More Euro-ness

Swedes, almost universally speak great English but its very Brit-sy. Further, the guy sitting across from me is a Midland Brit (I even know what that means now) who replaced a ‘posh’ Brit (who I may have mentioned earlier and on whom my wife had an enormous crush on despite his rather obvious incompatible sexual orientation) who constantly say funny things in amusing accents.

Chris' Incomplete Guide to Brit-sy English

Rubbish = Garbage. You can call a person or a situation rubbish and it means feckless which mean lacking feck. If you can’t say much else about Americans you can at least say we are feck-ful.

Shite = Poop

Kit = Equipment or gear

Dog’s Balls = For some reason this means the newest and best thing. There was an Irish guy on the account that would use this in emails. Alternatively Dog’s Bollocks, Dogs Dangly Bits, Mutts Nuts etc.

Taking the piss out of you – Jerking someone around, usually as in joking around with them. Can be shortened to taking a/the piss

Nick - Steal

Snog – Make out I think as in sustained kissing but it might somewhere between 1^st and 2^nd base. Remember the ‘bases’ from the olden days? From what I can interpret in the media here 2nd base for a Swedish teenager involves 4 partners of mixed gender, deer, a video camera and a syphilitic midget with bad intentions. Its possible there is a language barrier but I rather doubt it.

Knackered – Tired but also means deeply in trouble. ‘If my wife catches me in a snog with (alternatively....'catches me snogging') the nanny once more, I 'm knackered'

Sod – No idea what it literally means, but its normally used as an adjective to make things more harsh. There is a verb form too but I am not sure what’s done to ‘it’ when they exclaim ‘Sod it!’

Bugger – I think this literally refers to an uncomfortable sexual situation but is used in semi-polite conversation as a verb where we would us the big F verb. Bugger off, bugger this, buggering around etc.

I am fascinated by the curse words especially. It turns out that much like in America, there are some generational rules about curse words, take Sod and Bugger for example. One would use them in front of one's mother (maybe) and never in front of one's granny. The mother and granny would never use them (but you know they think it).