Everyday British English - Slang English Vocabulary

- Hello, lovely students

and welcome back to English with Lucy.

Today, I'm going to teach you about my favourite topic

to teach my students, British slang.

I'm really excited

because in this lesson I'm going to show you

some of the amazing features and exercises

that we use in one of our challenges,

The Slang Challenge,

and if you haven't heard about it before

and you're interested in learning slang

and learning to speak like a real Brit,

this could be for you.

Before we start the lesson, I'll quickly explain it.

This is a 21-day language challenge.

Once you sign up for the challenge

you get one lesson a day for 21-days.

You follow a story via a series

of WhatsApp voice and text messages

between a girl who's just moved to London

and her best friend back home,

and every day you will learn

between nine and 15 pieces of slang

and do audio and vocabulary comprehension exercises.

There are so many dictations,

gap-fills, multiple-choice questions, loads.

Every day, you get to participate

in the Challenge Community.

You get to ask my teachers questions,

clarify your doubts

and practise using your newly learnt slang.

So many of my students have already

taken part in the challenge and they absolutely loved it,

look at their amazing feedback.

This was the most awesome group of students.

If this challenge sounds up your street,

and that's slang for something you would like,

I'm running a special discount on it at the moment.

To find out more, click on the link in the description box,

the special offer is there and it won't last for long.

Also, don't forget to download

the free pdf for today's lesson,

it's got all of the slang we'll cover today

and some extra activities.

If you'd like that, just click on the PDF link

in my description box,

you enter your name and your email address.

You sign up to my mailing list

and it will arrive directly in your inbox.

After that, you will automatically receive

all of my free PDFs and my news, updates and offers.

Right, let's get started with this slang lesson.

Okay, so when do we usually use slang?

Well, very commonly when we're using

our phones and social media,

and you just got a text message from me,

can you believe it?

Take a look at these messages.

Do you understand what's happened?

Okay, so Lucy, and that's me,

I'm not having a good day.

That's obvious, but why?

Well, I've said, "my boss has just thrown a wobbly."

To throw a wobbly, what does that mean?

Does it mean A, my boss has just thrown

some jelly across the room?

Or does it mean B,

my boss has become angry and shouted at me?

Of course, it's B.

To throw a wobbly is to become very angry

or very upset, very emotional.

I've got a response.

You've asked me if I'm yakking too much.

If I was yakking too much?

Is that anything to do with big brown cows?

We can have a type of cow called a yak.

No, you know me pretty well,

and you were asking if I was talking or chatting too much.

We can say we are yakking or yakking away.

We can also say yapping, as well.

Okay, let's carry on.

Ah, I've sent you an audio message,

it is my favourite form of communication.

I don't like phone calls,

there's too much pressure to instantly

come up with something good to say.

I like to think about it and to rerecord it

at least five times,

and sometimes listen back to it

and laugh at my own messages and jokes.

Let's have a listen

and I'll warn you when I'm using lots of slang

and talking with my friends via voice notes, I talk fast.

This is gonna be hard.

Okay, let's play it.

No, I wasn't yakking.

I finished all the bits and bobs that I had to do today

so I was just faffing around in the break room.

Anyway, in comes the boss,

"Lucy, I've told you umpteen times how busy we are.

Why are you hanging around in here?"

I thought it was a wind-up.

We're not slammed at all.

I said I'd be out in a jiffy,

but he told me that if I didn't crack on immediately,

I'd be in serious trouble.

Okay, did you get that?

Did you understand a hundred percent?

Don't worry, if not, that was really quick.

That was me speaking in the way I do

when I'm with my friends.

Let's take a look at the slang in that audio message though.

The first phrase that you might not know is bits and bobs.

Bits and bobs.

I said, I finished all the bits and bobs

that I had to do today.

I finished all the bits and bobs I had to do today.

Now, what are bits and bobs?

Are they several large tasks?

Several small tasks?

Or some mechanical work?

It's B , its and bobs means an assortment

of small things or small tasks.

It can be literal, as in everyone has a drawer

full of bits and bobs in their kitchen.

Do you have that drawer?

I actually have two of those drawers,

I need to clear one out.

Alternatively, it can be used to talk about

tasks to do, pieces of information and much more.

For example, I've just got to finish a few bits and bobs

then I'll come over.

The beautiful thing about bits and bobs

is that it's very, very vague

so you don't need to tell someone exactly what you are doing

or exactly what you have in that

horribly messy drawer in your kitchen.

The second thing I said was,

so I was just faffing around in the break room.

I was just faffing around.

So, to faff or to faff around or to faff about

is an amazing piece of British slang

but what does it mean?

Okay, is it A, to make a cup of tea?

B, to finish some work?

Or C, to do nothing important or useful?

Yep, it's C.

It means to spend your time doing something

that isn't useful often instead

of doing something more important.

An example, Lucy, stop faffing around

and go and finish your homework.

We can also use faff as a noun,

and in this case it means something

that is a lot of effort

and often not well-organized and causes problems.

For example, finding a place to park

in London is such a faff.

This is really British and it's also very true,

never drive if you come to London.

Next was the word umpteen, in this sentence,

I've told you umpteen times.

I've told you umpteen times.

Do you think umpteen is a real number?

Or a made-up number?

If you chose B, you'd be correct.

It's made-up.

Umpteen means very many or a lot.

So my boss was saying that

he'd told me something many times.

You'll often see umpteen followed by the word times,

but you can use it with any word really.

I gave him umpteen chances to apologise

or Colleen Hoover has written umpteen best-selling books.

Phrase number four was wind-up, in this sentence,

I thought it was a wind-up.

I thought it was a wind-up.

Now is a wind-up,

A, an annoying joke?

B, an order?

Or C, a tragedy?

If you guessed A, you'd be right.

A wind-up is a joke that is supposed

to be annoying or irritating.

It can be a noun, a wind-up, or a phrasal verb, to wind-up.

Ben's been winding me up all day.

The next word was slammed

and if you've taken the Slang Challenge

you will know what this one means,

and if you want to take it

click on the link in the description box,

there's a special offer going on.

Are you slammed in this sentence?

We're not slammed at all.

We're not slammed at all.

Which one of these sentences makes sense?

I'm absolutely slammed at work,

so I'm going to go home early.

Or I'm absolutely slammed at work,

so I'm going to have to stay late tonight.

It's B.

Sentence B makes sense because slammed means very busy.

Sorry, I haven't replied to you.

I've been absolutely slammed at work.

Next, we had the word jiffy, in this sentence,

I said I'd be out in a jiffy.

I said I'd be out in a jiffy.

How long is a jiffy?

Is it a long time or a short time?

It's a short time.

It would be very rude to tell my boss

I was going to be out in a long time.

Here's another example,

wait there, and I'll be back in a jiffy.

A jiffy, a very short time.

Finally, we had the phrasal verb, to crack on.

My boss told me to crack on immediately

or I would be in trouble.

I'm going to tell you what this one means

so we can crack on with the video very quickly.

To crack on means to start or continue to do something,

especially with lots of energy.

Okay, let's crack on and see what the response is.

Okay, here's the response, have a read.

Do you understand all of that?

Don't worry, I'm here to help.

There are three slang words that I want to pick out.

We have 'mare, jimjams

and noshing or to nosh,

or to nosh-on, if it's a verb.

'Mare, here, is short for a longer word

that means a very bad experience.

Can you guess what the long form is?

Nightmare, shortened down to 'mare.

What a nightmare!

What a 'mare!

Next, they say that they're in their jimjams.

This is a piece of clothing,

can you guess what they're wearing?

Jimjams, pyjamas,

pyjamas, jimjams.

This is quite a childish slang phrase.

And finally, she said she was noshing on some chocolate.

So what is she doing to the chocolate?

Eating it, of course.

To nosh means to eat, while the noun nosh means food.

Let's grab some nosh.

What a nightmare!

Meanwhile, I'm over here in my pyjamas

eating some chocolate.

I bet you miss being a student.

Yes, I do miss being a student sometimes.

Okay, that's enough slang for today.

If you enjoyed this concept

but you want to do it with lots of interactive activities,

an interactive private community

where you can ask questions to my teachers,

beautiful vocabulary banks where you can click on the word,

hear the pronunciation,

see all the definitions.

And you want to have lifetime access to the content,

once you buy it, it's yours,

and a 30-day money back guarantee.

You know what to do.

We're running a special offer,

click on the link in the description box

and join my 21-day British Slang Challenge.

Also, don't forget to download the PDF for today's lesson.

Click on the link in the description box.

You sign up to my mailing list

and it'll come straight to you.

We've got a quiz there as well

so you can test your understanding.

Don't forget to connect with me on all of my social media.

I've got my Instagram, I've got my Facebook,

I've got my website, englishwithlucy.com,

where I have a fantastic interactive pronunciation tool.

You can click on phonemes and hear me pronounce them

and hear me pronouncing words that contain the phonemes.

It's a lot of fun.

You can also check out all of my English courses,

there are quite a few there.

Something for everyone,

whether you want to focus on something specific

like slang, vocabulary, business English

or you want to nail one of the English levels

like B1 or B2, it's all there on my website.

I will see you soon for another lesson.

(upbeat music)