Six words you will never hear the royals say

Being a member of the royal family comes with a lot of rules and protocol. That includes a list of vocabulary that cannot be used.

Kate Fox, social anthropologist and author of Watching the English, has revealed the six words you will never hear from a member of the British royal family — something else that Meghan Markle will have to get used to.

If you want to speak like a proper royal, here are the words you need to delete from your vocabulary.

1. Pardon
While most people believe “pardon” is a more polite version of “sorry”, the royal family says “sorry” or “sorry, what?”, never “pardon”.

2. Toilet
The word toilet comes from the French “toilette” and so the British royal family wants nothing to do with it. The Queen will never tell you she needs to use the “toilet” but she, should she ever pop around for dinner, she might ask you where the “loo” is.

3. Perfume
“Perfume” is apparently such a peasant thing to say. If you’re a royal, you say “scent”. 

4. Tea 
You’re fine to refer to the drink as “tea” but don’t you dare call your evening meal by that same word. “Dinner” or “supper”, never tea.

5. Lounge
Buckingham Palace has no lounge. It also has no living room. It does have a “drawing room” or a “sitting room”, which is just a more “royal” way to refer to those same places.

6. Posh
One sure way to show you’re a commoner is to use the word “posh” to refer to anything, you know, posh. If you’re proper posh, you never say posh. You say “smart”.

This article originally appeared in the New Zealand Herald.