Essential English phrases

The city, and a person from it. Used affectionately by locals and without irony. 'Brummie' is also the accent, which is nothing like a Black Country one and locals will tell you so.

Term of endearment, used to almost anyone — 'alright bab?'. The Birmingham equivalent of 'love' or 'pet'. Not condescending, and not gendered as strictly as outsiders assume.

Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton, west of the city. A separate place with a separate accent and a separate identity. Calling a Black Country person a Brummie is a genuine faux pas.

A curry cooked and served in a thin pressed-steel bowl, invented in Birmingham's Balti Triangle in the 1970s. Eaten with naan rather than cutlery, and protected as a regional speciality.

The A4540 inner ring road. It is also, exactly, the Clean Air Zone boundary — inside it a non-compliant vehicle pays a daily charge.

Transport for West Midlands' smart ticketing. SwiftGo is the app-based version that caps your daily spend across every bus operator and the tram — the one that actually saves you money.

The local property tax, paid by the occupier and billed separately from rent. Birmingham's has risen sharply since the council's section 114 notice, so check the band before you sign anything.

Since 1 May 2026 every private tenancy in England rolls month to month with no fixed term. You can leave on two months' notice and there is no fixed end date for a landlord to evict you at.

A real early-twentieth-century Birmingham street gang, now the television export the whole world associates with the city. Locals are proud of it and slightly tired of being asked.

A conservation area north-west of the centre where a large share of British-made jewellery is still produced, and now also one of the city's best places to live and drink.

999 for a genuine emergency, NHS 111 for urgent medical help that is not life-threatening. Both free from any phone, including a locked one.