British 'spot-on'

Question

can you tell me some contexts in which I can use 'spot on'? is it only British?

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

I think it probably is only BrE, yes.

Financial/office:
'Are those figures ok?'
'They're spot on.'

Linguistic:
'Your analysis of that poem is spot on.'

Social 1:
'So you're saying that's it? You're going to leave me and the kids and shack up with this - what's her name? Rachel?'
'Spot on, sister. Now, who do these CDs belong to...'

Social 2:
'These little pastry things. Where did you say you got them?'
'Marks and Spencer's, I think.'
'Well, they're absolutely spot on.'

The phrase should probably carry a 'warning' flag, though. To my ears, it has an indefinable 'humorous' quality; as if the speaker knows he's using a rather old-fashioned and absurd phrase.

(Old-fashioned phrases are quite fashionable in BrE these days: cf. 'Cripes!', 'Blimey!', 'Splendid!', 'old chap', 'old fruit', etc. We have all seen far too many b&w films from the 40s on wet afternoons in winter.)

MrP

Pieanne · Answer

Hi, MrP.!
Does something like "tip-top" belong to the (same) BE vocabulary?

Khoff · Answer

MrP - British people are actually going around saying, "Blimey!"??  How about "Bob's your uncle"?

MrPedantic · Answer

Yes; 'blimey' has become quite fashionable. But only in a certain tone of voice; and it must have inverted commas now.

If someone tells you a startling fact, you look—startled: then you say, after a pause, and perhaps with a slightly upgraded accent, 'Blimey!'

In the old 'Blimey' (Michael Caine), the B was noticeably plosive, the mouth was wide, the chin went down, and the tongue was held forward during the vowel. In the new 'Blimey' (Hugh Grant/John Cleese), the lips are pulled slightly inward, the chin goes up, and the tongue is curled in during the vowel.

As for 'tip-top': I would say that this belongs to that class of neo-Wodehousian expressions that seem to be a staple of faintly humorous office banter these days. I seldom hear it; but I wouldn't be surprised to hear it. Again, it would always be used in inverted commas.

Maybe it's a little like clothing. It seems you can wear anything now, from whatever period, as long as it's done with a certain sense of irony and panache. Similarly, it seems you can use any phrase, from any period, as long as you use inverted commas and adopt a faintly humorous tone.

At least, that's how it seems to me. I'd be interested to know how it seems to other BrEs!

MrP

Pieanne · Answer

Thanks for ""tip top""!
It's actually common use in French; I had even thought of giving that name to my late 2 goldfish... Or should it be my 2 late goldfish?

MrPedantic · Answer

I'm sorry to hear about your (two late) goldfish, Pieanne!

Tell me about the status of 'super!' in French these days. Is it old-fashioned? ***? normal?

'Super!' isn't very common in BrE now; oddly enough, it doesn't seem quite to have crossed over into 'ironic' acceptability yet. It would sound a little 'sappy' at the moment. Though no doubt its day of rehabilitation will come.

These shared expressions intrigue me.

(Guest, I hope you don't mind if I extend the discussion in this way!)

MrP

Pieanne · Answer

Oh well, their death was quick and ... merciful? I didn't even hear them moan, and at least neither cat was responsible for it...

"Super!" ... normal.
My son (9) tends to use "génial!", "(trop) classe!", or even "géant!", there's no reason not to trust him. "cool!" is also very much heard.
Children and teenagers tend to overuse "trop", eg: "it"s too good, too funny, too nice of you" aso aso...
That's about it...
What's "in" in GB?

Pieanne · Answer

He's just added: "ça déchire (grave)!", "ça démonte!" <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

MrPedantic · Answer

I'm probably not the best person to ask about 'in-ness'...But I notice:

1. 'Cool!' used as a universal noise of agreement; or simply to mean 'I have heard the words you uttered'.

Once upon a time, 'cool' meant someone in sunglasses. In fact, once upon a time, if you were 'cool', you would never use the word 'cool'. Now it just means 'ok'.

2. Ending every sentence with a rising intonation, as if it were a question, e.g.

'Good morning, MissQ, did you have a good weekend?'
'Fine, thanks, MrP? We went down to the coast? On my boyfriend's motor bike?'
'To the coast, eh. Whereabouts?'
'Brighton?'
'Really. When did you go, Saturday?'
'Well, my boyfriend's sister lives in Redhill? So we stayed there overnight on Saturday? And then early on Sunday morning we drove down to Brighton? There was a big open-air concert there? etc etc...'

It drives me up the wall.

3. 'How XYZ is that!'

This just means 'that's very XYZ!', e.g. 'how strange is that!', 'how weird is that!'.

4. '[noun/pronoun] is so (not) [noun or adj. or adverbial phrase]!'

e.g. 'that is so 90s!', 'that is so not true!', 'you are so not going to get a Christmas card from me!'.

Someone gave me a lift today. A large lorry loomed in the rear-view mirror. 'He is so on my tail!', said my driver.

I think it comes from US sitcoms.

I'll listen out for other phrases...

MrP

CalifJim · Answer

Ending every sentence with a rising intonation ...
drives me up the wall.

Indeed! I hadn't got halfway through those examples before I felt something very unpleasant creeping up my spine! Fingernails on a chalkboard, I thought. Please, Mr. P., don't do that again!

I don't hear "Cool!" much at all these days in the U.S. -- or "Neat!" Now they say "Awesome!" at every possible opportunity. And "be all" has become a verb of reported speech:

So she's all, "Where did you get those shoes? They're awesome!"

So he's all, "The boss was majorly *** about it. Too funny." (In AmE slang, that's "very angry". I believe the BrE have a different meaning for it.)

CJ

British 'spot-on'

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