Words peculiar to different English speaking countries.

[Bramblethorn]

Vocab is important, but so is syntax. I discovered while writing What a difference a day makes... that New Zealanders put "as" after an adjective as an amplifier, much like Brits would put "very" in front.

E.g. it's hot as = it's very hot

This one shows up in Australia too. I have no idea where it started, but I think it started as a comparative that lost its second half: "hot as hell" etc.

 

[Bramblethorn]

I knew havering but it is rare. Most Brits would not understand it. To confuse things, Havering is also a London Borough)

Probably best known via the Proclaimers' "500 Miles (I'm Gonna Be)".

(though I suspect old-fashioned British regional variation is actually at least as deep).

One of my friends had a book with maps showing language variation within the UK, one word at a time. The one I remember is "hedgehog" vs. "hedge-pig" vs. "urchin".

 

[Britva415]

it's hot as = it's very hot

"hot as hell" etc.

I wonder how regional the recent trend is, to leave off the "as what?" part of the expression "as _____ as _____."

"Let's see if we can get as much pizza (skipping 'as necessary') up in this place, so nobody goes hungry!"
"Forecast is iffy, so we need to as quickly (skipping 'as we can') finish our bike ride tomorrow so we don't have to put them away wet."
"They're training as hard (skipping 'as possible') down there in Florida so they can come out of spring training with momentum to start the season with authority."

I've only heard Americans do this, and it's annoying as (skipping 'fuck'). Are they doing it elsewhere too?

 

[Rustyoznail]

Just moved from Victoria to Western Australia. In Victoria, the grass strip between the road and the property is a nature strip. In WA, it's a verge.

 

[AG31]

In the Northeast, a carbonated beverage is soda. In much of the middle part of our country, it's pop.

Sandwiches on long rolls are hero sandwiches or heroes or subs (short for "submarine sandwich") in the Middle Atlantic, where I've mostly lived. Other regions say hoagies or torpedos or grinders.

Except in Boston, where it's "tonic"

Thanks for these!!! I couldn't stop commenting on these differences when I moved from Illinois to Massachusetts 60 years ago!! Forgot all about them.

And then there's the Maine twist, "tawnic," instead of "tonic."

 

[AG31]

Aussies, Kiwis, Brits and...., if you were reading a novel that send nothing about the environment, what words or turns of phrase would mark it as American, or, at least, North American? In other words, in that last that @Kumquatqueen gave us of clothing terms, does "sweater" stand out as North American like "jumper" stands out as British? (and maybe Australian or New Zealand, or South Africa....)

 

[Hugo_Agogo_UK]

Aussies, Kiwis, Brits and...., if you were reading a novel that send nothing about the environment, what words or turns of phrase would mark it as American, or, at least, North American? In other words, in that last that @Kumquatqueen gave us of clothing terms, does "sweater" stand out as North American like "jumper" stands out as British? (and maybe Australian or New Zealand, or South Africa....)

woolly jumpers oh yes

Quite good meaning not bad, vs quite good meaning great.

 

[Writer61]

Aussies, Kiwis, Brits and...., if you were reading a novel that send nothing about the environment, what words or turns of phrase would mark it as American, or, at least, North American? In other words, in that last that @Kumquatqueen gave us of clothing terms, does "sweater" stand out as North American like "jumper" stands out as British? (and maybe Australian or New Zealand, or South Africa....)

I don't think 'sweater' is unique to North America.

These words/phrases would make me think of a US/Canada setting:

• Sidewalk
• Soda (except in specific contexts)
• Congress (as in a place or body vs a reference to the INC)
• Little League
• Ballgame
• ICE, DEA, FBI

Strong indicators:

• Baseball
• Mass shooting

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Aussies, Kiwis, Brits and...., if you were reading a novel that send nothing about the environment, what words or turns of phrase would mark it as American, or, at least, North American? In other words, in that last that @Kumquatqueen gave us of clothing terms, does "sweater" stand out as North American like "jumper" stands out as British? (and maybe Australian or New Zealand, or South Africa....)

Yes, it does.

Just from the last couple days of fic I've read and a couple TV shows - shows rather than programmes is an Americanism that's become popular over here...

Parking spot or hiding spot is very American, as opposed to UK space or place. Store or mall as places to go shopping. Buying groceries instead of going food shopping. A package of food, cans of food, mac'n'cheese, Bisquick or Hamburger Helper, the spelling lasagna, getting take-out instead of a takeaway, General Tso's chicken (whoever he was), a drive-thru anything (we have a few drive-thru McDonalds in the UK which were popular in Covid but are just a novelty), talking about the Metro or a metro area, mentioning downtown, parking lots, a vacant lot - and measuring any distance in blocks or assuming anyone can park in a city easily.

In the home, a big giveaway is the assumption that rooms will be much bigger than the UK norm. A double bedroom is 8'x11', my bathroom is 5'x8'. If an author mentions an armchair in a bathroom, they're sure not in Britain. Talking about an old house that's under 100 years old. Or a wooden home or a brownstone or row house. Or a yard or den. Garbage disposals are virtually unknown; light switches in bathrooms are illegal (except on cords), ditto plug sockets. A nightstand is a bedside table.

The number one giveaway in badly-reasearched fiction is the American author mentioning 'seeing if there's an electric kettle' - if a building has electricity, there will be a kettle in it! You don't need to call it electric. Nor listen for it whistling, because they turn off automatically. In under two minutes, so no, you don't have to wait 10 minutes. And if you've said "I'll make a nice cup of tea", then you stick a bog-standard tea bag in a mug, add boiling water, add milk, and ask if they want sugar. Offering a lovely lemon and camomile infusion will get the response "what the fuck is this?"

 

[Britva415]

Canuckians end sentences with eh?!

There's a Youtuber I watch who says it "Hey?" instead of just 'eh

She's the only Canadian I've heard do this. I wonder if it's at all common in Canadia or if it's just her thing

 

[ScrappyPaperDoodler]

In South Africa "soda" would refer to something very specific: soda water. If you visit someone's house and want a Coke, Sprite, etc. you'd ask if they have any "cold drink."

"Robot" instead of traffic light is a fun South Africanism. "Lift" is generally preferred to elevator, but not always. "Flat" used to be the universal term for anything smaller than a house, but "apartment" is preferred by young professionals and estate agents who think it sounds classier or "larnier" to use another South Africanism.

My favourites are "howzit" to greet someone and ask how they're doing without wasting too much breath, and "now-now" to signify something will happen later, e.g. "I'll see you now-now, which is to say in a few hours."

The one convention that always trips me up is how floors are named in a multi-storey building. In SA you've got the ground floor, then the first floor above that. I believe Americans count ground as the first floor.

 

[NuclearFairy]

The one convention that always trips me up is how floors are named in a multi-storey building. In SA you've got the ground floor, then the first floor above that. I believe Americans count ground as the first floor.

That's because sometimes you have multiple ground floors. There's a hospital in Tacoma that has I believe three ground floors because of the steepness of the hill it's built on. It's just simpler to call them floors 1-3 than to call them ground floors 1-3 and above that would be floors 1-10 I suppose. Even with residential houses this can be true. I've gone past entire neighborhoods built on steep hills where the front door and the back door are both at ground level but on different floors.

 

[AG31]

The one convention that always trips me up is how floors are named in a multi-storey building. In SA you've got the ground floor, then the first floor above that. I believe Americans count ground as the first floor.

Yeah, I think all of Europe also calls the 2nd floor in a building the 1st floor, and the 1st floor the ground floor.

One time I tried to buy a sweater for my best friend on my last day as an exchange student in Switzerland. I couldn't find a lovely Swiss sweater, and too late I realized that I'd forgotten about the misplaced 2nd floor.

 

[Britva415]

That's because sometimes you have multiple ground floors

I don't know if that's the reason. This reason could exist anywhere in the world - and did, long before American English was a thing. Europe, where this G vs 1° floor convention originated, before it was subverted by Americans conflating them into one, has thousand-year-old structures built on steep inclines with multiple ground-level entrances on different "floors."

 

[Writer61]

That's because sometimes you have multiple ground floors. There's a hospital in Tacoma that has I believe three ground floors because of the steepness of the hill it's built on. It's just simpler to call them floors 1-3 than to call them ground floors 1-3 and above that would be floors 1-10 I suppose. Even with residential houses this can be true. I've gone past entire neighborhoods built on steep hills where the front door and the back door are both at ground level but on different floors.

So the possibility of multiple 'ground floors' is why Americans avoid the description. I think not.

Logically, there are three possibilities:

• GF then 1F
• GF then 2F
• 1F then 2F

I have no preference; I just adapt to what's around me.

 

[AG31]

These words/phrases would make me think of a US/Canada setting:

• Sidewalk

What do the rest of you walk on?

 

[Writer61]

What do the rest of you walk on?

This will do your head in: pavement.

What you consider pavement is properly* known as tarmac.

*As in the King's English.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Pavement in UK, footpath in Australia.
(cross-posted)

 

[Writer61]

Pavement in UK, footpath in Australia.
(cross-posted)

Footpath is valid in the UK too. Sort of depends on whether it is surfaced (pavement) or not (footpath).

 

[BeechLeaf]

The signs when they're digging them up or closing them off (i.e. almost always) say either 'footpath' or 'footway', but ordinary people stick to calling it the pavement. Which is, I think, a problem, because in North America the pavement is the roadway/carriageway.

 

[Writer61]

Which is, I think, a problem, because in North America the pavement is the roadway/carriageway.

It's a problem only if one is daft enough to walk into the area where vehicles are allowed, given what it is called.

Brit in the US: "I say, my good fellow, this is the pavement, drive somewhere else!"

 

[NuclearFairy]

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, pavement is anywhere that's paved and outdoors. Street, sidewalk, paved driveway, school blacktop, all pavement. So the word wasn't used to refer to any of them, but generally when talking about a combination of them and wanting to use fewer words.

However, there was one Canadian show that we'd occasionally watch that referred to the sidewalk as the walkway. Can't remember what the show was about now, just that I always found it jarring when they'd do that.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

Floors are different from storeys. UK nomenclature dates back to when the ground level likely really was ground, and the first floor was the wooden planks that made the ground floor ceiling. So the first floor was literally a level up.

In German you can get well confused because 'im ersten Stock' is literally 'on the first floor that has been built', so up one level, but you might get Etage (levels, nicked from French) starting at 1. But most public buildings start at level 0 (mathematical minds...) which is the Erdegeschoss (literally ground/earth floor), and then you get Obergeschosse above and Unter- in the basement.

UK tends to have a ground floor even in 3D places like Edinburgh where you might have a ground floor staff exit and the main entrance on the third floor.

Generally a UK pavement is next to a road, and a footpath is somewhere cars, bikes and horses aren't allowed - on OS maps footpaths are dotted red lines, bridlepaths are longer red dashes, and roads are solid lines.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Pavement in UK, footpath in Australia.
(cross-posted)

Generally pavement in Oz city centres, where it's all concrete, bricks or bitumen; more often a footpath in the 'burbs, where there might be some green on each side.

 

[Britva415]

What you consider pavement is properly* known as tarmac.

It's true that "pavement" is a material, not a location or construction feature, but it could be any one of several different materials. Sidewalks, roadways or parking lots could be made of any of those materials. We aren't going to call anything "tarmac" which isn't made of actual tarmac.

Unless it's an air runway.