Half of Americans 'can’t tell when a Brit is calling them an idiot’

Sharp-witted sarcasm is a quintessential element of British culture, one that Brits take great pride in.

While people from the UK may fully understand that certain passive-aggressive phrases convey hidden meanings, according to a recent poll conducted by YouGov, those from the US don't often have the same comprehension.

The polling company carried out a study to determine how well Americans perceive British sarcasm by asking a group of Brits and Americans how they would translate a series of common sayings.

These included expressions such as "quite good", "I would suggest" and "I'll bear that in mind".

YouGov found that while the majority of Brits would grasp that the phrase "with the greatest respect" is frequently used when someone is "in the process of calling you an idiot", less than half of Americans would draw the same conclusion.

In contrast, half of Americans would take "with the greatest respect" to mean that the person with whom they're having a conversation is listening intently to their every word.

YouGov based its study on a meme about British sayings popularised by a site called Today I Learned Something New.

One of the other phrases included in the poll was "you must come for dinner".

While 57 per cent of the Brits understood that this is typically said as a courtesy and not meant to be taken as a serious invitation, less than half of the Americans shared this point of view.

"Being both insulting and *apparently* polite is the UK's secret weapon. Now excuse me, time for my morning queue," one person tweeted.

"If we Britons could just say what we mean I think we’d do better in the world," another commented.

One observer also pointed out that the study highlights the diverse ways in which British phrases are used across the country.

"The cultural gap between the US and UK is pretty big," they wrote. "But these poll figures also show that within the UK we use language very differently."