Common Phrases

What would you suspect to be the most common phrase you heard while in London?  I don’t think I really expected any of the ones I heard.  

Being in London where the groups of people are as diverse as those in the United States, it’s not always easy to spot a tourist, until they open their mouths to speak.  Well, unless of course you catch them taking a picture of something you walk past everyday on the way to work, and think nothing of it.  We could blend in just fine on and off the tube, in the queue of a fast food restaurant, or shopping on Oxford Street.  It’s not until we ask a question or make a remark that we get the double back head snap, and the corners of their mouths slowly curl upward, in awe, as if they’ve discovered something new.  Then it comes, “Are you from America?”  I think it excites them to meet Americans, and it’s so odd that they can pin point our accent so quickly, on the first guess.  

One day when I was shopping in Primark, I was bending over looking at a lower rack of clothes when I heard someone repeatedly say, “Sorry. Sorry. Sorry”   I finally turned around, because I didn’t realize that the woman had been talking to me the entire time, to see that she wanted me to move so that she could get past.  I had heard ‘sorry’ be used so many times, but it wasn’t until that situation that I realized that their ‘sorry’ is an Americans ‘excuse me’.  If you’re in London, you will hear people say ‘sorry’ a couple dozen times a day!

A big phrase, that made it to shirts sold in the local stores is, “Mind the Gap.”  The way the British word things is so awkward sometimes.  Saying, “Mind the” is a way of saying, “Be careful of” or “Be aware of.”  ‘The Gap’ in this phrase usually refers to the large space between the platform and the tube when people are entering and exiting.  No matter what they are asking you to pay close attention to or be aware of, it always begins with ‘Mind the’.  Mind the gap.  Mind the doors.

Another, is so simple, yet so noticeable – "yeah!"  At the end of almost every sentence that most British people say, they always end it with ‘yeah.’  It’s like subconscious habit.  I take it as them confirming that you understand what they are saying, but they don’t really give you a chance to confirm before they say yeah and move forward.  I really have no other explanations, but if you go watch a few YouTube videos made by someone living in London, or if you happen to visit, you’ll notice it right away!