Regional terms

Today, I found out that looseleaf paper is not a universal term for lined writing paper. Apparently nobody in Montana has ever heard of it.

What terms were you surprised to find out we’re different in other places?

2 Likes

Pop or soda. :frog::frog::frog:

2 Likes

Mainly, I worry about the difference between British and American English. There can be slight differences in spelling. Where I live it is closer to British English.

1 Like

Bagies for the name of turnips. Apparently only a ten mile area where I grew up calls them That

1 Like

New York says license plate, Florida says tag. New York says DWI, Florida says DUI.

1 Like

I recently caught @anon54386108 saying “She’s going to get a come to Jesus” and found myself confused.
Apparently it’s southern slang for ‘a stern talking to’ :sweat_smile:

I live in Denmark, so I use the British spellings for words like colour and neighbour, but when I voice-chat, it’s mainly with Americans.
So I tend to get a bit confused, speaking one dialect and spelling another.

2 Likes

American is not a language it is a bastardisation of English

but a stern talking to over here is called ‘an ear bashing’ or a ‘telling off’ i think we have a few different things we can say for the same thing lol, variety being the spice of life and all that :slight_smile:

I can give a confusing example.
I speak both Norwegian and Danish, modern Norwegian being a sort of simplified, twisted Danish.
So, the languages are really alike. But if you speak the sentence “Han er så rar, han griner altid”, it would mean “He’s so nice, he’s always laughing” in Danish.
But, in Norwegian, it would mean “He’s so weird, he’s always crying” because two of the words have opposite meanings there. So it got really confusing when I weren’t as fluent as I am now.

1 Like

the English language use to be so vibrant that in the olden times there were a lot more words in their vocabulary than there are now like over 3x as many, i had a book of old words and some of there meanings were really funny, i couldn’t remember them though bc i would never use them.

I love some of the weird english words like ‘poppycock’, ‘squabble’, and ‘peckish’ :smile:

1 Like

a squabble is a bit like a quibble only a bit bigger :slight_smile: not as big as a barny and less than a stramash :joy:

2 Likes

Another example of the language barrier is Norwegian and Faroese. Faroese is very similar to old Norwegian, and I have a friend who’s faroese (but speaks Danish fluently, thank god).
Her faroese friends often comment ‘fitta’ on her pictures, because in Faroese, it means “You’re beautiful”. If she did it on my facebook, however, my Norwegian friends would think other thoughts, because in Norwegian, it means ‘vagina’ :joy:

3 Likes

In the South we call a knitted winter cap a “toboggan”. Other places call it a “beanie” among other things.

In NY, DUI and DWI are two different offenses, depending on your level of impairment and the substance you are influenced by. In NY, even driving drowsy can get you a DUI.

1 Like

Friend of mine visited the US and asked a copper where he could buy some fags. Didnt go down to well. Surely you lot must know by now it just means cigarettes over here in uk?? lol.

I went to Prince Edward Island years ago…stopped and asked a local man for directions to the nearest automated banking machine.

Guy: “Oh sure. There’s a Titless Teller 2 blocks up the road.”

:joy: I’d never heard that expression before, and never heard it since.

1 Like

We had loose leaf paper in TN. And loose leaf binders.

1 Like

@Ninjastar

Yeah, Florida also has driving while impaired (DWI).

It’s legal in Florida (at least my county) to talk or text on the phone while driving. Motorcyclists don’t have to wear helmets. There are no car inspections. Road rage is very dangerous because it seems like everyone has a gun.

I live in a very conservative county.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 14 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.