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How do you say yes in Scottish?

You can say “aye” (yes) or “nae” (no).

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You’ve probably heard that Scotland has one of the most difficult English dialects to understand. Some cities even have different dialects and sometimes people from Edinburgh and Glasgow can’t understand each other. But don’t worry, we’re here to help you understand a wee bit better.

Here are 10 Scottish expressions you need to know

1. Smirr, dreich and drookit

Scots have around 400 different words to describe the weather.

And most of them seem to describe the typical Scottish weather: rain.

If you really want to get poetic about the grey skies then learn these simple words: “smirr” is a type of ‘fine rain or drizzle’, “dreich” is ‘wet, dull and gloomy’ and “drookit” is ‘extremely wet’.

Beautiful!

2. Ah dinnae ken

Scots are known for pronouncing traditional words in unpredictable ways.

Listen out for “yes” pronounced as “aye”, “dae” as “do” and “dinnae” as “don’t“. It’s probably worth having a look through a guide to Scottish slang before your trip. See if you can understand “Ah dinnae ken.”

3. Salt n’ sauce?

If you feel like trying a local delicacy in Edinburgh, grab some of the delicious local fish n’ chips, but listen out for the question “salt n’ sauce wi yer chips?” In Edinburgh, locals like salt and a watery brown sauce (a little like HP Sauce) on their chips. You can say “aye” (yes) or “nae” (no).

4. Keep calm and carry on

This expression is widely used in memes and on souvenirs up and down the UK. “Keep calm and drink a cup of tea”, “Keep calm and learn French”, etc.

It’s good advice.

Scottish people also have their own variation of this famous expression.

They say “Keep the heid an’ cairry oan”, where “heid” means “head”. So, “don’t lose your head”!

5. How/how no?

If somebody in Glasgow asks you “how / how no?” in response to you saying something like “I don’t like that” or “I’m not going to do that”, you might wonder what they mean.

Well funnily enough, in Glasgow, “how” is more likely to mean “why”.

6. Guid efternuin

The Scottish way of saying “Good afternoon”.

7. Pure dead brilliant!

Use this phrase if you want to say something is ‘exceptionally good’.

8. Ahm pure done in

Feeling tired? This phrase is for you. Broken down, “ahm” means “I’m”, “pure” means “very” and “done in” means “tired” or “exhausted”.

9. To go to the pictures

Instead of “cinema” or “movie theatre”, in Scotland it’s more common to say “pictures”.

10. I’m getting the messages

Last but not least, this one can be quite confusing!

Don’t be caught out by the word “messages”. This Scottish phrase actually means “I’m shopping for groceries”. Hopefully, you’ve spotted a few patterns in these 10 Scottish sayings. Take note, they’ll help you understand even more phrases and expressions that you might hear in Scotland!

Learned a lot from this post?

While our language-learning app, Busuu, doesn’t have a Scottish course , it does have an English course – as well as courses in 11 other languages.

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Why do Scots say wee?

Many words spoken by Scottish people can be determined without too much effort. “Aye” means “yes”, “wee” means “little or small” and “nae” means “no”. If something is too “dear” , they could be referring to how expensive it is instead of how beautiful or precious it is to them.

Tha mi duilich (sorry), no need to complicate things!

Occasionally on sign posts you may encounter the Gaelic spelling of places when leaving Edinburgh, however, these will usually have English spelt names right above them. Overall, Gaelic’s unique spelling will just confuse you more than needed and so there is no reason to spell it out here as I would simply be confusing you further. So get ready to start saying “Hiya” instead of just “Hi”, calling drinks “bevvies” and you cannae ken how many more Scottish-isms you’ll find yourself learning and understanding during your time here, however long it may be.

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