Australian vs. British slang

Hi everyone! Welcome to another mmmEnglish video. I am here in London and I have just run into another lovely English teacher YouTube English teacher – it’s Lucy! Hello! I’m Lucy from English With Lucy and I also have an English Channel. I’m sure that a lot of my viewers also actually subscribe to you so I’m sure they’ll be very excited to see us together!

Yeah, surprise! So some of you might have already seen the video that we made together on Lucy’s channel that was all about British slang words and Lucy tested me to see how good my knowledge was of British slang. It was OK, but… [You were pretty good actually!] Really? [Yeah!] Well, right now in this video I’m going to be testing your knowledge of Australian slang, which is where I’m from. I’m holidaying in London and Lucy’s from London, but I’m originally from Australia.

[I’m looking forward to it! Let’s get started!] OK, let’s get going! I’ve got my list here! So, the first one that I’m going to ask you about is ‘arvo’, ‘arvo’, ‘arvo’, ‘arvo’. Is it like avocado? No, that’s ‘avo’! What if i gave you an example? “I’ll see you this arvo!” Afternoon! Yes! It’s really common “I’ll see you this arvo.” God! I would have no idea is someone said that to me! OK, let’s go another one! Let’s talk about a ‘servo’. And in the same way we have a slang word that’s called ‘bottle-o’.

Just add an ‘O’ to everything in Australia! ‘Servo’… ‘bottle-o’ [‘arvo’, ‘avo’]. OK, is a ‘bottle-o’ a bottle? Of wine? It’s a bottle shop. So, if you’re going to go to the ‘bottle-o’, you would get wine! OK, so a ‘bottle-o’ is the bottle shop… Yeah… You guys call it an off-licence, don’t you? [Off-licence, yes.] Um… So, ‘servo’. Is that just like a normal shop? No, it’s a service station. Like a petrol station Yes! ‘Servo’ [My Lord!] Add an ‘O’ to everything! OK, ‘servo’! Service Station! [Hot tip!] Yeah, it makes sense! It makes sense! OK, what’s next? We have… Oh, I think you’ll know this one, this one’s easy!

A mate. It’s a friend! We actually use that the same. And we also like to imitate Australians by saying ‘G’day mate!’ ‘G’day mate!’ If you were going to imitate an Australian, you’d be like, ‘maaaaaate’! That’s perfect! OK, ‘barbie’ Barbecue! OK, good. Next one is… What if i said i was going bush? Are you going out? To the countryside? See how the English people say “we’re going to the countryside” and Australian people say “we’re going bush”! There’s no preposition or anything!

You’re just going bush!I think you probably know this one. It’s quite commonly known that we call these ‘thongs’ Flip-flops Yeah. Because thongs is very skimpy women’s underwear. Yes. So, what do you call thongs (the underware ones)? Ummm… G-strings. Oh yeah! G-strings! I remember I had to change my G string, on my violin! What if i said i was going to have a ‘durry’? Is that a delicious curry? No, no it’s not. Not just a curry, a delicious curry! Not quite as good as a delicious curry!

I’m going to have a ‘durry’… No! But it sounds like it should be! [I just think of diarrhoea!] No idea! It’s also… It could be a ‘dart’. [A rush?] No! These are all words for, like a cigarette, slang word for a cigarette. You’d call a cigarette a ‘durry’? We’d call it a ‘fag’, a ‘ciggy’! Or a… [umm] the ones that you roll: ‘rollies’! So, basically to speak Australian, you have to end everything in either ‘O’ or ‘E’ Yeah, or ‘A’. Any vowel! Just just let it drift off!

You just have to leave your mouth open! A ‘sanga’. A ‘sanga’. I don’t know! If I said I’m going to grab a ‘sanga’… Sandwich! Yes! Sandwich is just ‘sanga’. I didn’t do too badly, did I? No, not at all! You actually did better than I expected, so well done! So, that was Australian slang. Thank you, Lucy for helping me out that one! Thank you for testing me! Well, you did OK!