British Sayings

Sure they speak English in England... but not everything they say has the same meaning. Here are a few of the new phrases we've learned:

British saying                          American Equivalent

Pinch a fag                              bum a cigarette (no mom, we haven’t picked up smoking).

Pudding                                    If someone asks you if you want pudding -say yes! It usually comes in the form of pie, cake, ice cream, cobbler, and occasionally actual pudding -but whatever it is it will be good. Somehow or other pudding has become an encompassing term for most desserts.

Zebra Crossing                            Crosswalk; sorry no zebras on the streets of Bristol

Humped Zebra Crossing                We’ll let your imagination figure that one out…

Biscuits                                     Cookies; I probably wouldn’t eat them with gravy!

Knocked up                               What has an incredibly derogatory connotation in America is a common phrase in England. When someone says ‘I’ll knock you up at 8’, they mean, ‘I’ll wake you up at 8’ not get you pregnant!

They also pronounce some things very differently, for instance in our British Prehistory class we

discussed a site at Happisbrough. Somehow Happisbrough is pronounced “Hayes-burrow.”

We have no idea how they came up with that!