10 Very British Verbs

Eat Sleep Dreamers welcome back to another lesson with me Tom. Today we're looking at

ten very British verbs. But before we get into that I'd like to thank today's sponsor,

which is Lingoda. Lingoda offers online language lessons with qualified native speaking teachers.

Now this is great because you can get highly qualified teachers wherever you are in the

world because it's online.You can study whenever you want. So you sign up on a monthly basis

and then you have a range of group or private classes to choose from. Now there's loads

of variety which keeps it fresh and interesting. Now they teach English but they also have

French, German and Spanish. Now this is what so many of you guys have been asking me about.

How can we learn English online? Well this is a fantastic opportunity. So Lingoda have

kindly offered you guys fifty dollars or fifty euros off your first month's subscription.

So I've left a link in the description below. Click the link and then type in the code TOM.

TOM. Eat Sleep Dreamers we've got our own code, how cool is that! The code is TOM. So

when you sign up make sure to enter that code so you get your fifty dollars or fifty euros

off the first month. I've signed up to the Spanish course in the hope that I can finally

conquer the Spanish language. Having lived in Argentina and in Spain I should really

be better at Spanish but. So with Lingoda's help I'm going to improve my Spanish. So if

you want to do the same with your English, go check them out. Alright get ready for ten

very British verbs.

Number one, to fancy. We use the verb to fancy to mean to want, to desire to do something.

For example 'Do you fancy going to the cinema?' It just means do you want to go to the cinema?

At the moment it's snowing here in London so I might say 'I don't fancy going out.'

That means I don't want to go out, I have no desire to go out. So we can use to fancy

in informal situations to replace want. Often you'll see it in invitations for example 'Do

you fancy..?' 'Do you fancy to go to the cinema?' 'Do you fancy coming round for tea?' That

kind of thing. So yeah a really common useful verb. Fancy.

Number two and the is nothing more British than a good queue. We love queuing. It's out

national sport, queuing, we're the best at queuing in the world. I mean, I know there's

some competition but we are pretty good at queuing. So the verb, to queue. I would say

that's a pretty British verb. To queue. So it means to wait in an ordered line. For example

you queue at the supermarket, don't you. You might queue at the bus stop to get on to the

bus. So to queue, pronunciation queue. 'Sorry I'm late, I had to queue for ages at the bank.'

Let me know in the comments below, do you guys think that you are the world's best queuers?

Because you know, I think British people are the best at queuing so you let me know. We

might have to start an Olympics for queuing. See who get the gold, the silver and the bronze

medals. I think we'll get the gold but if you think differently tell me.

Number three is a very British slang verb. It's to nick something, to nick something.

To nick means to steal, it's exactly the same, it's a synonym of steal. So 'somebody has

nicked my phone!' Means somebody has stolen my phone. Number four 'to chat someone up.'

This is a phrasal verb, you can see chat is the verb and up the preposition there. So

to chat someone up is to talk to them in a flirtatious way, in a way where perhaps you

have romantic intentions. Something like that anyway. An example sentence 'Did you see Katie

getting chatted up by the barman?' Alright, so did you see Katie being talked to by the

barman who had flirtatious or romantic intentions. With this phrasal verb you'll notice that

it can be split with the object. So for example 'Are you going to go and chat up that guy?'

That guy is the object, it comes at the end after the phrasal verb. You can put that in

the middle as well 'Are you going to go and chat that guy up?' As with all these verbs

they are all informal words so think about when and how you are going to use them and

think about is the situation you are in appropriate to use these verbs.

Number five, slightly rude. To take the piss out of someone. This is to tease them, to

make jokes about them. It could be for many different reasons. It might be because of

somebody's hair or because they did something silly or stupid. It could be because their

football team lost, it could be many different reasons. To take the piss, it is slightly

rude, it's not a swear word or anything but it is a little bit rude so bear that in mind.

So I think I've told you guys before I have had many many many bad haircuts. So my friends

used to take the piss out of my hair. So they would make jokes about my hair, they would

laugh about it, yeah they would take the piss, it's fair enough. So an example sentence 'My

mates used to take the piss out of me for having bad hair.' I think I've fixed that

problem, I hope so.

Alright this one is awesome. It's more of a phrase really but it's still considered

a verb. to leg it. And this means to run quickly. Usually if you are escaping something. So

for example my favourite TV programme when I was a kid used to start just after my school

finished so I would leg it back from school so that I could watch the programme. So I

used to leg it back from school, that's to run really quickly from school to get somewhere

'So I used to leg it back from school to watch this programme.'

Number seven might be one of my all time favourite words, to faff. Now to faff is to do things

that are not important. To do all the the little things that are, you just don't need

to do and not because they are the most important thing that you need to do right now. So for

example whenever we used to leave the house my Mum would just do little things. She'd

make sure the cushions were in the right place on the sofa or she'd quickly tidy the shoes

so that they were all in the right order. Just doing things and you are like Mum we

need to go, like that's not important right now. Stop faffing! So to faff is just to do

nothing really to do very unimportant stuff. It goes with the words about and around. So

you can say to someone 'Stop faffing about!' 'Stop faffing around!' Like, stop doing little

things that are not important. And just for the record I also do a lot of faffing so yeah

I'm a big faffer. What an amazing word. What's that in your language, translate that word

for me into your language, to faff. What's that in Arabic? What's that in Spanish? What's

that in Mandarin? Let me know.

Here's another phrasal verb 'to splash out'. We splash out on something. Now to splash

out is to spend a lot of money. So for example. So let's say you are going out for an anniversary

dinner with your partner and you go to an expensive restaurant. You say 'Look it's our

anniversary, we should splash out.' And that means you know, it's our anniversary why not

spend more money than normal. The opposite of to splash out is to flog something. Now

flog is a very informal verb, it means to sell something usually quite quickly or quite

cheaply. So for example 'I'm trying to flog my old car.' It means I'm trying to sell my

old car whether it's quickly or cheaply. So i'm trying to flog my old car. And our final

verb for today is to wind somebody up. This is to annoy them. If you wind someone up you

annoy them, you get them angry. I tell you what winds me up guys, it's when people try

to get on to the tube, on to the train before everyone gets off. That really winds me up.

It's like guys this doesn't make sense. Like let me off the train and then there's more

space for you to get on the train. That's logical right? But no no people want to get

on the train without thinking. That really winds me up. So, that's a great little verb

to know 'What winds you up guys?' Let me know. Tell me in the comments below. What winds

you up?

Awesome! That was ten very British verbs. Before you do anything else guys, remember

to go and visit Lingoda, go check them out. Click the link below and use the offer code

that they have given us TOM. Go sign up for your month subscription with fifty euros or

fifty dollars off. It's a great offer, so go check them out guys. I hope you enjoyed

this one. If you did let me know, give it a big thumbs up, tell me in the comments below

and of course share it with anyone you know that is trying to learn British English. If

you can think of any other British verbs then please share them with in the comments below

so that all the other Eat Sleep Dreamers can learn from you. If you haven't already guys,

make sure to check out my Instagram account and my Facebook page where I put daily English

content there so that you guys are learning English every single day as well as on YouTube

with me here. I've got videos every Tuesday and every Friday helping you take your English

to the next level. Thanks so much for hanging out with me guys. This is Tom, the chief dreamer,

saying goodbye.