🇬🇧 WEIRD BUT COMMON & ADORABLE WORDS 🇬🇧
Hi my dear friends!🤗 I hope you've been fine lately. I don't know why I haven't ever made a post on these words before but better late than never. These words below are sooooooo native, informal/spoken and will make you sound so sweet 😁 With a soft intonation, you can use these with your students and even VYLs. What are they? Some are what's called REDUPLICATION and this repetition of the base word is what makes them so adorable😃 (not all phrases below are reduplicated)
🤗 I'll melt if I hear you using them. How many of these gems below do you already know? Share in the comments...
✅ HIGGLEDY-PIGGLEDY (adv +adj)
💬 meaning: with confusion or disorder
👉🏻 The Christmas tree decorations are all higgledy-piggledy. Sorry, Paul, I won't be needing your creatively retarded skills again!
👉🏻 Your essay is all higgledy-piggledy; the date is in the wrong place, your illustration is upside down, your word limit is one million too many!
👉🏻 You look a bit higgledy-piggledy; tuck your shirt in, your sweater is back to front, odd socks... Paul, you're 44, damn it!
✅ DIDDLY-SQUAT (noun)
💬 meaning: practically nothing
👉🏻 Your opinion means diddly-squat to me!
👉🏻 I need to get off my backside and get some work done. I've done diddly-squat so far and it's almost time to go home.
👉🏻 What do you fancy for dinner? - Well, there's diddly-squat in the fridge, soooo, want to order in a Teremok?
✅ LICKETY-SPLIT (adv)
💬 Meaning: very quickly
👉🏻 Kids, get your shoes off and into class. Lickety-split! That's it, come on.
👉🏻 Wow, the waiter served me my soup lickety-split. It does taste microwaved to some extent but who cares when it's 20 Rubles.
👉🏻 Guys, get your books out. We haven't got all day! Lickety-split!
✅ HODGEPODGE (noun)
💬 Meaning: a confused mixture
👉🏻 Who is responsible for this hodgepodge? This dish is just a mixture of random ingredients and it tastes foul!
👉🏻 Your flat is full of a hodgepodge of IKEA furniture. It looks cheap but very Swedish!
👉🏻 Today's lesson was just a hodgepodge of activities with no goal.
📣 Just as common is: MISHMASH + of
✅ DOOLALLY (adj)
💬 Meaning: mental, retarded = to GO crazy
👉🏻 John has taken Mygrammarlab to bed with him. Clearly he's gone a bit doolally!
👉🏻 Ignore the boss. She's a bit doolally. Don't take her remarks personally.
👉🏻 If you give your kids anymore homework, they'll go doolally!
✅ SKEW-WHIFF (adj)
💬 Meaning: not straight/wrongly positioned (can be used figuratively)
👉🏻 Sophie, your hat is all skew-whiff. Let me adjust that for you.
👉🏻 Paul, the wind is making your wig skew-whiff. Here's some glue.
👉🏻 My plan to win over the heart of Sarah went a bit skew-whiff, sadly. I shouldn't have made her pay for dinner.
✅ WONKY (adj)
💬 Meaning: not straight, unsteady
👉🏻 Teacher, my chair is wonky. Can I put English File under one leg to make the chair stop wobbling?
👉🏻 I have a wonky nose because of all the years of boxing I've been doing.
👉🏻 The picture on the wall looks a bit wonky. Go and straighten it up.
✅ CHOP-CHOP (exclamation)
💬 Meaning: be quick
👉🏻 Get your shoes off, kids! Chop-chop!
👉🏻 Everyone wash your hands. Chop-chop! We're late for lunch.
👉🏻 Let's go! Come on! Chop-chop! Right, and off we go.
✅ WILLY-NILLY (adv)
💬 Meaning: Without direction or planning; haphazard, sloppy
👉🏻 Can you be more organized? You get home and throw your clothes off willy-nilly onto the floor.
👉🏻 Some parents should control their kids better. Loads are just running around willy-nilly breaking stuff here.
👉🏻 You can't just go around willy-nilly upsetting the other students! Think before you speak! I know you're 3 but still.
✅DILLY-DALLY
💬 Meaning: waste time aimlessly (syn: Dawdle)
👉🏻 Let's not dilly-dally all day long. Time to get some proper work done.
👉🏻 If you want to get a discount, don't dilly-dally and apply now!
👉🏻 Kids, don't dilly-dally outside. Come in and let's start the lesson finally.
❤ Enjoy these lexical gems, my friends! Use them specifically based on my examples and you will impress the pants of my fellow Englishmen because you'll sound adorable using them! ❤
