If there ever is a specialist role advertised which requires one to explain local Lancashire words to non-Lancashire folk, I would apply for it.

One of the most difficult to explain is the saying… ‘he’s a-gate’ or ‘she’s a-gate’.

It would completely baffle people. They would have no idea what it meant.

Explaining this to someone from outside the county would prove to be a little difficult. They would have no idea what the gate thing meant. Was it a real gate? Why talk about a gate when you are referring to someone?

But surprisingly if you did not know how to speak English, sooner or later you would figure it out.

I recollect hearing someone saying this only a week after he had landed in Britain.

He had picked up no other words but somehow managed to get ‘gate’ into a perfectly incoherent sentence.

I know there are some who may have an issue with people saying ‘Bloody’ell’ every time they opened their mouths but you have to understand it comes with the territory.

And when it comes to explaining ‘int’ you have to know your stuff.

‘Where’s the footy?’…’Int boot.’ What is an int? It is simply short for ‘in the’ or ‘isn’t it’ Another easy one to pick-up is ‘owt’. I was surprised when I was asked… ‘Have you got owt?’ by someone who did not have English as his first language.

The same man did however ask me why he was asked if he was ‘dancing’ when walking in the town centre.

Dancing? This I had to hear.

He explained it as such. ‘I was in the supermarket and I accidently crossed the path of a woman and we both hesitated as to which way we should walk. She then asked me if we were dancing….to which I abruptly replied ‘no’ and moved on.’ Yes, this took a little more time to explain but we finally got to the bottom of things when I went through the whole motion and did a little dance for the fellow.

Quite simple really.