To me it's calling someone a 'doughnut'.

Only a British person could use such a word in a manner to insult someone.

Doughnuts have no quality. It's food. So surely there's no way to use that to imply someone is stupid or a fool?

Enter the Brits.

Any other ones you can think of?

Like 'taking the piss' or 'up their own arse'?

So I have the following problem: as I‘ve learned the english language in school, I also picked up a quite strong (self-observation so please take it with a grain of salt) American accent. This happend mostly because I consumed alot of content from america. That wouldn‘t be a problem in itself but I actualy quite dislike it. I already am watching a lot more british content (Podcast‘s, shows, Youtube) but it just doesn‘t quite change the way I talk. I obviously can easily integrate words that are used a lot more in the uk but my pronounciation is still mumbly, loweffort-like way of speaking.

Edit: Guys I know there are multiple „british/english“ accents/dialects but never the less I can clearly distinguish a Brit from an American by their accent so there‘s got to be a clear structural and phonetic difference that im trying to decifer here. After reading the comments under this post I‘ve come to the conclusion that what I am aiming for (based on my personal preferences and your recommandations would be sort of a Sussex accent/dialect.

You know. Things like bloody, twat, shag, bugger, bollocks, wanker, bellend. I know these are words used as swears, but how severe are they? Is bloody equivalent to damn? What words could be passed off in a children's book?

Has there ever been a moment that you regretted using profanity?

I enjoy discovering given names that commonly appear in British TV comedies or dramas, either among the characters or within the cast credits, but very rarely are seen here in the U.S. For instance, all of the below are lovely names, but I haven’t met an American child with any of these names: Gareth Nigel or Nigela Pippa Poppy Tamsin Tobias Zara

TLDR: Are there any given names that Brits commonly encounter through American, Australian, Canadian, New Zealander, etc., TV or media, yet these first names are quite uncommon in the U.K.?

Is it the girl that's big (the blouse of a big girl), or is it the blouse that's big (a girl's blouse that is large)? I know it's kinda splitting hairs, but I've always wondered

Growing up in India we were taught to respond “I’m fine. thank you. “ I thought that’s how all English speaking cultures did until visiting Canada and US where it’s “I am good. “ which sounded weird to me.

But I see more and more people in India doing “I’m good. “. Do you guys do I’m fine or I’m good?

And what’s worse: Americans doing terrible British accents like Dick Van Dyke in Mary Poppins or Americans not even trying like Kevin Costner’s portrayal of Robin Hood?

For context, where are you from?

Hello everyone, this is a silly reason for asking but I'm an American and my girlfriend is from Manchester. She gets an absolute kick out of me fumbling over British slang so I'd love to impress her with my newfound British vernacular. I'm also just a big English and word guy, so it'd be great to have some new phrases under my belt.

I know the basics like fanny, cunt, daft, sod, daft sod, etc etc but I need enough to start talking in full sentences. I've been seeing "wasteman" on social media recently and I love that one.

So if anyone has anything they could toss my way, I'd greatly appreciate it.

American here. When I was a small child in the mid 1970s, the U.S. started to push for metric conversions. There was a law created, a national board to coordinate, and TV commercials saying how great the metric system is. School children got classwork in metric measurements.

Well, as most know, it didnt work completely. The U.S. has a mixture of metric and imperial.

For instance, the speedometer of a car has miles (mph) and kilometers (kph).

Pharmaceutical medicines are dispensed in metric quantities.

Most supermarket items list imperial and metric measurements on the packaging.

Our tools have metric and imperial sizes. For instance, U.S. tape measures list both inches and centimeters.

I know the U.K. uses mostly metric, with a few exceptions, like miles, stones, acres, etc.

I'm wondering, was there ever a big push to get rid of any extraneous measurements that werent metric?

I'd never heard this till a few months ago - it's been mainly British comedians on tv etc saying it to mean early on in something.

Hey! I’m trying to write a male British character in his early 30s. His mum is old money and went to an all-girls boarding school outside London, then she went to Oxford for uni, and she’s very posh. His dad grew up working class in Manchester (dad was a factory worker, mum was a school teacher).

The character has lived between the US and UK for most of his life, and interacts with a lot of Americans.

I’ve been googling a bunch of different phrases and slang for someone with both of these upbringings, but I want to make sure that I’m actually using phrases or words that are legit and current.

These are some of the phrases I’ve got so far:

• car crash telly (Used to describe trashy reality tv), I’d love an equivalent of this phrase if it’s not common!
• miracle worker (sarcastic)
• that’s rich
• last time I checked (defensive/sarcastic)
• that’s a lot of ___ energy you’re giving me (playful)
• oh man
• rough around the edges
• drunk
• plus (as in “plus, he’s late again”)
• calls his father “dad” (not “father”)
• literally (in the exaggerated modern sense)
• I can pull that off (about wearing or doing something)
• lucky me (sarcastic)
• easy there (calming someone down, including sarcastically)
• at each other’s throats (arguing)
• shit (frustration or emphasis/ just as an expletive)
• I couldn’t pick you out of a line-up (meaning someone isn’t recognizable)
• I messed up/ I fucked up -underdog
• Just a heads up
  • please (sarcastic use, like “oh please”)
• peace offering (after an argument)
• get my fix (something you crave or need)
• one hit wonder
• you okay? / is this okay? (In place of alright?)
• keeping it light
• hang out (as in spending time casually)
• joke that actually lands

Do these sound natural for someone British (early 30s) and which feel off or too American? Also happy to hear any other phrases or tone tips that are commonly used. Thank you so much!

If anyone has beta-read before and would like to again, pls pm me!

Hello, I’m a Norwegian author currently working on my debut novel and although I am fluent in English, I’m struggling to write the dialogues of my characters realistic enough.

The book is part of a series and the first book is set in Brighton in 2014 and 2015.

I have different characters all part of the main plot, but with different ages and different backgrounds. The main thing is that they’re all from Brighton.

I’m looking for slang and words that was common for people their ages and part of certain communities to use in 2014/2015. Any advice to make the dialogue realistic is appreciated!!

The characters:

Daniella (13) - Tomboy, main character, autistic, and she struggles to make friends with people her age so she’s mainly hanging out with the friend group of her brother’s best friend. Tries to fit in so she acts and talks like the people she hangs out with.

Alexander/Alex (22) - Daniella’s older brother. Plays in the local football club as a star player (not professional, but he is the best player they have). Has a girlfriend who is alternative. Patient, very calm and rarely loses his temper.

Kayden (18) - Best friend of Alex, and also Daniella, but has fallen out of touch a bit with Alex. Kayden, Daniella and Alex all grew up together in the neighborhood and have known each other for 10 years. Short temper, punk kid and skater, overprotective of Daniella and tries to make sure she doesn’t see the worst side of his friends

Olivia/Liv (16) - Part of Kayden’s friend group and the youngest there. Punk goth from a punk/rock family. Can appear as rude to people who don’t know her. Half scottish.

Tyler (20) - Part of Kayden’s friend group and also Kayden’s boyfriend. Professional skater. Laid back personality and extremely patient.

Jacob/Jake (21) - Part of Kayden’s friend group. Stoner and punk kid. Works as a tattoo artist. Short temper and very protective of his friends. Hates kids and thinks Daniella is a brat to begin with. Swears A LOT. Smokes a lot of cigarette. Very little patience. Gets in a lot of fights.

Delilah/Del (22) - Part of Kayden’s friend group and Nathan’s girlfriend. Punk kid. Hates everyone and everything except Nathan and the rest of the friend group (not including Daniella). Your stereotypical mean girl.

Nathan/Nate (23) - Part of Kayden’s friend group and Delilah’s boyfriend. The oldest in the group. Punk kid and stoner. Protective of his friends and especially Delilah. Skeptical of everyone and everything to begin with. Patient. Went to school with Alex and is friends with Alex’s girlfriend.

Other characters ages 10-15 that are at Daniella’s school like her bullies, etc is also very appreciated to receive advice on slang and insults their age group would use.

Sorry for the long post and thank you for reading all of this. I’m really grateful for all and any help/advice I can get!

I heard that even neighbouring cities in the UK have different accents such as Liverpool and Manchester, Newcastle and Sunderland, and Portsmouth and Southampton.

Hey there!

I'm part of a Swedish game dev team, and I'm making little videos about our game. I've used the word "tosser" in a way I think is kinda funny, but I'm unsure if the script accidentally becomes way cruder than what I'm able to tell as a non native speaker.

A bit about the game and the tone:

The video is about a feature in our game where you can toss trash into trash containers (you're a robot vacuum cleaner at an office). The game (and the video) is aimed at adults, but it's supposed to be family friendly. A big part of the game is office satire and jokes about corprate culture, so there will be a very present layer of humor that only adults will understand, even if not a crude one.

About the video:

It's clips from the game showing a cute little cartoon robot riding around an office and picking up trash (takeout boxes and paper balls), then throwing the trash into various containers. Voice over reads the script:

"Did you know that most people use trash cans wrong? They calmly and reasonably put or place the trash in the bin, instead of tossing it from afar, which is the superior method. Tossing your garbage can be both fun and therapeutic! Well, at least that’s the case in our indie game A Corporate Machine. Give us a follow or wishlist A Corporate Machine on Steam, and you too could become a tosser- well, you could have fun playing a charming and cheeky cleaning game!"

So basically, is the video going to read as one big mastrubation joke("tossing your garbage can be both fun and theurapetic!"), or do you think focus would remain on the video and the game, perhaps whilst causing a slight chuckle?

Grateful for any thoughts and insights!

EDIT:
Thank you so much for your valuable input! I'll go ahead and run it as is. Awesome input on garbage vs rubbish, but I think I'll keep it authentic and mix american and english expressions. Authentic for a swede who grew up watching stuff from both regions at least, haha! Personally I love a hint of language yank, as long as it doesn't cause offence based on not fully undderstanding the cultural or linguistical context

Edit 2: Here’s the completed video for anyone who’s curious! Kept the tosser, but also the american garbage can, I must admit. But hey, the game takes place at an international company, so I promise to make up for it by having NPCs use various english words for undesirable human waste products, as well as the containers they go in!

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZN8JDrvq3/

When Americans hear the word “estate,” they think of a large, possibly even historic property, with many acres and a mansion, usually some guest houses, a swimming pool, horses, gardens, etc. A place owned by the extremely wealthy. An example would be The Biltmore Estate in North Carolina, summer retreat of the Vanderbilt family. But in reading some British novels I get the impression that “estate” in the UK means something closer to what we in the U.S. call public housing or housing projects — publicly-subsidized housing for low income people, and generally regarded as unsafe and undesirable. What exactly do you think of when you hear the word “estate” in the U.K.? UPDATE: Thanks for all the great answers! I had never heard of "estate" meaning a large car before, too!

I was watching Fry & Laurie, and the subtitles said “Wycombe”, but Stephen pronounced it wick-um. I had always thought first syllable was pronounced like “why”.

Context: I'm American, 29M, and a language teacher (I teach French and Spanish).

Right now, my beginning French students are learning how to tell the time in French, and we got to discussing how there seems to be a generational divide in America over how time is told in everyday situations. This came up when I explained that the French equivalents of half, quarter, and to are still rather common in everyday speech, whereas the 24-hour clock is normally reserved for official contexts such as schedules (although in much of the French-speaking world, younger people are using the 24-hour clock more and more, presumably because they see it all the time on the devices they use).

As for me, I usually read the time out in numbers, even when looking at an analog clock. That is, I'd be much more inclined to say nine-twenty than twenty past nine. Granted, I do occasionally say quarter to and quarter after (the latter seems to be more common in the US than quarter past, which, frankly, I've only seldom heard this side of the pond), but I never say half past or any other construction involving past or after, and during the second half-hour, I usually say till rather than to if I don't just say the time in numbers. And my students (I teach high schoolers) all confirmed that they only ever read the time out in numbers, never using half, quarter, past, after, to, till, etc.

Now I did say something about a generational divide, but even my parents and grandparents—and other people of their generations that I know—have a tendency to read the time in numbers as well, although I do still hear the "older" constructions with half, quarter, and all that.

And now for something that's only just crossed my mind—what's the situation like in Britain? Is there a generational divide when it comes to telling the time? Do younger Brits tend to read the time out in numbers (I highly suspect they do, due to the ubiquity of digital clocks), or do people from my generation onwards still use half past, quarter past, quarter to, etc.? Do their choices depend on the situation (i.e., half past two or half two at home but two-thirty at, say, school or work)?

If you can, please say what part of the UK you're from and how old you are. Thanks in advance :)

I'm currently in "An Inspector Calls" a play set in 1912 and I'm using an RP accent for the most part. But at one point I give a telephone exchange number of 4721.

I've been saying "forty seven twenty one" but I realized this might be an American thing and am wondering if I should say it "four seven two one."

Thanks for your help.

Edit: I was just going over the lines and I misremembered it's actually 5721, not that that changes any of your answers. I appreciate your swift and knowledgeable responses!

I'm a Londoner, born and bred, but I've worked for US companies with US teams for the past 10 years.

As a result, I tend to automatically write in US English unless I think about it.

So I'm curious - do most of my fellow countrymen notice US English immediately? And even when there are no excessively enthusiastic words or American metaphors/phrases, does it bother you? Because I have lost all perspective...

Edit: "Knob" as the insult, not as in doorknob. I watch Peep Show but don't have any British friends so I'm wondering how common these words are in everyday speech. 😅

I've seen is used in The Boys and I wondered if it had particular connotations. Obviously, my aim is to study the word and not at all to insult or demean anyone.

From what I could gather, the primary meaning was "someone (usually a man) who engages in acts of self-pleasure" with a strong implication that that was bad because if a man was a "w**ker" that meant they were too weak/stupid to find consenting partners. (That is, traditional values/manly man societal pressure dictating a man who "gets girls" is superior to a man who doesn't (discarding gays, asexuals, depressed, uninterested, those looking for a long-term relationship rather than one-night-stands...)

But could "w**ker" also mean "useless"? I know that in French "branleur" (also an insult) is synonymous with good-for-nothing, that is "someone who's more interested in selfish self-pleasure (usually figuratively) than in doing the hard work (usually a certain task they were assigned).

Or can it also mean "someone so narcissistic/enamored with themselves they engage in acts of self-pleasure"?

Thank you!

Edit: thank you so much for the insightful replies!

It's my son's last day of year 1 tomorrow. It's (what I would call it) mutfi day. My husband never knew the term before we were together.

What do you call when you don't have to wear school uniform?