{"id":1043,"date":"2015-06-07T17:22:43","date_gmt":"2015-06-07T17:22:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/?page_id=1043"},"modified":"2026-03-01T00:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-01T00:50:19","slug":"things-americans-dont-say","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/random\/things-americans-dont-say\/","title":{"rendered":"British things Americans don&#8217;t say"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul>\n<li>aggro &#8211; (trouble, aggravation, violence)<\/li>\n<li>and all &#8211; (anawl &#8211; as well)<\/li>\n<li>any joy?<\/li>\n<li>argy-bargy, (a loud argument, preferably in a pub)<\/li>\n<li>as well &#8211; (too)<\/li>\n<li>back to his\/hers\/mine\/ours &#8211; (Americans would always specify &#8216;house&#8217;)<\/li>\n<li>barney, to have a &#8211; (see row)<\/li>\n<li>berk &#8211; (silly person, don&#8217;t ask about the etymology)<\/li>\n<li>bird &#8211; (meaning woman &#8211; Americans apply it to old ladies)<\/li>\n<li>bleedin&#8217;<\/li>\n<li>bloke<\/li>\n<li>bob&#8217;s yer uncle<\/li>\n<li>bog<\/li>\n<li>bugger<\/li>\n<li>bugger-all<\/li>\n<li>bollocks<\/li>\n<li>bollocks-up, to<\/li>\n<li>cheeky<\/li>\n<li>cheers &#8211; (meaning thanks)<\/li>\n<li>chuffed<\/li>\n<li>collect, to &#8211; (americans &#8220;pick up&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>clear off, to<\/li>\n<li>cotton on, to<\/li>\n<li>cross &#8211; (angry)<\/li>\n<li>dead cert<\/li>\n<li>do a runner, to<\/li>\n<li>do one &#8211; (meaning &#8220;go away&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>doddle<\/li>\n<li>dodgy<\/li>\n<li>done\/stitched up [optionally followed by &#8220;like a kipper&#8221;] &#8211; (meaning tricked or conned)<\/li>\n<li>dozy<\/li>\n<li>drop a clanger, to<\/li>\n<li>fair-do&#8217;s<\/li>\n<li>fuck-all<\/li>\n<li>full-marks\/top-marks<\/li>\n<li>full of beans &#8211; (in America means &#8220;full of shit&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>get a place on a course, to &#8211; (you&#8217;d get <i>into<\/i> it, and wouldn&#8217;t call it a course)<\/li>\n<li>getting on a bit, to be<\/li>\n<li>geezer &#8211; (meaning bloke &#8211; in the US it means old man)<\/li>\n<li>go spare, to &#8211; (meaning to get very angry)<\/li>\n<li>gob<\/li>\n<li>gobsmacked<\/li>\n<li>gone for a burton<\/li>\n<li>gormless<\/li>\n<li>guv<\/li>\n<li>have a go, to<\/li>\n<li>have you got &#8211; (do you have)<\/li>\n<li>have the hump, to<\/li>\n<li>have a barny, to &#8211; (meaning have a heated argument\/fight)<\/li>\n<li>hoover, to<\/li>\n<li>hosepipe &#8211; hose or pipe, not both<\/li>\n<li>..in [as a postfix e.g. &#8220;a cup with milk in&#8221;]<\/li>\n<li>jim jams &#8211; (meaning pyjamas)<\/li>\n<li>keep your hair on<\/li>\n<li>knacker<\/li>\n<li>knackered<\/li>\n<li>knackers-yard<\/li>\n<li>luv &#8211; (or &#8220;love&#8221; as in &#8220;morning luv, I&#8217;ve come to fix the washing machine. Is the kettle on ?&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>mouthful, to be given a &#8211; (meaning be verbally assaulted)<\/li>\n<li>needs cleaning &#8211; (America doesn&#8217;t drop &#8220;to be&#8221; and turn the verb into a gerund &#8211; they would say needs to be cleaned)<\/li>\n<li>ready to collect<\/li>\n<li>packed up<\/li>\n<li>polyfilla &#8211; (it&#8217;s &#8220;spackle&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>queue<\/li>\n<li>range, a new &#8211; (as in &#8220;sainsburys has come out with a new range of sandwiches&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>row &#8211; (meaning argument)<\/li>\n<li>scarper<\/li>\n<li>scheme &#8211; (in the sense of a system)<\/li>\n<li>set-to, a &#8211; (an altercation)<\/li>\n<li>smallest room, the &#8211; (the bathroom\/restroom\/bog\/shitter)<\/li>\n<li>snowed under &#8211; (in the busy sense)<\/li>\n<li>spend a penny &#8211; (meaning to urinate)<\/li>\n<li>stroppy<\/li>\n<li>take the mick\/mickey\/michael\/piss, to<\/li>\n<li>tastes of &#8211; (would taste <i>like<\/i>)<\/li>\n<li>tower blocks<\/li>\n<li>tuck-in &#8211; Americans dig-in<\/li>\n<li>turn up for the books (or a &#8220;turn up&#8221;)<\/li>\n<li>twat, to<\/li>\n<li>twig, to<\/li>\n<li>what&#8217;s he on about?<\/li>\n<li>whilst<\/li>\n<li>whinge<\/li>\n<li>wobbler, to throw a &#8211; see &#8220;go spare&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>aggro &#8211; (trouble, aggravation, violence) and all &#8211; (anawl &#8211; as well) any joy? argy-bargy, (a loud argument, preferably in a pub) as well &#8211; (too) back to his\/hers\/mine\/ours &#8211; (Americans would always specify &#8216;house&#8217;) barney, to have a &#8211; (see row) berk &#8211; (silly person, don&#8217;t ask about the etymology) bird &#8211; (meaning woman [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1029,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1043","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1686,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1043\/revisions\/1686"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fatsquirrel.org\/oldfartsalmanac\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}