I was wondering what sort of slang, or colloquialisms people from other countries have! Even if english isn't your native language, maybe you have some phrase to describe something? Like in Australia, we say "Fair Dinkum" which pretty much means "Seriously? or honestly". But there was a funny story, that an Aussie (pronounced Ozzie not Ossie) woman was on an American plane, and when she found out there weren't any pretzels from the flight attendant, she said "Fair dinkum". The flight attendant then asked for her passport, telling her that swearing at an attendant is against the law. Police officers greeted her upon her arrival at the airport, but she was released without charges after explaining the situation. It was interesting how different colloquialisms can make such a difference in how we perceive things. And my friend, who's working in Canada, got pretty weird looks when he called a toilet a "dunny". Another phrase is "He's got a few kangaroos loose in the top paddock" which means, he's not all there, or he's got a few screws loose. Well, being from Australia, we're probably best known for "G'day mate" (you don't know how many times I've heard "gee day" from my overseas relatives) I don't actually know which ones other people are most familiar with. Possibly the chant "Aussie Aussie Aussie! Oi!Oi!Oi!" or "Throw another shrimp on the barbie" If you think you're pretty familiar with these, try reading Waltzing Matilda, and make sense of that! If you can't, no worries! I'll explain it to any ridgey-didge cobber who's given it a burl!
Well, I haven't heard those phrases before. Although, a leather strop was used in a barbers shop for shaving wasn't it? Does it have anything to do with that?
This isn't so much a national colloquialism but I'm from Central Pennsylvania, and this is the only place I've ever heard of people calling over easy eggs, "dippy eggs"... I was brought up to call them that (because you dip your toast in the yolks)... and everywhere I go people are like "ummmm what?" and I describe it to them and they're like "ohhh you mean over easy." Anyone else heard this?
oh jeez... in texas, we have some of the strangest sayings i've ever heard of although most of them aren't in use anymore, especially in the city. at least not unless you wanna get beat up. some of the little phrases i still hear today, though, are: catty whompus - doesn't fit, off, askew (e.x. that sign's a little catty whompus) come hell or high water - showing determination (e.x. i'm gonna learn how to swim come hell or high water) whole nuther thing - something totally different (e.x. i'd tell you about my dog but that's a whole nuther thing) fixin to - intending to, planning to (e.x. i'm fixin to go to the store) supposedly texas is where the whole gonna/wanna things came from, but i hear that a lot of places these days. also in texas (actually, i think this is a southern united states thing in general), we call soda "coke." it doesn't matter what kind of soda you're talking about - it could be a sprite, pepsi, or dr. pepper - we're going to call it "coke." restaurant dialogue might sound a little something like this: waiter/waitress: what would you like to drink? customer: a coke, please. waiter/waitress: alright, what kind?
Catty whompus is new to me, that sounds pretty funny, but our ones are probably strange to other people. Come hell or high water - We learnt that in primary school, don't think it's an uncommon saying. But most times i've heard it are in old tv shows and movies.
use mardy up north as well mardy bum xD Any1 ever heard - anging matted Both mean disgusting/horrible. (I picked up matted from b'ham xD)
I've tried to understand somethings... but I'm not able to x3 We have a lot of sayings... italian is a very ancient language, but it's quite impossible to explain them in english =P Translated in english they make no sense!
Hmm, that's interesting. A French teacher of mine said that the romance languages don't really use idioms like we use in English. (Is that true for Italians?) Like, for example "It's raining cats and dogs" wouldn't really make any sense, but we'd understand it in English as "It's raining hard."
lol for cats and dogs Oh erm... we are full of idioms ^^' But I don't know if they are more than yours... never visited England/America and heard someone talking ;.; Well, Italy is divided into 20 regions... dunno the political and administrative meaning of this division anyway xP Each region has a local dialect, sometimes really different from the official Italian, and each dialect has a lot of singular idioms, sayings and proverbs (especially these are endless^^')... Uhm my region, Tuscany, maybe has the less particular dialect, as with Dante (I think you've heard of him°°") we shaped the actual Italian. Anyway... here are some national sayings =P "don't understand a pipe/ or dry pinecone" = "don't understand anything" "it is known by dogs and swines" = "it is known by everybody" "to take whistles insted of flasks" (in Italian the two terms sound similar as 'fischi per fiaschi') = "understand a completely different thing" "happens like the cheese on macaroni" or "happens at bean" = when a good opportunity happens in the right moment "to have the stink under the nose" = "to be snobbish" then there are also all the young's saying, like "to be out like a balcony" that means "to be crazy" and so on^^'
That's pretty awesome. Maybe it's just the French then that don't understand strange sayings like that. Or perhaps my French teacher was full of crap and they simply have their own strange versions of idioms. Dante, like the author? I've always wanted to visit Italy but I'm sadly too poor to go. It seems so romantic and mysterious!
I went to Italy, it's beautiful. Hate to be off-topic, but I live in New Jersey. No collowhatchamacallits that I can think of. xD
do you actually use any of those though? i reckon the aussie chant is the only one i'd use, and only in major sporting events! i say 'heaps good' or 'thanks heaps' all the time, and i've been told that the word heaps is only ever really used in south aussie.
Probably depends on how 'Aussie' you are. Personally, I don't use much slang, but a bunch of my friends do, so i'm pretty familiar with it. Well, if you're going to the toilet to do number one, I'll call that taking a slash. Don't know if that's Aussie though. I do use g'day. Geez louise, have a settle Gretel among others. And there are situations that aren't appropriate for using slang though. Like when you're doing an oral for class or something.
In NZ we have heaps cool (which we stole from aussie..) Things i hear a lot... way cool, way good etc. (similar to 'heaps') Howsit? and Howsit going? (How are you? Hows your day?) Cheers (thanks, thank-you) Gutted (that sucks) Churr (thanks, thank-you) Madness (cool/fun) Rotten (that sucks) Ratshit (that sucks) MUNTER! (how could i forget this one.. it's for idiot or something but said in good nature and not to offend) I'll think of more i'm sure Does anyone else use these? Edit: added munter.
I've heard all of them except for churr, and munter. Although...churr+munter=chunter, which funnily enough is an actual word. Little more to add: Bugger!! (pretty much meaning "Darn it!" or swear words similar to that effect) and Hooroo (kinda like saying goodbye)
When I go up to New England, I hear a lot of "Mad awesome" or "wicked sweet" and "SICK!!!" when people are trying to say something's cool.
haha... it seems like there are so many ways to describe something as being cool. my friends and i use "wet" sometimes in place of cool. like, "that picture's the wettest thing i've ever seen." of course, we also use "sick" and "sweet" and all that, too.