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General & Miscellaneous (cont'd)

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A Short List of British Explicatives To Get You Started
(NOTE: Far from Exhaustive)


Bleeding - One of those adjectives we just don't have an exact equivalent to in American English. Listen for in conversation and learn its uses, which are becoming somewhat rare and therefore all the more subtle and sneaky.

Bloody - Damned; fucking (as an adjective) As in : "This dictionary is bloody long!" or "I wish he'd bloody stop giving us all these example sentences and get on to the next bloody word!"

Bugger - Another word that means more of less "fuck!" or "shit!' as a kind of pure explicative. It can be used by itself, as Hugh Grant did in Four Weddings and a Funeral: "bugger, bugger, bugger!" or, less frequently, in a phrase like "bugg er off."

Cheers! - One of those handy-dandy, can-mean-just-about-anything words used to say "Thanks, and have a nice day," or "goodbye," or "I'll catch you later on after I go home and wash out my socks and have a bite to eat." If you are ever at a loss as to what to say to someone when you are parting, just throw out a merry "Cheers," smile, and wave. Unless you're in Afghanistan, in which case none of this is going to do you any good whatsoever.

Crikey! - An expression from yesteryear (1796-1846) meaning "oh, my goodness!" that some people believe deserves to be revived and used by millions of Americans.

Naff Off - One of the more polite ways to say "get the heck outta here!" "Sod off" is a bit stronger, and "Fuck off!" is considered about as intense and rude as it is in American English.

Pardon? - Huh?; What? (as in: "Excuse me, I didn't quite catch that last bit you said because the fish on your dinner plate was staring at me accusingly.")

"Sod Off " - A practice from the Elizabethan era whereby frustrated gardeners at aristocratic estates who couldn't get that one patch of grass to grow anything but scraggly, brown weeds would sneak over to the neighboring Duke's lawn, nick a chunk of their best grass, and transplant it to his master's property enabling him (the gardener) to knock off work early and go shag the kitchenmaid.

It is also a contemporary term used to tell someone to "get the hell out of here." Actually, it is more akin to "fuck off!" as it is derived from the word "sodomy" and just I'll let your imagination fill in the rest of the blanks here. Note that when used more playfully it does not tend to have as vulgar a meaning, but I still wouldn't use it in polite conversation.

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