Sunday, May 11, 2014
Australian Slang
For the past few months, I have been watching McLoud's Daughters on Netflix. I don't have a lot of free viewing time but I watch it mostly on the weekends when I am working and such. It is a great show - a drama that aired in Australia from 2001 - 2008. It is about a ranch, Drover's Run and their neighbors that own the ranch Kilarney. This series was when TV series were REAL TV series. There were 8 seasons and each season had about 32 one-hour episodes so that is approx 250 hours of shows (which is why you can see that I have been watching for months). At any rate.....
While watching the show, I have picked up some Australian terms and slang.
"Brumby" - a wild horse.
"I have been working hard all day training that brumby so I can sell it."
"Chook" - a chicken
"Look over there, a chook got out of its pen and is chasing that brumby"
"Cuppa" - a cup of hot tea
"I finally captured that chook and put it in the pen, let's sit down and chat over a cuppa"
"No Worries" - don't worry about it. It wasn't a problem
"Thank you for the cuppa, it was just what I needed"
"No worries"
"Petrol" - gasoline; fuel
"I'm running late because the ute was almost out of petrol"
"Reckon" - this word is used a lot in the southern United States too but much more in Australia. It is generally asked as a question.
"I think we need to bring the horses in, looks like rain."
"Reckon?" (meaning - hum...do you think so?)
It can also be used as a replacement for "think" (which is how we mostly use it in Georgia).
"I reckon I will bring the horses in before it rains"
"I reckon I will help you"
"Snap" - a sausage - like a hot dog.
"Does anyone want another snap before the barbie is over?" (Barbie of course is a barbeque)
"Stuff / Stuffed" - to mess something up.
"I forgot to bring the horses in before it started raining. I really stuffed up"
"I dropped the plate of snaps, I didn't mean to stuff up the party"
"Ute" - type of truck or utility vehicle
"Help, I need to get the horses in and my ute is stuck in the mud!"
"I'll help you but I need to fill up my ute with petrol before I can tow you out"
I am sure there are others that I am forgetting but those are the ones I can think of at the moment.
Reckon I forgot any?
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LOVE THIS! McLeod's Daughters used to be one of my favourite shows, I live in Australia and I can tell you that I probably only use two of these!!
ReplyDeleteI just love the show and will be sad when I have finished it. I think it is so funny they use these words a lot and you only use a couple of them :) Maybe you have to work on a ranch in Gungellan to use all those words.
DeleteI read that you can visit Kingsford Homestead - have you ever been there?
Haha. Those words are ao foreign. I've never heard any if them!
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