Differences in UK/US/Canadian/Australian English

Discussion in 'Research' started by Tenderiser, Feb 20, 2017.

  1. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    These are actually quite (U.S. version) interesting to me. :)

    I didn't know about this one at all. Though blocks is more common to hear from city folk, where blocks are more regular in size, it's still a perfectly common word to hear here as well in the 'burbs.

    In American, and especially if you're a little older and from the South, fix can also mean trouble or bad situation.

    "The Petersons are in a terrible fix. Greg lost his job, and you know Tina's never worked a day in her life."

    I can't imagine life without a garbage disposal. It would make taking out the trash especially yucky. :blech:

    This one I learned in my time working with the RAF.

    This one too, contact with RAF airmen.
     
  2. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Also....

    Rent boy (UK), hustler or male prostitute (US)

    :whistle: :-D
     
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  3. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    When this is finished I'll fill in a column for broken Italian American Northeast "English" idioms....

    Eggplant = Melanzzan
    Sandwich = Grinder (pronounced "grindah")
    Drinking Fountain = Bubbler (bubblah)
     
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  4. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    I'll let you manage that column if you don't mind :D

    Nobody's ever been able to explain to me how long a block is. Like if something is 10 blocks away... what does that actually mean?!
     
  5. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    Depends where you are in the country.

    A new york block is a square section without interruption of a street. They are much smaller than a block in LA for example. Here, in Phoenix, block is just a general term. There's no real set parameters. If someone lives in the same neighborhood, you could say "Oh, yeah, Jim-Bob lives just up the block.." But you wouldn't use that term if that person is outside of the squared mile neighborhood that most of the suburbs are divided into.

    So, here, I guess you could say that a block means within a mile, without interruption of a major street, and also not on the same minor street (in this case, you'd say, up the street rather than block.)
     
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  6. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    What about Hero for a sandwich? All the "Italian" spots around here either have Grinders or Heroes, never sandwiches.
     
  7. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    As @Spencer1990 mentions, it depends on where you live because there are some differences. But, wherever one is from, and however big a block is in that area, blocks is most usually used to speak about things that are within a reasonable walking distance. No one is going to say "There's this shoe-store that I love that's about 35 blocks away..." No. That would sound really bizarre.
     
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  8. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    In the US where there are literal blocks it makes sense to say "five blocks down this road" but in Britain this is increadibly rare and definitely not part of our pariance. We'd say "500 yards" or "A mile that way and if you see McDonalds you went too far" or something to that effect. When giving directions we may say "it's the fourth right" but the way our streets are laid out makes it really hard to use that. There's just so many odd little turns and side streets and alleys in all our cities that it's hard to tell if "fourth right" means "the fourth actual big street with a name and two lanes of traffic" or "the fourth turning of any kind including this alley with the bins or that turning into a tiny cul-de-sac".

    There are some (very few) places that seem to have blocks in the UK but they actually are strikingly weird. If you go to Milton Keynes (not that you would want to but...) and walk out of the station there there's a big boulevard with big buildings up both sides in nice straight lines with a wide road down the middle. It all looks very American. And thus is just looks weird to a Brit. Milton Keynes was kinda an 'artificial' city built relatively recently and thus laid out much more logically than a lot of the UK. But it looks like a lego town to most of us, we're used to weird winding roads and a mix of centuries old and sky scrapers.
     
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  9. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    Walking distance is possibly the defining characteristic of being able to use this term.

    It's just neater in some places than it is in others. Phoenix is a giant, near perfect grid because most of it is pretty new. Most of the streets go straight and travel east-west or north-south with little deviation, and each street is intersected at mile and half mile intervals (half mile--minor streets which still have lights. Mile--Major streets that you use for directions). A block here, will almost always mean a square mile because everything is pretty neat and tidy.
     
  10. Shadowfax

    Shadowfax Contributor Contributor

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    "What did the Romans ever do for us?"

    "Well, they laid their cities out in a nice neat grid pattern, a bit like American cities."
     
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  11. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    It's pretty damn hard to get lost in my city...I see that as a positive.
     
  12. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Some evenings I drive around trying to work out where I live and end up sleeping in my car.
     
  13. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    The epitome of the grid phenomenon in the U.S. is in Utah. The major cities there use the Mormon Grid. Imagine your city laid out on an X - Y grid sheet. Zero, Zero is the very center of town, and in the case of the Mormon Grid, it's also where the Temple is. The rest of the city is four quadrants (NE, NW, SE, SW) and your address consists of two plot points. For example, if you live up in the NE quadrant, your address would be something like "227 N, 135 E, Salt Lake City, UT".
     
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  14. Bill Chester

    Bill Chester Active Member

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    In British English, team is a plural, as I hear it on British television and magazines. The team are ready for action. In fact, Grammarly just flagged that sentence.

    In North America, we would say the team is ready for action.
     
  15. peachalulu

    peachalulu Member Reviewer Contributor

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    As a Canadian I find myself using a lot of U.S. terms but the occasional U.K. term like tea towel slips in. Also we say - I'm in Grade 6 rather than sixth grade.
    And the whole hat/toque thing. I've never heard anyone use toque in my area - could be more a French Canadian thing.
     
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  16. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    This goes for most collective group concepts. In America you will NEVER hear things like "Apple are introducing a new product...." or "Microsoft are in talks with Samsung...." To an American that sounds like a verb agreement error.

    ETA: It's been explained to me that not all Brits are on board with the pluralizing of collectives either.
     
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  17. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    Sandwich = Hoagie = Grinder = Hero = Sub
     
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  18. Homer Potvin

    Homer Potvin A tombstone hand and a graveyard mind Staff Supporter Contributor

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    I had a hooker in Covent Garden walk me back to my hotel when I got lost in London once. Nice lady.
     
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  19. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    Stephen Fry narrates a programme on the history of Australian English - was on Radio 4 yesterday, so BBC I-player.
     
  20. terobi

    terobi Senior Member

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    I think recycling and composting are a lot more normalised here than in the US. Most houses tend to have a separate bin for food and garden waste which is collected separately to the "main" rubbish and the rest of the paper/glass/metal/plastic recycling.
     
  21. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    Can we have Scots dialect and also Frisian? Remember:

    Brea, bûter en griene tsiis is goed Ingelsk en goed Frysk.
     
  22. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    I bet you did

    talking of which in the uk we have prostitutes/pros/tarts/toms/ girls who do 'business'/ and whores (and at the higher end of the market 'escorts' ) - we don't have hookers unless they are wearing the number 9 jersey on the rugby field
     
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  23. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    I think we do have 'hookers,' a word that bounced back, or around...

    ...and down your way a rugby hooker would be number two, no offense - evil little trolls, every one ever, in union or league.
     
  24. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    well yeah but its an American term that's entered common usage thanks to Holywood- its not a British term , likewise with call girls/ girls doing outcall
     
  25. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    I'm not sure actually, I think it's older. Happy to be wrong.

    Not keen on people who say 'takeout' for their takeaway, advertising's bringing that one home.

    ...

    I got one...brothel(UK)...whorehouse(Canada).
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2017
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