10 Common British English Slang Expressions & Phrases

Learn 10 incredibly useful slang and informal British English expressions and phrases!
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[ezplay-mystyle]

I used to work for a British woman for 9 years.. and you really remind me of her. “Don’t get your knickers in a twist” was her favourite phrase😅 and I love the word “knackered” that i use a lot instead of “exhausted”. I really enjoy your videos and your British accent is wonderful 😍

[yeonjukim]

1. to be knackered: (casual expression) to be rly exhausted
2. to be skint: to be broke (slang)
3. to be quids in: to be suddenly in a good financial situation
(squid:pound slang)
4. to be pants: it'e rly bad, it's rubbish
pants: trousers/ pants:underwears
5.to swear down: to swear
(slang)
6. to get one's knickers in a twist: don't get flusted/ agitated (to females/to males(a bit more rude))
7. to throw a spanner in the works: it prevents sth fr happening smoothly
8. to be out on the pull: actively looking for romantic partner
9. you have got to be kidding me
10. rightly so
eg) he thinks the dish is burning in the kitchen, rightly so, there's smoke comming fr the kitchen.

[rosewilkinson]

I live in the U.S.A and I use British slang around people and I think there reactions are quite funny!😂

[rustytv]

In America we use "don't get your panties in a bunch" primarily toward other men in a mischievous way to mean "don't get so annoyed" or "don't be so offended". It's definitely meant as an insult, depending on context it could be friendly or patronizing. (Insults can be funny or demeaning depending on tone and context)

[davidhardenberg]

*me on the phone saying I'm knackered*
friend: you're naked??

[stanleyhuang]

Lucy you are the one who ignited my passion learning British English. You and Mr. Bean. I'm a tour guide here in Taiwan and I do have British clients once in a while. Though I can't actually do the accent like you do, at least I get to understand them better. Perhaps after this pandemic is over, I expect more tourists from the UK to come.

[jacquelinecloutier]

Dear miss lucy, I'm from Texas currently struggling to learn English because of future moving plans. I find that compared to other videos, or rather online lessons . Your videos work best for me. Thank you so much!!!

[davidponseigo]

I love to listen to your lessons as I go to sleep. You voice lulls me to sleep, it's wonderful.

[papateachme]

You used to go to Tiger Tiger?! Gotta stop hanging out with you!

[brendaguirao]

The British English it's sooo beautiful, thank u Lucy! ^^

[kanahuanai]

I'm happy that the more I watch your videos, the more I can understand British people and British English in films 😊 Thank you so much!!

[artistryandmotion]

American equivalents to "knickers in a twist" include, "panties in a bunch, " and "undies in a bundle, " especially if the rent is due when we are skint, and do not know when to expect to be quid in.

[Yiroep]

American here, from the Southern US.

1. We use "to be worn out" a lot, or less commonly "beat" as a verb as in "I'm beat."

2. We use "broke" as a verb. If someone asks if they want to go to the movies, an appropriate response could be "Sorry, I'm broke."

3. It's very uncommon to use a slang phrase for this. When someone wins a prize, we mostly say "Congratulations" and don't mention the money. I guess if you wanted to say something that involved money, you could say "Congratulations on your prize" but that sounds very weird to me. Sometimes people will say "Congratulations! Any idea what you're going to spend your prize money on?" or "Congratulations! What are you gonna do with all that money?"

4. A lot of times when we don't like something, we'll say "That sucked" but it's quite informal and quite harsh. A softer way to say it was "I didn't like that much" or "It was alright, but..." which is OK in a formal or informal setting, but isn't slang.

5. We use "swear" in the same way but don't use "swear down." Sometimes someone will say "swear on my heart" to indicate they are giving a heartfelt promise, but it's quite serious to say that.

6. "Don't get your panties in a bunch" is the appropriate equivalent in every way.

7. American equivalent is "throw a monkey wrench in it" or sometimes "throw a wrench in it."

8. An American equivalent we sometimes say here is "to go out on the prowl" or "to go on the prowl." Have to be careful with context here though because I know I've used it before when referring to things that are far less interesting than other partners.

9. We use this exact phrase in the same way.

10. We use this as well but it might not be as common.

[princesnikkitrinanes]

Hello Lucy! I am your student or maybe a fan! Haha lol. I'm from the Philippines, and your videos are really helpful and useful! I learned a lot, I hope you make videos more! You're now my favourite teacher! Keep safe and God bless, Lucy! ❤️

[laurientirza]

Love your videos Lucy! As my English level is at C2 it gets harder to make improvements, but tour vids are still teaching me lots of new things!

[cdband]

i'm NAKED .haha that's hilarious
no pants at all

[sststr]

As an American, we don't use most of those. I've never even heard of the first five.

The 'knickers in a twist', you can indeed hear 'panties in a bunch' here in the US. It's not terribly common, but every now and again it comes up. There was a radio talk show host, Neal Boortz, who liked to use that phrase on air.

In the US we don't normally use the word 'spanner', and for that particular phrase we like to use the term 'monkey wrench' instead.

Never heard the phrase 'out on the pull' before - you have got to be kidding me that that is a real phrase :P

'Rightly so' is rare here. Personally I prefer the word 'Indeed', but that's not particularly common either.

[rebecaquesada]

Hello, Lucy! Can you please explain the difference between slang, phrasal verbs, idioms and expressions in a video?
A lot of love from Costa Rica!

[nancyterrywhittemore]

So many similarities between the UK and USA, We would say; "Don't get your panties in a pucker", "Don't throw a wrench into the works", I love watching your videos, as I find them very informative and fun. USA

[sunnyjim]

2: The term 'skint' means different things in different parts of the country. In the North 'skint' means you have virtually no disposable funds, while in the South it means you are down to you last 10 grand.