words in england that mean something totally different in america!!
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Nice thread! Learning quite a few differences. As a non-native speaker, I tend to use a mix of the two.
Just one thought: it is the UK that drives on the most logical side of the road, and indeed many countries changed in the last century. If you want to read more on the topic, here's a good article: http://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/driving-on-the-left/
This doesn't mean I wasn't a bit unsettled the first time I went to a country driving on the left side, that is the right one.
PS: it's aluminium, because the IUPAC says so.
PPS:
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I think some of you are being given information out of context
'Digestive' is a type of 'biscuit' as are chocolate chip 'cookies', Rich Tea, Mikado, Custard Creams and loads of other types - so the English for an American 'cookie' is 'Biscuit'.
Btw - they're a plain biscuit, some are (half) coated in chocolate, or have caramel and chocolate, much nicer than they sound!
Phones - we also use 'call' or in more informal settings/ slang 'give us a bell'.
'Snogging' is correct, but just to confuse you, in Ireland you're 'wearing' or 'eating the face off' and the old favourite 'tonsil hockey'.
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Pardon. 'Excuse me' in the UK; what the Governor does to prisoners in the US.
Boot has already been mentioned. Bonnet is the hood of the car in the UK; in the US it's a hat.
Pissed. Drunk in the UK, mad in the US. I remember one of my English cousins seeing a t-shirt from here that read 'Jesus is coming and boy, is he pissed." Took on a whole new meaning!
Lift - Elevator in the UK; here it's either a verb or something Tom Cruise wears in his shoes. ;-)
We also 'pardon', or ask 'pardon me'.
'Boot' either footwear or the rear storage compartment in a car (not sure what it's been described as on this thread)
'Pissed' is either drunk or mad, Ie 'I'm pissed off with you'
We also use 'lift' as well as 'elevator' and as items to increase a persons leg length.0 -
HeliumIsNoble wrote: »They will all speak quite differently, but they're all English. Who is "true" English?
People who are born in England - if you're born in Scotland you're Scottish, Wales is Welsh and Northern Ireland - well that depends what line you sit on. But you are correct, we all have our own accents and colloquialisms, even though we all share the same language.
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Motorsheen wrote: »and while we're at it.... why is it acceptable for the Brits to drive on the wrong side of the road?
it's dangerous!
Only when Americans are driving on our wrong side
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I think it was George Bernard Shaw who said that Americans and Brits are separated only by a common language... something like that
I also feel that it is not only a wonderful learning tool to hash these terms out, but also broadens our collective world view....viva la diferens.2 -
rugratz2015 wrote: »Motorsheen wrote: »and while we're at it.... why is it acceptable for the Brits to drive on the wrong side of the road?
it's dangerous!
Only when Americans are driving on our wrong side
I'll be visiting London in October.
You might want to keep your head on a swivel.0 -
Motorsheen wrote: »rugratz2015 wrote: »Motorsheen wrote: »and while we're at it.... why is it acceptable for the Brits to drive on the wrong side of the road?
it's dangerous!
Only when Americans are driving on our wrong side
I'll be visiting London in October.
You might want to keep your head on a swivel.
I don't live in England, but I may be visiting Birmingham at the end of October, will I be safe then?
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rugratz2015 wrote: »Motorsheen wrote: »rugratz2015 wrote: »Motorsheen wrote: »and while we're at it.... why is it acceptable for the Brits to drive on the wrong side of the road?
it's dangerous!
Only when Americans are driving on our wrong side
I'll be visiting London in October.
You might want to keep your head on a swivel.
I don't live in England, but I may be visiting Birmingham at the end of October, will I be safe then?
Birmingham?
dunno.... Alabama can be treacherous in October0 -
I once worked on a project involving organizations in the US and UK, and one term that caused confusion in meetings is to "table" a topic of discussion. It means exactly the opposite in each country. In the US, it means to set aside the topic for another time, but in the UK it means you want to bring it up for discussion.1
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Someone told me you call cigarettes *kitten*. I just recently quit smoking. So I guess I no longer puff on *kitten*.0
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That's true.major112714 wrote: »Someone told me you call cigarettes *kitten*. I just recently quit smoking. So I guess I no longer puff on *kitten*.
Before I got used to automatically recognising whether that one was being used in an American or British context, the famous Westboro Baptist Church placards always used to make me think of anti-smoking campaigns.
It also took me a few months to learn to never refer to cigarettes that way on American-dominated web forums.
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Driving on the opposite side of the road caught me out once!..in LA..driving back to the airport I drove up a 5 lane highway the wrong way! ..luckily it was 4am and no traffic around so I managed a u turn. Its easier when it's busy and you have cars to follow!0
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New Zealand we call an elevator a lift, like the Brits.
But we also use lift to mean to travel as a passenger in a car or other vehicle. It's a synonym to "ride"
"Can I get a lift to work?" "Sure, I'll pick you up"
"Do you need a ride?" "No, I'll get a lift with John"
Not sure of that usage is particular to NZ or NZ/OZ, or if it's a British thing too.
Anyone else use it???
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nightengale7 wrote: »Snogging - in the States we call that making out or kissing.
Ring on the telly - in the States it's call on the phone
Digestive - cookie here in the US. I still think calling something as wonderful and delicious as a cookie a "digestive" is a travesty. That word makes me think of the actual act of digestion, which isn't appetizing at all, lol.
"ring on the telly" we call televisions telly, I think you've mixed this one up, it's just ring on the phone
also a digestive is a boring biscuit usually had with a cuppa tea, the ones that are left over in the bottom of a biscuit tin when all the custard creams and chocolate hob nobs have gone, we do also have cookies but they're usually a specific type of biscuit, soft and chewy with chocolate chips. The word snogging I'll have to say is quite a juvenile term for kissing and I haven't really heard it since I was a teen. 1 -
Motorsheen wrote: »rugratz2015 wrote: »Motorsheen wrote: »rugratz2015 wrote: »Motorsheen wrote: »and while we're at it.... why is it acceptable for the Brits to drive on the wrong side of the road?
it's dangerous!
Only when Americans are driving on our wrong side
I'll be visiting London in October.
You might want to keep your head on a swivel.
I don't live in England, but I may be visiting Birmingham at the end of October, will I be safe then?
Birmingham?
dunno.... Alabama can be treacherous in October
Birmingham, England is treacherous at any time of year1 -
New Zealand we call an elevator a lift, like the Brits.
But we also use lift to mean to travel as a passenger in a car or other vehicle. It's a synonym to "ride"
"Can I get a lift to work?" "Sure, I'll pick you up"
"Do you need a ride?" "No, I'll get a lift with John"
Not sure of that usage is particular to NZ or NZ/OZ, or if it's a British thing too.
Anyone else use it???
Yeah same in Britain, getting a lift is also getting a ride too 0 -
New Zealand we call an elevator a lift, like the Brits.
But we also use lift to mean to travel as a passenger in a car or other vehicle. It's a synonym to "ride"
"Can I get a lift to work?" "Sure, I'll pick you up"
"Do you need a ride?" "No, I'll get a lift with John"
Not sure of that usage is particular to NZ or NZ/OZ, or if it's a British thing too.
Anyone else use it???
Yes, we'd also give people a 'lift', either in a car, or for a child we'd 'lift' them off the floor, or carry/hold them for a while.0 -
rugratz2015 wrote: »
Yes, we'd also give people a 'lift', either in a car, or for a child we'd 'lift' them off the floor, or carry/hold them for a while.
Where in the world are you??
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Digestives are the best biscuits..theres never one at the bottom of my biscuit tin! The sugar free digestives in B&M are amazing and only 99p4
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On the whole cookie thing: I was talking with a friend from London, and breakfast habits came up.
Me: "My usual breakfast was milk and half a dozen cookies or more". He looked at me like I had three ears.0 -
I like the sugar free ones from the pound storeblueyandcrazee wrote: »Digestives are the best biscuits..theres never one at the bottom of my biscuit tin! The sugar free digestives in B&M are amazing and only 99p
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Biscuits for breakfast??..having said that my mum always gets up in the morning makes a cup of tea and takes tea and 2 biscuits back to bed with her..then eventually gets up for good this time!1
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stanmann571 wrote: »CoffeeAndContour wrote: »Bugger
I think the actual meaning of this is the same on both sides of the pond, it's just that Americans don't usually use it as an expletive.
I can think of another that has an extremely derogatory meaning in the U.S. but is slang in the UK for a cigarette. The original derogatory meaning was probably the same for both and referred to burning a certain segment of society during heretic burning times.
I've never heard an American use bugger, as an expletive or otherwise... unless they had had cross cultural exposure...
It's amusing that the MFP *kitten* filter doesn't pick it up...
Right. Exactly. (Although I have seen the word used descriptively if in hushed tones here for sure. It is just that, again, it is not as common ...we have other words and word combinations we would tend to use instead.)
OTOH many people do have cross-cultural exposure.
But even so, "bugger" would be the extreme rarity.
However, my point was that it actually is a word on this side of the pond which has exactly the same original (very graphic) meaning for both.
'Bugger' when used in the UK, (I say UK because I am from Scotland, not England), is quite commonly used. It's not classed as being 'extremely derogatory', far from it! In fact you tend to find that 'posh' people use the word bugger more often.
Oh and by the way, we don't drive on the 'wrong' side of the road, we drive on the left........0 -
Motorsheen wrote: ».... and memo to the Brits:
For God's sake, learn how to pronounce both: Aluminum & Vitamins
it's got to be embarrassing for all y'all.
This made me LOL......don't get me started on pronunciation, grammar and oh spelling....1 -
There are some pretty innocuous words in the UK that are highly offensive in the US so much so that I will not type them as they will no doubt be censored and I might be blocked.
The first is an offensive word for a gay person in the US that in the UK is slang for a cigarette. An friend of mine who had recently moved from the US was shocked when at a party she heard someone say 'I've been dying to taste this f** all day!'
The second is a word beginning with C. Whilst this isn't exactly a word you would use in polite company, it is much less offensive in the UK than in the US. It is something you might call your friend when they're being annoying for example but not in a hostile way. Lots of British comedians have got in trouble for using it not realising that it is a much stronger word in the US.
Oh yeah, and these bad words are all called swearwords in the UK not cursewords.1 -
animatorswearbras wrote: »New Zealand we call an elevator a lift, like the Brits.
But we also use lift to mean to travel as a passenger in a car or other vehicle. It's a synonym to "ride"
"Can I get a lift to work?" "Sure, I'll pick you up"
"Do you need a ride?" "No, I'll get a lift with John"
Not sure of that usage is particular to NZ or NZ/OZ, or if it's a British thing too.
Anyone else use it???
Yeah same in Britain, getting a lift is also getting a ride too
Although 'getting a ride' can also mean something entirely different.....:):)3 -
animatorswearbras wrote: »animatorswearbras wrote: »HeliumIsNoble wrote: »You can't really borrow languages. They're not library books. More like free shareware apps for communication.
Politically, I feel vehement statements about how other nations are only borrowing English and don't have the right to mod their forced download, so to speak, are unfortunate, given, well, the British Empire, the use of language as a colonisation tool (not just Britain- the French particularly skilled at this as well, actually) and historical efforts made to enforce English usage and eradicate other languages.
Also politically, the UK has four countries/principalities, all of whom use English as a working language, and all of whom have variations thereof. Only one of those nations is called England, and over my dead body do the Scots and Welsh and Northern Irish get told their regional usages are invalid. It'll be enough to trigger #IndyRef2, and my nerves can't stand it. I'm already concerned what recent political events could mean for the peace process...
Edit: Taken to its natural conclusion, who gets the deciding vote of linguistic development- Birmingham, England, York, England, an East End Londoner, or a board from the county of Essex? They will all speak quite differently, but they're all English. Who is "true" English?
York, York is true English. ;P
Anyways ruddy Yanks coming on 'ere telling us we' butchering are own language on't t'internet, dunno tha bloody born dutha?
Seriously though I love the different flavours of English and you wouldn't get half the anecdotes if we were all the same, my favourite was casually asking an American for a "rubber" when I was trying to correct a pencil drawing, they'd never heard a pencil eraser called that before...
Oh, wait...actually... ^ It was a Brit who wagged her finger at Brits not speaking the correct English. (I think...based on "uni.")
We Yanks are guilty of a lot of things but this particular thing isn't one of them. Thank God! We can't ALWAYS look like idiots. It hurts our self-esteem.
Oh sorry! Bloody Brits being snobbish! Apologies American chums.
(EDIT: although she said "high school diploma" and we don't have those we have GCSE's or o' levels depending on your age, she also said she didn't like us butchering the word uni and then used it herself twice lol)
"Pissed" means drunk more than anything (also see leathered & rat-arsed), "pissed off" means angry (although this could be an adopted Americanism but I have no idea) "taking the piss" means making fun of.
To be fair we get alot of US TV and film so we usually know what you mean and have adopted a fair few things ourselves. I've noticed Americans use Wanker more and douche and *kitten* (rather than *kitten*) gets used more over here.
I love the scene in Scream Queens when the British character is like 'I can't wait for tonight, I'm going to get so pissed' and his friend is like 'Woah, chill man. We just want to have fun night. There's no need for that'0 -
There are some pretty innocuous words in the UK that are highly offensive in the US so much so that I will not type them as they will no doubt be censored and I might be blocked.
The first is an offensive word for a gay person in the US that in the UK is slang for a cigarette. An friend of mine who had recently moved from the US was shocked when at a party she heard someone say 'I've been dying to taste this f** all day!'
The second is a word beginning with C whilst this isn't exactly a word you would use in polite company, it is much less offensive in the UK than in the US. It is something you might call your friend when they're being annoying for example but not in a hostile way. Lots of British comedians have got in trouble for using it not realising that it is a much stronger word in the US.
Oh yeah, and these bad words are all called swearwords in the UK not cursewords.
Regarding that second word: I have friends from Australia
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blueyandcrazee wrote: »Diet Pepsi rules over diet coke anyday!
Agree!!!!Riffraft1960 wrote: »browneyedgirl749 wrote: »I don't like to discriminate the Pepsi Company by calling everything a coke. It's a soda to me. LOL
Why would you want flavorless carbonated water (Soda) instead of a pop (Carbonated Water with flavoring).
I guess I was raised in the part of the U.S. that calls it soda. LOL0
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