Which english phrases or words are more rarely used by not-native English speakers? (not obscure)

[Roy]

Please provide me some examples, I ask native speakers in peculiar.


I am thinking of both written and spoken English.

They do not have to be some highly-specific or obscure words btw.

[Viridian1]

In Poland we use english verb "to look" in our polish way as "lukać", "zalukać", "to like" as "lajkować" and I also often hear "fifty fifty"

[Creoda]

I use them often. I sometimes wonder if people here need to consult online phrase/idiom dictionaries.

[Creoda]

There's probably thousands of common expressions and words that aren't used much by non-natives, and even more regional ones.

A list of some, most off the top of my head:

'away with the fairies'
'under the weather'
'take a raincheck' (American)
'barmy'
'thick as thieves'
'six of one half a dozen of the other'
'hither and yon'
'hither and thither'
'all at sea'
'on the ropes'
'dutch courage'
'double dutch'
'from pillar to post'
'pilloried'
to 'welsh' on a deal
'mither'
'do my head in'
'what's the damage?' (what's the cost)
'shrapnel' (small change) - probably a little obscure but kids used to say it
'fruitless'
'bring the house down'
'knackered'
'on a dime' (American), 'on a sixpence' (English)
'helter skelter'
'rafferty's rules'
'murphy's law'
'dead ringer'
'dead on'
'pull your finger out'
'get cracking'
'not enough room in here to swing a cat'
'let the cat out of the bag'
'loose lips sink ships'
'sweet fanny adams', 'sweet fuck all'
'keep mum'
'over a barrel'
'at loggerheads'
'true colours'
to nail one's colours to the mast
to know where one's bread is buttered
'batten down the hatches'
'by and large'
'at close quarters'
'chock-a-block', 'chockers'
'cut and run'
'dead in the water'
'I can't fathom'
'get underway'
'give a wide berth'
'groggy'
'hand on heart'
'in the offing'
'keeled over'
'taken aback'
'touch and go'
'plain sailing'
'square up'
'the gloves are off'
'throw in the towel'
'wriggle-room'
'all but ____'
'yonder'
to get into a scrap
the 'bees knees'
'pole-axed'
'stumped'
To have a good innings (a long life)
'chuck a wobbly' (Australian)
'don't throw the baby out with the bathwater'
buggery
'it's not cricket'
'on the ball'
'on the lamb'
'under the knife'
'under the hammer'
'my ears are burning'
'right as rain'
'clear as mud'
in a 'vein' (in a way)
doolally
Smithereens
'six ways from sunday'
hasten
'all and sundry'
'true blue'
muster
erstwhile
'chip on your shoulder', 'chippy'
'sticky fingers'
to take umbrage
higgledy-piggledy
'under the auspices'
'a stitch in time saves nine'
'a bird in hand is worth two in the bush'
'all's well that ends well'

[Graham]

Have to try and think of ones I like now. haha

'All fur coat and no knickers'
'raining cats and dogs'
'It's Baltic outside'
'Speak of the devil'
'It's like Blackpool illuminations in here'
'Spam Valley'

[Mortimer]

... For one dollar

My favorite

[Creoda]

More:

hassle
'to have a squiz' (Australian)
to whittle down
A niggle (small injury), 'niggly'
to choose a hill to die on
to hound
'worth a mint'
to grate (annoy)
'cool as a cucumber'
to grumble
to whinge
'snake in the grass'
'fit as a fiddle'
'fighting fit'
by the wayside
'by hook or by crook'
to prattle
to binge
to preen
To muck-in
To keep one's powder dry
stagger, staggered
To tread water
To walk on eggshells
narky (Northern English)
'It's bucketing down'
Ta-ra (Northern English for goodbye)
Something 'smarts' (hurts)
Tipple
To harry (harrass)
Ropey
To throw the Kitchen sink
Dosh (money)
'Couldn't hit a cow's arse with a banjo'
'Couldn't organise a piss-up in a brewery'

[Graham]

As it's windy just now people would say "it's blowing a hooley"

[JamesBond007]

Please provide me some examples, I ask native speakers in peculiar.


I am thinking of both written and spoken English.

They do not have to be some highly-specific or obscure words btw.

I am not sure if people realize that if Americans go to England they can talk to a British person and not understand anything that is said. It is not even simply a matter of different words or phrases alone. Americans even use normal everyday words significantly differently such as 'quite'. The easiest way to tell the difference between Americans and English people, when they speak or write, is not anything idiosyncratic but in how they can use a word such as 'quite'.

[Creoda]

More Australian slang:

Dead horse (sauce)
Hey diddle-diddle (middle)
grog (alcohol)
shit-faced (drunk)
Fair dinkum
Ankle-biter (kids)
Bludger, bludge
To barrack (support), to 'carn'
Buckley's (no chance)
Spit the dummy
Dunny (toilet)
Tucker (food), Tuck shop
Hoon
Heaps
Far out!
Larrikin
To pash (kiss)
Piss-up (party)
Rapt (pleased)
Sheila (woman)
Poofter (sodomite)
A slab (of beer)
Chunder (throw up)