Hi, everyone. I'm Jade, and what I'm telling you today is expressions and sayings and,
in sorts, words that kids use in British English, or at least they did when I was a kid. So
I'm just telling you some of the things that I remember. The thing about kids, as I'm sure
you know, they can be quite mean, can't they? In a funny way, but they can also be quite
mean. So let me tell you some of the things that we used to say to each other when I was
So if you want to insult someone in the playground, you could call somebody a "soap dodger". "What's
a 'soap dodger'", I hear you ask. A "soap dodger" is someone who doesn't wash, who's
a dirty, unclean person. If you "dodge" something, it means you, like, you run away from it -- run
away from it. So a "soap dodger" runs away from being clean and washing.
"Minger." "Minger" is actually a new word. I don't think we had this when I was at school,
but it's "childish". It means "ugly person". Like, "Ew, you minger." This one is really
bad, actually. I don't agree with this one. Sometimes, people say "ginger minger". And
"ginger" is someone with red hair. That's really mean about people with ginger hair.
"Div" means "stupid person". "Oh, shut up, you div." "Go away, you div."
"Weirdo" -- "strange person". "I'm not talking to you. You're a weirdo. No. Go away." Kids
like to say "go away" a lot, so I'll be repeating that frequently throughout this lesson.
This will tell you something about British culture, I think, because it's an insult for
you to study and try to do your best, basically. So somebody at school who actually cares and
does their work, well, that person is called a "try hard", and that's seen as a bad thing
to be called a "try hard". Probably -- maybe in your country, that's a good thing. "You
try hard. Well done! In Britain, it's like -- nah. It's seen as a good thing to be good
without trying -- to be kind of lazy. But for some reason, working hard is not a good
And this did apply to me when I was at school, but I wear contact lenses now. I was a "four-eyes",
a "four-eyes" person. I wore glasses. But actually, when I was at school, I don't remember
anybody ever calling me "four-eyes", so I was okay. I survived.
A couple of other mean things kids say now. Now might be called -- you might call someone
a "loser" if they're the kind of person you wouldn't want to be friends with. Like, they
don't do anything good. They're, like, uncool. It's really sad to say it. They're a pathetic
person. That's so mean and horrible, but that's what kids say.
You might also be a loner -- someone with no friends. Then, you're called a "loner".
That doesn't feel very good if you're at school either.
Also, we use this adjective, "sad". Someone's "sad" if they're just, like, not cool, and
they're always, like, saying the wrong things, wearing the wrong things. You can say that
What do you do if somebody calls you a "ginger minger div"? Well, you can come back at them
with this. You can say, "I'm rubber, and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and
sticks to you." And that way, like, their words can't hurt you. And then, they'll just
be really embarrassed. They'll be shamed with your come back here.
Let's have a look at more general childish expressions now. Moving on a little bit from
the insults. Staying there, but slowly moving away from it. Kids are fond of saying this,
"Your mum!" It just doesn't -- you can say it to anything. Somebody insults you; you
can say, "Your mum!" Or you don't think they're funny or whatever, or you disagree with them;
Or if you don't want to listen to someone -- you don't want to listen to their insults,
you can say, "Shut your gob/shut your trap/shut your cakehole." They're all the same thing.
So that's your -- that could be your "gob"; that could be your "trap"; or it could be
your "cakehole". In goes the cake because you've got a big mouth.
Kids are really fond of telling other people to go away as I mentioned before, so here
are two ways to do it. You can tell them to "get lost". "I'm not listening to you anymore.
Get lost." Or you can simply say, "Do one!" That also means the same thing; "Get out of
here."
And then, as a reply, you can say -- I find this one -- it's got that childish, irritating
quality to it, which I quite like. "Don't get your knickers in a twist." And your "knickers"
are, like, the underwear that women wear." So don't -- "Don't get stressed", you know?
"Don't get your knickers in a twist." And that can be a very clever thing to say at
And if someone is being a bit stressed with you, you can say, "Take a chill pill." That
means, "Relax." And if you're good at saying any of these and you do it in the right tone,
Some other things to mention here. If someone insults you or teases you or says something
and you don't know what to say, someone might say to you, "Has cat got your tongue?" That's
what happens when you don't know what to say, when you're like -- you want to say something,
but nothing's -- you're not thinking of anything good. That's the situation for "cat's got
This one's particularly childish. "Liar, liar! Pants on fire! Liar, liar! Pants on fire!"
That could be annoying. And that one's for particularly young kids, I reckon. You wouldn't
really get away with that in high school. You might seem a bit of a sad loser if you
said that in high school. But it's all right for little kids.
This one's quite cute. If something's easy to do, you can say, "Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy."
And it seems that everybody knows this one. You've finished what you're doing, you can
say, "See you later, alligator. In a while crocodile." Which brings us to the end of
this lesson. You can go and do the quiz on this lesson at www.engvid.com. You can also
subscribe here so you get to see my other videos about English -- learning English.
And you could also subscribe on my personal channel. I do all kinds of things on my personal
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I want -- I've told you all this, but I want you to use these words responsibly, okay?
I don't want you to go around bullying anyone and calling them "weirdo try hards", okay?
It's not nice. It's good to have the knowledge. And remember, if somebody's mean to you, you
can say, "I'm rubber, and you're glue. Whatever you say bounces off of me and sticks to you."