Learn English with Netflix’s The Gentlemen

Guy Ritchie, the director who brought us the classic British gangster movies Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, has partnered with Netflix on a new series: The Gentlemen.

The show follows protagonist Edward Horniman, who has inherited his father’s estate and the title of Duke of Halstead. Horniman soon discovers that the 15,000 acre estate is being used to grow cannabis, an operation run by legendary criminal Bobby Glass… and Glass isn’t going anywhere.

The eight-episode series is currently in the most watched shows on Netflix in 92 countries!

Now, some people might tell you that using content with regional dialects like The Gentlemen to learn English is a bad idea. They’ll tell you that you are better off sticking to content in RP or received pronunciation, a more enunciated and standard form of the language. We at LingQ say that’s RUBBISH! Learn from what you’re interested in, and if that means gun-toting, foul-mouthed Cockney gangsters, so be it.

How To Learn English with The Gentlemen on Netflix

Here’s a break down of the steps you need to take to learn English with The Gentlemen, or any other show on Netflix, on LingQ:

1. Watch the Episode Once (optional)

Before you dive in and create a lesson, it helps some learners to watch the episode all the way through (with or without English subtitles). This way you will get an idea of the plot and the characters before tackling all of the new words and phrases. This step is especially helpful if you are a lower intermediate learner.

2. Create Your Lesson with the LingQ Browser Extension

You can download the LingQ browser extension for Chrome, Safari, Edge and Firefox. Once you have it, add it to your toolbar and you can click on it to make a lesson out of any page you come across with English content, not just Netflix shows. Make sure you have the English closed captions selected before you hit “import”.

3. LingQ New Words and Phrases

Next, work your way through the lesson, making LingQs with words and phrases you don’t know and earning coins as you go. LingQ on the web and on the go on (iOS and Android).

As I mentioned, most of the characters in The Gentlemen speak with heavy regional accents, so there is a lot of slang. Here are just some UK slang words I found while working through an episode on LingQ:

Gaff – A person’s home

Show example:
“This (is) your gaff, is it?”

More examples:
“Let’s go round Jim’s gaff.” (let’s visit Jim’s home)

“His gaff’s up the road from mine.”

Leccy – Electricity

Show example:
“But your leccy bill must be shocking.”

Other examples:
“The leccy company are coming over later so someone needs to be at the gaff.”

“How much do you pay for leccy every month?”

Lad – Young man

Show example:
“They’re good lads.”

Other examples:
“We’ll meet the lads at Fred’s gaff later.”

“The lads share a gaff and their leccy bill is sky high!”

4. Watch the Episode with English Subtitles

Now that you have worked through the episode transcript and have more of an understanding of the plot and characters, watch the episode again. It helps to have the English subtitles on so you can check on any words or phrases that trip you up.

Bonus Tip: Brush up on Your Cockney Rhyming Slang

Guy Ritchie movies contain lots of Cockney rhyming slang: phrases where the usual words are replaced with words that rhyme with them, so it might be fun to learn some before you watch The Gentlemen.

A few examples of Cockney rhyming slang:

Apples and pears = stairs
“He went up the apples and pears.”

Pork pies = lies
“You’re telling pork pies, aren’t you?”

Adam and Eve = believe
“Can you Adam and Eve it?”

You get the idea. Cockney rhyming slang can be very confusing for English learners as the words used have nothing to do with the words they replace. You’ll get your loaf of bread (head) around them!

This lesson on LingQ will help.

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You can make anything online an English lesson on LingQ, not just Netflix shows and movies. Learn from podcasts, news articles, blogs, YouTube videos, ebooks and more.

Check out the complete guide to importing to learn more.