Well you might like 'Arse over tit' for falling over suddenly. Discussing water available along the John Muir Trail with a Yosemite ranger I pointed to the map "there seems to be a stream here below the path" WHAT?? I said it again. What??? Oh you mean there's a crick below the trail. Also got laughed at for lighting the way with a torch and for referring to the rangers doing repairs as the path team. (A torch is a thing with flames and a path team would offer spiritual guidance only). Don't get me started on "biscuits with gravy". For breakfast! You barbarians.
Haha! I love biscuits and gravy. But I certainly wouldn't order it here. It is pretty strange, now that I'm thinking about it, that we call biscuits "cookies," since they're not really cooked, anyway, they're baked...
You can get biscuits with gravy here in the UK. You just have to be a dog, is all. But when it comes to biscuits we Brits are twice as bad. Biscuit = Bis cuit = twice cooked! Anyway you do much weirder stuff like calling the road the pavement and calling the pavement the sidewalk. Not to mention referring to prostitutes as solicitors, these are rather different activities in the UK.
My favorite American-ism is "Jeet?" which means "have you eaten?" and the British-ism that throws me is "brilliant", which to me means "genius" but to them means, I think, pretty good.
Oh I love those, too! "Jeet" is an interesting one because I'm not sure we even realize we say it like that. I saw it written down for the first time in "The Rhode Island Dictionary," by Mark Patinkin, which is like a phonetic dictionary of Rhody slang. Another one I liked from there was "PSDS," which is how someone with a heavy RI accent would pronounce what you have when you put a hole in your earlobe to put in an earring. But again, not something we'd ever say that way in writing. I love these sorts of books: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/904138
Rhode Island! It's like another planet, a short drive away. (from me). Half the fun of listening to Crimetown's first season was the Rhode Island accents.
I also get a charge every time my spouse says potato, in Western Mass-style, pah-DAY-dah.
Well, if you're here in the UK, not ideal means really bad. Like you drove your car through a flood and you know what? The water got into the engine. Not ideal. Whereas quite good can mean really excellent. This American coffee is really quite good. Not bad at all actually. Oh, would you like another? You know, I don't mind if I do.
This one made me smile! I used to work from people from England at a day camp every summer and just the few months of talking to them everyday would affect my inflection!
It's amazing how quickly we adapt without even realizing it! After we graduated from Elon, I visited a high school friend in Boston and she called me out for saying hi to strangers, which I had forgotten is against the law in the Northeast. She was like, "omg, we don't do that here! Go back to the South!" I can talk about this stuff allllllll day.
Something I have never understood is what you call a purse. I think (but am not sure) that what you call a purse is what we call a handbag. I’m never quite sure what accessory someone has just picked up when I read an American book.
We say handbag as well! I think we use purse, handbag, and pocketbook interchangeably, though now that I'm thinking about it, isn't it a bit odd that a handbag can be worn cross-body or over the shoulder? Pocketbook sounds funny, too, and perhaps is a bit more antiquated. I usually just say "bag," but then again I usually have a backpack, or an actual tote bag that's strictly utilitarian and not at all stylish or dainty. Thinking about all these words is making me curious about how they've morphed over time!
No, a wallet goes inside the purse, or inside a pocket! My grandfather used to call his a "billfold." A coin purse works, though! But that's also quite different, that's quite small and also fits inside the purse. Sometimes it's affixed to the wallet!
Well you might like 'Arse over tit' for falling over suddenly. Discussing water available along the John Muir Trail with a Yosemite ranger I pointed to the map "there seems to be a stream here below the path" WHAT?? I said it again. What??? Oh you mean there's a crick below the trail. Also got laughed at for lighting the way with a torch and for referring to the rangers doing repairs as the path team. (A torch is a thing with flames and a path team would offer spiritual guidance only). Don't get me started on "biscuits with gravy". For breakfast! You barbarians.
Haha! I love biscuits and gravy. But I certainly wouldn't order it here. It is pretty strange, now that I'm thinking about it, that we call biscuits "cookies," since they're not really cooked, anyway, they're baked...
You can get biscuits with gravy here in the UK. You just have to be a dog, is all. But when it comes to biscuits we Brits are twice as bad. Biscuit = Bis cuit = twice cooked! Anyway you do much weirder stuff like calling the road the pavement and calling the pavement the sidewalk. Not to mention referring to prostitutes as solicitors, these are rather different activities in the UK.
This made me laugh so much:
'Fortnight (noun) — A period of two weeks. People genuinely use this as a measurement of time in casual conversation'
My favorite American-ism is "Jeet?" which means "have you eaten?" and the British-ism that throws me is "brilliant", which to me means "genius" but to them means, I think, pretty good.
Oh I love those, too! "Jeet" is an interesting one because I'm not sure we even realize we say it like that. I saw it written down for the first time in "The Rhode Island Dictionary," by Mark Patinkin, which is like a phonetic dictionary of Rhody slang. Another one I liked from there was "PSDS," which is how someone with a heavy RI accent would pronounce what you have when you put a hole in your earlobe to put in an earring. But again, not something we'd ever say that way in writing. I love these sorts of books: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/904138
Rhode Island! It's like another planet, a short drive away. (from me). Half the fun of listening to Crimetown's first season was the Rhode Island accents.
I also get a charge every time my spouse says potato, in Western Mass-style, pah-DAY-dah.
"Not Ideal" is a "quite good" phrase I've been finding myself using more and more!
Well, if you're here in the UK, not ideal means really bad. Like you drove your car through a flood and you know what? The water got into the engine. Not ideal. Whereas quite good can mean really excellent. This American coffee is really quite good. Not bad at all actually. Oh, would you like another? You know, I don't mind if I do.
I think what you mean is that you haven't used it infrequently
This one made me smile! I used to work from people from England at a day camp every summer and just the few months of talking to them everyday would affect my inflection!
It's amazing how quickly we adapt without even realizing it! After we graduated from Elon, I visited a high school friend in Boston and she called me out for saying hi to strangers, which I had forgotten is against the law in the Northeast. She was like, "omg, we don't do that here! Go back to the South!" I can talk about this stuff allllllll day.
Miss you, Bean! Hope all is well <3
Mike and I like to play this game on the Tube in London. 😂
That reminds me of this "news report" about a Northerner arrested for saying hello to strangers in London! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0ay9u1gg4
Something I have never understood is what you call a purse. I think (but am not sure) that what you call a purse is what we call a handbag. I’m never quite sure what accessory someone has just picked up when I read an American book.
And how do you cope with Oscar Wilde’s ‘In a handbag?!’ Is it translated for US audiences?
We say handbag as well! I think we use purse, handbag, and pocketbook interchangeably, though now that I'm thinking about it, isn't it a bit odd that a handbag can be worn cross-body or over the shoulder? Pocketbook sounds funny, too, and perhaps is a bit more antiquated. I usually just say "bag," but then again I usually have a backpack, or an actual tote bag that's strictly utilitarian and not at all stylish or dainty. Thinking about all these words is making me curious about how they've morphed over time!
Ah ha! ‘Pocketbook’ has always been a mystery. Do you call a purse a wallet? Or coin purse, perhaps?
No, a wallet goes inside the purse, or inside a pocket! My grandfather used to call his a "billfold." A coin purse works, though! But that's also quite different, that's quite small and also fits inside the purse. Sometimes it's affixed to the wallet!