English is English... Except if It's English

Remove all ads!

i think, reading this that foreign people have an interesting idea of how british people speak

 

I did think some examples were silly, such as using English slang vs 'normal' words Americans use - such as Bangers and Sausages.

 

@chev - and the music industry and for the book writers...

 

@ALdeth, okay? I'll call that asphalt, or tarmac.

And mayo on chips? German. Trust me, I live there.


In America, knickers are knee-length pants, usually worn by small boys but also as part of a fencing uniform.

Breeches dear lady, breeches.


@LNT: ALUMINIUM.
ANd we say Platinum.


@Kuemper- WHat the hell is oleo? We say margarine. And lager and beer are two seperate drinks. We say beer too. We make it better as well


English Lesson over, back to my coursework. Adieu old beans!

 

Barbecue/Barbie/BBQ is really the method of cooking, though is often used to descibe the whole of the device used for doing this. The actual metal rack you put the food on is a Grille. A Grill is the device on the oven that radiates heat downwards, but also refers to the process of cooking under such.

I have been known to eat my chips with Mayonnaise, but only if I'm out of Tomato Sauce (Americanism being Ketchup).

Kuemper

UK common usage has Lager, Stout, Bitter and Ale as different types of Beer. Bitter is very similar to Ale, but has the addition of Hops. Lager is brewed at much colder temperatures and uses a different yeast to enable this. Stout requires roasting the barley and/or malts before use.

The British and colonies drive on the left hand side as it is the most sensible for the majority of drivers who are right handed. In addition, we were never conquered by the French.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driving_on_the_left
In reasons best known to himself, Napoleon decided to change the side of road that carts drove on, which is why the rest of the world are in the wrong. Oh sorry, this one had been answered already.

Both Stockings and Tights are used. Stockings are those that finish at the thigh, Tights cover the nether regions.

A Knicker-bocker Glory is an ice-cream

 

mayo on chips. Yummy.

And as for the real topic. The list is endless. And now you're only talking nouns. The irregular verbs also have that nasty habit. And We can't choose, oh no. The British version is the only correct version. Just as well actually. I like it much beter.

They even put in a really mean one in the exam. It was a part of the exam that was obviously about tenses, so everybody tries to find the right tense (we had to strike out the wrong one's) and then he puts "in jail" in one of the sentence. Now, I had a moment of great lucidity and immediately said "hah! gaol!, not jail" and I marked it as wrong, but very little of my classmates even noticed it.

Well, I *heart* English.

 

But both are permissible and appear in English dictionaries.

 

"Gaol" is classier. But I like the "jail" one too. "Behind the bars" is how I enjoy putting it.

 

gaol is old old english

although you still see the term gaoler used when refering to prison guards

 

Most of this stuff is just slang developed into actual language, mis-spellings, or traditional stuff. What I really don't get is this whole football-soccer thing. How can you call it football if your foot hardly ever touches the ball? And what the hell is soccer?! The only thing I can think of is some derrivation of the phrase 'to sock' meaning to punch, but I think that phrase came about later anyway. Also, and I have no idea if the English have this problem as well, has anyone ever wondered why we park on driveways and drive on parkways? (insert corny heavy traffic joke here) There's a whole book on things like this called "Errors in English" (I think that's the one) that brings up stuff like this from America, England, Australia, Canada, and maybe a few other places. Its really hilarious. The thing I really worry about, though, is where we got 'burglarize' from. A burgaler is called a burglar because he burgles.

 

Sigh. At the risk of repeating myself, the word "soccer" is short for "Association Football" which is the official correct term for the sport, as denoted in the name of its governing body, FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association - i.e. the International Federation of Association Football). This helps distinguish it from Rugby Union Football, Australian Rules Football, American Football, Gaelic Football, or any other football that may be played in people's countries.

Also, NOG, I don't think the word 'parkway' is used much outside of the USA.

 

US: Sausages, UK: Bangers (but IIRC, only referred to as such when paired with mash), Australia: Snags

The "barbecue" thing is multi-purpose over here; it can refer to the cooking object, the cooking style (we have barbecued foods - normally taken from the cooking object), a variety of sauces, and to a food preparation which usually involves said sauces. It's a context thing.

The one I always found weird was the British use of "fit" referring to an attractive woman, as per "Fit But You Know It" and the Ali G movie. I get it, and like it, but am at a loss as to its origin. I'm a big fan of British rhyming slang, although wouldn't claim to understand it.

As Rallymama has said, fanny-packs have an entirely different meaning in the US than in the rest of the English-speaking world. Don't be offended if someone laughs at the use of the word.

Beer <> lager. IIRC, lager is a type of beer (along with ale and stout). No young Australian male should not be able to taste the difference, even if they don't understand the difference (stout's the easy one to spot).

Australia has some weird internal inconsistencies as well, mainly in football codes:

Footy - in Victoria, South Australia and Western Australia, refers to Australian Rules Football. The same code is known as "aerial ping-pong" in the northern states. In New South Wales and Queensland, refers to the dominant rugby code.

Rugby - catch-all term in Victoria; in NSW and Queensland, the distinction between union and league has to be made.

Soccer - soccer, everywhere in the country.

 

My uni has this fun system. We have to know (and be able to distinguish between) both AE and BE, but only BE is correct.

 

As it should be!

 

Yup. No offence to the Americans/Australians , but the things you've done to that beautiful language...Especially the accent...

 

Y'all can kiss my grits!

 

Luckily, I don't have an accent.

 

That's what everyone thinks! I don't mind the kiwi accent, though - some will tell you it's the same as Australian but minus vowels, but I don't believe 'em. Kiwi is softer and more palatable, imo.

Slighty off topic - I used never to understand why Americans got cockney and Australian confused... Now I live in London, and I understand: it's because 2/3rds of the people in London are from Oceania!

My accent used to be more Westcountry when I was small, but turned "typical" English when I went to private school. It's generally inadvisable to be thought of as a "wurzel" in life, though. People seem to underestimate anyone who has a Westcountry accent as being a bit thick. I think the same's true of Brummie, too.

I don't know why sounding posh makes people think you're clever, though - some of the dumbest people I've known have been among the poshest! One of them would even have sat in the Lords if they hadn't culled some hereditary peers...

@ Fel: wtf?

 

@Magpie:
Just a southern (redneck) accent I slip into every once in a while when I'm feeling silly. I figured it was appropriate when Uytuun started talking about "the things Americans have done to the language". Rednecks practically have a language of their own. "Y'all" is a more inclusive "you", and I think "grits" are something akin to hash browns. IIRC, "kiss my grits" is used as an expression of surprise.

Just listen to a Jeff Foxworthy comedy album, and you'll see what I mean.

 

And yet, despite all this, my 3rd grade English teacher didn't know if we were learning British or American English.