Becca Monaghan
Jun 04, 2024
Solution Tales - Lifestyle Now / VideoElephant
Father’s Day is a day of celebrating all things Dad – right down to their cheesy jokes and favourite grumbles. They may leave us rolling our eyes after they’ve uttered for the millionth time that week, but we have to admit, many of us secretly have a soft spot for those ‘Daddisms’.
To celebrate the lexicon of Dad, greeting cards marketplace thortful carried out a 2,000-person nationwide survey to reveal the UK’s top dad phrases, as well as the top phrases per region.
An exclusive collection of Father’s Day cards around the nation’s favourite Daddisms is also available so you can communicate your love for Dad in his own language.
The British classic “Ask your mother” was revealed as the UK’s most widely used dad phrase with almost two in five Brits (39 per cent) revealing the phrase regularly leaves their Dad’s mouth.
For Dad’s across Manchester (47 per cent), Kent (36 per cent), Bristol (38 per cent) Cardiff (51 per cent) and Leeds (40 per cent), this was their most popular Daddism from the list.
Rank | Dad Phrase | Percentage Usage |
1 | Ask your mother | 39% |
2 | “Money doesn’t go on trees” | 37% |
3 | I’m not made of money | 34% |
4 | I’m not going to tell you again | 30% |
5 | If you were told to jump off a cliff, would you? | 22% |
6 | They don't make them like they used to | 21% |
7 | Two wrongs don’t make a right | 21% |
8 | Don’t let the bed bugs bite | 20% |
9 | Waste not, want not | 20% |
10 | It’s like Blackpool illuminations in here | 19% |
With the UK still experiencing a cost of living crisis, it’s no surprise that Dad likes to regularly remind us of this with “Money doesn’t grow on trees” (37 per cent) and “I’m not made of money” (34 per cent) ranking second and third.
Leicester (41 per cent), London (34 per cent), Edinburgh (34 per cent), and Birmingham (45 per cent) dads all love to remind us about the lack of existence of money trees, while Newcastle (45 per cent) fathers like to reinforce to their children that no, dads aren’t made of money.
Other classic phrases to appear on the UK’s dad phrase dictionary include “If you were told to jump of a cliff, would you?” (22 per cent) and “It’s like Blackpool illuminations in here” (19 per cent).
Belfast (34 per cent) was the only city on the list to have “Were you born in a field?” as their top Dad phrase.
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