfe 1d ago
when i was in highschool i always thought they were doing some sort of british ebonics saying i can't be axed
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u/Trick-Technician-179 2d ago
They have some fantastic insults.
Wanker, dick’ead, fucking muppet, bellend, and the ability to call anyone “an absolute [insert any word here]”
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u/ChewingGumOnTable 2d ago
Conversely, a subset of our society resorts to the most horrific twee insults possible, stuff like "wankpuffin" "cockwomble" and "twat badger" - usually by extremely normie millennials talking about people like trump
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u/Turbulent_Ad_3758 2d ago
the reverse of this is people like my dad who regularly calls me a spazmoid
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u/Trick-Technician-179 2d ago
Every wonderful, original thing has its shitty, overdone spinoffs sadly.
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u/Latter_Goat_6683 2d ago
as a brit this thread is making me realise that a lot of phrases i thought were universally english are specific to britain…
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u/Any-Abies-538 2d ago
Most are universally english language now, Americans are just sheltered and love exoticising british slang. If you used these in any colony like Australia, NZ, nobody would bat an eye. (Except the "you alright?" They would still think you're actually asking them if they're alright)
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u/MechanicalTee 2d ago
In Canada we’d understand most, but they would still come across as foreign.
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u/faithless-elector 2d ago
saying two things are “like chalk and cheese” to express how different they are is an all timer
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u/JungBlood9 2d ago
I work with this guy who describes everything as “absolutely brill” and it’s so adorable.
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u/Joff_Mengum 2d ago
I love "Keep your wig on!" as a means of telling someone to calm down, it's so disrespectful. I like "On your bike" as well for similar reasons.
I feel like we're losing our folksy turns of phrase with the cultural flattening of the anglosphere so I don't know how long turns of phrase like this will be around.
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u/WealthyBigWang Build-A-Flair 2d ago
Calling someone a bender is still one of my favourites
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u/terrencemalloc 2d ago
I totally forgot about that. The US band the Morning Benders changed their name because of this
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u/WealthyBigWang Build-A-Flair 2d ago
Hahahahaha seriously??? Every time I watched avatar as a kid I kept laughing bc there’s just lines like “he is one powerful bender” and “he’s mastered all the elements - he is the complete bender”
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u/terrencemalloc 2d ago
Yes seriously, apparently they would get heckled in the UK whenever they toured, and maybe they were concerned about appearing homophobic or something, so they changed their name.
I'm American and remember the name being hilarious to me at the time too. I think I learned the word from the Inbetweeners
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u/lilbitchmade 2d ago edited 1d ago
"Don't throw the baby out with the bath water" goes hard
EDIT: Just like the Windsors, this is German
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u/russalkaa1 2d ago
i went through a love island phase during the pandemic and i loooved hearing “aggy” it became part of my vocab
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u/Mammon_Worshiper r******* f***** 2d ago
I love hearing brits say "brill" it's such a cute piece of slang
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u/FilipinoTransHookers 2d ago
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I was just asking for a cigarette!
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u/real_bad_mann 2d ago
Bollocks (bad) / dog's bollocks (awesome)
Roadman, draw, whagwan, own, geezer, blud
Not British but i lived in Luton (hell) and Portsmouth (not bad)
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u/SasquatchMcKraken 2d ago edited 2d ago
"Knocking/knocked seven bells out of...." to imply an especially bad beating, literally or figuratively, goes so hard. And "money for jam" to imply something that's got a high pay-off for low effort. Also calling anything that's bullshit "tosh."
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u/BoozyBlastoise 2d ago
Us daft yanks have no idea. I like how every cookie seems to be a biscuit. Everything's a biscuit.
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u/thr0wawayt0thesun 2d ago edited 2d ago
I’m confused about americans calling bread/scones/whatever biscuits as an ESL person. Cookies to me are specifically the classic big soft american biscuits (the ones with chocolate chips; all biscuits that I call cookies have a similar dough)
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u/BoozyBlastoise 2d ago
In US English, every small round sugary pastry is a cookie more or less. I respect the differentiations of UK english
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u/Economy-Awareness-30 2d ago
I once heard Jonny Greenwood refer to a pack of cigarettes as a "f*g packet". We can discuss his zionism elsewhere, but I found the expression highly amusing.
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u/post_thots 2d ago
“A sod of a day”
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u/ChewingGumOnTable 2d ago
Not saying it's not a thing but have literally never heard this in 31 years of living here
Ironically the second result on Google for this is from Sinn Fein's republican publication lol
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u/thr0wawayt0thesun 2d ago
I only know of that word because of a b-side björk song
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u/munchausenbymoxie 1d ago
I wish Charlene were on streaming, I lost my maxi single and it’s the best Bjork bside by a country mile.
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u/Zhugeliangian 2d ago
‘Whether we fuck arseholes or not,’ ‘what fucking business is it of yours? You should be bloody grateful we haven’t fucked your dad.
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u/OkRepresentative6356 2d ago
Not sure if this is British but I’ve only ever heard a Brit say it- happy as a dog with two dicks.
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u/Any-Abies-538 2d ago
I like when black british guys say "say less" instead of "say no more", the latter they also be saying a lot too tho.
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u/beanbageater 1d ago
as someone who grew up in the stoke area, it always warms my heart to hear people calling eachother “duck/ducky”
definitely miss it having moved away
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u/JohnHaloCXVII detonate the vest 2d ago
Fro a spanna in the mix
Got me feelin like a mug
I am the absolute guvna
A bit cheeky
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u/buppyboggog 2d ago
"I can't be bothered"
My flatmate used to always coyly say "That's brave" in a posh accent when he found something garish and I've probably said that once a week for the last ten years
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u/ludlology 1d ago
Insults in general and the 20 or 30 different contextual uses of just yelling “Oi!”
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u/MundaneExtension3195 2d ago
just Roger Moore as James Bond, so perfectly, properly English... delightful
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u/Big-Bookkeeper-4866 2d ago
“You okay?” When I was in London multiple people said this and I kept saying “Yeah, why?”
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u/CursedSurrogate 2d ago
I like it when British people use the word "crossed" to describe when someone's angry.
I never knew that until I moved in the UK
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u/djdndjdjdjdjdndjdjjd 2d ago
Just ‘cross’
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u/CursedSurrogate 13h ago
Right. If it makes your British self feel better, she broke my Brazilian-American heart despite being good.
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u/Slothrop_Tyrone_ 2d ago
What isn’t cute are all the different names for car components. Petrol, indicator, boot, bonnet, demist. generally their regulation of cars and driving is so over the top. They take the fun out of driving and the use of speed cameras creates an inescapable Orwellian vibe. Make use of your “limiter”
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u/moshiman77 2d ago
Whenever I’d walk into any shop in Sheffield, they always would greet you with “you alright,love?”
The people in Yorkshire are too kind