UK English vrs US English - light thread

Debbie

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 3:10 pm

[quote="amother [ Daylily
Mealtime was very proper: everyone sat up straight without elbows on the tables, no slouching, no slurping, and everyone ate with a knife, fork and spoon at all meals. I'm still so happy that table manners was ingrained in me.

The evening meal was a cooked meal called supper.
I still call it supper.[/quote]

Sounds rather like how I grew up plus we always had to ask permission to leave the table.
Meal times were really special family times though and it was okay to not finish supper; it was never a case of 'if you don't like what your mother has cooked, you sit at the table until you do like it!'

perquacky

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 3:21 pm

amother [ Brickred ] wrote:

im from England never heard of such a thing

I'm surprised. I come across the term all the time in books. I've even heard kugel referred to as noodle pudding or potato pudding.

Brownies

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 3:25 pm

BrisketBoss wrote:

There is somewhere in the UK where it is. I see this usage all the time in my baby feeding group.

Yes, you're right. In many places in the North of England, they will call the hot evening meal "tea". I've never heard Jews refer to it as such, only non-Jews, when I used to work around those areas. I found it quite confusing at first as I had always associated tea with afternoon tea and cakes!

There are definitely also people who will refer to dessert as pudding but I'm not sure whereabouts in the UK this is common. I always grew up with dessert, not pudding. I have a feeling pudding is more posh.

FranticFrummie

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 3:37 pm

I've been binge watching "MasterChef Australia", and I'm getting a whole new education in vocabulary.

Chickens are called "chuck" (chuk?) All desserts are pudding. Marons are not shrimp, crayfish, or lobster, but they look like all the above.

Right now I'm drawing a blank on the rest of them, but it seems like every single episode I learn a new word or phrase.

I'm well chuffed! Very Happy

amother

Linen

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 4:49 pm

I think tea for 'supper' and pudding for dessert are regional terms. Think it might be yorkshire and north to say that. Don't think it's anything to do with being posh or not. It might be a small country but there is still a large variation between regional dialects (not as much as there used to be though).

I've definitely heard spitting for rain. Again it may be regional. I've also heard drizzling as well. I think spitting would be used for a few drops here and there, whilst drizzling would be more a fine mist.

Btw, all of this is usually referring to English within England. Scotland, Wales and Ireland have their own dialects.

amother

Steelblue

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 5:08 pm

amother [ Steelblue ] wrote:

I remember years ago my Australian sil, newly graduated, tried to reach a friend and said, "she's engaged."
I said, "Oh, your friend is engaged?"
She explained that she meant that her phone line was busy.

Back to my Australian family, I was surprised when I realized a major reason for the difference in pronunciation is because some of the vowels make different sounds.
US- "o"- says "ah" and "u" says "uh"
Australia- "o" says "uh" and "u" says "ah"

So, bus is pronounced "bahss"
Boss- "buhss"

Umbrella- "ambrella"

Lot- "lutt"
Not- "nutt"

Etc.

Mommy is pronounced "mahmmy" but spelled "Mummy".

Is it the same way in British English?

amother

Wine

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 7:23 pm

amother [ Whitewash ] wrote:

I've never heard anyone in England calling dessert 'pudding'. Where do you get that from?

we always called it pudding when I was growing up in England! All my friends did the same!
But Im from Manchester, and I think Londoners dont say that Smile

amother

Wine

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 7:24 pm

[quote="amother [ Daylily ]"]

amother [ Linen ] wrote:

Who remembers the huge "Silver Cross" prams in England about 40 years ago?
No way could that monstrosity be taken on the bus.
The good part of it was it had good springs which made it easier to push and pull up steps.
We kids called it a limousine b.c it was so spacious and nice looking. We had navy n silver colour.

I pushed my oldest child in a silver cross pram!!! Didnt have a car at the time, so it didnt make a difference that you couldtn get it in the car!

amother

Whitewash

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 8:01 pm

youngishbear wrote:

Use of the word "the":

UK: He went to hospital.
US: He went to the hospital.

However, in the US, we can say things like "went to school" or "went to shul."

Hmm.

Nope, sorry. We say 'He went to the hospital' in the UK too. Without doesn't make sense.

amother

Whitewash

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 8:01 pm

amother [ Wine ] wrote:

we always called it pudding when I was growing up in England! All my friends did the same!
But Im from Manchester, and I think Londoners dont say that Smile

If you had ice cream for dessert on Shabbos, you called it pudding?

So strange, I've never heard this. What age group are you?

enay

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 8:20 pm

Hello !,

OMG, I needed to read all these posts today....

Very Happy

So my family is divided we are part Proud Brits, Part Proud Europeans, and Part Proud Americans.

I have British children and American children, down to spelling differently.

I cannot give it up, I will never Americanise my English, which on top of it is also very "colonial" as I attended several Public British Schools in England, Overseas and in GBZ areas.

To me ,it goes beyond speaking English, it is a way of life altogether. It goes down to proper tea making, and so on...

Whenever I find LBD labeled food I just have to get it even if I do not eat it myself...

At the beginning was so traumatic here, I could not understand a word !!!, Terrible English, worse Spanish, OMG, I hated it. It was the middle of summer... It got a little bit better when I heard it was similar for people from NY but when school started ... oh I needed a translator to get it. I registered my kids in yeshiva for the first time... I read the school supplies list at least 10 times. Markers?, rubber shoes? Day care? , tests?, recess?, take a test?, Pre-K ?...LOL

So I focus on the beauty of being Jewish... we are all the same all over the world no matter where Hashem decides to send us.

amother

Molasses

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 9:03 pm

amother [ Daylily ] wrote:

I never heard the word "spitting' used for light rain. We'd say, "it's drizzling outside."

I wonder if in different parts of England, like Manchester, Gateshead etc. some words are different than in London? The accents and dialects are certainly different.

I remember using "spitting" and "drizzling". I think spitting was very very light rain - just tiny little drops.
Drizzling was steadier, but also light. I'm in my 40's from Northwest London.

Did anyone mention the headmistress? (Mine seriously reminded me of the queen).

We'd also say clothes rather than clothing.

I never heard of strep growing up, but I often heard of tonsillitis.

amother

Molasses

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 9:09 pm

amother [ DarkYellow ] wrote:

Haha I say cheerio also, but I’m not your sons teacher!
Anyone else have this issue…. August comes along, the school supply lists are sent, and you look at it and wonder what on earth they want????
Each year I suffer!! A 1 inch binder, a 2 inch binder, a folder with pockets, without pockets, a this a that, I never know if I’m getting the correct item!
When we were kids in England the school supplied our exercise books (here in the US they’re called composition books or marble notebooks or something else confusing!) and we brought a pencil case with whatever we thought was necessary and that was about it. No?
I’m a very normal, well adjusted, extremely capable woman, but American school supply lists will forever confuse me!! LOL

Hear hear, making me batty those supplies lists!
The exercise books were the simplest and easiest way to organize kids - and if we got any printed sheets we'd just fold them up and stick them into the exercise books.

amother

NeonBlue

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 9:30 pm

cbsp wrote:

For reasons to long to explain here I use a British voice to announce my Waze turns while driving in the USA.

Roundabout vs traffic circle
Roadworks vs construction
And my favorite :

E Zed Pass (as opposed to saying it EZpass)

Oh yes the z is the greatest and most controversial topic with our american cousins Wink

(im the first aussie who posted)

PinkFridge

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 9:33 pm

youngishbear wrote:

Use of the word "the":

UK: He went to hospital.
US: He went to the hospital.

However, in the US, we can say things like "went to school" or "went to shul."

Hmm.

There is some chiluk about using the article the re hospitals. Sometimes it is used but I don't know the lomdus.

PinkFridge

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 9:36 pm

Catching up on thread.
You have to listen to more Beatles: When I call you up, you're line's engaged (You Won't See Me), in the shelter of the roundabout, a pretty nurse...(Penny Lane).
The first time I heard an English friends say spitting I said, you poor dear. The English have as many words for rain as Eskimos for snow, huh.

amother

NeonBlue

Wed, Jun 23 2021, 9:37 pm

amother [ Steelblue ] wrote:

Yep you got it! Although I don't quite know much about whether its like this in British English