Does anyone have some entertaining "British English versus American English" stories to share? I'll start.
This last May, wife and I stopped off at a local pub for dinner near our flat. Come to find out:
"Mixed leaves" is what Americans would call a tossed salad.
"Mixed greens" is steamed vegetables (asparagus and broccoli in this case.)
This isn't a story, exactly, but I was told this, and then it was confirmed by a Brit I worked with.
The word "quite" has an opposite meaning in British English than in American English. Here, if we say something is quite good, it is rather good, but when Brits say something is quite good, it is just barely good.
A couple of years ago my wife and I went to Bavaria and Italy, with a couple of nights in Dublin thrown in at the end. I'd studied German in the past, and we both took an Italian class at the local college before our trip. So in both Germany and Italy we were able to get by in the local languages.
Then we got to Dublin, and we couldn't understand anybody. Ok, that's exaggerating. But I did have a nice conversation with the owner of the hotel where we were staying (Ned O'Shea of O'Shea's Merchant in Temple Bar). We were both speaking English -- through an interpreter!
'Mixed greens' would create confusion in Australia as it could possibly refer to a green salad. Here one would more likely see 'steamed greens' on a menu.
Ask for ‘chips’ in the UK and you will get thickly cut French Fries.
What Americans call ‘pants’ = trousers in the UK. (Pants are an undergarment).
Sidewalk = pavement.
" Entree in particular I always have to think twice. It sounds like it should be the starter not the main (as we would call it)."
Yes, that one caught me out in a restaurant in Florida, I had to ask my friends wife (who lives there) why there were no main courses on the menu.:-)
Don't really understand why the French word for a "starter" would be used to describe a main dish.
I once insulted a friend's mother in London when I said she had a very pretty front yard. After a short awkward silence, the semantics were explained. A UK yard is an empty lot or a slur on someone's "garden." Pastries are always a conundrum - I'd walk into a bakery and know what everything is called in Chicago, but not a clue in London, I could only point. I did know from living in Jerusalem that a cheese roll is a cheese sandwich on a roll, not a sweet pastry.
An English girl and an American girl here were roommates. The English girl put "squash" on the shopping list, the American came home with zucchini. Turns out, in England the sweet fruity syrup concentrate you add to water or seltzer is called squash. Zucchini is "courgettes."
I worked in an office with an English girl here in Israel. Once a month we had to send out flyers, which meant manually stuffing hundreds of envelops. She'd blush and beg us not to talk about "stuffing" anything. On the other hand, she had no problem asking if anyone had a rubber.
There are regional differences in the US too. In Chicago, we used to drink chocolate phosphates (as in let's get a chocolate phos). It's chocolate syrup with seltzer. My aged uncle was snowbirding in Florida and ordered one. The waitress had no idea what he was talking about, he got angry because he thought she was just being difficult and he had no idea how to make one (typical old guy), he just knew what he wanted. The story was related to me by a New Yorker who was with them, telling me he'd ordered a chocolate phosphorus.
one of the biggest differences especially for travellers is the term VAN. American see this as a car that seats around 7 people.
In the UK we use vans for transporting goods, a car that transports a larger number of people is a people carrier?
Another big problem for travellers is the way American use dates and times, seems the 24hr clock is pretty well unused and dates to me are the wrong way round, today for me is 13/07/2016 but for you guys in the US it is 07/13/16.
Yes, the different order when dates are written as all numbers can cause some serious and expensive misunderstandings. It's always best to use the actual names of months in transatlantic correspondence.
On my first trip to the UK, I was getting a ride from Oxford to Bristol with some people I knew from work, and talk turned to where we would stop for lunch. The driver said that coming up in a few miles was a GARRudge, and we could stop there. I didn't have the foggiest clue what he was talking about until several minutes after we actually got there, when I realized that (1) the word he pronounced as GARRudge, I would pronounce as garAHZH, (2) what he was calling a garage, I would call a gas station, (3) this particular gas station had a convenience store, and (4) British convenience stores sell those prepackaged sandwiches, not (just) the junk food that you would expect to find in America.
I lived in Germany, where many Germans spoke the British English; Also, worked in Saudi Arabia where I met many British people. The only persons that I was not able to understand from the British Isles was a older gentleman from Scotland. However, years later, when we visited Scotland, the vast majority of the people spoke without the very pronounced Scots accent.
One side story was that one evening on St. Patrick's Day, I was drinking with some Irish guys in a Pub in Frankfurt, Germany. Since I had many Irish ancestors, I was telling them about that. All went well, until they asked me my first name, which is George. After, that they were very cool to me. Apparently, no one in Ireland would name his son George (the patron saint of England). Of course, I have Scots, Welsh and English ancestors as well.
Another story from Germany. I was renting an apartment in a high rise building and could not find how to dispose of my garbage. The Germans in the office didn't know what I was talking about. Also, they did not know what trash was either. Eventually, they figured out that I was talking about rubbish.
Bum, still a favourite word in both countries and totally different meanings as is Fag.
Oh the memories.............
The group will have an "Open Bar" -- in the US, that typically means free drinks. But, I was a management host for a group about 70 employees on a trip to England decades ago. At Warwick Castle there was some sort of mess-up with the arrangements, and after receiving profuse apologies from the staff there, the group was invited to walk up a relatively steep area to another building to wait, and with a big smile, the lady told me: "We'll have an open bar for your group." So, I addressed our group, explaining where we were to wait, but adding there would be FREE drinks. Found out that was not the case, so my corporate credit card quickly covered the drinks (and who knows how many that were not part of our group). "Open Bar" meant just that the bar would be open...duh!!
Another time at a pub, my husband ordered a martini with an olive....he thought it tasted strange, and it turns out (we learned) a martini is a brand of vermouth.
And, as my husband's cousins always say:
Car Park instead of parking lot
Hire a car instead of renting a car
Daily instead of a maid
Holiday instead of vacation
...........and, yes, a yard (even if it's just a plain patch of fescue) is called a garden
We once needed to take our car onto a military base in the northern Germany city where we were living. In order to do so we had to register and get a permit. I called the base with license number, VIN number, make and model in hand. The questioning started. Pretty soon we were in trouble, the officer wanted to know if our car was a saloon. Did it have a boot he asked? Was the bonnet in the front or back? It left him scrambling to think of alternative ways of describing what kind of car they'd be needing to sweep the undercarriage each time we pulled in at the gate.
I learned that day:
Saloon=sedan (as opposed to Estate Car which was a station wagon)
Boot=trunk
Bonnet=hood
But a lot of odd images were swimming around in my head before I figured out I wasn't going in an old west tavern in my cowboy boots with a bonnet on my head...
MrsEB - The title references the line 'England and America are two countries divided by a common language'. It's been attributed to George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, and Winston Churchill (now there's a trio for you).
Emma - I'm surprised to learn it would be considered poncey restaurant speak. It was in a run of the mill pub near our flat. Thanks for the insight.
I finally figured out that an egg sandwich is an egg salad sandwich, and not a fried egg sandwich like we make sometimes.
And there was that novel where the author was referring to "trainers"...ah yes, tennis shoes.
While I have the opportunity, I'll say again that British films should always come with English subtitles.
American subtitles, perhaps.
I always got a good laugh telling the locals, "I'm American, I don't speak English, but I studied it in college."
On my first trip to Ireland in 1979, I was in a pub and ordered a soda. The bartender asked if I wanted it "By the neck". I gave him a confused look. He explained that "By the neck" meant I would drink it out of the bottle instead of pouring into a glass. So later on in my trip in a pub in Dublin, I order a soda "By the neck". The bartender gave me a confused look. I explained that I would drink it out of the bottle.
egg salad
no, egg salad is egg with lettuce, salad cream (whatever that is under the skin), and maybe, but not guaranteed, sliced tomato.
Better egg and cress, which is egg and cress and a little bit of mayo.
The plot thickens. What, pray tell, is salad cream?
egg salad (US) is egg mayo or egg mayonnaise (UK).
"egg salad (US) is egg mayo or egg mayonnaise (UK)."
Okay...so is there an in between iteration of this language thing practiced in Virginia?
It appears that there may be some language and food differences between the U.S. and Canada as well. Until reading this thread, I had never heard of a "chocolate phos".
So far I've been able to manage "English" when in the U.K. as that's where some of my family originated. However, I really had to concentrate on this one, and still didn't get all of it.....
^^^ Very funny, and this is what I'm saying. Years ago I gave up on The Full Monty when I realized I needed to watch it twice! I really do enjoy the slang though, off the charts in that sequence, Ken.
And see, it took me an extra second to remember that "chocolate phos" (phos - fozz) was phosphate and not chocolate vietnamese soup (pho - fuh)
I'd offer, as gently as I can, that the chocolate phos phenomenon is a cultural food, rather than an English/Canadian/American food. I wouldn't expect anyone outside a particular subset to know a schmaltz sandwich or funeral potatoes, either.
It took me a bit to figure out cookie = biscuit. On our first flight to Europe on BA I asked one of the flight attendants if she had something for a snack perhaps a cookie. Oh my did she look puzzled! After a little more discussion and show & tell we sorted it out!
Oh yes - you Brits do lots of sorting out!
But I think that is brilliant!
The issue with trying to link all of these things together is that not only are many things known by different names from country to country, there are regional terms (chocolate phosphate example mentioned by another) mainly for food that no one has ever heard of outside those regions. The only reason I know what a phosphate is is because I saw it on a travel show on TV. Otherwise, I never heard of such a thing.
Same way that in the South of the US every soda is a "Coke" and you have to specify what you really want when someone asks you if you want a Coke. "Would you like a Coke?" "Sure, Dr. Pepper sounds good."
I really have not had any issues in understanding the various British English terms when I visited there. I can usually get an understanding from the context. Now whether or not they understand me is a whole 'nother issue. And if they don't it's nobody's fault but mine :-)
What you call a chocolate phosphate, we call a chocolate soda in central Illinois.
I think the closest thing we have to salad cream in the U.S. is Miracle Whip. Salad cream isn't as thick.
Okay...so is there an in between iteration of this language thing practiced in Virginia?
Not sure what you mean, but I did live in London for a year so got to make many mistakes ordering one thing for lunch and getting something entirely different from what I expected, writing documents and getting my English corrected, and learning entirely new expressions such as
Nigel beat me to the egg and cress reference. In the US we say watercress; I've never heard it shortened to cress.
"Made redundant" in the British Isles means "laid off" in the US
Is the following correct?:
British American
Biscuit Cookie
Cookie Cracker
In St. Louis, PBS (Public Broadcasting Station) is showing the second season of the Great British Baking Show. I don't care that much about baking, but I love listening to all the different accents and the different words they use for things. This season was filmed in Berkshire. One of the hosts pronounced it Barksha, just as Emma (I think) said it was pronounced. When I heard that, it took my brain a second to catch up and I was excited that I knew what the host said.
This language divide goes much farther than just Europe. One can see the differences all over the world. I was recently on a trip to Rwanda where the same English word has very different meanings as well. I ended up making myself a little dictionary. It was also interesting to very carefully and slowly address a class of students and see nothing but blank faces. The classroom teacher would then repeat my exact words but with an African accent and looks of recognition would suddenly appear.
Miracle Whip is sweeter tasting than mayonnaise, but not to the point you would confuse it with a dessert topping. It was created during the 1930's depression era as a more affordable alternative to mayonnaise. Over the years it has been pushed as a "healthier" replacement for mayonnaise as well since it is mostly water and has a lot less oil and egg than mayonnaise. We grew up eating it at home because that's what mom liked.
always assumed miracle whip was sweet, like a dessert topping . You learn something new everyday<<
That would be Cool Whip (frozen, used defrosted) or Reddi-Whip (whipped cream in an aerosol can).
"egg salad (US) is egg mayo or egg mayonnaise (UK)"
Laura, I was confused by this, and wondered if there was an East Coast thing I had missed since you're in Virginia-so egg salad would be called egg mayo in UK?
Emma, thanks for the scoop on salad cream, it surely does sound like a good start to a home-made mayonnaise. I love that you recall it being (the American brand) Heinz, and thanks also for distinguishing between the common and the posh, always good to know.
I recall buying an egg sandwich at a Pret location in London, I think it had cress, or perhaps watercress.
"Cress" is short for garden cress and it is a different plant from watercress.
Garden cress is easily grown in pots or even damp paper ( although it won't grow very long that way).
http://herbgardening.com/growinggardencress.htm
The two plants are in the same family ( Brassicas) but belong to different genera.
"I could care less" is wrong. People that say it mean "couldn't." Drives me nuts. Don't they
listen to what they are saying?
Well, I could care less, but that would take effort I don't want to expend. :-/
Yes, US dates confuse me (today is Friday 15th July: 15/7/16).
And floor numbers. The ground floor is zero, 0. Floors above that are 1, 2, 3 etc. Floors below ground are -1, -2 etc. What could be simpler?
The area at the side of a road for the use exclusively by pedestrians is a pavement.
And as for a F###y bag. A F###y is a crude term for a female orifice that I would expect most websites to have as a banned word. A money bag attached to a belt is a "bum bag". A bum is a more polite word for an arse, an ass is a type of donkey.
And a toilet is a toilet, a bathroom is a room with a bath in it, a rest room is a place you go if you are tired.
"And a toilet is a toilet, a bathroom is a room with a bath in it, a rest room is a place you go if you are tired."
+1, I don't really understand the aversion to using the word "toilet" in America.
I was on a training course in Baltimore in the early 90's, a bloke came into the classroom and casually said that there was a woman wearing suspenders in the office across the hall. Well, I don't think the rest of the class (American) had seen their 2 English classmates move so fast, we were very disappointed though to learn that "suspenders" in the US are "braces" (for holding trousers up) in the UK, suspenders in the UK is a garter belt in the US. :-)
I heard a new one this morning on a news report. The BBC reporter used the term "pick up truck" to describe a truck that removes disabled vehicles. I've always referred to those as "tow trucks", as the term "pick up trucks" has a different meaning in this part of the world. Which description is most common in the U.K.?
I thought the U.K. tderms were "breakdown truck" or "recovery vehicle". To me, a pick-up truck is a vehicle with a low-sided rear section for carrying goods, especially designed for use over rough ground. It could be that the reporter just used the wrong term in the heat of the moment, which can more easily happen if you speak more than one language, or are reporting from a foreign country.
not tow truck.
Not much gets towed here either. Cars are generally driven or winched onto a flat bed before being removed.
Oh, Harleydonski, it gets even better. At Ft. Wilderness Campground in Disney World they are called Comfort Stations.
Heard the phrase 'Horses for Courses' the other day on the BBC. That was a new one for me. (They were discussing Mr. Johnson.)
You should see the lovely differences in the publishing and business world.
Number of Pages (in a book) is extent.
Backorders are Dues
We send copies to college professors, they dispatch them
We take courses in college they take modules
There are more. :)
Pam
Nigel,
Vehicles are still "towed" in this area, using a hydraulic lift like this one.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OYt5BpNek
Since many cars these days are front wheel drive, this method works well. No cable or hook required. Flatbeds are used also. It depends on what the tow company has available at the time.
Tom, the part of the road between the pavements that cars drive on is just called the road, or the road surface if you are talking about the asphalt. Yes, a pavement could also be called a footpath, but footpath also includes unsurfaced paths beside a road, or cross-country where there is no road. Like this one: https://usercontent2.hubstatic.com/12970559_f1024.jpg
And "any hard surfaced ground" is not just a road, it may be a car park, factory yard, school playground or many other things.
Year-Month-Day (2016-07-16) is a lot more logical, but not used much outside the computer industry.
And why do US-Americans still use the confusing AM/PM system in timetables? 12:55PM is earlier than 1PM - totally non-intuitive. 12:55 followed by 13:00 is simple.
Pop as a term from a fizzy drink is holding out in the north of England but in general elsewhere is old-fashioned along with 'tonic' and 'mineral', although the last is more common in Ireland.
The term was in far more common use when the drinks were sold by door to door delivery in thick glass bottles.
By that I mean that format will always be alphabetized in chronological order.
Alphabetizing means putting in alphabetical order (according to the alphabet). You can't "alphabetize" in chronological order. Year-month-day is not alphabetical, nor is it chronological. First you have the day, then the month, then the year (so the European system makes more sense).
The best way to resolve the date issue is to use this format: 15-July-2016. It's in excel and my boss uses it for all our reports that we share with the UK. The first thing I do when I get a spreadsheet from the UK is to change the dates to this format. If you leave it numeric, you can really seriously mess up. Believe me. I've done it. And when you mess up a pub date of a book by 3 months, that's a bad mistake! :( Pam
Tom, "Tarmac" is short for "tarmacadam", i.e. an asphalt surface. I would not think this applies to airports, as they mostly use concrete surfacing.
I always name my files "Daily report yyyy-mm-dd.whatever", but I would not use yyyy-mm-dd in a normal sentence. The title of the report would be "Daily Report, Sunday 17th July 2016", which is unambiguous.
I have never heard of "Alphabetize" (Which I would spell alphabetise), but you can sort alphabetically or sort numerically, which are two different things.
And "I could care less" is the opposite of "I couldn't care less".
When the Harry Potter books were released in the USA, they produced different versions, with many words changed, for example "owl post" was changed to "owl mail". The same happened to the films, two different sound tracks.
My sister tells the story of visiting Florida when her daughters were young, and being unable to find anywhere she could rent push chair, or buy nappies.
I love "nicked" or down at the "nick".
Calling your superior Guv
When I was a kid - lavatory was the preferred polite word in school. Restroom, bathroom and lastly toilet!
When "I were a lad" at school, we went to "the bog" and always hoped there was still some "bog roll" left.:-)
what, no khazi?
A bogie, in my British railway professional experience, is the frame which holds the axles for the wheels of a British railway vehicle, engine or carriage. It is generally articulated and suspended from the balance of the vehicle so that the vehicle doesn't derail as it goes around corners.
You will have two bogies, one at each end the carriage or engine.
I'd never heard of it having entomology other than British.
Never heard "the bogs" before!
You have never heard of "the school bogs", and "bog roll"? Bog roll or "loo roll" later is a term still in common use. Remember the bog roll, an industrial standard, smooth on one side and rough on the other? Totally unlike the smooth soft stuff you get in supermarkets today. When I started work that was still type you got in factory bogs. Can you still get it?
I frequently watch British police shows such as A Touch of Frost and Heartbeat and always chuckle a bit at the lines "you're nicked" or "keep that up and we'll have ya down at the nick". AFAIK, no other country uses that term so it seems quintessentially British.
Still on the topic of policing in the U.K., one of my Sons brought this to my attention and I found it to be a very interesting read.....
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/policing-by-consent/definition-of-policing-by-consent
I love Frost! and Inspector Morse & the subsequent Inspector Lewis.
Pretty sure I want no part of a "bog roll"!
Emma,
The term "you're nicked" is appropriate for Heartbeat, given that it's set in the '60s. Inspector Frost is a more modern version, but given his age, his character probably used that term when he was a young "copper".
I don't think I've seen any Sweeney Todd, so I'm not sure I see the connection between a Strawberry Mivvi and a person / civilian member of staff? British terminology certainly is interesting!
Another term that I often chuckle about is "Porky Pies", especially the car window scene in Snatch. Vinnie Jones was fantastic in that movie (the "replica" scene in the Pub was also good).
"I don't think I've seen any Sweeney Todd,"
The Sweeney was a police TV show about a division of the police known as the Flying Squad in the 70's and 80's, the "Sweeney Todd" reference by Emma is rhyming slang, "Sweeney Todd = Flying Squad", nothing to do with the "demon barber of Fleet Street".
Then again a pork pie is a hat.
I've never heard any Canadian use the expression, "fair dinkum," and I'm Canadian and have traveled all over Canada. That person was either Australian or was confusing Australuan and British phrases and was trying to fit in.
To me, a toilet is the receptacle for one's bodily waste, not the room. And it seems odd to criticize the use of "washroom" when lavatory means washroom. (The root, lav, Is from a Latin word for washing.)
As a Canadian of a certain age, I have seen our language become Americanized, mainly through constant exposure to US media, but also due to spell checkers designed in the US. Thus, chips have become fries, chesterfields have become sofas, thongs have become flip flops, Hallowe'en Apples has become Trick or Treat and the u is disappearing from many -our spellings, although I still cling to u and always will.
I resent the homogenization of North American English, and I enjoy the differences when I travel or meet people from overseas, and I think of their way of speaking as interesting rather than wrong. Vive la differerence!
emma,
"Lies" was also my understanding of Porky Pies (sometimes abbreviated to "Porkys"). From what I've read online it originated from Cockney rhyming slang, and I've heard it on numerous other British shows.
The window scene from Snatch is available on YouTube if you're interested, but I won't post the link here as it has some "salty" language.
You will find "accomodations" used in at least one of Jane Austen's novels, can't remember which one. Many terms and usage we think of as American are ones that originated this side of the Pond. "Gotten" is an example not seen as good English. I seem to remember seeing it used by Samuel Pepys and it still survives in terms such as ill-gotten or misbegotten.
I have a (completely unresearched!) theory that the US habit of lengthening words stems from German immigrants taking over their linguistic traditions.
BTW was very surprised to see the still used phrase "fagged out" ie exhausted used in another one of Austen's novels.
I'm not sure I understand why "transportation" or "accommodations" are incorrect?
Another British word for "exhausted" that I've seen is "knackered", again uttered in a very colourful manner by Vinnie Jones in the movie Eurotrip (the part in the ending credits always makes me LOL).
Knackers can also be used to describe "men's bits" eg kicked in the knackers!
"Knackered" originally meant specifically "exhausted from having lots of sex".
The Knackers Yard is where worn-out horses go to be despatched and made into pet food.
Jane Austen also has characters playing base ball in Northanger Abbey.
"I'm not saying transportation or accomodations are actually wrong they just sound wrong to these British "ears". Even our government department with responsibility for the area is the Department for Transport not transportation."
Another one that sounds strange to English ears is "transit", don't think I've ever used that word in a sentence. "Customs" is another one (used in the American way to describe immigration at airports), also luggages, I was told at school that there was no plural to that word, the same as sheep and cannon.
I don't think most Americans pluralize the word luggage. When I see someone asking a question about luggages I assume English is a second language.
However, I would pluralize cannon. I did not realize that was not a singular word. Not that I use WIKI for all my information, lol, but....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cannon
Love the Hyacinth reference!
Another phrase I find confusing is "lucked out", had to see this a couple of times to realise it didn't mean "out of luck".
My husband is infatuated with this Anglophenia youtube channel. I'd like to know if our British contingent concurs with this youtube summary of 17 British accents:
When I grew up in Milwaukee we drank soda and went to the lavatory and drank water from a bubbler...
then I moved to Michigan and we drink pop, go to the restroom or bathroom (not the toilet) and we drink water from a drinking fountain. I felt like I had become low class as I was drinking pop instead of soda:) So now I drink wine instead:)
I quite enjoyed that YouTube video, but I can't comment on how accurate she was.
Regarding the meaning of "knackered", it sounds like it may have a different meaning depending on what context it's used. I assume Vinnie Jones would know the proper usage.
emma,
Hyancinth Bucket, indeed - LOL! I'm a fan and still watch the shows whenever they come on. How else could I have possibly learned about such things as "Royal Doulton with the hand painted periwinkles" or "private slimline white telephone with last number redial". One of my favourite characters is Onslow, whose philosophy is to enjoy life with beer in front of the telly, with occasional visits to the turf accountant. My favourite episode is the one where Hyacinth tries to commandeer a telephone booth, and henpecked Richard is forced to reprimand her, at which point the guy in the booth says "well done sir, in wartime you'd have been given a medal for courage like that".
I understand that a prequel of Keeping Up Appearances is being made, but I don't think it will be as good. I agree with Patricia Routledge - "they must be getting desperate".
Interesting discussion.....
On a recent episode of Doc Martin, there was an American visitor, played by Sigourney Weaver. She said something to the doctor, and he replied "I'm sorry, I don't understand what you're saying - your accent's very thick."
I loved it.
One word that that I find interesting is "surgery." To Americans, it means an operation, cutting into the body, and so on, and it might mean the place where such things take place. In Britain (I believe), it means not only that, but also a doctor's hours, and even other professional's hours. For example, a member of Parliament has "surgery" when he meets with his constituents.
Am familiar with calling a physicians office his surgery...but never heard it used for any meeting.
From Oxford Dictionary:
surgery
Pronunciation: /ˈsərj(ə)rē/
NOUN (plural surgeries)
1The treatment of injuries or disorders of the body by incision or manipulation, especially with instruments:
cardiac surgery
he had surgery on his ankle
2British A place where a doctor, dentist, or other medical practitioner treats or advises patients.
2.1 [IN SINGULAR] An occasion on which medical treatment or consultation occurs:
Doctor Bailey had finished his evening surgery
Perhaps your Oxford dictionary is a different one to the one in common use here.
Certainly it is missing major parts of the definition.
Have a read of this list of politicians' and civil servants' surgeries:=
Very interesting Nigel - learn new stuff here all the time.
Crazy neither the Oxford nor Cambridge online dictionary has a reference to it. The Free online dictionary does!
Napkin vs serviette seems to cause problems. Some Americans seem to refuse to believe that they need to know these things. .
The link provided by Nigel was very interesting! I'm not sure why a Politician's meeting would be referred to as a "surgery", as it doesn't seem logical. British terminology always provides a few surprises.
Another example that just came to mind is the TV show Dalziel & Pascoe. Apparently "Dalziel" is pronounced as "Dee-Ell", which doesn't follow the pronunciation one would think. I did some research on that, and there is a historic reason it's pronounced like that, but it still doesn't make sense.
Consider the scene in "Good Bye Mr Chips" when a student (?) exclaims to Peter O'Toole, "It's in the dictionary!" He replies, "Oxford or Webster?"
I read "elevenses" in a novel and had to look it up. Now I see it all the time in Brit lit..
Another example that just came to mind is the TV show Dalziel & Pascoe. Apparently "Dalziel" is pronounced as "Dee-Ell", which doesn't follow the pronunciation one would think. I did some research on that, and there is a historic reason it's pronounced like that, but it still doesn't make sense.
It is because it is a letter that existed in Scots, that doesn't exist in the modern English alphabet - it looked like a 'z' but pronounced closer to a 'g' like in Menzies and Kilcadzow which have the same letter. Like the 'y' in 'Ye Olde Shoppe' is really a 'th'.
I don't think I've seen "cuppa" here yet
Or even a "cuppa" of "Rosie Lee".
Or even a "cuppa" of "Rosie Lee".
Is "Rosie Lee" another of those rhymes?
Rosie Lee = tea
I figured it was
British terms to come to terms with: Bap for bread roll, jacket potato for baked potato, chips for French fries, half-ten for 10:30, sorry for oops, pudding for dessert, "tea" sometimes referring to a meal, bacon for that breakfast meat which I still don't recognize, launderette as a cute way of saying laundromat. Coach for long-distance bus.
And not exactly language-related: what's with quoting "petrol" prices in pence. So some unit or other may be 145 p. Seems like that would keep people confused when most prices are quoted in GBP.
A friend spent a year or two in London translating from English into American. Really!
Never heard an American say or write "whilst" which seems to be more written in the UK than spoken there.
I am an American user of the word whilst - not sure where/when but I have used it most of my adult life. It's a good word!
Ken and MC - thanks Ken for asking about "De-Ell" and thanks to MC for explaining. A recurring character in a trashy romance series I read has that name and it always puzzled me when I listened to the audiobooks and he was called De-Ell.
Ken and MC - thanks Ken for asking about "De-Ell" and thanks to MC for explaining. A recurring character in a trashy romance series I read has that name and it always puzzled me when I listened to the audiobooks and he was called De-Ell.
Pam, you are welcome. Meant to add the pronunciations of the names I gave.
Menzies = Min'gis
Kilncadzow = Kilcay'gie.
Both of them the 'z' is closer to a hard 'g'.
"Rocket" is arugula lettuce. "Aubergine" is eggplant. A "lorry" is a truck. Trains "call at" stations instead of stopping at them, and they're always called "railway stations", not railroad stations.
Regarding toilets: Unless represented by a graphic sign, "Toilets" seems to be the most common sign. Sometimes I saw "WC" although that is more common on the Continent. The most common slang word seems to be "loo".
