English expressions I did not know before coming and I now know them.

(I often learn new funny words these days. Many of them come from discussions with my colleagues, who use interesting colloquial words or expressions. I list some of them below.)

• quid - £. Used only in singular, even if there are many of them. When talking, £20 becomes twenty quid.
• dog's dinner - something really messy
• ish - approximately. If you want to come at ca 5 pm, you say five... ish. If you want to say that you are kinda happy, you say I am happy... ish.
• gauge - the distance between train tracks
• stick to one's guns - not listen to arguments and insist on one's opinion instead
• nifty - similar to cool, but not really. Definitely a positive word.
• the flip side of the coin - in pros and cons, this is the cons part
• cards on the table - stuff revealed. We have the same expression in Czech, but it is nice to know that they actually really use it here in the UK, too.
• he's the one to talk - said when someone criticizes something but does the same thing all the time
• cheers - means really many things, but most often it is used instead of and/or in addition to thanks
• see you in a bit - see you later
• you ok? - how are you? Often no answer is expected, or a simple 'yeah' or 'fine' will do. In pubs and shops, this means of 'how can I help you', 'what are you going to drink', etc.
• no worries - if someone thanks you, you say this in reply
• haya - hi (there probably used to be more words than just one, but I cannot tell what the other word(s) could be)
• take the mick out of someone - tease someone, make fun of someone
• literally - means anything but literally. People usually use this word to emphasize things, but do not really mean that it was really like that. (So if someone tells you that I literally pissed myself laughing, you can be pretty sure he did not piss himself and he just wants to say that it was really funny.)
• gay - gay. Must be used as adjective. Saying he is a gay is offensive.
• calling a spade a spade - not being afraid of saying the truth, and using real names of things instead of 'wrapping' them
• I say as I think - posh version of previous item