Water vs Waters -=- why does UK pluralize it? And, which US things are odd to you?

[Nikkilewis14]

Hahaha these are funny...

 

[katlin]

Our canadians call winter hats tooks

 

[katlin]

In the uk to don't you call doing laundry doing wash? And don't you call vacuuming, hoovering?

 

[Chezzz]

In the uk to don't you call doing laundry doing wash? And don't you call vacuuming, hoovering?

I say laundry and washing.. mostly use im just gonna stick the washing on.. but it depends who im taking to...
and yess.. im just gonna hoover my room aha!

 

[Chezzz]

We have "holidays" ie when you go away for a break/rest here in the UK we don't have "vacations"! which is confusing as holidays are also bank holidays on certain dates of the year but thats different ?! How confusing!!!!

My hubby just heard of this one when we were on our honeymoon in Jamaica - we met a couple from the UK and were chit chatting with them for a while and they asked how long we were on our holiday, my hubby looked at me really confused and I had to whisper "they mean vacation"
"Holiday" in the US is just like you said, Christmas, Easter, etc. or a "national holiday" like 4th of July. So, is Christmas for example considered a "holiday" outside the US or do you call days like that something else?

I LOVE this thread

Christmas, Easter, New Year etc are "bank holidays' (nothing to do with money tho!) whereas a week at the seaside or to Spain etc is a holiday (vacation).

No idea where the "bank" bit came from......how odd!

the bank bit come from the fact banks are shut on these days..

 

[katlin]

Why not call it vacuuming considering not all vacuums are hoovers?

 

[DragonflyWing]

Some of the most interesting differences are in the usage. For example, I've noticed in the UK people tend to use the word "sat" in place of "sitting." Like "I am sat in my room" or "He's been sat there all day."

When I first saw that, I thought it was a typo, but I've seen it dozens of times here at BnB! In the US, I believe we would have used sitting, like "I am sitting," because sat is past tense. Do you know the reasoning behind that?

 

[lhancock90]

In the UK we hoover, when we eat chips, this means french fries. Our pants are our underwear

 

[Celestine]

Can a UK'er please explain why a cigarette is called a fag? I really wonder about that one. Is it a slang word and 'cigarette' is used in polite company?

This is a cute thread.

 

[lhancock90]

Can a UK'er please explain why a cigarette is called a fag? I really wonder about that one. Is it a slang word and 'cigarette' is used in polite company?

This is a cute thread.

I have zero idea why, because so many different areas of the UK have different dialects, slang is carried over between them.

 

[samj732]

I saw a few posts I wanted to comment on...

The one about "tight"... we use that as "tight with money" (cheap) "she has a tight ass" (nice butt!) of course the sexual term and also -- mostly the younger people -- will say something's "tight" as in that's cool/awesome. We Americans are kinda strange, no wonder nobody can learn our language

Also we say 4th of July because that's Independence Day, a big holiday here in the states! When we get closer to it it's just the 4th, no other information needed. Any other day is July 5th, etc haha.

I was so freaked out when I first saw "fags", because in America that's a very derrogetory term!

 

[Chezzz]

Can a UK'er please explain why a cigarette is called a fag? I really wonder about that one. Is it a slang word and 'cigarette' is used in polite company?

This is a cute thread.

I have zero idea why, because so many different areas of the UK have different dialects, slang is carried over between them.

i agree.. its one of them different ones used around the country.. maybe out of lazyness.. I'd be shocked if my OH came home and said i only got 2 cigarette breaks today.. just cos he always says fag.. I have no idea why either tbh.

 

[oh_so_blessed]

The waters thing probably comes from the fact that there are hind waters, ie.what's behind the baby, and fore waters, what's in front. Someone with better knowledge feel free to correct me, but pretty sure it's possible for one to break before the other, so that would be your 'water' breaking, and then when they both go, that's the 'waters' but we tend to just say waters anyway as it's difficult to know exactly where it's coming from!

Learn something new every day! And here I thought there was just a baby with a bunch of non-separated water.

Seriously, I assumed this was the water from the amniotic sac and that if it broke that was it, no water left. I just read there is some small spot closer behind be baby's head. I've got to find a google image for this. lol!

 

[lemongrass]

peanut butter and jelly is actually peanut butter and JAM in the UK haha!

and sodas being pop to us in the uk

and candy being sweets/chocolate

Im from canada we call it peanut butter and jam .. or thats what everyone around where i live says anyway.... i've honestly never had one before in my life its strange! lol most kids grew up on pb & j sandwhiches lol

Jelly and Jam are two different things, though very similar. Jelly is jam with all the solids strained out. Kinda like the difference between juice and an all-fruit smoothie. Personally I prefer jam. It's definitely more popular in Canada than jelly.

 

[Heather1]

All I will say on the matter us that the language is called "English" and not "American"

I hate it when people say this. LOL

 

[minties]

I find the bank holiday thing wierd too, we say "public holiday" in New Zealand.

I find it funny that on some American TV shows, hamburgers are called sandwiches?! Like on Undercover Boss. My American friends refer to just the slab of meat in a hamburger as the burger...whereas we call it a meat pattie here. The whole thing with the meat and salads in it is the burger to us.

My friend in Ohio calls anything sausage-like a hotdog.

The UK way of saying "sat there" is really funny!

 

[oh_so_blessed]

All I will say on the matter us that the language is called "English" and not "American"

Well, I think we can be certain that they are pretty well different now. Evolution of language is an interesting thing. We are separated by an ocean, I'm not too surprised it's changed.

 

[oh_so_blessed]

TIL that rubber and fanny have very different meanings depending on your location. LOL!

 

[icklemonster]

I don't know if it widespread in the US, but I was speaking to someone who had never heard of the word queue?!

 

[drsquid]

queue is not real common in the us. and people who do know it nearly universally spell it wrong (ie cue... etc which is a whole different word).

i believe fag comes from faggot- which was a bundle of sticks.. however oddly a meatball (at least in scotland) is a faggot.. bought some when i lived there cause it made me laugh.

the us has started picking up the use of sweet vs savory as descriptions but it is still isnt very common.

the one that always made me laugh is the irish "your man" ie your man went to the store... (my man? wtf) used to mean a generic person