15 Simple Phrases to Sound More British

- Warning, this video

is going to make you sound very British.

If you don't want to sound British,

don't watch it, go away.

For the rest of you, let's do it.

(upbeat music)

Hello, this is Keith from "English Speaking Success."

And I also run the website, The Keith Speaking Academy.

So today, I'm going to show you 15 simple phrases

to help you sound more British, okay?

Now, this video really is just a bit of fun, right?

That said, if you are living in the UK

then this could be really useful

to help you understand British people,

even get inside their heads (giggles),

a dangerous place to be.

Also if you enjoy British films or TV series,

this can be really useful.

Most of all though, I think this video will help you

start to change your mindset

from just being an English student

(air whooshing)

to being a confident English speaker, right?

It's all about communication,

and I want to try and take you away just from your books

and into the real world of English communication,

in particular in Britain, okay?

Now, a quick word of warning,

if you are an IELTS student,

these phrases are not really for IELTS speaking, why?

Because they are slang and they are regional,

they're from Britain.

So I would not recommend using this kind of slang

in your IELTS speaking test.

Okay, so let's start with a very British conversation.

And here's the challenge, right?

How much of this conversation can you understand?

20%, 60%, 90%?

Watch, listen, and leave me a comment below,

tell me how much you can understand, let's go.

(air whooshing)

- Hiya. - Alright??

- How's tricks? - Mustn't grumble.

- Hey, fancy going down for a beer?

- Sure, what's the occasion?

- Well, I passed my exam.

- Really? - Yeah, it was a doddle.

I'm chuffed to bits.

- Oh, that's wicked, well done.

- No, actually I'm having you on, I made a pig's ear of it.

Oh, and I'm so gutted.

- Oh, well, never mind mate,

go and join the Keith Speaking Academy and Bob's your uncle.

- Maybe, anyway after all the stress, right?

I'm knackered, I need to go and get some shut eye.

- I can imagine, well, catch up soon.

- Yeah, cheers. - Ta-ra

(air whooshing)

- So how much did you get?

Get, I mean, understand, right?

Leave me a comment below, let me know.

One thing, at the end of this video

I guarantee you will understand 100% of that video, okay?

So what I will do is

I will introduce the phrases one by one to you.

I'll give you the more common expression,

and some synonyms and then explain this British expression.

And also at the end of the video,

you will be able to get a PDF for free

with all of this information.

(air whooshing)

Lovely, let's go.

Okay, let's begin with greetings.

Now, when you meet somebody

the most common greeting, of course, is hello.

You can also say hi.

In many parts of Britain, we say, hiya.

Hiya, I don't know how you spell that,

but it sounds like the comparison high, higher.

Hiya (chuckles).

And if you say that to a British person they'll probably go,

"Ooh, where did you learn that?"

And you can say, "Oh, some bloke."

Some bloke, some man.

"Some bloke off the internet.

Yeah, can't remember his name.

Some bloke off YouTube."

Now, another very colloquial way

of saying hello, is alright?

And it's a bit like a question,

you just go, alright?

And the answer is alright,

it's exactly the same, dead easy.

And you've got to do this with your head.

Aright, alright (laughs)?

Okay, now after hello, you've got classically, how are you?

Fine, thanks, right?

But there are a lot of more colloquial ways of saying that.

For example, how's it going?

How's it, zit?

How's it going?

How are you doing?

How are ya, how are you doing?

And in the conversation we saw, how's tricks?

How's tricks?

Grammatically incorrect, right?

Should be how are tricks?

But we actually say, how's tricks.

And well, British people,

we often don't get very excited, right?

We often don't go, oh yeah, great, awesome, amazing.

No, usually, not bad, can't complain.

And in the video we had, mustn't grumble.

Mustn't grumble, right?

To grumble is to complain.

So it's all very calm, right?

And very unemotional.

How's tricks?

Mustn't grumble.

Have a go, how's tricks?

Lovely, let's move on.

So next, let's look at inviting.

So typically, if you want to invite somebody in British,

you would say would like a, something.

Would you like a coffee?

Would you like a piece of cake?

Or with a verb, would you like to go for a coffee?

Would you like to go out?

British people use that, but we also use the word fancy.

Do you fancy a coffee?

Do you fancy a coffee?

Do you fancy a piece of cake?

What's interesting, right?

Is the, do you, we often drop.

And so we just say, fancy a coffee?

Fancy a coffee?

Fancy a piece of cake?

And if there's a verb, it goes to the gerund, right?

Fancy going out for a coffee.

Great, so if you want to invite me to a cup of tea,

what could you say?

Right, fancy a cup of tea?

Or fancy going out for a cup of tea?

Great, fancy moving on?

Let's move on.

Okay, next let's talk about describing something

that is easy, and also about being happy, right?

So if something's easy, of course, you can say it's easy.

There's the idiom, it's a piece of cake, right?

This exam was a piece of cake.

Or driving a car is a piece of cake, it's easy.

In the British conversation we had,

it's a doddle, a doddle.

It's a doddle, can you say that?

Right, so the exam was a doddle.

It's a very British thing.

Well, that was a doddle.

Now, talking about being happy,

there are many ways of saying this, right?

I'm happy, I'm delighted, I'm thrilled.

It's quite a common one.

And with that one, I'm thrilled,

we often add to bits.

I'm thrilled to bits.

Can you say that?

I'm thrilled to bits.

Nice, in the British conversation we had I'm chuffed.

I'm chuffed, lovely sound.

I'm chuffed, I'm very pleased, right?

Or I'm very happy.

Also there, we can say to bits.

I'm chuffed to bits.

It's like, you're so happy,

you break up into little pieces.

I don't know.

I'm chuffed to bits.

Can you say that?

Great, now you may be describing something

as being really good, or cool, or great.

Sometimes we say it's wicked.

It's wicked, it's very slang.

I mean, wicked really means evil, nasty, and bad.

But as a slang expression it means cool, awesome.

It's wicked (chuckles).

Okay, that was a doddle, let's move on.

Now, if you're enjoying this video,

please do subscribe and turn on the notifications,

so you can find out about more upcoming videos.

So continuing with the theme of being happy,

let's talk about joking.

Of course, this is when you are not serious.

And you can say I'm joking.

Quite commonly, we also say I'm kidding, right?

To kid is to joke.

You probably know the word, a kid is a child,

but the verb to kid is to joke.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding with you.

We have a great idiomatic expression as well which is,

I'm pulling your leg.

(imitates groaning)

What are you doing?

I'm pulling your leg (chuckles),

to mean, I'm joking.

It's funny, right?

In Spanish, they have a similar expression, but it's

(speaks in foreign language)

is I'm pulling your hair (chuckles).

What are you doing?

Are you pulling my hair?

No, I'm pulling your leg.

I wonder in your language,

do you have a similar expression?

Now, in the conversation we saw

with my twin brother (laughs),

you also heard a very common phrasal verb,

meaning to joke, but very few people know.

But now you will know

because you are not just a student,

you're becoming a speaker, right?

An English speaker.

And that is to have someone on.

I'm having you on,

it means I'm joking with you, right?

In the video I was having my twin brother on (laughs).

I'm having you on, his not my twin brother.

I'm having you on, can you say that?

Nice, confident English speaker, love it.

Let's move on.

Right, enough of being happy, and joking, and having you on,

let's talk about being unhappy.

So if you're unhappy, you can say I'm upset.

In the video conversation with my twin brother,

I said, I'm gutted.

I'm gutted, just means I'm not happy.

I'm very unhappy.

To gut, it comes from originally,

from when you take, from an animal,

you take the stomach out of the animal.

You can imagine if somebody takes your stomach out,

you will be gutted literally and idiomatically,

either way not very happy.

So you can say, I'm gutted.

I failed my IELTS test, I'm gutted (laughs).

I know, it's not a laughing matter.

Now, sometimes you can be gutted or unhappy

because you've made a mess of something, right?

And if you make a mess of something,

we've got a great idiomatic expression

to make a pig's ear of something.

That's right, to make a pig (imitates a pig sound) ear,

a pig's ear of something.

I made a pigs ear of that exam.

Or if you're cooking a dish and it turns out terrible,

ugh, I made a pigs ear of that dish.

So sometimes when you're writing an essay,

you can make a pigs ear of your essay,

and you will be gutted, I'm sure.

So let's move on and talk about finding solutions.

Now, when we find a solution in English,

we just say there you are, right?

There you have it.

There you are, easy.

Sometimes we use the French word, voila.

Voila without the French intonation.

Voila, there you are, there's the solution.

In Britain we also have this great expression,

Bob's your uncle (laughs).

What, who's my uncle?

Bob.

I don't have an uncle, Bob.

Yes, you do, you've got an uncle.

His name is Bob, and Bob's your uncle (laughs).

So when you are giving a solution, right?

You say, "Well, the problem, do this, do that, do that.

"And bobs your uncle, easy peasy."

Let's move on and talk about being tired,

which you may well be at this stage of the video.

Stick with me.

Next, let's talk about being (yawns)

excuse me, about being tired.

Now, you probably know the expressions,

I'm exhausted, I'm beat.

In Britain we also have the expression, I'm knackered.

I'm knackered, right?

I'm really, really tired, I'm knackered.

If you are very you tired,

then of course, you need to get some sleep.

Go and have a rest (chuckles).

In Britain we would say, go and have a nap or have a kip.

Have a nap, have a kip, it's a short sleep.

Or you can also say get some shut eye.

I'm going to get some shut eye.

Get some shut eye, it's logical, right?

Nice expressions,

so excuse me, I'm gonna get some shut eye.

Oh, hang on, I've still got a video to finish.

Let's move on.

So the next group of words is all about saying goodbye.

You remember at the end of that conversation,

the British conversation with my twin brother.

In order to say goodbye, they didn't say goodbye, right?

Do you remember what they said?

Cheers, ta-ra.

So first, cheers.

Cheers is an interesting word, right?

Because cheers has different meanings.

It can be when you make a toast, right?

Cheers, and you clink glasses or mugs, you say cheers.

It can also mean thanks or cup of tea,

that's lovely, yeah cheers, right?

And it can also mean goodbye,

very often at the end of an email to a friend,

I will just say, cheers, Keith.

And it's kind of a combination

of thanks and goodbye together.

Cheers, so in that conversation,

one person said, cheers and the other one said, ta-ra.

ta-ra, I think it's more Northern England,

but certainly around Manchester we used to say that a lot.

We'd say either ta-ta or ta-ra.

Ta-ra, of course do remember,

you would only ever say rah to very close friends, right?

It's slang, it's informal.

Or if you're trying to create humour in a conversation,

and that goes for all of these expressions, right?

They're slang, they're informal.

They're only used either for humour

or with very close friends.

And I think it's important, right?

Remember that studying English

is not just about being in the books, right?

I want to help you come out

and start thinking about communicating with real English

and becoming a much more confident speaker of English,

not just a student.

Hopefully this video has helped you with that,

and all of my videos on YouTube.

If you like this video and you learned something new,

you might like my online course,

IELTS Speaking Success Get a Band 7+, gold.

(imitates metal banging)

It's aimed at IELTS students.

But that said, there's quite a few students

who are not doing IELTS,

but they just want to improve their overall English.

So although you've got strategy master classes for IELTS,

there are also skills classes.

You learn the speaking success system,

which is a system of practising chunks in English.

You've got two live lessons a month,

there's a private group for motivation,

sharing ideas, lots of stuff.

It's really, really interesting.

There's a link down below, you can check it out.

Also down in the description

you'll notice a link to a free training webinar.

And this will show you the speaking success system,

which is this system that I use in the course.

If you want to discover more about that,

go to the free training webinar

it's recorded, it's not live, but you can interact with it,

and you can ask me a question and I will get back to you.

But just finding out about that speaking system,

if nothing else, I think will seriously, significantly

improve your speaking skills.

So go and check it out in the links in the description.

For now, I'll say thank you, cheers, and ta-ra.

(upbeat music)