How to Use "Bloody" Like a British Person! | Sound Like James Bond with British Slang

♪ Dun nuh, dun, duh nuh, dun ♪

♪ Duh nuh, duh nuh nuh ♪

- I'll have a martini.

Wait, no. Can you bring me a milkshake, actually?

With fries, also a banana.

Peel it, so I can dip the banana in the milkshake.

Eat it. It's like a healthy snack.

It's really good.

- Yes sir.

- My friend. Bring me one as well.

Keep the fruit.

- That's it.

Hmm. Anyone want to play poker now?

- Someone's in a hurry.

- I know, right?

Oh, what? It's just your world

and we are all lucky enough to live in it.

It's bloody selfish behavior, mate.

Sorry, can you guys just excuse me?

Two minutes, I need to poo.

I'll be back. Two minutes. I promise.

Maybe five. I don't know.

Everyone's heard the expression, bloody hell.

But did you know this word, bloody,

is not only super British but it's very useful.

However, I often hear students use this word wrong

or in a way that just sounds weird.

So today I want to teach you exactly how to use it,

how not to use it,

and some interesting ways that we use this word every day.

(upbeat guitar music) (computer beeping)

First of all, this is a very British word.

We use it all the time

but when Americans use it, oh my God, it's adorable.

It's so cute.

Basically, basically we use this word to emphasize things

to make them sound stronger

to make people know that we feel strongly about something.

Maybe we are surprised, shocked,

or maybe we really, really love something.

But yes, great question.

How does it work?

Let's start with adjectives.

For example, she wants her boyfriend to buy this dress

for her, but he thinks that is too expensive.

To make this adjective sound stronger

put bloody before the adjective.

It's 700 pounds.

It's too bloody expensive.

That makes it sound stronger, yes.

But we use this to say a lot of different things

and it depends how you say it.

Maybe he's surprised.

(gasps) That's so bloody expensive.

700 pounds? What?

Or maybe to show that we are annoyed.

Oh my God, you're so bloody annoying.

Just buy it for me.

It's pretty much just a more slang way

of saying very with adjectives.

Yeah, that drink is bloody delicious.

Now we need to talk about word stress.

It doesn't matter which word you stress

but remember this is emphasis.

It sounds good to stress one of the words at least.

It is too bloody expensive.

You can stress that word. That sounds good.

That sounds like you're shocked.

But if you stress the adjective, you are so bloody annoying.

That sounds like you're annoyed.

Again, it just adds emphasis.

So it sounds good to stress one of those words

or both of them. It doesn't matter.

Have fun with it.

You can also use bloody before a noun

and that works in the same way.

You're just saying, I feel very strongly about this noun.

For example, your friend buys a car

but you know they don't have any money to buy the car.

You might be surprised, right?

Wait, you bought a car, emphasize your surprise with

bloody. You bought a bloody car.

Notice the word stress.

I stressed the noun.

You bought a bloody car.

You usually stress the noun when you want to show surprise.

Wait, you bought a bloody car.

But what if you just stress the word bloody?

Ugh, I hate him and his bloody car.

Yeah, if you stress the word bloody

it sounds like you're more annoyed.

But that isn't a solid rule.

Of course you could say I hate him and his bloody car.

The only real rule with word stress is

you cannot sound happy when you only stress the word bloody.

Ah, you've got a bloody baby.

See, that sounds very, very wrong.

Don't say it like that.

If you are trying to sound happy, surprised about something

do not only stress the word bloody before a noun,

you won't sound happy.

You'll sound more like the literal sense of bloody

which we'll come to later.

But like I said

this just adds emphasis to what you want to say.

So if you put bloody before a noun

in any idiom or expression in English,

that just makes this sound much stronger.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love you, Becky.

You love me? Then show it.

Actions speak louder than bloody words.

If you don't have the word bloody there,

this doesn't sound as strong or emotional.

Let's look at examples using all of this.

(guitar twanging)

I've never done a lesson on a train before but

first time for everything.

- 10 million was wired to your account in Montenegro.

- That's way more than I charged for these lessons.

But thanks, I guess.

I wanna show you that having good English

is more about your confidence than anything else.

- So that will be what you call bluffing.

- Yeah, well, no, it's more about just not worrying

about all the tiny grammatical mistakes

all the bloody time when you speak.

I know it can be annoying.

- All right?

- So what's your opinion on the British accent

compared to the American accent?

- Beautiful.

- Yeah. So pronunciation then.

So British English is usually non-rhotic.

So we have what I think are perfectly formed R's.

So in American English, they're like water, better.

Whereas British English, usually it's more like water,

better, if we're being totally honest,

British English is just way more bloody charming.

You know what I mean?

- Charming as you are Mr. Bond,

I will be keeping my eye on our government's money

and off feel perfectly formed ass.

- All right.

Remember before with the, oh, you have a bloody baby

example, yeah, you cannot sound happy about something

if you emphasize the word bloody before a noun.

If you do that, it kind of sounds like

the literal meaning of bloody

which means something has blood on it

or is covered in blood like.

(Aly sneenzing)

You want this?

A bloody tissue?

Ew, no I don't want your bloody tissue.

So yet the literal meaning of bloody means

something has blood on it or it's covered in blood.

Which brings us to the main part of this lesson.

The expression

bloody hell.

Now yet, originally this just meant hell covered in blood.

Yeah, sounds bad.

However, now we just use it as a cute British expression

to say I'm surprised at something like,

oh, bloody hell, that cat is cute.

But this is where it gets fun.

You can add this to questions

and make them sound stronger like.

What are you doing?

Sounds normal. However.

Can sound way stronger if you add the bloody hell

before the auxiliary verb

in this case are so the verb be.

What the bloody hell are you doing?

What the bloody hell do you think I'm doing?

I'm putting fancy clothes on the cat.

Again, just put the bloody hell before an auxiliary verb

do/be/have or a modal verb. Would, will, could, should.

You know the modal verbs.

Those verbs.

I'm sure I've seen an example of this in a movie.

Okay, I've got a joke for you.

You're gonna like this one.

What kind of shoes do spies wear?

Sneakers.

(women laughing)

Yeah, that's a good one.

Wait, you're the woman who sells the protein drinks

- Perhaps?

- Yeah, I've heard that they are bloody delicious.

Do you deliver? Could you deliver them to my place?

- Your place?

Is it close?

- Oh yeah, yeah, I'm very close.

But could you just deliver one drink though?

I don't wanna start a subscription.

I don't want a whole bloody box.

I just want one protein drink.

- One drink?

- Yes, please. Delivered to my place.

- Your place?

Is it close?

- What the bloody hell is wrong with you?

You just asked me that.

Okay, we've done adjectives, we've done nouns,

we've done bloody hell,

and the bloody hell put in questions.

How about verbs?

(raining pattering)

It's raining again, that's a normal sentence

but add bloody.

Bloody raining again.

That verb doesn't have to be in continuous

or any specific tense.

Bloody hate the rain.

So yeah, don't worry about the tense of the verb.

Simple, continuous, it doesn't matter.

You're just emphasizing that sentence.

That's it.

This doesn't always mean that you are angry or annoyed,

remember, this just means you are emphasizing the verb

making it sound stronger.

So another example could be.

(dramatic music)

That's right, bellend, I bloody won.

Yeah, you walk away, bad loser.

But please keep in mind this is a very informal slang,

British slang term, and depending on who you ask

they might see it like a swear word.

So it could be really bad for them.

Me personally, I don't see it as a swear word.

It feels kind of old fashioned

to think of it as a swear word.

It's very tame in my opinion.

At work you could probably use this with younger people

and no one would care.

Maybe. Definitely check first.

Don't get fired because of me.

So practice this in the comments,

use bloody in three different ways.

I'll reply and give correction

and give little hearts to my favorite comments.

And if you're not subscribed already

make sure you subscribe,

like this video, share it with anyone who studies English,

and I'll see you in the next class.

Bye.

(dramatic outro music)