Office Small Talk: The British Code
The kitchen and lift chat you'll have every working day.
All 15 phrases
Saying how you are7
- You alright?A greeting, not a question about your health.
- Can't complainI'm fine.
- Mustn't grumbleThings are OK, said with a bit of stoicism.
- Not too bad, thanksIn the UK, this means fine, even good.
- Living the dreamSarcastic: things are dull or stressful.
- Same old, same oldNothing new.
- Keeping busyA very British check-in.
Weather, weekends and trains6
- Grim out there, isn't it?Weather chat, the universal opener.
- Getting dark early now, isn't it?An autumn and winter classic, especially once the clocks go back.
- Good weekend?The Monday question.
- Anything nice planned for the weekend?The Thursday and Friday question.
- Is it Friday yet?A light joke about the week dragging.
- Trains alright this morningCommute chat.
Ending the chat2
Check yourself15 questions
Question 1 of 15
A colleague says 'You alright?' in the lift. Best reply?
More packs
- Hello and goodbye, UK styleHow Brits greet people, reply, and take ages to leave.
- Weather and small talkFill any awkward silence with weather chat and easy questions.
- Weather talkThe weather words Brits use to start every chat.
About this pack
- Price
- Free
- Account
- Not needed, saved on this device
- Reviews
- 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days later
- Moments
- 4 of 15 phrases have a clip
- Sources
Picked by Talk, CC BY-SA 4.0
- Phrases
- Picked by Talk.
- How Talk picked them
- Part of Talk's themed British life packs. Talk wrote each phrase with what it really means, when to say it, what not to say instead and one quiz question. A phrase gets a moment only if Talk's spoken videos say it with the same meaning. One review picked each moment, and a second tried to reject it. This pack holds 15 phrases.
- Licence
- Talk shares this list under CC BY-SA 4.0.
- Meanings and examples
- Written by Talk in plain English.
- Dictionary details
- From Wiktionary contributors (CC BY-SA 4.0) and Princeton WordNet, used under the WordNet licence. WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
Start practising
About 4 min Free, no account