You say tomato

[Roland]

The discussion about gas pedal = throttle, depending where you live, got me thinking. What other words do we say differently.

Couch or sofa or settee

Pop or soda

Supper or dinner

[Roland]

We say couch.

And pop.

And in my house we have supper.

[rcperryls]

couch
soda (since moving to South Carolina. In Chicago it was "pop". Sodas had ice cream)
supper usually

purse or pocketbook I say purse

[SteveM]

My time in the military exposed me to people from all over the USA (and the Philippines) and the one that stood out the most was pop/soda/coke. Most people used soda, here in the PNW we use pop mostly, and it seemed to me that people from the south tended more towards coke. I always warned those people that if they ever asked me to fetch them a coke then they were going to get a coca-cola.

Of course we could go on all day about USA versus UK. Aluminum, rebate, housing, bonnet, boot, lorry, etc.

[richardandtracy]

The words used can also be a class identifier in the UK, though not always reliable.

Dinner can be a meal near noon or in the evening. Dinner near noon tends to be working class. Dinner in the evening tends to be middle class, and Lunch/Supper instead of dinner tends to be upper middle class.

Back to the initial question.
US -> UK
Fender = Bumper
Hood = Bonnet
Trunk = Boot
Eraser = Rubber
Chips = Crisps
Fries = Chips. (Imagine the odd looks when I asked for a burger & chips in Canada)

I have fizz, not lemonade & not soda or pop, never have 'coke', rarely have 'cola'. Have lunch & supper. We have a sofa, not a settee, and certainly not a couch.

Regards

Richard.

[Roland]

The words used can also be a class identifier in the UK, though not always reliable.

Dinner can be a meal near noon or in the evening. Dinner near noon tends to be working class. Dinner in the evening tends to be middle class, and Lunch/Supper instead of dinner tends to be upper middle class.

Back to the initial question.
US -> UK
Fender = Bumper
Hood = Bonnet
Trunk = Boot
Eraser = Rubber
Chips = Crisps
Fries = Chips. (Imagine the odd looks when I asked for a burger & chips in Canada)

I have fizz, not lemonade & not soda or pop, never have 'coke', rarely have 'cola'. Have lunch & supper. We have a sofa, not a settee, and certainly not a couch.

Regards

Richard.

Oddly in my part of Canada you would order burger & fries....or fish & chips. Lol

You might get a funny look asking for a rubber. They might think you mean a condom.

[wendywombat]

Handbag (UK) Purse (US)
Fringe as in hair (UK) Bangs ( US)
Flyover (UK) Overpass (US)
Pavement (UK) Sidewalk (US)
Just a few differences.
We eat lunch and dinner, sit on a settee and the only fizz we drink is Perrier Water or Champagne

All this because I said "throttle"

[Stitchinkitty]

This subject has come up on the TW board and the 123 board in the past.
so here's my input.
US / AUS

Lemonade / Lemon squash
Sprite / Lemonade
Macintosh / Raincoat
Jumper / Pinafore dress
Sweater / Jumper
Beauty salon / Hairdresser.
Coach / Economy class
Gas / Petrol
Truck / Utility

That's all I can think of at the moment

[fccs]

Let's see....

couch
soda
dinner
bumper
burger
fries (unless with fish, then chips)

[Squirrel]

Always an interesting subject this topic - "English as she is spoke" as my Welsh grandmother used to say.

Here are some Kiwi (NZ) ones

Pavement = Footpath
soda/pop = soft drink
Dinner/supper = tea
Utility = ute
Sofa = couch
sewing = frequently means dressmaking or other machine sewing.


Will add more if I think of them

[Roland]

couch
soda (since moving to South Carolina. In Chicago it was "pop". Sodas had ice cream)
supper usually

purse or pocketbook I say purse

I say purse. I remember m FIL used to say pocketbook,

[Roland]

Always an interesting subject this topic - "English as she is spoke" as my Welsh grandmother used to say.

Here are some Kiwi (NZ) ones

Pavement = Footpath
soda/pop = soft drink
Dinner/supper = tea
Utility = ute
Sofa = couch
sewing = frequently means dressmaking or other machine sewing.


Will add more if I think of them

Father in law also used to say " tea" then laugh because we all drank coffee. He was Irish.

But I think "tea" was lunch, not supper.

[Stitchinkitty]

Lunch is lunch.Tea is the evening meal.(and the drink,)Supper is a snack before going to bed.
When I was a child Friday night was curmpets with loads of butter for Supper.But only on the one day of the week did we have Supper and that was Friday.

[Inkysloth]

When I was a kid I ate:

Breakfast - in the morning
Dinner - at school
Tea - at about 5pm.

At some point in my adulthood I shifted to:

Breakfast
Lunch
Dinner

I'm sure there's some kind of class dynamic that can be drawn from that

I sit on a sofa in the front room.

Never mind that I live in a flat where the three rooms are all horizontally next to each other!

[Fizzbw]

If listen to lots of audio books and the one that gets me the most when I have an American reader is "the sun shone"

Shone = sh ON like on the bed. Most American readers say "Shown"

Drives me bonkers!!! I can cope with via, data etc etc.....

Once someone spent a whole book talking about Edin Burg (if you don't know how a capital city is said, don't you check the pronunciation? and the last book was bonkers, character called "Acheron". Shortened all the time. To "Ash" yet this reader decided to call him Aker-Ron instead of Asher Ron....


We have sofas or settees, dinner is the vending meal, so is tea or supper, depending on what comes first in my mind. We are a family with fairly obvious southern English accents, not posh posh though, and with a tipple of Welsh. but my nephews are growing up in Manchester and they are getting little mancunian quirks... Oop and booook.....

Nxxx

[CuriousKitty]

The discussion about gas pedal = throttle, depending where you live, got me thinking. What other words do we say differently.

Couch or sofa or settee

Pop or soda

Supper or dinner

I should probably input first that I am as northern of a US citizen as you can get without going to Alaska or Maine. I live in Western Washington, which is the more densely populated area, has an overall more precise way of speaking (not much twang up here). You'll find more twang and slang in rural areas or in Western Washington which is basically a desert-basin and farming. Oh and a big giant river.



Good lord, don't ask a southerner vs a northerner what on earth you call that bubbly drink. Some areas it's Cola, some it's Soda, some it's Pop and those of us persnickety ones, refer to it by it's actual brand (Code Red, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Coca Cola, Thomas Kemper etc).

I grew up with Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. It's usually couch, sometimes sofa.

My best friend and I get into fake arguments over beanie vs took (sp?). She's originally from Canada.

My time in the military exposed me to people from all over the USA (and the Philippines) and the one that stood out the most was pop/soda/coke. Most people used soda, here in the PNW we use pop mostly, and it seemed to me that people from the south tended more towards coke. I always warned those people that if they ever asked me to fetch them a coke then they were going to get a coca-cola.

Of course we could go on all day about USA versus UK. Aluminum, rebate, housing, bonnet, boot, lorry, etc.

I stayed 2 weeks in Kentucky with an ex, and no matter what pop they got, it was ALWAYS Pepsi. Like something is encoded in their DNA to always get Pepsi, and heaven FORBID you suggest Coke.

Pocketbook vs Purse vs WALLET!

A pocketbook to me is an old fashioned way of saying wallet, which goes inside your purse/handbag (bigger purse) or just plain bag.

Throttle to me is more of an adverb, to THROTTLE the gas, rather than it is the gas pedal. We tend to say "stomp on it!" to tell someone to go faster- as if you have lead boots on.

This subject has come up on the TW board and the 123 board in the past.
so here's my input.
US / AUS

Lemonade / Lemon squash
Sprite / Lemonade
Macintosh / Raincoat
Jumper / Pinafore dress
Sweater / Jumper
Beauty salon / Hairdresser.
Coach / Economy class
Gas / Petrol
Truck / Utility

That's all I can think of at the moment

I'm curious to know where Macintosh came from as a Raincoat, because us 80s and 90s kids grew up with that as the original computer company name. And I think Jumper/Pinafore might be more of an English thing or upper class thing? I mean, we just wore dresses. I didn't really see much references to 'jumpers' until I got interested in Lolita Fashion genre, where JSK is the standard dress style. Sweaters are sweaters, or specific style like fly-away (ones that are open in the front, no buttons, like a shrug). Sometimes it's also a cardigan if I'm being specific about a button-up sweater. It's hair dresser or salon, but not really beauty salon- unless you're a wordy person?

But alternatively, we will specify nail salon to differentiate between salon (hair salon) and nail salon. Unless you're spending way too much at Gene Juarez, then it's all of it in one.

[richardandtracy]

It was a Scotsman, a 'Charles MacIntosh' who invented the coat style in 1824.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackintosh

A jumper is a knitted sweater, also known as a Jersey after the Channel Island.
A pinny/pinafore is something I've almost never heard of in the UK, except as the name of a ship in the eponymous operetta by Gilbert & Sullivan. I think it's more of a Victorian word.

Regards

Richard

[rcperryls]

A jumper in the US is a sleeveless dress intended to be worn over a top or blouse, I thought most often called a pinafore in the UK and maybe some regions of the US, though it is a pretty outdated term. Like Richard said, Victorian.

Carole

[Squirrel]

OK here are some from down under

Jumper - a knitted top - similar to a sweater - worn mostly in the winter
Cardigan - again a knitted "open fronted" garment worn when the weather is warmer. A fairly new fashion variety has emerged called a 'long cardigan' which is hip length or longer, unbuttoned as against a knitted one which finished a bit lower than the waist.
Pinafore, if often a sleeveless type of dress with a scoop neck. Or a full length apron?pinny that servants used to wear.
Apron/Pinny, worn tied around the waist to cover the front of the dress/skirt
Mackintosh - rain coat.

An interesting thread this one.

[SteveM]

A week ago I would have said that I use couch and sofa interchangeably. Then Friday my wife came up with the great idea to buy a new couch and while shopping I quickly realized that I was actually most comfortable and familiar using "couch" yet every single store and manufacturer used "sofa".

Don't invite me to sit on the settee as I'll probably just stand around looking confused.