Uk Vs. USA
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Staceym2112 wrote: »The one that always got me is calling a Trunk (the back portion of your car that carries things; in the USA) a boot.
A boot in the USA is a shoe that you wear on your feet, often thicker than a tennis shoe and can be steel toed.
Just to confuse everything a boot in the UK is also a shoe.0 -
blues4miles wrote: »Haven't been watching enough British TV lately to notice all the differences, but for those in the US this is a pretty fascinating quiz...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0
Do you call it a crawdad / crayfish?
Firefly? Moon bug? Glow bug/worm?
How about crane flies, mosquito eater / mosquito hawk?
I tried taking the test just for a laugh, and my "similar areas" were all over the map! (If they showed up at all.) I don't know what a crayfish actually is, although I have heard the term! And fireflies are fireflies, I'm not familiar with the other terms.
Crane flies are known to me as "Daddy Long Legs".
And yeah, salad cream is nothing like mayonnaise - hard to describe but more tangy in taste and much runnier. I can buy it here in Canada, although what's sold as "Heinz Salad Cream" isn't exactly the same as the UK version. Good enough for me, though, I'm not a salad cream snob like my friend's dad!0 -
My favourite 'home alone in front of the TV' dinner! What my lovely MIL (RIP) would have called a 'nursery tea'. Also, in North America people don't do the 'things on toast' the same way the Brits do. My kids have grown up making themselves beans on toast but their friends think it's weird.What about dippy egg and soldiers? I don't think that translates but it is an essential of life!
Are you kidding? As a kid I loved beans on toast, it was my favorite snack! I don't know if I did it the way the Brits do because I used baked beans, but nom nom nom!0 -
ModernRock wrote: »
One thing I have noticed is it is easier here in the UK to "pop the kettle on" thanks to almost universal electric kettles, whereas in the US whistling kettle still seem normal? Is that because the kettle use is less frequent with more coffee makers and less instant coffee?
Correct. Electric kettles are becoming more popular in the US, but are not the common appliance like they are in the UK. (I've considered getting one.) It wouldn't be weird to not have either kind of kettle, particularly if you don't regularly drink hot tea or instant coffee. (Hot tea isn't nearly as popular and instant coffee is generally looked down upon. Drip coffee is by far the most common method to make coffee at home.) I have a metal kettle on my stove top right now. I use it to make coffee using the pour over method and occasionally to make hot tea. Without a kettle, people just use the microwave or even a small pan on the stove. Electric kettles aren't hard to find in stores in the US; every major household retail store has a few models. My grandmother-in-law has one because she drinks instant coffee all day long and the electric kettle is safer for her to operate compared to the stove.
Do it. I have an electric kettle and I don't know what I did without it. It heats the water to boiling quickly and cuts off long before the kettle can boil dry.
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Staceym2112 wrote: »The one that always got me is calling a Trunk (the back portion of your car that carries things; in the USA) a boot.
A boot in the USA is a shoe that you wear on your feet, often thicker than a tennis shoe and can be steel toed.
Just to confuse everything a boot in the UK is also a shoe.
I've no idea why that part of a car is called a boot, but I do know I really confused a couple of Canadians by asking about "car boot sales"! I later learned those are "tailgate sales" here. Trunk is actually a more sensible name, since that's a piece of luggage similar to the ones attached to the rear of very early cars for storage, so maybe we Brits just wanted to be weird!
Another bit of confusion I caused was a few days after we moved, when I realised I needed a torch. Off I went to WalMart and asked a couple of nice ladies where to find said torch. Cue some very confused looks, and me trying to explain what I actually wanted. Turns out I was looking for a "flashlight". They thought I meant the kind of torch that's usually associated with pitchforks in certain movies.
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Staceym2112 wrote: »The one that always got me is calling a Trunk (the back portion of your car that carries things; in the USA) a boot.
A boot in the USA is a shoe that you wear on your feet, often thicker than a tennis shoe and can be steel toed.
Just to confuse everything a boot in the UK is also a shoe.
I've no idea why that part of a car is called a boot, but I do know I really confused a couple of Canadians by asking about "car boot sales"! I later learned those are "tailgate sales" here. Trunk is actually a more sensible name, since that's a piece of luggage similar to the ones attached to the rear of very early cars for storage, so maybe we Brits just wanted to be weird!
Another bit of confusion I caused was a few days after we moved, when I realised I needed a torch. Off I went to WalMart and asked a couple of nice ladies where to find said torch. Cue some very confused looks, and me trying to explain what I actually wanted. Turns out I was looking for a "flashlight". They thought I meant the kind of torch that's usually associated with pitchforks in certain movies.
Ahh, that reminds me of the day I went to Home Depot because I wanted a bathplug. Turns out I should have asked for a tub-stopper.0 -
positivepowers wrote: »The word *kitten* (fagots?) also refers to cigarettes, right? Or is that just "*kitten*"? Also aren't fagots bundles of sticks, like kindling?
The shortened version of the word is cigarettes, yes, and I do believe the full word can also refer to firewood/kindling although I've never personally known anyone who used it. That could cause some confusion if one suggested throwing some on the fire...!0 -
BruinsGal_91 wrote: »Ahh, that reminds me of the day I went to Home Depot because I wanted a bathplug. Turns out I should have asked for a tub-stopper.
Home Depot is really B&Q under another name, isn't it? Same colours and everything! 0 -
@SueSueDio
I had to Google broiling a while ago (watching a US TV show) - for me broiling is a sort of boiling, thinking of broilers (chickens). It had me confused!
Another one I had to Google was arugula (sp?) - turns out that is rocket for us Brits.
Shrimps are tiny little things, cold water and used in potted shrimp etc. Prawns are the big foreign things.
One thing I have noticed is it is easier here in the UK to "pop the kettle on" thanks to almost universal electric kettles, whereas in the US whistling kettle still seem normal? Is that because the kettle use is less frequent with more coffee makers and less instant coffee?
What about dippy egg and soldiers? I don't think that translates but it is an essential of life!
Oh man, I love egg and soldiers! I've always called them that (not sure why, no one I know is from the UK) but, I think most people just say soft eggs with toast sticks.0 -
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Staceym2112 wrote: »The one that always got me is calling a Trunk (the back portion of your car that carries things; in the USA) a boot.
A boot in the USA is a shoe that you wear on your feet, often thicker than a tennis shoe and can be steel toed.
Just to confuse everything a boot in the UK is also a shoe.
And Boots is a drugstore!0 -
Bum bag.mdrichardsons wrote: »
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A "fanny pack" (US) is what I would call a "bum bag" in Australia. The little waist pack you see people wearing when they want to be easily identified as a tourist for the benefit of pickpockets the world over.
F**** over here (and I'm pretty sure in the UK too) is a private part of the female anatomy. Not something to be talked about in public (she says to that elderly american lady on a tourist coach who announced loudly that she had just fallen on her f****, to horrified faces all round!)0 -
pebble4321 wrote: »F**** over here (and I'm pretty sure in the UK too) is a private part of the female anatomy. Not something to be talked about in public (she says to that elderly american lady on a tourist coach who announced loudly that she had just fallen on her f****, to horrified faces all round!)
Hah!
But yeah, to watchers of Top Gear, this particular F-word in the UK is what Jeremy carefully refers to as a "lady garden". 0 -
Chips in the US -- often thinly sliced potatoes fried. Crunchy.
Chips in the UK?
And then you get South Africa... Chips are crisps (thin, crunchy, come in a packet from a chip factory), while the deep fried kind you get with your burger meal at a drive through are also chips, they're just call slap chips (not slap as in across the face, but the Afrikaans slap which means floppy)0 -
pebble4321 wrote: »F**** over here (and I'm pretty sure in the UK too) is a private part of the female anatomy. Not something to be talked about in public (she says to that elderly american lady on a tourist coach who announced loudly that she had just fallen on her f****, to horrified faces all round!)
Hah!
But yeah, to watchers of Top Gear, this particular F-word in the UK is what Jeremy carefully refers to as a "lady garden".
Not sure that it's quite the same thing, but we are in the right general area! Near enough to get you in trouble in Aus/UK if you aren't careful 0 -
I am English and one time I was on an American flight from Birmingham, England to New York when I was offered some "chips" by the air stewardess. Now, I was fully aware that in America "chips" are what I would know as "crisps". however, the "chips" that I had been offered were in a cardboard box so I was SURE that they must be what I would know as "chips" as in "fries". Very happy about this I said yes, only to be horrendously disappointed when I opened the box to find inside the box was just a packet of "crisps"!!!!0
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Fanny and lady garden are indeed one and the same thing.
Cigarettes are "f@gs", and if you want one from someone else you would ask if you could "bum a *kitten*, please?". That's the the real icing on the cake if you travel to the US and yet no one would bat an eyelid in the UK. "To bum" is to cadge/borrow/cheekily as for. You might also "bum a lift" in someone else's car, for example.
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"To bum" is to cadge/borrow/cheekily as for. You might also "bum a lift" in someone else's car, for example.
To "bum" something is basically the same in the US, although you might be seen as insensitive in more politically correct crowds. "Bum" is a derogatory word for a homeless person or more generally a person too lazy to work for what they want. Still, it wouldn't be uncommon at all for a smoker in the US to be asked by a friend or random stranger if they can "bum a smoke" or "bum a cigarette".
A "square" is a lesser known slang term for a cigarette. For example, "Can you spare a square?" or "Pick me up a pack of squares at the store." Not sure if that's unique to the US.
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Just as long as you phrase it that way and do NOT ask "for a ride".
"Ride" is the most common way in the US to ask someone to drive you somewhere. Asking someone "for a lift" or "to get a lift" are also widely understood to mean the same thing as "ride." I suppose "lift" might be more informal, and it might be used more often than "ride" when someone is asking to be taken somewhere the driver is already going or to some place along the way. "Can I get a ride to the airport tomorrow?" versus finding out somebody else is already going to the airport and asking "Can I get a lift?" But, you could interchange ride and lift without anyone ever giving it a second thought.
It's well known in the US that the British say "lift" instead of "elevator" so it wouldn't be confusing if somebody said they were going to "take the lift" instead of "ride the elevator" or "take the elevator" although an American saying "lift" instead of "elevator" might be seen as pretentious. It's about the same as when an American says "flat" instead of "apartment" or "queue" instead of "line," although I have seen certain types of apartments advertised as flats and Netflix has gone a long way toward getting "queue" into the American vernacular. If an American really wants to get pretentious, they can use the British pronunciations for advertisement, aluminum, and herbs. Or, better yet, spell color with a "u". I must admit that I greatly prefer the British pronunciation of advertisement and have to remember to use the American pronunciation.
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ModernRock wrote: »I must admit that I greatly prefer the British pronunciation of advertisement and have to remember to use the American pronunciation.
How does it differ? I don't think I've heard the full word, usually people say ad or advert! For me it's "ad-VERT-iz-ment", so for an American would it be "ad-ver-TIZE-ment"?
I haven't changed my pronunciation of much (only one or two words), so I still insist on saying "al-yoo-MIN-yum" and herbs with an aitch! My way of saying garage does confuse some people, but I refuse to change it after all this time. 0 -
UK: supersize extra large; = US: small0
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I posted this on another such thread, but it's really worth it: http://dublinerinjapan.blogspot.com/2008/06/332-disneyworld-with-joe.htmlOur tour guide Wanda is waiting for us. Wanda is a very nice young woman from Kissimee. "There are some rully good rides here at The Magic Kingdom," she says, to a chorus of snuffles and titters. "We have big rides, small rides, scary rides, happy rides, whatever kind of ride you like you can find here at The Magic Kingdom." One fan is falling about the place now and another -- Crocko by name -- is laughing his bloody dentures out. Wanda must be wondering what it is she is saying that has all these grown men nearly widdling with laughter. But, true professional that she is, she continues.
"Er ... some of the rides have been here for a long time, but other rides are new, and here at Disney we're constantly looking at ways to make rides more exciting." The fans are slapping their thighs and guffawing at this stage. One usually quiet man from Laois is actually honking with laughter, throwing his ponderous head back and honking like a great big white-legged hysterical mallard duck. Honko, I'm going to call him from now on.
"What's so funny?" Wanda says.
"Nothing, Wanda," Honko replies.
"No, c'mon," she says, "Am I like, saying something funny?"
"Not at all, Wanda. You're grand, sweetheart. And c'mere, tellus, do you like the odd ride yourself, Wanda?"
"Oh yes, of course."
"And how many rides would you have a day?"
"Oh, I dunno, three or four I guess. Depends how much spare time I get."
(If you follow the link, Wanda then goes into the giant Mickey.)0 -
Ha! The worst I've had like that was being asked in a Michigan craft beer bar if I would be interested in a growler.
The poor waitress looked most perplexed at a table of Brits whose reactions were ranging from looking studiously in the opposite direction, to childish hysterics.
Apart from being lost as to what she actually meant by growler, all we know was that at home it is a rather coarse word for the aforementioned "lady garden"!0 -
This is the most educational thread I've ever read.
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blues4miles wrote: »Haven't been watching enough British TV lately to notice all the differences, but for those in the US this is a pretty fascinating quiz...
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2013/12/20/sunday-review/dialect-quiz-map.html?_r=0
Do you call it a crawdad / crayfish?
Firefly? Moon bug? Glow bug/worm?
How about crane flies, mosquito eater / mosquito hawk?
It's a crayfish
Lightning bug
And I think dragonfly, but not sure about that one0 -
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Ha! The worst I've had like that was being asked in a Michigan craft beer bar if I would be interested in a growler.
The poor waitress looked most perplexed at a table of Brits whose reactions were ranging from looking studiously in the opposite direction, to childish hysterics.
Apart from being lost as to what she actually meant by growler, all we know was that at home it is a rather coarse word for the aforementioned "lady garden"!
**cries** 0
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