Differences in UK/US/Canadian/Australian English

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

  1. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    All I've ever heard was "tin snips." You might want to consult a UK tool supplier's catalog and see if they have a different name.
     
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  2. SnowWhiteBriBri

    SnowWhiteBriBri Member

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    Good idea! Thank you!
     
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  3. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    I've never heard of tin snips or tinner snips in Aus. But then again, I'm relatively young. Older generations might recognise it? We tend to pick up a lot of what's going on culturally in the US and UK because we're kind of their satellite.
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2020
  4. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    Probably the most well known difference between British and Australian English.

    "Thong"

    Australia:
    [​IMG]

    UK:
    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    When I was a kid here in the US thong meant what are today called flip-flops (1st picture Naomasa posted). Then in the 80's it suddenly came to mean the 2nd one. This made for some hilarious and embarrassing exchanges, especially between the kids who never learned what it used to mean and the adults.
     
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  6. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Just here to corroborate. Yes, as an American child of the 70's, I legit remember flip flops being called thongs, until one day they weren't anymore. :wtf:

    But hey, there was a time when boner meant error in the U.S. and for whatever bizarre (and deeply ironic) reason, Kirk Cameron's bestie on Growing Pains was also nicknamed boner and I have no idea how that got onto the air.
     
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  7. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    This was probably already covered, but what part of a car is called a boot in UK parlance? Is it what we call the trunk (rear compartment)?
     
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  8. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Yes, the trunk.
     
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  9. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Awesome, thanks. Frampton's Do You Feel Like We Do makes a lot more sense knowing that:

    "My friend got busted, just the other day
    They said, "don't walk, don't walk, don't walk away"
    Drove him to a taxi, bent the boot, hit the bag
    Had to play some music, otherwise he'd just crash"

    Though I gotta admit, until I looked up the lyrics just now, I always thought he said "Drove into a taxi".
     
  10. Naomasa298

    Naomasa298 HP: 10/190 Status: Confused Contributor

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    Hence why we have "car boot sales" - where people turn up somewhere with junk in the back of their car and sell it out of the boot.
     
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  11. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    When I first saw them in the 1960s, they were called zoris (the zori being a traditional sandal in Japan that looked a lot like these). I don't remember them ever being called thongs, though ... it may have been a regional thing here in the US.
     
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  12. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    This one's off topic, but I just checked the song lyrics on a different site and this makes a lot more sense and actually rhymes:

    "drove into a taxi bent the boot hit the back
    Had to play some music otherwise he’d crack"

    Well, actually Frampton saying "hit the bag" does make sense depending on what's in the bag, and how he's hitting on it. And he does say "Sherman in my hand", which apparently meant a cigarette dipped in PCP (angel dust). Never knew that one.

    To bring it back on topic somewhat, I used to think the 'boot' of a car meant the rubber part at the bottom of the shift lever. He'd have to nail the taxi pretty hard to hit that!!
     
  13. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    that's a skirt
     
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  14. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    A cowl for us yanks.
     
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  15. Selbbin

    Selbbin The Moderating Cat Staff Contributor Contest Winner 2023

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    I know tin snips
     
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  16. Rzero

    Rzero Reluctant voice of his generation Contributor

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    I don't think that happened around here until maybe the nineties. I do remember old people being accidentally hilarious though.
     
  17. Oscar Leigh

    Oscar Leigh Contributor Contributor

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    Same in Aus.
    Here's a question. Who here uses holiday vs vacation? Are there any Americans who used holiday outside specific official holidays? And are they are UK or Australian peeps who use vacation to distinguish in that way?
     
  18. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    You mean it's called a Boot in Australia?

    In my part of the US (Illinois) we always called it a vacation. I never heard anybody around here refer to it as a Holliday.
     
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  19. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    Yep. My current WIP takes place in a future Australia and some of the research I've been doing consists of downloading scripts from Australian films. Not American films about Australia, but actual scripts from films produced and distributed in Australia. When you remove the dynamic of differing accents and just look at the written words, their syntax tendencies are almost indistinguishable from American syntax tendencies. Some of the vocabulary is different, of course, but nowhere near as much as what you hear in American movies that ramp up and basically lampoon the differences.

    Nor in any slice of the U.S. where I ever lived, and I was a military brat, so pretty much everywhere. Holiday and vacation are distinctly different concepts to me.
     
    Last edited: Apr 5, 2020
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  20. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    We learned everything we would know about Australia (for several decades anyway) from Paul Hogan when Crocodile Dundee came out.

    There's a weird dynamic going on, because Hollywood exports movies all around the world; just about everybody knows how we talk (in the movies anyway) but we rarely see actual programs developed in other countries, instead we see the Hollywood-ized versions. Occasionally some English program like Upstairs/Downstairs gets shown here (but most don't watch it) and very occasionally we get movies from countries like England or Ireland or Australia (Mad Max being an example). Ok, I guess I just revised my original statement—our understanding about the Land Down Under was tempered by Mel Gibson and Men At Work, from whom we learned there's something called a Vegemite Sandwich, but no idea what it was.

    I don't know why I sometimes get that double-post glitch, but I want to add, I was talking about the 70's and 80's, when all we had were movies and television. With the advent of the internet now you can see all kinds of programs from just about anywhere (in the free world), if you choose to seek it out.
     
  21. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Oh, I've always wanted to know, what does Hiver mean? I think it's Irish. I believe the band was called The Proclaimers, from the 80's. Was the song called A Thousand Miles? Yeah—something about "I would walk a thousand miles just to be the one who hivers next to you." (not sure I spelled it right).

    That's been a big puzzler to me ever since.
     
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  22. Wreybies

    Wreybies Thrice Retired Supporter Contributor

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    I possess a super-rando memory of one the original episodes of Upstairs Downstairs where a downstairs denizen of a neighboring property brought some baked sweets to be tried by our usual downstairs protags at the Bellamy house. She leaves and they proceed to simply shred the poor baker's efforts, starting with the fact that she'd used granular sugar and it just got more picky from there.

    But, go ahead and ask me where my keys are right now....?
     
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  23. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Its Haver (the a/i confusion is down to the scots accent) and havering means to talk foolishy or babble in scots slang
     
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  24. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    Thank you. One of life's big mysteries solved at last. Scottish, huh? Yeah, that sounds right.
     
  25. Xoic

    Xoic Prognosticator of Arcana Ridiculosum Contributor Blogerator

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    I think most of us also learned about the English from Monty Python. o_O
     

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