and they call sellotape (UK sticky tape) 'durex' (UK condoms) - I couldn't believe it when I first heard this - a new aussie workmate calmly asked the full office "does anyone have some durex?"
UK biscuits = US cookies
Lisa, you pm box is full!
mmmm..., that's funny, one of the French parents told me that.
Maybe it is a slang for marijuana.
Linncn,
The point of this was to explain the weird phrases, so what is 'play euchre'? It's not the color, or the vegetable, I'm stuck.mailbox emptySorry Ninilchicken....euchre is a card game that's unique to MI. Well, I guess we're probably not the only ones who play it. But I've read that it's not common for most of the US.I havent heard it in the UK , How do you play it
[QUOTE=Linncn]Sorry Ninilchicken....euchre is a card game that's unique to MI. Well, I guess we're probably not the only ones who play it. But I've read that it's not common for most of the US.[/QUOTE]
It's played on this side of Lake Michigan as well.In Rhode Island they call wieners "gaggers". I nearly peed myself when I heard this for the first time. Apparently, they are quite popular there.Geez, Deb, I married a Rhode Islander and I haven't heard that one! I know certain parts of RI they call water fountain's "bubblers", and their use of "R's" is totally without logic. They put them where they don't belong, and subtract them where they do! My husband's name is Dana - his father always called him Daner, but his sister Barbara was always called "Bobra". The drawers in a bureau are called "draws". Soda pop is called "sodar" and quarters are "quatters". And of course, my hubby always had a good "idear"!
In Connecticut we don't have yard sales or garage sales, we have "tag" sales. Rubber bands are called "elastics". We have sub sandwiches here too, but a lot of the state calls them grinders. Tennis shoes are sneakers - if you say tennis shoes, people will think it's only something you wear to play tennis!
In West Virginia bags are called "pokes" and a liquor store is called "the poke store". Tires are called "casin's", highways are called "the four lane". I had to laugh when you mentioned "case knife", my grandmother said that all the time. Bread was always called "Light Bread" - way before the days of "Light" foods!
I love this thread...
In South Africa the movies are called the Bioscope and traffic lights are called Robots
What you call candy in the USA we call sweeties in the UK.
Snow Owl- I love bubble and squeek, we have it for breakfast on a sunday....its normally all the left over cabbage,potatos and bits and you fry it all up in a pan...yummy...we dont waste food over here.
when we were in New york and booked into our hotel I told the porter that we had a ground floor room as i am claustrophobic and i cant go in a lift but i cant walk up the stairs either so I wouldnt be needing a lift...........he looked at me and asked me what I meant by "lift" i then realised and said..........an elevator
Some of my favorite Chicagoisms:
Da - The
Dis - This
Dat That
Deez - These
Doze - Those
Dere - There
Tree - Three
Jieetyet - Did you eat yet
Cheddar Curtain - Illinois/Chicago border
Oh and how could I forget about warsh... as in: Gitcher dishes in the dishwarsher or no pop for you.
Here the knitted type winter hats we wear are called "tuks" pronounced tukes and we have always called hot dogs "tube steaks" I'm sure I'll think of a bunch of others.
Fun thread, thanks for starting it!!!
A good one that my kids find hilarious when watching american T.V. is the use of the word Fanny......in the uk its slang for the lower female anatomy...Interesting post. I just love an English accent!!!!!!!!!! (I finally figured out how to use the emotions faces!!!)I have a very messed up way of talking. My mom is from the south and dad is a yankee from the north. So I used a combo of both. Which my kids laugh at. That catch me all the time saying things like "fixin' to do something" which means getting ready to do something. I also say ya'll with a northern accent sounds like "you all". My sister in MS really has a southern accent and her boy friend is cajun and I can't understand a word he says. He says 'tree' which means three.
Great subject!
Oh and we call hot dogs "dogs" and any soft drink is either a soda or a coke no matter what kind it is. No wonder I'm confused all the time. I can't understand my own language. Also I was taught southern manners. I call people by their first name but it has either a Miss or Mister in front.
From:
Miss Cindee
It is so funny I teach English here in Croatia and we have one chapter all about food and bangers and mash comes up and everytime my students get such a kick out of that Is it mashed potatoes and sausages? That is what I have been telling them.
My ex-boyfriends mother always used to say pilla for pillow and earl for oil it was like learning another language Hillside Strangler - Where Interstate 88 and Interstate 290 near Hillside (outside of Chicago) merge.
[QUOTE=KatieG]
Down here, if I am about to do something, then I am fixing to do it. I guess that is not common?
[/QUOTE]
They are tobogans here too! We are also "fixing" to go somewhere but it is really pronounced "fixin' " for me. :)
A spell in an amount of distance you will travel before getting to your destination "You go up that way a spell"
Coke is any carbonated beverage even though you order Sprite.
Dalmatinka- bangers and mash is sausage and mash potao's.lolHillhoney, it's funny, I'm from Mass, and RI is right down the street from me. I can relate to the "R" thing. I grew up close to Boston, and my kids have grown up here. They laugh at the way I talk. We never say our "R's" and put them where they don't belong. My hubby was raised in RI, and to me, he sounds like he grew up in a totally different part of the world, well, he does to me anyway.
Owiemom I almost choked when I saw what your area calls a hotdog. Tube steak has a totally different meaning in Maryland and a hotdog it isn't.Could you imagine all of us getting together having a conversation about everyday things, we would be hysterically laughing saying one thing and others would think we meant anotherFollowing on from Fanny and Lisa's post re what a fanny is in the Uk...
Some people in the UK call the female part a 'front bottom'!
Tobogans are sleds and used for sliding along in snow.
Knitted hats are woollytops, bobble hats if they have a pompom on top.
I like bubble and squeek so much that I sometimes make it 'fresh'
Who outside the UK has mushy peas? They have been a chip shop delicacy in the Midlands and North since time began, southerners haven't a clue so I make my own. They are dried peas soaked over night with a steeping tablet then boiled to within an inch of their life, mmm, must do some soon.
The fish and chip shop is commonly known as the 'chippie' or sometimes "t'chippie" as an acknowledgement to the northern roots of t' which is 'the'.
There are all sorts of things in chippies which 'I would not touch with a barge pole' - pickled eggs for one, ewww, I think they might even outdo apres bubble and squeek
The stuffing batch is a midlands thing - sage and onion stuffing in a bread roll, probably good with spicy brown sauce or ketchup.
Pickled walnuts! they look bad and probably taste even worse. In the words of Peter Kaye Tinker, I'm goin t' tgypt on my holidays!! I love mushy pea's and make my own too, our chippie bloke is from Up north and does a mean mushy pea.lol.....I know i wouldnt touch a fried mars bar out of chippiePincushion:
You just reminded me of my most embarassing moment while visiting relatives in Ireland. With a room full of guests, I said to my youngest aunt who was sitting on a couch, "Move your fanny and let me sit beside you". There was a complete hush in the room and a few coughs before conversation began again. My aunt took me in the kitchen and explained what I had said. Right you are, fanny does not mean he same thing in the US.
Ann
Oh Ann......Karen- you'd have to come stay with me, i'd feed you!! I make a mean sheperds pie and we can go buy some jellied eels...ugg!! no id feed you some good home cookingThanks Lisa! It won't be fried ferret, will it?Now i wonder where id find a recipe for that? maybe on the road kill site......yukk!!
I do make a mean roast lamb with garlic and rosemary, crispy roast potato's, yorkshire puddings and roasted veg.................a nice apple crumble for pudding with fresh cream or custard.........................what do you eat over the pond Karen/
Bollocks is my favourite word...i say it all the tiem when im angry.................
As for spotted Dick , i dont like it and never made it for the kids but my mum loves it, We were on holiday and she ordered it from the restuarant, well my then 11 year old daughter exploded into laughter so much that my mum ended up with tears rolling down her face.
By the way Bollocks is a slang word for testicles in the UK....Oh i have to tell this story, our friend has a daughter who has hydrochephelus(sp) her speech is affected quite a bit and she has a Dr by the name of Dr Bullock...when she goes to the hospital to see him, she shouts in her loudest voice DR BOLLOCKS,, DR BOLLOCKS.......LOL
Spotted dick - I've heard Michael Jackson has that!If you're pissed in the UK you're drunk.
If you're fed up or annoyed by someone in the UK you're pissed off.
Polite people would say 'cheesed off'
Posh people say 'cheesed ORF'
I'm sure the Queen says 'orf'
I say 'orf' when I'm pissing about which in that instance is messing about or having a laugh.
Course people say piss when they mean pee or wee, which is often referred to as a Jimmy - Jimmy Riddle = piddle or widdle
Euchre is played in Canada a lot too. Must be a northern thing. We played it at university a lot.
Americans call any post-secondary education "college". Drives me batty. Canadians call University "university" and Community College goes by "college".
A toque (tuke) is a hat that one wears when it's cold and snowy. I believe it was originally a french word and probably passed down to the english north americans from there.
Anyone who says "warsh" as in "I'm going to warsh my clothes" needs lessons in english pronunciation or a White Trash Cleansing!!!
I got made fun of recently for using the word "elastic", as in "I need an elastic for my hair". I was told the proper words was "ponytailer". That's a new one for me!!
The Aussies have the best phrases - sunnies (sunglasses), rellies (relatives), eskies (eskimos, or a cooler i.e Coleman Cooler), sparkies (electricians), pokies (gambling machines), cozzie (swimming costume/bathing suit).
Canadians wear thongs on their feet too, not flipflops.
And I much prefer the Cdn/UK "bum" instead of the american "butt". Sounds much nicer to tell your kids to sit on their bum please!
Oh, one more.
I like to use the word "cross" - i.e. "don't be cross with me" (mad).
I use it with my 4yr old daughter a lot and americans don't seem to know what i"m talking about.
People in England have a "flat". In the U.S. we have apartments.Yes a flat is an apartment
An elevator in the U.S. is a lift in the UK
A cab in the U.S. is a taxi in UK
Sidewalk in U.S. is a pavement in UK
A yard in the U.S. is a garden in the UK
Copyright ArthritisInsight.com