English vs English

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Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:24 pm

It would be interesting to me but I’m not sure about others….

One of the many things I’m enjoying on this forum is picking up on the slang. I’m not just talking about the “scambaiting” slang but the slang between the US and the UK. Okay, some of it isn’t slang but entirely different words used for the same thing. For example, here in the US it’s known as a trunk. That’s where you put your luggage and stuff in your car. Across the Atlantic it’s the boot. Speaking of cars, here we fill it up with gas. I understand that over there you use petro.

What do people in the UK call carbonated soft drinks? Is there some slang used for Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Sprite and so on? Here in the US, the slang depends on which part of the country you’re in.

For example, here in Texas we call any carbonated soft drink a “Coke”. It doesn’t matter if you’re drinking a Pepsi, Root Beer, Dr. Pepper, Sprite, 7UP or Ginger Ale. When you ask somebody what type of Coke they want, it doesn’t mean the difference between Diet Coke and regular Coke, it could mean Orange Crush. In other parts of the country they use terms like “pop”, “soda”, and “soda water”.

Here’s a list of different words used for the same thing. First the US version then the UK version –

Fries – Chips
Chips – Crisps
Hood – Bonnet
Panties – Knickers
Friend – Mate
Bathroom – Loo

Would anybody care to add more?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 12:40 pm

For carbonated soft drink, I'd say 'fizzy drink'. I've also heard it called 'pop' or 'fizzy pop', though in the part of the England I am from, 'pop' would only be said to small children (presumably to make it sound more exciting).

Talking of pop, I got into a silly misunderstanding on a dog training forum, when I wrote, 'I popped my dog on the lead.' I meant, 'I quickly put my dog on the lead.' But the Americans on the forum thought I meant, 'I jerked my dog's lead in a reprimanding manner,' and wondered why I was punishing him for nothing, and told me I was very wrong.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:16 pm

There's a list here.
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwesl/egw/jones/words.htm
Incomplete and a bit inaccurate though. Sausages is the usual word over here. Bangers is slang.
Fender and Bumper is another pair of words that I came up with.
Anyway, it is baiting related. I often bait as an American, so US spelling and terminology comes in useful.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:40 pm

Thanks for the link

I saw where an eraser is called a rubber in the UK. That's kinda funny because back when I was in high school (1974 - 1978) a rubber was slang for a condom. It wasn't until the early 80's that people over here started calling a condom a condom.

AIDS education made condom a respectable term. People don't use the term "rubbers" like we used.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 1:47 pm

sidewalk and pavement
faucet / tap
closet / wardrobe
dumpster / skip

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:04 pm

Cleaning fluid -> Pimms

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:13 pm

Suddenly I have gotten interested in Australia. Made friends from over there, recently.

How about ozzie slang?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 2:14 pm

Maybe we could, like you know, start like some American rhyming slang?

Eg...I fell down the Johnny Depps this morning right on my Sharon Glass It brought Britney's to my American Pies.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:03 pm

Sometimes it gets confusing.
In the US a truck is a vehicle; in the UK truck is garbage.
In the US a lift is something you give a hitchhiker; in the UK it's an elevator.
In the US a CURB is the concrete riser at the edge of a street (that thing that has a ramp cut into it for wheelchairs Wink

); in the UK a KERB is the gutter - the riser is the KERBSTONE.

@JackPump, in the early 80s I worked with a British woman who one day asked the office in general, "Does anyone have a rubber I could borrow?"

Instant deadly silence. Then someone figured out what she really meant. Laughing

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

Star A Star wrote:

closet / wardrobe
dumpster / skip

A wardrobe is where you store clothes, I think closet has a wider sense than that. Somewhere you don't store clothes would be a cupboard.

A skip is generally an open-top steel box rented for a few days to get rid of a large amount of rubbish (garbage). I believe a dumpster is a more permanent affair for disposal of commercial waste, and often has a lid (if Hollywood movies can be trusted). We have those and they are called wheelie-bins.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:23 pm

I remember being shocked when I read an American talking about patting the girls on their fanny. In the UK it means the front bottom, not the one you sit on.

Quote:

England and America are two countries separated by a common language.

George Bernard Shaw or Churchill, or maybe both, depending on which Google result you beleive.

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

^^^ Which at first sight makes the name of the "fanny-pack" seem correct, because wearing one of those round the back is (A) difficult to access, and (B) asking for its contents to be nicked*.

Except in the UK, "fanny-packs" are called "bum-bags".

(and fanny is a very disreputable word, not to be used in anything like polite conversation.)

------
* After the thief has nicked(stolen) your money, the policeman nicks(arrests) him.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:47 pm

One of my favourites, when visiting friends in Milwaukee.

Custard!

They have Kops Kustard (ice cream for us Brits). I was trying to explain custard to them.

Custard goes on pudding.
Pudding is a distinct dish ie apple pie, spotted dick
Custard does not go on desert ie ice cream

Pudding is what you put on desert ie apple pie
Custard is ice cream

Confused

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:47 pm

Professor Henry Higgins wrote:

Why, in America they haven't spoken it in years."

When I watch British TV shows or movies on TV, I have to turn on the Closed Captioning so I can understand what they're saying.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 3:54 pm

thud419 wrote:

(and fanny is a very disreputable word, not to be used in anything like polite conversation.)

although quite acceptable to say Fanny's your Aunt Very Happy

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:00 pm

Titania wrote:

In the US a truck is a vehicle; in the UK truck is garbage.
In the US a CURB is the concrete riser at the edge of a street (that thing that has a ramp cut into it for wheelchairs Wink

); in the UK a KERB is the gutter - the riser is the KERBSTONE.

A truck here is a truck.

Garbage is rubbish here.

A kerb is a kerb (the raised bit from the pavement (sidewalk)) here.

Gutter is the bit underneath the kerb.

Umm I'm a newbie so feel a little afraid to correct an oldie Wink

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

@Ms Mockinatrix, they don't have custard?! Shocked

What do they put in their trifle? Confused

BTW: technically, Fanny was my great aunt.

ETA:

Titania wrote:

In the US a lift is something you give a hitchhiker; in the UK it's an elevator.

Huh? In the UK we give a lift to a hitch-hiker, but the tin box that gets you from one floor to another in a building is a "lift" in the UK, but an "elevator" in the USA.

Are you sure someone hasn't been pulling your leg? Or are you baiting us? Smile

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:12 pm

thud419 wrote:

they don't have custard?! Shocked

What do they put in their trifle? Confused

BTW: technically, Fanny was my great aunt.

umm pudding? Confused

and Bob?

Master of Master Baiters Joined: 21 Nov 2008 Posts: 619

Great discussion, learning a few new ones here..

OK, I see above that in some cases, truck = truck but I could use some further clearing up here..

In the US, we have the very large (usually 18 wheel) 'semi' trucks which we just call semis.
It's the shorter delivery vehicles used by businesses that we would just call trucks.
And then there are pickup trucks or 'pickups' with 4 wheels that are owned by many citizens as their normal vehicle.

Could someone then clear up the UK 'Lorry' and where it fits in here?

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 4:40 pm

Branwen wrote:

But the Americans on the forum thought I meant, 'I jerked my dog's lead in a reprimanding manner,' and wondered why I was punishing him for nothing, and told me I was very wrong.

too funny! Laughing

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:07 pm

Quote:

Could someone then clear up the UK 'Lorry' and where it fits in here?

'Lorry' is usualy a rigid, 4 or 6 wheeler truck, what the US call a 'semi' in the UK is an 'artic' - short for articulated.

In the Uk a 'semi' is a partly hard , er, erm, male body part. Oh. and a house attached to another on one side only.

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:10 pm

@Roy

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 5:21 pm

Posted: Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:35 pm

OK - my understanding of Standard English is second-hand, gleaned from a friend who went to school there in the 60s. Embarassed

Yes, I guess I am an oldie. Wink

And the lift vs. elevator thing I got from a British comic. I've also heard Brits talking about the "lift" meaning Mr. Otis's invention.

And I thought "pudding" in the UK was any dessert - sometimes also called "afters"? And in the US, pudding and custard are two different things. Confused

Baiting Guru Joined: 04 Jan 2006 Posts: 3193

There are very few pickups in the UK, but we call them pickups. Truck is used, but anything you call a truck, we would be happier calling a lorry.

Pudding is the general term for desert, when we are not being posh enough to call it desert, but properly it refers to the really stodgy stuff like jam rolly-poly and spotted dick. I used the term "afters" in my youth - about the time your friend was here, but I haven't heard it recently.

Custard is a vanilla-flavoured sauce. I wouldn't call it a pudding, unless that was all I was eating.