British Words That Completely Confuse Americans!
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- Äas pĆidĂĄn 2. 06. 2024
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đŹđ§Lauren
/ laurenkatemassey
đșđžcheri
cherihewitt...
/ @mon_cheri - ZĂĄbava
Ello ello, Lauren here! đŹđ§I love this video so much! These words took me back to my childhoodđđ thank you so much again for the continuing support guys, lots of love â€ïžđŹđ§
As a fellow Brit, thanks for representing us so well on the world stage, Lauren. đđ»
Lauren, I like your way of speaking, I kinda feel you're like a TV host in this video XD
You look exactly like my favourite teacher
Ello Lauren... I love you so much đâ
Oh I like your character in every video! U look so humble and have a good personality â€ïž
Ah a little bit funny I think wkwkwkwk
Halo from đźđ©
1:50 In Harry Potter, Snape is calling out Harry about something. Snape asks Harry a question and Harry answers "Yes."
Snape corrects Harry saying "Yes *SIR*
Harry comes back with, "There is no need to call me "sir."
That is cheek.
i love that scene in the books!!
Lauren is incorrect. Builder's tea (or builder's brew) is the term used for a strong cup of tea with a small amount of milk. Also, "bum call" made me laugh đ
Builders tea actually refers to the tea itselfâŠan English mix of strong black tea leaves đ€·đ»ââïž
@@jdsrne22 No itâs not. It refers to the way it is prepared as I already explained.
@@B_27 Correct.
I agree! It means a strong tea with a little milk
A brew you can float the spoon on.
Builder's tea just means strong
Jugglers juice
Iâve been watching this series a lot, I donât want to sound disrespectful to other female guests, but I find Lauren to be the natural bubbly character who is in full control of every video she is in.
Americans are naturally going to want to mostly hear from Lauren - after all, we are already American... :)
@@oxigenarian9763She has good vibes
@@servantandrew They both do, don't they?
@@oxigenarian9763 Yes, but Lauren behaves more like a TV host. Maybe it is due to her accent.
Well, she is confident. Let it be. :D
As an Australian, I understood them all. We tend to have a mixture of slang/colloquial, but the British past is still quite prominent.
Meanwhile, Australian slang is super fun but utterly impenetrable to outsiders đ
Well there are 1.2 million brits living in australia- which only has a population of only 26 million. So it aint surprising.
Same in New Zealand
@@starwarsgeek88ify Yep, only one I missed was bants, and the moment Lauren said banter, the penny dropped
Best thing about living on this prison island's that nobody's gonna mug ya.
Tea is a social bond in Britain (and Ireland). Asking someone if they want a tea in a social setting is more about an invitation to socialise, chat, have a laugh, or discuss something more serious if that's appropriate at that point. I remember as a child disliking tea and detesting coffee (presumably because of the stronger taste), and my parents saying "You need to be able to do this, because whenever you go anywhere, in a homely or cafe setting etc, it means you can take part in things rather than sitting there like a wallflower." - Sometimes, the process of offering, making and drinking the tea can be an icebreaker and also help overcome some of the awkward pauses that might crop up in conversations particularly with people we don't know that well.
I know there are British people who know this, so I am saying this just in case for anyone who might read this and doesn't know. "Homely", with the L, in American English means an ugly person, as in they are only fit to be seen at home. American English leaves out the L, but means the same thing as the British idea.
This sounds like what we Americans do with coffee. "Why don't we get some coffee and catch up?" "Thanks for coming over. Would you like some coffee?" "Want to go out for coffee sometime?" (Except here it's perfectly acceptable to have water, hot chocolate, or tea instead.)
As a 40y/o Brit, I think probably around 95% of everyone I've ever known in England do not like tea, though! lol. People tend to socialise over a coffee, or a pint at the local boozer (pub).
@@kynn23 exactly this!!! The west uses coffee or beer/wine in place of tea...certain crowds will only offer coffee while other circles will only offer you some form of alcohol.
ps: herbal and green tea is huge here also and you can get black tea anywhere, its super common just nowhere near as popular as coffee or herbal/green.
I personally love all tea but the bengal tiger spice one has got to be Gods gift LOL)
Question, is it socially acceptable to ask for your tea without milk? My family comes from a region that drinks tea without it, and I can't get over the hangup.
"Mug" can also be used as a verb to mean someone coming up to you and robbing you, with the threat and/or use of physical violence.
"Bum" can mean "bad" in the manner of "defective" or "poorly thought out" or "incorrect": a "bum call" in sports means the referee has made a poor judgment, a "bum battery" means the battery is defective...
So a bum call isn't two Etonians having an assignation?
I think bum can also be used to a describe a lazy person, someone who just sits around a lot.
@@Chris-qc2kd That usage probably comes from the bad/defective connotation since being unable to secure a job seems to often be assumed to be a moral failing. As opposed to you know considering the prospect that there may not be any/enough skills matched jobs available to all people all of the time.
Chick-a-block originated in the Navy in the days of sail. You know those wooden things with pulleys used to adjust the rigging? They're called blocks. When two blocks are pulled up tight against each other, they're chock-a-block. It 'escaped' into general usage as a handy metaphor.
Being an American like Cherie (who loves British comedy) we know terms like bum or cheeky from watching British TV and movies, but I'm not sure that your average American is going to know those terms (with their British meaning). Even knowing several of these word's, there were still a lot of surprises. So Lauren made an interesting and fun choice of terms for this video.
I feel like a lot of these terms exist in the Southern American vernacular. As a Southerner I hear these terms occasionally, usually from older Southerners.
I feel like most Americans would understand cheeky and bum and some of the more popular terms, since you can hear them on movies or youtube pretty easily.
I am Indian and have learned British English for 14-15 years or so but I was only able to make out 2 words .
@@rrrrrrrr7860 I heard "cheeky" and Mary Poppins was there. Bum has become popular in the US in polite company.
You should look at the london sayings, im telling you you wonât get them
Cherie was spot on, âare you having a laughâ really does sound jarring and awkward if youâre from the USA. Source: tried it myself.
In the U.S., "mug" was used as slang for "face" in the early to mid 20th century, so we had "ugly mug" and we still use "mug shot." It's not heard here much anymore except for mug shot. Also, "chock-a-block" was/is used in the U.S., as well. And I think, as Cherry said, many of us are familiar at this point with the slang use of "bum" for rear end.
Mug is still used as face in american LGBT culture!
In the uk we still say ugly mug
As in someone is ugly
@@soyaaasdemuse1955 That's what I was thinking too!
Shut your ugly mug!!! just kidding đ€Ł Yeah, correct, "mug" is in fact still used in the US, but it is a little old fashioned. It reminds us of old gangster movies. "Chock full" is a more common US variation of chock a block.
I grew up in the upper Midwest of the US and have used chock-a-bloc as well as chock full, mug for face, muggy as in humid. Things like cuppa, bum, and others I know because I read a lot. The only one I had never heard of was builderâs tea. I think itâs funny because while visiting the UK and Australia I found more coffee drinking than tea drinking.
As an American I am proud that I knew all of these. I also use quite a few of them myself.
Chock-a-block does mean crowded, but really in the sense of meaning "absolutely crammed full". So a choka schedule doesn't mean your diary is just crowded and you can probably fit something in somewhere, it means you have absolutely no space at all to fit in any other appointments or activities. Similarly, on the tube (subway/metro) you might say the carriage was choka-a-block if you were crammed in like sardines without any space left.
It's interesting to see that the US has gone quite far away from the UK in terms of slang, but if you look at Australia and New Zealand, we use all of these slang words too. Especially chock-a. I actually thought that was an Australian slang word!
In Australia we also use Choc-a-block or simply Chocka's...đđ
Town is chocka!
In the UK here! Any time weâve had builders, a builders brew is black tea with milk, and only rarely do they ask for sugar. Most tea drinkers I know in general will only take milk, sugar is the special addition and even then itâs only one spoon, two sugars is considered overly sweet.
That's right, tea with a splash of milk and one sugar is the best. Then there's also baby tea, more milk than tea đ.
Whenever I've had workmen in the house, they've asked for strong, black tea - or coffee - without milk and sugar. One chap told me that he had a flask for work, and milk would affect the taste adversely as the day wore on. It also made the flask harder to clean if milk or sugar were in the liquid. đŹđ§
@@VinDieselS70 'baby tea' đ cute.... never heard that one before
@@BunnyLo neither did I until I moved to Scotland from Sweden. Lol
When I went, I feel like they served me really sweet tea quite a lot. Maybe they thought since I was American that I would want it sweet.
The point about 'builders tea' is that it is usually very dark and strong. A lot of British people prefer their tea to be lighter in flavour and colour. My version of builders tea would be and Assam tea which has a lovely deep flavour and colour . Nowadays it often seems to marketed as 'English Breakfast Tea'. It is certainly true that lots of people doing hard physical work prefer this variety - usually with sugar and milk. However, do beware if you live in Europe where tea marketed as 'English Breakfast'is usually some horrible grey stuff that looks and tastes like the dirty water you just rinsed out your floor cloth in!
I experienced that in Spain. I cried
I came here to say exactly this. Builders tea means really strong tea. She was talking nonsense about that. đ
Itâs funny how there are so many English accents, yet when people from other countries do a âBritishâ or âEnglishâ accent itâs either cockney or posh
You can blame Jason Statham and Hugh Grant for that!
No literally itâs so annoying
When I was stationed in Suffolk with the U.S. Air Force in the 1980s, I was shopping in Woolworths one day. My father was from Wales, so I knew most of the terms, but that didnât stop me being initially stunned when a very young girl in front of me in the aisle turned to her mother and said she needed some ârubbersâ for schoolâŠ.
Same could be said for an American parent saying to their little girl, behave yourself or I'll smack your fanny. You did that in England or Australia you would get some serious looks. Fanny has a *completely* different meaning. Also "rooting" for your team would raise an eyebrow, rooting is also a completely different meaning.
Lauren reminds me so much on Penney from tbbt. Her facial expression...the way she talks
I don't care about your conversation, I feel entertained when I watch your videos. thanks..
What a Chad
i live in Nebraska (US) and i hear the term "Fancy" fairly often to show affection but its usually in the tongue-in-cheek way, like someone makes a comment that can be taken as a flirt so someone that it CLEARLY was not intended as a flirt towards goes "Ooooh you fancy me or something?"
Dont think ive ever heard it used legitimately like Lauren was using it.
In Australian english, having a laugh means , having a good time or sharing laughs with each other
These are fun to watch! Thanks.
A bum call!! Lol, that is a good one!
Lauren is killing these British VS American series.., she must be made exclusive!!!
With chock a block... meaning congested. I've used the term "chock full" to mean the same thing, and I'm from the midwest. They're clearly related.
While we won't use fancy as a verb, we will use it in that sense by saying "She caught my fancy" -- same meaning, just different usage style. Though there are 2 magazines "Cat Fancy" and "Dog Fancy" for lovers of those animals...
And donât forget Facy Bears, the Russian hackers
I really fancy a bar of chocolate
In California it's often an adjective. Used for something almost too extravagant. Like when someone breaks out a pristine Snap-On ratchet to work on a mud encrusted irrigation pump.
Don't forget the Pigeon Fanciers!
I wouldnât say we commonly use fancy as a verb but Iâve heard it before. At least in the Southern states among older people which is why I immediately understood it to have multiple use. For example Iâve heard like great grandparents say « Itâs so hot. Iâd fancy a cold drink right about now. »
This is the best channel for person who wants to know much about culture from another part of the world.
Such beauties, both of them!
I love Lauren's accent â€ïž
I find the American accent cool too
â€â€
the amount of english slang and words that i know and realise also get used so much in australia. like, i knew we had a lot of words from the uk but i didnât realise that it was most of the words that iâve come across through this channel
I know Brits are totally blown away by American iced tea. Especially sweet tea.
Really interesting series of videos. Would like to see Lauren doing Cockney rhyming slang in the same format as this video with Cheri Iâd definitely would love watching that. :)
Iâm in love with Laurenâs national lampoons shirt
So cute you both đ
Related to 'fancy' is 'fancy dress'. In the US when I hear that, the image that pops in my mind is formal wear, suits with ties and elegant dresses. In the UK though it means costumes like at Halloween, I think?
Correct! Usually a costume, sometimes formal. It kind of depends how the word is expressed as well, like: "Well you look all fancy!" (smartly dressed).
I love your Films so much â€â€
The definition of builderâs brew is that itâs very strong.
We used to say chock fulla⊠growing up in Boston. Not so much now but same thing.
Builders tea is also allowed to steep more, itâs stronger and darker.
Builderâs tea is very very strong. We also say it is so strong the teaspoon will stand up in it
I recently visited Greece and had a similar response when they asked me if I wanted coffee. Apparently they're big coffee drinkers, but I hate coffee, so I always asked for tea. Got a lot of "are you sure?" reactions.
This California girl is the best American girl on this channel, she's polite and fun!
Those two make a very likeable "team". I wish they'd do more episodes together.
A builderâs tea is pretty strong with lots of sugar. It usually looks like you could stand the spoon up in it.
Honestly chock a block and builders tea were the only ones I didn't know lol.
Loving itâ€â€â€
It's actually very strong tea .Brewed for longer than normal but with little milk . Builders tea
3:25 - chockablock basically mean "without any opportunity to move". It goes back a long way, back to hostings in sailships, but you know those wedges they put under the wheels of planes when they're landed? Those are called "chocks", because they prevent movement. It's the same as saying "wedged" for the very same reasons. Why the "-a-block"? Emphasis, and it's more fun to say.
To me and my family, builder's tea is just strong tea.
Also, "Builder's Tea" is practically a signal to make it with a teabag and to leave the bag in the cup. The stronger the better.
True!!!!
Lol I call my Niece a bum and she always responds with "well you're a bummer!"
It all makes sense now Fancy means â to like â in British English
Fancy by Twice makes sense to me now â I fancy you ! â
i never realised that people wouldnât understand that đ
@@sandyxx6243 I didnât know that fancy had double meaning, because Iâm from the U.S. but I can understand why, you would commented that
For some reason thereâs a trend of British people on CZcams explaining the term âBuilderâs Teaâ and not actually knowing what it is.
Builderâs Tea is tea thatâs strong/stewed because multiple teabags have been used to make it, usually so that it can provide drinks for multiple people. eg. a group of builders.
Is this a generational thing? I feel like Gen Z maybe doesnât have experience in actually making Builderâs Tea :P
If the spoon doesn't stand upright in the tea then it's not strong enough... that was my understanding of it (which matches the multiple teabags description)
So my parents are from the Birmingham area but live in Canada, and always had lots of milk... I think a lot of people prefer lighter taste, and therefore don't use it much. I've seen that term thrown around very few times. It could also be that they aren't sure or it differed depending on the region, and they just went with it haha
I thought it was just normal tea, same as the girl in the video. I have heard the term 'Builder's tea' before, but I have never ever heard anyone say it irl........ not sure if I will ever will either...... (As for 'Builder's brew'.... nope, never heard that in my life.)
I'm an American and grew up in New England and I grew up saying bum to mean butt and dustbin to mean trash can. Many people from this area used or at least understood it. And my grandmother was from England. ;)
There was one or two meanings for "Bum" that Cherri missed. Bum isn't neccessarily a "homeless person". A 'bum' is more so one that may (or may not) have a place to stay, but is more so known for: A) 'bumming change'/sponging off of others, or B) a person who 'doesn't work'. And not always as in 'jobless', but rather as in either: 'not working up to potential', 'not getting anywhere', 'useless', or even meaning 'lazy'. Also sometimes referring to C) slovenly/offensive dress and grooming, too much time hanging on the streets, or given to bad vices. Sometimes also refers to an unpopular sports figure.
-
For context, see: 1a) the way Burgess Meredith kept yelling it to Rocky, 1b) any Andy Capp weekly strip, or 2): in fan-speak, an unpopular player ("Throw that bum out of the game!â).
-
Has also become: 1) a word for a broken object (ex: "I've got a bum stereo!") 2) a verb ("Can I bum 50 cents off of you? I'll give it back, later...").
please make more videos with lauren in them :)
A builders brew is tea brewed more strongly than others! Maybe by using 2 bags instead of 1 or left to stew.
3:48 is very interesting, chock-a in alot of the Caribbean countries we say Chakka Chakka instead of just chock-a.
Lol đ that chock-a-block makes no sense still xd but I hear it all the time hahaha ...
Iâve actually never heard of builderâs tea/brewâŠand Iâve grown up on building sites for like 25 years đ
Not just brittish people know these words. I am swedish and did know most of them and most swedish people would know them (especially if they are from my generation because we love british comedy)
More British and American videos please
It's strange how Americans got away from being big tea drinkers to coffee .
Americans do drink tea but not as much as iced tea I will occasionally indulge in tea. Usually during the autumn and winter months
Mug is also means to rob someone in the US. We also describe weather a muggy. And bum can be a verb for to ask for something. Like Hey, can I bum a cigarette? Can I bum 10 bucks off you until pay day? I think it comes from the idea that bums are usually looking for a hand out.
builders tea is made with 2 tea bags its very strong !!
2:08 we have a similar one in America its called Backtalk or Backtalking "Stop backtalking!" usually a phrase said to kids when they say something rude
Back chat sounds better
A Builders tea is just very strong cup of tea you can have it with or without milk and sugar, but the term is just over brewed tea.
Builder's tea doesn't necessarily have sugar in it its just very strong.
I tasted tea with milk and sugar once it was so awful. I like it with sugar hot or cold.
hahahaha "oh i know this this is a block of chocolate"
awesome
I got them all. But i believe its where i grew up. Toledo ohio we get CBC Canadian tv which shows not only Canadian but British tv. Also radio heard from across lake erie.
I'm not sure fancy meaning to like is just British English. It's used a bit in other parts of the world (perhaps with less frequency). Perhaps it's because of usage in the UK that other places also use it a bit.
Here in Ireland builders tea is at least two tea bags three sugars and a little milk.
Australian slangs are on another level. Should do one for that!
I'm from the UK and I've never heard of builders tea in my life
Bruh just finished the video and loads of these I've never heard of and I'm from the UKđ also why didn't she explain that a mug is also a type of cup đ
âBuilders teaâ is a strong cuppa so you can taste the tea!
American for "Are you having a laugh?" would be "Are you pulling my leg?"
Strong tea tiny drop of milk with 2 sugars is nato tea (British army slang)
There's a store in Tarzana, CA called Oh Fancy That.It's a British store.
Builders tea is usually very strong.
In Australia the tea or coffee is called 'Standard'. So if you have a standard coffee it would be a milk and 2 sugar instant coffee.
Even more confusing is saying "Tea" here in Australia is the evening meal here.
"Having a Laugh" is my favourite sitcom out of BBC...
Builders tea is a mug of very strong tea with just a tiny amount of milk. No sugar.
I know here in New England we still use the phrase "chucker block full"
The English lady should be pronouncing Schedule the English way: "Shedule". đ
the correct way to pronounce "schedule" is with a K
the correct way to pronounce letter "h" is "ey-tch" without H
the correct way to pronounce "6th" is without K
the English should learn their language first before trying to teach others IMO what do you think?
@@bsdpowa it's our language not yours,, snd you make itcsound ugly.
@@michaelsterckx4120 Illiteracy is not something to brag about.
You mean typos. You need to improve your literacy.
@bsdpowa english comes from england, hence the name, so get over it hun. sorry if it hurts, but because of this fact, we are always right, go cry about it.
but actually, I do pronounce âscheduleâ with the ch like a K, there are many cultural accents within england, therefore different adaptions in pronunciation. sorry, I mentioned the word âcultureâ ... I know thatâs a word some Americans might not understand since they borrowed everything off other countries đđđ not tryna be a dick just facts
Builders tea is when it is well stewed ant the tea bag well squashed for maximum strength.
Cheeky is used very rarely in the US, but it is used. In the past it was more common.
Chock-A-Block I haven't heard of, but we use Chock-full or Chocked-full to denote something that's overfilled
Fancy is another that used to be common in the US. Its still used sparsely.
Mug used to be a popular slang term but has mostly died except for some specific uses such as ugly-mug and mugshot.
Bum is very common, especially in the south.
Builders tea is basically âIâm not fussyâ. Some particularly fussy people require their tea to be very specifically made, almost requiring instructions. Telling someone youâll have a builders tea basically means âjust make it, Iâll drink it, whateverâs it likeâ.
Builders tea is as strong/stewed as you can make it, served in a mug. The old saying is 'it should be so strong, the spoon will stand up on its own in it!'
Not, I'm not fussy, how it comes.
Mug to me is a large coffee cup, to differentiate it from a tea cup.
Canadian here. The only one that surprised me here is "builder's brew/tea." Expressing the American/Canadian saying "I bummed a smoke" would have been interesting, I wonder what a Brit would think of that one."
Cheeky in the contect of 'going for a cheeky bev (i.e an alcoholic drink) doesn't mean a quick bev it really means a naughty bev so it's very similiar to the main defination of cheeky
In the US, we say "chocked full", which seems similar to "chock-a-block" đ€·đŒââïž
I've heard and used "chock full". [California]
Same here in Birmingham, UK. Though I think it might be more "chock full" rather than chocked.
I say *chock-a-block"
Av a go ya mug! and chokas is used in Australia.
I always thought chock a block was an Australian. I always learn something on these videos.