Different words for the same things depending on which country you're in.

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Replies

  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    The one that got me forever was "jumper." I only read it in stories and could not figure out what it meant. US translation = sweater.

    Bunny Hug. It's regional within Saskatchewan.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    TR0berts wrote: »
    rainbowbow wrote: »
    TR0berts wrote: »
    I'm just getting through page 1. I take it someone has mentioned the different meanings of "shag?"

    to me the image of a carpet like this comes to mind.

    shag-rug-5.jpg

    0c7.jpg

    Sounds like you have a different shag in mind. I love the word snog. It sounds so much dirtier than it is.
  • CrabNebula
    CrabNebula Posts: 1,119 Member
    I like false cognates. For example, mist. In English, it is almost romantic description of fog or very light rain. In German, it means manure and you use it the same way you would when you say 'Well crap' in English.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,443 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    The one that got me forever was "jumper." I only read it in stories and could not figure out what it meant. US translation = sweater.

    Bunny Hug. It's regional within Saskatchewan.

    But a Bunny Hug is a hooded sweatshirt, not a knitted sweater, right? Americans would call that a hoodie.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    The one that got me forever was "jumper." I only read it in stories and could not figure out what it meant. US translation = sweater.

    Bunny Hug. It's regional within Saskatchewan.

    But a Bunny Hug is a hooded sweatshirt, not a knitted sweater, right? Americans would call that a hoodie.

    I think most of Canada calls it a hoodie as well.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    edited December 2016
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    The one that got me forever was "jumper." I only read it in stories and could not figure out what it meant. US translation = sweater.

    Bunny Hug. It's regional within Saskatchewan.

    But a Bunny Hug is a hooded sweatshirt, not a knitted sweater, right? Americans would call that a hoodie.

    I think most of Canada calls it a hoodie as well.

    Only the uncouth young fella's wear "hoodies" :tongue: I call them hooded Jumper.

    Shag/Bonk/Root = Sex

    Footpath - sidewalk
    Chemist - Pharmacy
    Posty- Postman
    Take away - Take out

    We say "we're going to the shops" for every store, grocery, clothes etc

    Breakfast
    Lunch
    tea

    As for cricket.. 5 frickan days my husband has commandeered the tele (tv), and because of rain it's going to end up a draw. He has explained the rules to me a million times, and there's still certain things that just make no sense!
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    rainbowbow wrote: »
    All types of lettuces and greens are called "salad"
    Scratch that, any vegetables on a burger are also called "salad"
    Bathroom/Restroom is often referred to as "toilet" or "wc"
    baby carriage is referred to as a "pram"
    Trunk of the car is called a "boot" depending on whether they learned oxford or american english
    Fanny means vagina whereas to me it means your butt (sit your fanny down!).

    I'd recognise all of those as British English usage as well.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Oh and voting is compulsory, you get a fine if you don't. We don't have a President, we have a Prime Minister. It's not compulsory to vote in America, right?

    This is probably BS, but i once heard that if you're in a place like New York and you smile or say hello as you're passing other pedestrians that you'll get mugged or they'd thing you were a weirdo??
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    TR0berts wrote: »
    Thank you @Christine_72 , for that video a few pages back. I literally had tears.

    Regarding cricket: I've stared at the television screen a few times - watching, trying to figure out what was going on, listening to the announcers - and gave up after 20 minutes or so because none of it made any sense.

    @TROberts That guy has lots more videos on youtube, the one i posted was one of the tamer ones.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Machka9 wrote: »
    Not sure if it has already been mentioned but ...

    lollies = candies

    biscuits = cookies


    As I mentioned, I'm a Canadian who moved to Australia and I really struggle with the word "biscuits". To me "biscuits" are more like dumplings, "crackers" are hard salty things, and "cookies" are sweet. It still throws me off when someone asks if I want a "biscuit". A dumpling? Now? No! Oh wait, you mean a cookie!


    Also meals ...

    In Canada it is:

    breakfast
    brunch
    lunch
    coffee break
    dinner or supper
    and something my family called "little lunch" which was a late evening snack.

    In Australia it is:

    breakfast
    brunch/morning tea/smoko
    lunch
    arvo tea/smoko
    dinner or tea
    supper = my "little lunch" or late evening snack.

    Here in cape breton, nova scotia (which has it's own slang) we havebreakfast, dinner, supper, bed lunch. I am from ottawa and the dinner as lunch thing drove me crazy lol. Also the word wasted. In ottawa we used it to mean drunk but here they use it as meaning exhausted. I was shocked the first time I heard my friends proclaiming how wasted they were after a long church choir rehearsal!

    My father's family (Belgian Americans living in rural Wisconsin) say breakfast/dinner/supper. I think it's common in Wisconsin, perhaps from immigration history shared with Ottawa/ NS / etc. surrounding fur trade back in the day.

    I haven't heard bed lunch before, but I love it. Going to call it that from now on, lol!

    My understanding is that traditionally in English "dinner" referred to the biggest meal of the day, whenever it was held (midday or evening). Midday meal if not dinner was lunch, evening meal if not dinner was supper. So groups who traditionally had a big midday meal, smaller evening meal said "dinner, supper." In the US that pattern is mostly related to rural or farming communities, so (to me, anyway) feels old-fashioned or rural (and to my mother who was raised in a rural farming community where people said it) feels unsophisticated and probably something of a class marker.

    Anyway, my maternal grandfather and some other relatives always said breakfast, dinner, supper. My grandmother (who was educated, a teacher, and considered herself more sophisticated/modern, I think), and mother did not.

    I was raised more in cities and around my father's side of the family and (probably like my mother) always thought "supper" sounded hick until I was old enough to understand why it was used/what it signified. Now I wouldn't use it and don't often hear people use it (in Chicago), but I am not surprised when I do (my own relatives who did were in Nebraska and rural Washington, but I find it more common in the South now--just anecdotal).
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 31,724 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    The one that got me forever was "jumper." I only read it in stories and could not figure out what it meant. US translation = sweater.

    Bunny Hug. It's regional within Saskatchewan.

    But a Bunny Hug is a hooded sweatshirt, not a knitted sweater, right? Americans would call that a hoodie.

    I think most of Canada calls it a hoodie as well.

    Only the uncouth young fella's wear "hoodies" :tongue: I call them hooded Jumper.

    Shag/Bonk/Root = Sex

    Footpath - sidewalk
    Chemist - Pharmacy
    Posty- Postman
    Take away - Take out

    We say "we're going to the shops" for every store, grocery, clothes etc

    Breakfast
    Lunch
    tea

    As for cricket.. 5 frickan days my husband has commandeered the tele (tv), and because of rain it's going to end up a draw. He has explained the rules to me a million times, and there's still certain things that just make no sense!

    Here (US/Michigan), I think footpath & sidewalk are things, just different things. A sidewalk is paved (usually cement), and a footpath is more rustic. Personally, I wouldn't call a groomed gravel walking path either a sidewalk or a footpath. I don't have a solid word just for that - probably "gravel path" or "gravel walk". These are distinctions like the "Crick"/creek (long "e")/stream/river kind of thing, maybe.
  • MeanderingMammal
    MeanderingMammal Posts: 7,866 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Here (US/Michigan), I think footpath & sidewalk are things, just different things. A sidewalk is paved (usually cement), and a footpath is more rustic. Personally, I wouldn't call a groomed gravel walking path either a sidewalk or a footpath.

    In British English usage a pavement is the footpath adjacent to a road, a footpath would be other paths, such as through parks and the like.

    Trails or footpath are used interchangeably for essentially managed, but not surfaced, routes.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,752 Member
    Oh and voting is compulsory, you get a fine if you don't. We don't have a President, we have a Prime Minister. It's not compulsory to vote in America, right?

    This is probably BS, but i once heard that if you're in a place like New York and you smile or say hello as you're passing other pedestrians that you'll get mugged or they'd thing you were a weirdo??

    I call BS - we holidayed there last year and the people were so friendly! So much more willing to interact than Australians....
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Here (US/Michigan), I think footpath & sidewalk are things, just different things. A sidewalk is paved (usually cement), and a footpath is more rustic. Personally, I wouldn't call a groomed gravel walking path either a sidewalk or a footpath.

    In British English usage a pavement is the footpath adjacent to a road, a footpath would be other paths, such as through parks and the like.

    I'd call the first a sidewalk and the second just a path. A path can be paved or not.
    Trails or footpath are used interchangeably for essentially managed, but not surfaced, routes.

    I use trail and path somewhat interchangeably. They need not be managed (in the country a path might exist due to regular use, that's all). I do think of a trail as more in a wooded area usually, but in Chicago the paved lakefront path used for walking, running, and biking (very busy) is called a trail.

    One can also make a path (a new path) through snow, even if it's just a short-term thing.
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,926 Member
    edited December 2016
    accidental post
  • paperpudding
    paperpudding Posts: 8,926 Member
    edited December 2016
    In Australia it is:

    breakfast
    brunch/morning tea/smoko
    lunch
    arvo tea/smoko
    dinner or tea
    supper = my "little lunch" or late evening snack.

    As a fellow Australian I would agree with above - except brunch is not same as morning tea.

    Morning tea is a little snack between breakfast and lunch - what English call "elevenses" I think

    Brunch is when you dont have breakfast or morning tea and then you have an early lunch - so, breakfast and lunch combined into one
  • ConnieT1030
    ConnieT1030 Posts: 894 Member
    Haha those 80s picture jumpers, my mum made me lots of them! We called those dresses with bib and straps 'tunics' when I was at infant school.

    omg, you Brits make babies go to school? O.o
    lol. Must be what US would call elementary, or grade school. (usually ages 5-11 or so) That's the thing about the US, we have like 7 words for everything, and only some of them are shared by different regions of the country. :D
  • rainbowbow
    rainbowbow Posts: 7,490 Member
    Haha those 80s picture jumpers, my mum made me lots of them! We called those dresses with bib and straps 'tunics' when I was at infant school.

    omg, you Brits make babies go to school? O.o
    lol. Must be what US would call elementary, or grade school. (usually ages 5-11 or so) That's the thing about the US, we have like 7 words for everything, and only some of them are shared by different regions of the country. :D

    pre-school?
  • sammyliftsandeats
    sammyliftsandeats Posts: 2,421 Member
    Haha those 80s picture jumpers, my mum made me lots of them! We called those dresses with bib and straps 'tunics' when I was at infant school.

    omg, you Brits make babies go to school? O.o
    lol. Must be what US would call elementary, or grade school. (usually ages 5-11 or so) That's the thing about the US, we have like 7 words for everything, and only some of them are shared by different regions of the country. :D

    Speaking of...

    This may be regional too but in the States, is it 'Grade 1' 'Grade 2' or is it 'First Grade' 'Second Grade'?

    My cousin from California kept correcting me when I told her I was in Grade 10...she kept saying 'Tenth grade'.
  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
    Haha those 80s picture jumpers, my mum made me lots of them! We called those dresses with bib and straps 'tunics' when I was at infant school.

    omg, you Brits make babies go to school? O.o
    lol. Must be what US would call elementary, or grade school. (usually ages 5-11 or so) That's the thing about the US, we have like 7 words for everything, and only some of them are shared by different regions of the country. :D

    Nursery School 2-4
    Infant School 5 -7
    Junior School 7 - 11
    Secondary School 11 - 16 (I think the minimum leaving age has been raised since I went!)

    I think they're all called 'years' now - Year 1, Year 2 etc. We only called them 'years' at grammar school, and they only counted whilst we were at that school (they're carried over from earlier schools now).