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When America gets it right.

263 replies

popcornwizard · 29/11/2018 10:40

Most of their spelling and grammar differences are just wrong, but occasionally something it works, and works even better than our version! Dear reader I give you the 'cell' or 'cellphone'. It is much easier and more pleasant than the 'mobile phone' that we linguistically haul around. Is it the only one?

OP posts:
mycatistoo · 30/11/2018 18:46

Good Lord. If I heard someone say that I would be monumentally offended! Not come across that one yet.

WickedGoodDoge · 30/11/2018 18:55

Where abouts are you mycatistoo ? It’s pretty much just a Mass thing.

SenecaFalls · 30/11/2018 18:56

According to Google, it is a Massachusetts thing.

Autumnchill · 30/11/2018 18:57

I like Freeway instead of Motorway

mycatistoo · 30/11/2018 19:10

Maine but in Mass a fair bit. Thanks for the heads up, that could have gone badly wrong lol!

WickedGoodDoge · 30/11/2018 19:12

I do go native when I’m in Boston, but I think the only other time I left DH flummoxed was when I’d driven past our turning and out of my mouth popped, “that’s OK, I’ll just bang a uey.” (Make a u-turn)

You can take the girl out of, and all that... Grin

WickedGoodDoge · 30/11/2018 19:14

Ooooh, mycatistoo have I spoken to you before? I’ve “spoken” t someone on here about Maine. I love Maine! Went to Bowdoin and now DD(13) wants to go there too, major in art, become a school art teacher and live in Maine! I may have brainwashed her a bit too well. Grin

mycatistoo · 30/11/2018 20:04

Ha yes that was me. I name change a lot. Grin

My niece has just left Bowdoin. One of my top picks for ds (only allowed to go to New England colleges or I'm following him BlushGrin).

Stupomax · 30/11/2018 20:33

DD(13) wants to go there too, major in art, become a school art teacher and live in Maine! I may have brainwashed her a bit too well.

That's the exact path DD2's art teacher took, and she is absolutely wonderful :-)

WickedGoodDoge · 30/11/2018 20:36

Quite right- he is spoilt for choice in New England. No need to go anywhere else! Grin

WickedGoodDoge · 30/11/2018 20:39

Oh Stupomax I’ll need to tell DD that! She’s really sold on the idea. I actually think she’d do really well in the environment of a small NE college.

OlennasWimple · 30/11/2018 20:43

Americans use both sidewalk and pavement to describe two different things, whereas we just use pavement. (Though my favourite is the French - trottoir. Makes me think of pigs trotting along on their trotters beside the road Grin )

OlennasWimple · 30/11/2018 20:46

Noodles for pasta - including "lasagna noodles" - is definitely a thing in the NE. I still can't really get my head around it TBH

Puzzledandpissedoff · 30/11/2018 20:47

most of their spelling and grammar are original, they pre-date later changes made in British-English

Well pointed out, copperbonnet Wink

I happen to love America and the Americans - but this was certainly a brave thread title, especially on Mumsnet!!

mathanxiety · 30/11/2018 21:11

I am pretty sure 'off of' and 'youze' come from Hiberno English (youse also Scottish).

Puzzledandpissedoff · 30/11/2018 21:24

he is spoilt for choice in New England. No need to go anywhere else!

Exquisite, isn't it? I have dear friends in Boston and can't wait to see them and their wonderful area again

But I'm off to Texas for a month next August ... yee haw!! Grin

MissConductUS · 30/11/2018 23:39

DS started uni this fall just north of Boston. He is right on Massachusetts Bay and the area is lovely. I wish he was a little closer but it was a doodle (note the British slang 😁) for him to get the train home and back for Thanksgiving.

StripySocksAndDocs · 01/12/2018 07:11

”A lot of Americans also say 'pop' for fizzy drinks, depending on where they live.”

Soda pop, a union of the two. Soda pop Curtis; The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton’s book is another thing America definitely got right!

mathanxiety · 01/12/2018 07:17

From upthread - a stroller is a buggy or pushchair, not a pram.

Wrt tap and faucet - a tap can be what you stick into a keg or into a maple tree or a watermelon, basically a tube with a valve to control flow. You can use a tap when there isn't piping/plumbing.
For domestic plumbing, I hear tap and faucet used interchangeably for the controls, with spigot used to refer to the part of the fixture that water comes out of. There are probably regional variations. Spigot is also used to refer to the entire controls and outlet pipe on an outside 'tap' that you would attach your garden hose to (as opposed to your panty hose).

I have heard 'noodles' used for 'pasta' in the Chicago area. The phrase 'lasagna noodles' doesn't disturb me at all, but maybe 'noodles' used to refer to spaghetti would be a different matter.

Pop is what fizzy drinks are called here.

Suggestions for the 'Americans say it better' lexicon:
'Gapers' delay' - when traffic slows to a crawl to allow drivers to gape at a distraction on the road.

Nosebleed seats - the seats that are high enough up in a stadium to worry about low flying aircraft, and closer to the carpark than the stage or the playing field.

Kitty corner - diagonally across from. This is a regional thing.

Podunk town - small, boring town.

Copperbonnet · 01/12/2018 09:53

But I'm off to Texas for a month next August ...

Puzzled you are coming to Texas in August. ShockGrin

Texas in August is hot.

Pack your highest sun screen, a hat and water bottles. Make sure wherever you are staying has decent air con.

Puzzledandpissedoff · 01/12/2018 10:15

Copperbonnet I know, and it's good of you to mention this, but don't worry - I adore heat, and anyway I spent August 2016 in Arizona so have an idea what I'm in for!! This is actually a home exchange and luckily the place has full aircon and a swim spa

I wish he was a little closer but it was a doodle (note the British slang 😁)

MiccConduct a tiny and really quite unimportant tip ... that would a a doddle - two d's in the middle rather than two o's Wink

GiantKitten · 01/12/2018 11:19

mathanxiety
From upthread - a stroller is a buggy or pushchair, not a pram.

Where I live (Lancs) a lot of people call a pushchair a pram. I imagine it’s the same in other places too.

(I don’t, but I’m a southern pedant Grin)

MissConductUS · 01/12/2018 12:21

Thank you Puzzled. Smile

'Gapers' delay' - when traffic slows to a crawl to allow drivers to gape at a distraction on the road.

I've actually never heard this term. The equivilent I've always heard is rubbernecking, which suggests everyone slowing down as they turn their heads to see the accident on the other side of the road.

Kitty corner - diagonally across from. This is a regional thing.

I'm fairly sure this is national, not regional. I know I've heard it in CA and of course, here in NY.

NinjaLeprechaun · 01/12/2018 12:40

"Noodles for pasta - including "lasagna noodles" - is definitely a thing in the NE. I still can't really get my head around it TBH"
But not all noodles are pasta. Ramen and spaetzle, for instance, are both noodles but I wouldn't think it was accurate to call them pasta.
I wonder if the use of noodles over the word pasta has to do with where the majority of people who settled that region came from. I live in an area heavily settled by Germans, and you hear people (especially older people) say pasta noodles or spaghetti noodles here, I suppose to differentiate them from other types of noodles.

SenecaFalls · 01/12/2018 12:48

We have always called the water delivery devices inside the house faucets and the ones outside spigots. No idea why. But the one in the fridge that dispenses cold water we call a tap, unless it's spitting out ice, in which case it's just the ice dispenser.

I'm the South, we say catty corner. Supposedly, the etymology is actually French, from quatre as in four corners.

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