hi guys,
i'm starting this thread to collect all the British sayings that Americans never hear ( include a phonetic pronounciation-things like aluminum would need phonetic) Americans join in and lets see what u know about "english english" as Austin Powers would say.

P.S. what do you the British (and Americans) think about Austin Powers?
P.P.S. do the british really use "bloody" all the time?

signing off,
Panda

Erm, I use the term 'bloody' all the time, if that counts?

'Wanker' is, I'm led to believe, largely a British term when it refers to an onanist.

The problem with British phrases is that several of them are incomprehensible in other parts of the same country, let alone abroad. 'Tupping' seems to be one such word...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

oh yah one more thing!
say what it means (if you know)

thanks!

signing off,
panda

Welcome, Panda!

You will find as many different opinions on Austin Powers as there are people on the Fforum, I've no doubt. My personal reaction is "that's incredibly tacky", but I dare say that won't be the universal view. As for saying "bloody" all the time, some of us do, some of us don't. I don't.

There are general differences between British and American English, but they're often obscured by British regional variations, which are far greater than those in America. It's therefore not quite as straightforward as you might think!

A few that I can think of:

UK "handbag" = US "purse"
UK "purse" = US "wallet" or "coinpurse"
UK "wallet" = US "wallet" (men's)

UK "crisps" = US "chips"
UK "chips" = US "fries" (more or less - but ours tend to be thicker cut)

UK "petrol" = US "gas"
UK "junction" = US "intersection"

There are plenty more, but I'll leave those for everyone else or I'd be here all night. :-)



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That which does not kill us makes us stranger.
(Llewelyn the dragon, Ozy and Millie)

Sarah

"Having a whip round" (UK) means passing the hat around for a collection.

Apparently English people use the word 'bastard' differently to Americans. We use it as a more general curse, not necessarily using it in a personal sense.

'bugger' is probably more common as a curse here too.

Sarah - amongst my friends we use 'fries' for the thinner type of chip, and 'chips' for the thicker home-grown variety that actually tastes of spud. I'm not sure there is a culinary equivalent of chips in the US, hence they only need one word...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

UK/US
Pavement/Sidewalk
Bottom/Fanny
Fanny/womens non-dangly bits
Lift/Elevator
Biscuits/Cookies

And then there's the problem in recipes that use cup sizes - the volumes are different between US and UK.

Brits use the word cookies too, except it refers to a type of biscuit, rathre than biscuits generically. A cookie is a crumbly biscuit, usually with chocolate chips in it.



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

I use the word Bloody all the time too!
Also, to follow in PSD's "clean" footsteps, I dont think the americans use the expression "bollocks" either :)
finally, I find Austin Powers to be a bit silly - but I still laugh! :D

Welcome to the fforum!

When I was at uni we had a Playstation in our house, and two of us would play Driver all weekend. If we got stuck in an alleyway sideways so that it took ages to get out we'd refer to it as 'an Austin'



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

my american friends never seem to know what a lorry is. Its a truck incidentally. But i thought i'd mention it.



TMH

//---------------//------------------//
One golfer a year is hit by lightning. This may be the only evidence we have of god’s existence.

UK Chemist/US Drugstore



_ _ _ _ _

If the English language made any sense, a catastrophe would be an apostrophe with fur.

Because i got so much english from tv and cinema, my housemate sometimes still tells me what are americanisms...

Write to Michael (UK) / write Michael (US)

(is this right or am I still confused?)

And I must be a brit now... I saw bloody and bollocks and ...

I don't think they have fortnights in America, do they?

I mean, they have spans of two weeks, obviously, but they don't contract 14 nights into one word and call it a fortnight, or at least as far as I know they don't... me and my American musician friends occasionally while away hours on the road discussing stuff like this, but I'm buggered if I can remember them all now....

Americans have Fall, Brits have Autumn

And American cars have a hood and a trunk, rather than a bonnet and a boot.

BTW, thicker cut fries get referred to sometimes as "steak fries". Unless they're served with fried fish, in which case they're often actually called chips here, in an deliberate effort to emulate English fish and chips.

US/UK
eraser/rubber
rubber/condom
knocked up/pregnant



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"I've often said that the difference between British and American SF TV series is that the British ones have three-dimensional characters and cardboard spaceships, while the Americans do it the other way around."
--Ross Smith

Oz: Durex = sticky tape
UK: Durex= brand name of a condom company

Worth knowing, one feels...



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.

some brand names need to do more market research...


Lindor: in Switzerland, a sub-brand of Lindt chocolates, in Portugal a brand of incontinence pads...

'knocked up' is commonly used in the UK too; generally to describe an unplanned pregnancy.

as is 'up the duff' and having a 'bun in the oven'



PSD

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This is the work of an Italian narco-anarchic collective. Don't bother insulting them, they can't read English anyway.