“They’re throwing a house party this weekend; there’ll be plenty of plonk there.”
Jiggery-pokery – dishonest or suspicious activity; nonsense
“If your partner is giving it some jiggery-pokery, you want to re-evaluate your relationship.”
Knackered – tired, exhausted
“Went for a four-miler and then when I got back from work we took the children swimming. Nice and knackered now.”
Whinge – to complain fretfully: whine
“Nothing better than a good whinge down the pub.”
Prat – a stupid or foolish person
“Everyone’s feeling a bit summery this morning, with a few rays breaking out over Britain and some of you lot daring to break the ‘anyone who wears sunglasses in April is a prat’ rule that we just made up.”
Please see videos below discussing numbers 6 – 10 in Merriam Webster’s list of their favourite British words:
Pukka – genuine, authentic; first-class
“He has always shown himself a pukka gent”
Boffin – a scientific expert and especially one involved in technological research
“Brain boffins at University College London have made a major breakthrough in the ongoing effort to bridge the gap between man and machine.”
Gormless – lacking intelligence: stupid
“Gormless, unhelpful and poorly trained shop staff create merry hell for customers who are simply exercising their legal rights to a repair, refund or replacement.”
Twee – affectedly or excessively dainty, delicate, cute, or quaint
“Her new dress is a bit too twee for my tastes.”
Chunter – to talk in a low inarticulate way: mutter
This is an acoustic cover by Chris of the song “Beautiful Things” by Andain. Please enable English captions on the Youtube player for the lyrics or read them below the video:
“Beautiful Things” by Andain Lyrics
Got up early, found something’s missing
My only name
No one else sees, but I got stuck
And soon forever came
Stopped pushing on for just a second
Then nothing’s changed
Who am I this time, where’s my name?
Guess it crept away
No one’s calling for me at the door
And unpredictable won’t bother anymore
And silently gets harder to ignore
Look straight ahead, there’s nothing left to see
What’s done is done, this love has got its hold on me
Just let it go, what now can never be
I forgot that I might see
So many beautiful things
I forgot that I might need
To find out what life could be
Beautiful things
Take this happy ending away
It’s all the same
God won’t waste this simplicity
On possibility
Get me up, wake me up, dreams are filling
This trace of blame
Frozen still I thought I could stop
Now who’s gonna wait?
No one’s calling for me at the door
And unpredictable won’t bother anymore
And silently gets harder to ignore
Look straight ahead, there’s nothing left to see
What’s done is done, this love has got its hold on me
Just let it go, what now can never be
So many beautiful things
So many beautiful things
Now what do I do?
Can I change my mind?
Did I think things through?
It was once my life
It was my life at one time
