Dealing with terminology US <> UK

[Lee DeRamus saoca0404]

Hey Larry,
You can find the best explanation for the term "neutral ground" as used in New Orleans, at htp:www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2005-08-23/blake.php. It was first used on Canal street. It was the result of an act of Congress on March3, 1807.
You forgot to PM me. Are you OK?
Lee

 

[Nickodell]

Another word that would mark you down as a "Yank," is gotten. The British never, never, use the word. In Brit. Eng. the past participle of the verb "to get" is "got:"

......................US..........................UK
Present: Have, or have got.............Same
Past perfect: Got..........................Same
Past partic.: [Have] gotten............[Have] got

This is also illogical. For example, in Brit. Eng. the past participle of to forget is "forgotten," so why not "gotten." As in man other cases, the American immigrants a couple of centuries brought that "gotten" with them and it has stayed, wheras it died out in the UK. It is now relegated to the biblical "begotten," and the somewhat pedantic "illbegotten."

There will be a test tomorrow at 9.

 

[Nick Farrow]

As an Englishman posting on a US forum, I do try my best to use US terminology. I try to say transmission instead of Gearbox etc etc. Sometimes I dare say I get it wrong, but that's because I don't realize there's a different word for it.

If you think the language is different between the UK and US, you should hear some of the regional differences just in the UK! In Tyne & Wear they seem to be speak a completely different language!

 

[puff4]

If you think the language is different between the UK and US, you should hear some of the regional differences just in the UK! In Tyne & Wear they seem to be speak a completely different language!

Speaking of regional differences, you might get a giggle out of this oldie but goodie...

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=tGTrktatm1g

 

[Nickodell]

Coming from just across the border in God's Own Country (Lancashire), that was absobloodylutely hilarious!

 

[socorob]

I was watching a show on BBC America today and 1 presenter said to the other presenter "I'll come to your house and bone your dog." my friend and I looked at each other and said WTF. We all know what that means here in the states. Then he said your dog will be flopping around saying oh no I've got no bones. .... He meant de-bone... Way different meaning than what were used to with that word.

 

[mackem]

If you think the language is different between the UK and US, you should hear some of the regional differences just in the UK! In Tyne & Wear they seem to be speak a completely different language!

I'm from Tyne & Wear, well from the Wearside of the area, and the language between the Mackems (Sunderland) and Geordies (Newcastle) can be quite different.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=mackem

http://www.le.ac.uk/ee/glossaries/2008/geordieslang/search.html

 

[Limey]

If in the UK you call some one a 'berk'. It is only mildly derogatory, meaning they have done something a bit dumb and is used between friends. However its true derivation is cockney rhyming slang and is a shortening of 'Berkshire Hunt' (a well know fox hunting group). It rhymes with.......

 

[JonPiz]

Working for a large british (well actually now mainly owned by the Middle East) and we have americans in charge. Well the totally bizarre business talk they give us such as "leverage things into action" "things that are centric" "the inner circle of success". I hope they keep coming cause it makes us all laugh at the meetings. Why use some simple term when you can totally confuse people with a complicated one

 

[Nickodell]

If in the UK you call some one a 'berk'. It is only mildly derogatory, meaning they have done something a bit dumb and is used between friends. However its true derivation is cockney rhyming slang and is a shortening of 'Berkshire Hunt' (a well know fox hunting group). It rhymes with.......

And the sound made by blowing through pursed lips, known in the US as a Bronx Cheer, or bringing the arm down and rapidly emitting air from the armpit (a skill I never mastered), letting air out of a balloon, etc., is also called a "raspberry" in much of the Commonwealth (Gt. Britain, N. Zealand and Australia, for sure). That again is Cockney rhyming slang, being a shortened form of "raspberry tart."

 

[Rodewaryer]

Some English English I always love.....Berkshire (pronounced Bark-sure) and a little town near the Lotus factory, long story I'll keep short, when a colonial is in Norfolk trying to find Wymondham, and my ill advised pronunciation was exactly as it is spelled, no one knew what I was talking about. If I'd known it was pronounced Wind-um, I'd have been ok.

I don't know why, but the English term that makes me giggle everytime I hear it is "git". That just kills me, esp when buddies use it on each other.....

 

[Nick Farrow]

I was watching a show on BBC America today and 1 presenter said to the other presenter "I'll come to your house and bone your dog."

In the UK that actually has the same meaning, or at least it does these days; maybe in the past it had a different meaning! You've got me wondering what it was you were watching now! I feel sorry for the dog!

 

[socorob]

IT was an old top gear episode

 

[Nickodell]

I like the story in Readers Digest of the Ameican couple touring England by car. Finding themselves in Leicester, they argued about the pronunciation. "Lester!" "No, Ly-chester!"

Finally, they frove to a fast-food restaurant and walked up to the counter. "My dear," said the woman to the server, "slowly and clearly, please tell my husband how this place is pronounced."




"Yes, ma'am. M A C D O N A L D S."

 

[Nick Farrow]

IT was an old top gear episode

Ah, in which case there was probably some double entendre going on!

 

[socorob]

Yeah probably. That's a great car show. I wish we could get a car show here in the states even half as good, but I guess it can't happen.

 

[Nick Farrow]

Top Gear is a great show...I never miss it. They've been 'upsetting' some of the classic car world over here recently by destroying Morris Marinas. You might be unfamiliar with this car, so if you are look it up on Wikipedia. They are one of the worst British cars ever made, so they're probably doing us all a favour!

 

[socorob]

They were going to make a US version with Jay Leno being the main guy. It was supposed to be on NBC but he turned it down. His rejection letter was posted on the Internet. He said something like he didn't want to be responsible for ruining such a great show by not being able to truthfully be able to review the cars. He got in trouble by NBC for making a joke about Kia on his own show and said was coached by the network into not making any car jokes. The 2 other guys were going to be the guy from super cars exposed that has no personality. He would have been good for the stig but not as a host, and a guy from a popular tv show here. So after jay declined they got Adam corrola as the main guy. I think they might have made a pilot but NBC dropped it before it even got started. I think they're trying to sell it. I'm sure it would have been as lame as the australian ones after the censors removed all the jokes about advertisers. I'm just glad we get the BBC one here. It's got to be the best show on tv here. We mostly have reality crap.

 

[puff4]

Top Gear is a great show...I never miss it. They've been 'upsetting' some of the classic car world over here recently by destroying Morris Marinas. You might be unfamiliar with this car, so if you are look it up on Wikipedia. They are one of the worst British cars ever made, so they're probably doing us all a favour!

I used to own one. Although the car was a total piece of crap, it really wasn't much worse than a Pinto or a Vega.