For example, switching out the word ‘boot’ for ‘trunk’, or ditching the word ‘rubbish’ for ‘garbage’.
This is something I’ve noticed my 6 year old does pretty regularly. We went through a stage where ‘sweets’ became ‘candy’, ‘holiday’ became ‘vacation’ and ‘courgette’ became ‘zucchini’.
That last one didn’t happen but if you’re still reading you’ve got my respect, or as the Americans might say ‘…mad props’.
I like “garbage” when insulting something, it just has a nice guttural sound.
Yes, but British English has superior insults like cockwomble.
“cockwomble” just sounds like you’re trying too hard, like a yank LARPing as a brit they read about on the internet
That’s when you pull out the British understatement and switch to ordinary nouns in a context that implies an insult (“you utter teakettle”)
Teakettle? Isn’t that just a kettle?
It’s a way to call someone extra or superfluous.
Really? Is it regional maybe? Irl I’ve only ever heard it from English people who want to say something stronger than “bell end”.
I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say it IRL. It’s a pretty minor thing really, use whatever insults you fancy, but if you want something very British you’ve got classics like muppet, nonce, pillock, bawbag.
I’m partial to ‘wankspanner’. Which is pretty un-American since even if they knew what to wank meant, they’d probably to with ‘wankwrench’ which just isn’t the same. Sorry, I’m moving into rambling territory now.
I myself use the insults of my own culture (NZ), but I just like hearing the British people in my life using theirs.
I know an elderly British woman whose worst insult seems to be to call someone a “rotter”.
Honestly, bellend is a wonderful insult in my opinion. I used to watch a lot of sovietwomble and similar youtubers in the past so that and using cunt like a more colorful version of calling someone a dick were something i heard a lot and have a lot more behind them when said. That being said, I live in the US and would have to explain Bellend which would cause it to lose the impact. And cunt is far more negatively received here so you will likely be regarded as a mysoginist and/or get clocked here.
As an American in awe of your insults, I can’t get enough of the English pronunciation of twat. It cracks like a whip. Truly spectacular stuff.
Lol, I’m American as well. But I agree with you 100%. It really feels like most of our insults here are lacking compared to the rest of the world.
Garbage and trash are excellent American words. Much better than “rubbish”