Word Family Worksheets

I came across this list on a website and i can honestly say as an Englishman, i use all of these rather often. Some are standard, some are a bit rude but all are essential in getting more familiar with a native speaker (who isn't a boring reserved freak) 😨 

1. Mate 

‘Mate’ – one of the commonly used terms of endearment and affection in British slang terms. Used when you are talking to a close friend, and is often easily substituted for the American ‘buddy’, ‘pal’, or ‘dude’. 

For example, ‘Alright, mate?’ 

2. Bugger All 

‘Bugger all’ – a British slang term used to be a more vulgar synonym for ‘nothing at all’. 

For example, ‘I’ve had bugger all to do all day.’ 

3. Knackered 

‘Knackered’ – a great word and phrase used by Britons to describe their tiredness and exhaustion, in any given situation. Often substituted in friendly circles for ‘exhausted’. 

For example, ‘I am absolutely knackered after working all day.’ 

4. Gutted 

‘Gutted’ – a British slang term that is one of the saddest on the lists in terms of pure contextual emotion. To be ‘gutted’ about a situation means to be devastated and saddened. 

For example, ‘His girlfriend broke up with him. He’s absolutely gutted.’ 

5. Gobsmacked 

‘Gobsmacked’ – a truly British expression meaning to be shocked and surprised beyond belief. The expression is believed by some to come literally from ‘gob’ (a British expression for mouth), and the look of shock that comes from someone hitting it. 

For example. ‘I was gobsmacked when she told me she was pregnant with triplets.’ 

6. Cock Up 

‘Cock up’ – a British slang term that is far from the lewdness its name suggests. A ‘cock up’ is a mistake, a failure of large or epic proportions. 

For example, ‘The papers sent out to the students were all in the wrong language – it’s a real cock up.’ Also, ‘I cocked up the orders for table number four.’ 

7. Blinding 

‘Blinding’ – a slang term that is far from something that physically causes someone to lose their sight. ‘Blinding’ is a positive term meaning excellent, great, or superb. 

For example, ‘That tackle from the Spanish player was blinding.’ 

8. Lost The Plot 

‘Lost the plot’ is one that can actually be discerned by examining the words themselves. To ‘lose the plot’ can mean either to become angry and/or exasperated to a fault, or in a derogatory – if slightly outdated sense – to mean someone who has become irrational and/or acting ridiculously. 

For example, ‘When my girlfriend saw the mess I’d made, she lost the plot.’ 

9. Cheers 

‘Cheers’ doesn’t quite have the same meaning that it does in other counties – of course, it still means ‘celebrations’ when toasting a drink with some friends, but in British slang, it also means ‘thanks’ or ‘thank you’. 

For example, ‘Cheers for getting me that drink, Steve’. 

10. Ace 

‘Ace’ – a British slang term that means something that is brilliant or excellent. Can also mean to pass something with flying colors. 

For example, ‘Jenny is ace at the lab experiments’, or, for the latter definition, ‘I think I aced that exam’. 

11. Damp Squib 

More of an usual term, a ‘damp squib’ in British slang terms refers to something which fails on all accounts, coming from the ‘squib’ (an explosive), and the propensity for them to fail when wet. 

For example, ‘The party was a bit of a damp squib because only Richard turned up.’ 

12. All To Pot 

Slightly more of an outdated version, this British slang term is still used, and its meaning remains relevant today. ‘All to pot’ refers to a situation going out of your control and failing miserably. 

For example, ‘The birthday party went all to pot when the clown turned up drunk and everyone was sick from that cheap barbecue stuff.’ 

13. The Bee’s Knees 

The bee’s knees – a rather lovely term used to describe someone or something you think the world of. 

For example, ‘She thinks Barry’s the bee’s knees’. Can also be used sarcastically in this same sense. 

14. Chunder 

Not a wonderfully melodic word, ‘chunder’ is part and parcel of British slang terms. Meaning ‘to vomit’ or ‘to be sick’, ‘chunder’ is almost always used in correlation with drunken nights, or being hugely ill and sick. 

For example, ‘I ate a bad pizza last night after too many drinks and chundered in the street.’ 

15. Taking The Piss 

Given the British tendency to mock and satirise anything and everything possible, ‘taking the piss’ is in fact one of the most popular and widely-used British slang terms. To ‘take the piss’ means to mock something, parody something, or generally be sarcastic and derisive towards something. 

For example, ‘The guys on TV last night were taking the piss out of the government again.’ 

16. Bollocks 

Perhaps one of the most internationally famous British slang terms, ‘bollocks’ has a multitude of uses, although its top ones including being a curse word used to indicate dismay, e.g. ‘Oh bollocks’; it can also be used to express derision and mocking disbelief, e.g. ‘You slept with Kate Upton last night? Bollocks…’; and, of course, it also refers to the scrotum and testicles. 

For example, ‘I kicked him right in the bollocks when he wouldn’t let me go past.’ 

17. Fortnight 

‘Fortnight’ – a British slang term more commonly used by virtually everyone in the UK to mean ‘a group of two weeks’. 

For example, ‘I’m going away for a fortnight to Egypt for my summer holiday.’ 

18. Bollocking 

Very different to the ‘bollocks’ of the previous suggestion, a ‘bollocking’ is a telling-off or a severe or enthusiastic reprimand from a boss, co-worker, partner, or anyone you like, for a misdemeanor. 

For example, ‘My wife gave me a real bollocking for getting to pick up the dry cleaning on my way home from work.’ 

19. Nice One 

‘Nice one’ – used almost always sarcastically in common British lexicon, although it can be used sincerely depending on the context. 

For example, ‘You messed up the Rutherford order? Nice one, really.’ 

20. Brass Monkeys 

A more obscure British term, ‘brass monkeys’ is used to refer to extremely cold weather. The phrase comes from the expression, ‘it’s cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey’. 

For example, ‘You need to wear a coat today, it’s brass monkeys outside.’ 

21. Dodgy 

In British slang terms, ‘dodgy’ refers to something wrong, illegal, or just plain ‘off’, in one way or another. 

For example, it can be used to mean illegal – ‘He got my dad a dodgy watch for Christmas’; it can be used to mean something food-related that is nauseous or nauseating – ‘I had a dodgy kebab last night and I don’t feel right.; and it can also be used as a pejorative – ‘He just seems dodgy to me.’ 

22. Scrummy 

One of the more delightful British slang terms in this list, ‘scrummy’ is used as a wonderfully effusive term for when something is truly delicious and mouth-wateringly good. 

For example, ‘Mrs Walker’s pie was absolutely scrummy. I had three pieces.’ 

23. Kerfuffle 

Another rather delightful and slightly archaic words in this list of British slang terms is ‘kerfuffle’. ‘Kerfuffle’ describes a skirmish or a fight or an argument caused by differing views. 

For example, ‘I had a right kerfuffle with my girlfriend this morning over politics.’ 

24. Tosh 

A nifty little British term that means ‘rubbish’ or ‘crap’. 

For example, ‘That’s a load of tosh about what happened last night’, or ‘Don’t talk tosh.’ 

25. Car Park 

One of the more boring and technical terms on this list, a ‘car park’ is in effect, the place outside or attached to a building where people park their cars. The British equivalent to the American ‘parking lot’ or ‘parking garage’. 

For example, ‘I left my car in the car park this morning.’ 

26. Skive 

‘Skive’ – a British slang term used to indicate when someone has failed to turn up for work or an obligation due to pretending to fake illness. Most commonly used with schoolchildren trying to get out of school, or dissatisfied office workers trying to pull a sick day. 

For example, ‘He tried to skive off work but got caught by his manager.’ 

27. Rubbish 

One of the most commonly-used British phrases, ‘rubbish’ is used to mean both general waste and trash, and to also express disbelief in something to the point of ridicule (in this sense it is a much-more PG-friendly version of ‘bollocks’.) 

For example, it can be used respectively, in, ‘Can you take the rubbish out please?’, and ‘What? Don’t talk rubbish.’ 

28. Wanker 

Oh, ‘wanker’. Possibly the best British insult on the list, it fits a certain niche for a single-worded insult to lobbied out in a moment of frustration, anger, provocation, or, of course, as a jest amongst friends. ‘Wanker’ fits the closest fit by ‘jerk’ or ‘asshole’, but to a slightly higher value. 

For example, ‘That guy just cut me up in traffic – what a wanker.’ 

29. Hunky-Dory 

‘Hunky-dory’ – a neat little piece of British slang that means that a situation is okay, cool, or normal. 

For example, ‘Yeah, everything’s hunky-dory at the office.’ 

30. Brilliant 

The last, but most certainly not least, term on this list, ‘brilliant’ is not a word exclusively in the British lexicon, but has a very British usage. Specifically, when something is exciting or wonderful, particularly when something is good news, ‘brilliant’ can mean as such. 

For example, ‘You got the job? Oh, mate, that’s brilliant.’