British and American English often seem to be totally different languages.
Whether you're hearing the confusing Cockney accent in early Michael Caine movies, or discover the need for closed caption to watch Trainspotting, or even catching Downton Abbey, the accent might make the words hard to understand.
In addition, there are a lot of slang words we're not used to.
These may be some expressions you hear that require translation.
Let's start with the easy ones.
Meant to - supposed to Flat - apartment Mad - crazy Row - argument Rubbish - garbage Any road - anyway Best mate - best friend or buddy Daft - stupid Bloke - guy Driving licence - pretty obvious, but spelled differently Get on - get along Talk her round - try to persuade Kick around old times - reminisce Keeps a lockup - stays safe in a garage Blimey - a word expressing surprise.
Based on "God blind me.
" Who knew? All right? - "Hello, how are you?" Her Majesty's pleasure - being in jail Kip -short nap Nicked - something stolen Give us a bell - call me (and us often means me) Gobsmacked - amazed, outraged Mug - gullible Potty - a bit crazy.
No, not what we mean Gutted - really upset Faff - procrastinate, dither Doodle - something easy Blindered - narrow minded Put paid to - put an end to something Rugger - rugby Shirty - bad tempered Ace - extraordinary Dog's dinner - a mess Gormless - clueless Off colour - pale and sickly Chin wag - chat Hard lines - bad luck Pear shaped - a disaster Snookered - in trouble Speciality - specialty.
Not wrong, just spelled differently Barmy - crazy Duff - useless, trash Jammy - very lucky Piss up - drinking session Skew-whiff - crooked Wellington boots - galoshes Yonks - ages, a long time Is an English accent a preferred sound to the ear? Many think it's more sophisticated, but there's a huge difference between Adele (North London) and Hugh Grant (West London, highly educated).
A practically impossible-to-understand Cockney accent refers to anyone "born within the sound of the Bow bells" in East London.
http://en.
wikipedia.
org/wiki/Bow_bells The Scots give us troubles with our ears as well.
Sean Connery made James Bond understandable, but we had to watch out when he talked quickly.
(Back to closed captioned.
) If you listened to Ewan McGregor in films back in 1993, you might have said, "huh?" Pierce Brosnan sounds as if he's British, especially in James Bond films, but his natural accent is Irish.
He's actually the easiest to understand.
Madonna's been accused of faking a British accent.
But she did marry an Englishman.