Differences in UK/US/Canadian/Australian English

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

  1. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    Indeed. In the UK cars with a gear stick are just 'cars' while 'automatics' are a separate thing. Almost everyone here who can drive knows how to drive a manual transmission because that's just most cars and, on top of that, if you take a driving test in an automatic you legally can't drive a manual.

    And seriously, what is it with you people and 'stick shift'? It's our language and we will absolutely take it back...
     
  2. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Just thought of this thread when a US friend gave me his address.

    Over here, it's unusual for house numbers to go above 300. I always find it bizarre when someone tells me they live at number 3021 or whatever. Our roads usually start with house number 1 and go from there, with even numbers on one side of the road and odd on the opposite side.

    What's the deal in other countries?
     
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  3. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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  4. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    Don't sabotage my desperate efforts to get people to talk to me :(
     
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  5. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    I'm talking a bit, for another ten minutes then I'll have my siesta.
    ...

    Ownership of a strictly 'automatic' driving licence in the UK is a taboo issue. I suppose every family has one of these people in their ranks. However, most decent people can change gears on our cars in Britain, unlike in America where you only sit on a big cushion with a giant wheel held in your chubby fingers, respectfully, and listening to Lynard Skynard, I believe.
     
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  6. BayView

    BayView Huh. Interesting. Contributor

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    Where I am, in rural areas the house numbers are based on geographical distance from a set point, so they can get pretty huge. Six digits is pretty common. In suburban areas the convention is to have 4 numbers between houses, so if one house is #4 the next one will be #8. No idea why. In urban areas, with only 100 numbers per block and people adding in new apartments or other sub-divisions of the original address numbers it's pretty common to see fractions, like 74 1/2.

    In cities with a strong grid pattern, you can tell the cross street by knowing the address number. Like, in Vancouver, Ontario Street is the E/W delineation line, so in the first block east of Ontario the addresses would be 1-99 X Avenue East. If you get an address of 1601 X Avenue E, you know you have to go 16 blocks east of Ontario.

    There are some really small towns that still have the names of houses instead of numbers - I have a friend whose mailing address is "The Grange", and then his town and postal code. Another friend gets mail delivered to "Greystone Cottage". Must be hell for new mail carriers!

    There. More than anyone ever wanted to know about Canadian addressing systems.

    (Fun(?) extra... my brother once wrote an article for a magazine or something and the little bio for him said "X lives in the Rocky Mountain foothills in BC." Someone wanted to contact him about the article and sent a letter to his name, "Rocky Mountain foothills in BC". So, that's... maybe... a hundred thousand square kilometres? But Canada Post tracked him down. They consistently give my neighbour's mail to me and my mail to my neighbour, but every now and then they pull through!)
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2017
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  7. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    The reason why the house numbers go so high in America is because the door numbers are all prime numbers, all of which must end with the number of presidents there have been. That means lots of numbers are skipped, and it also means the houses all have to be renumbered every time there’s an election. It’s even worse when there have been an even number of presidents, because that means the door numbers cannot be prime. For those four years, until the next election, nobody is allowed to have an address and nobody gets any post.

    Edit - of course, the same thing happens if the number of presidents ends with a five.




    You said you wanted people to talk to you. You didn’t say you wanted it to be true :p
     
    Last edited: Jul 28, 2017
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  8. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    I can confirm this is a FACT
     
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  9. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    The exception is Milton Keynes ... I worked for the parks trust at one time and their address was 1300 Silbury boulevard
     
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  10. Spencer1990

    Spencer1990 Contributor Contributor

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    For what it's worth, at least in Arizona (where things a little more organized than other parts of the country) the house numbers correspond with the street numbers that the house lies between. For example if you lived in a house that was between 44th and 45th street/ave your house number would be something like 4400-4499 odd or even depending on which side of the street you are. Idk if that makes sense or not, but I grew up with it, haha.
     
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  11. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Milton Keynes doesn't count. It isn't a real place, it's a social experiment. They put people into little isolated areas which all feel pretty much the same but are subtly, imperceptibly, different. Everyone is being monitored, and whoever is behind it all is working out which combination of variables causes people to go mental in the shortest amount of time. Nobody knows why they are doing it, but it can only be for nefarious purposes.

    Source: I lived there. For a decade.
     
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  12. Tenderiser

    Tenderiser Not a man or BayView

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    And there are no roads, only roundabouts.
     
  13. mashers

    mashers Contributor Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Also true. I think it's some kind of attempt to disorientate people and discourage them from mingling. They don't want the samples being contaminated.

    Incidentally, this:
    strikes me as a possibly non-terrible idea for a novel. I could call it "MK Ultra" as a nod to another mind control experiment.
     
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  14. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    Oh Milton Keynes. You so full of shattered dreams.
     
  15. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    I'm told that in Tokyo, the houses are numbered in the order in which they are built, which makes them impossible to use to identify location.
     
  16. S A Lee

    S A Lee Contributor Contributor

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    In the early 90s (can't speak about now) houses in the Republic of Ireland (at least, in the countryside) didn't even have house numbers. Whenever a new resident moved in the postman would knock on a known resident's door and ask if they know which house recently had been moved into.
     
  17. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    I've heard that in Dubai there is no officially recognized street system at all let alone numbers. If you want to have something delivered you have to draw a map on the form.
     
  18. The Dapper Hooligan

    The Dapper Hooligan (V) ( ;,,;) (v) Contributor

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    I never even thought of house numbers. About 5-10ish years ago up where I am in Northern Ontario, to help with Post and Emergency Response, the government rearranged the rural route/lot/concession system we had before and officially gave us all street names and a mostly unique six digit house number. Why they're numbered as such is beyond me, but my house number, and everyone on my roadway, officially starts with a "0."
     
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  19. Laurin Kelly

    Laurin Kelly Contributor Contributor

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    In the town I live in, the house numbers are ridiculous, more coordinates than an actual address. My address is Nxx Wxxxxx Blah Street. It took my poor kid forever to learn her own address!
     
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  20. The Dapper Hooligan

    The Dapper Hooligan (V) ( ;,,;) (v) Contributor

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    Just thought I should mention it since it came up elsewhere, but in Canada "sorry" doesn't always mean sorry. Sometimes, quite frequently depending on your company, the exact opposite and worse.
     
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  21. Creed McCandy

    Creed McCandy New Member

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    It comes down to this:

    Aluminum VS Aluminium

    ;)
     
  22. LostThePlot

    LostThePlot Naysmith Contributor

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    We do a similar thing in Britain. The very specific "I'm sorry to say so but you're an appalling human being and your baby is ugly" . Only the British could apologise to someone in the midst of yelling at them.
     
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  23. JLT

    JLT Contributor Contributor

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    I remember when I visited England that when you bump into somebody or interject something into a conversation, you say "Pardon me" and not "Excuse me." The latter seems dismissive, as if it were Steve Martin going "Well, excuuuuuuuse me!"

    On this house numbering thing, when my Dad moved to Port Richey, Florida, his address was 907 Woodland Lane. A few years later, they revised all this so that 1.) streets would have such sufficiently distinctive names that emergency responders wouldn't be confused and 2.) the numbers would reflect locations on an established grid of the area, again to help responders locate the home. So his address became 8732 Lido Lane. I asked him how he liked his new neighborhood, and he said it was pretty much like his old one, except for the weather.
     
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  24. big soft moose

    big soft moose An Admoostrator Admin Staff Supporter Contributor Community Volunteer

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    Only with very posh/formal (or very old) people - generally pardon me either means "sorry I didn't hear you" or "Sorry I've just farted uncouthly" - excuse me can have either of those meanings too but you can also use it as an opener "excuse me, can you tell me the way to the nearest petrol station"
     
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  25. matwoolf

    matwoolf Banned Contributor

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    'Pardon me/excuse me' is one of the traditional indicators of class - the game English people play. 'Pardon me' means you are lower middle class. 'Excuse me' is middle/upper middle class.

    same goes for settee/sofa/couch

    and toilet/lavatory.

    Even being aware, squeamish of such things in themselves, is very non-U.
     
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