Need a little help with your language please

[giantangryrooster]

I'm Scandinavian, I try my best with your language, but am still bewildered about livingrooms/dens, toilets/loos etc .

But can any of you enlighten me on two words?

Where I'm from we call it summer house, what do you call it... Cottage, holiday home, second home and what is the difference?

Secondly wood/forrest, is a wood smaller? How small, then?
Do you call it wood or woods?

Just confused can you help, please.

Batch and scuffler for bread roll too.

IVampire and the aforementioned blaa.
Bun is also open to interpretation - bread roll, sweet bread roll with currants, fairy cake type thing....

Stottie

I used to call the room with TV and sofas the 'front room' as a child (and it was at the front of the house) but since I left home, I've always used a room that isn't at the front for that purpose so I use 'living room'.

I believe the upper class term is 'drawing room' but that would sound ludicrously pretentious from a working class person like me in a modestly sized house!

My parents extended their house and added a second living room, but they called this the 'lounge' to distinguish it from the 'front room'. As I understand it the term 'lounge' is considered common as muck but once a room gets a name it's hard to stop using it.

giantangryrooster Sorry, haven’t read the whole thread, but having some familiarity with the Norwegian Saeter or hytte, I would say there is no equivalent here. Though I think there may be Lodges or Cabins in Scotland that would be similiar.

In Canada it is ‘the Cabin’ I think.

Yes, we use front room for that room, which really confused all of our helpers (German, Greek, French, American) when we moved house in Germany :o They kept putting boxes in the bedroom at the front of the house when we had really meant the living room.

Our front room isn't at the front but it's hard to unlearn a word like that. Almost all British houses have an extremely similar layout - the front door opens into a hallway (maybe through a porch, if you're posh!) in which you will find the stairs. At the back of the house is the kitchen and perhaps a dining room. At the front of the house is the living room (hence "front room" - the dining room may be used for various purposes - study, playroom, extra sitting room - and referred to as the "back room". Upstairs, the main bathroom is usually the door closest to the stairs. Often it is directly opposite the stairs. Then the bedrooms will comprise the rest of that floor of the house.

Up until mid-20th century, it was often the case that the 'front room' was a kind of 'best room' in working class houses and would only be used on special occasions or for visitors. People tended to 'live' in a back room next to the kitchen. 'Parlour' was an old-fashioned term for this type of front room.

Only call it front room if it is in the front of the house. (Which my parents is, Mine isn,t so is not called front room, its, the sitting room.

And, before central heating, the front room was often cold in winter. A fire would be lit daily in the back/dining room, and on special occasions (Christmas) in the front room.

I’m Danish. There isn’t the same concept of summer house here in the U.K. (speaking generally).

I'd say a stuga (in Swedish) is a holiday home, I don't know what the word for it is in Danish though.

English is a ridiculous language as we've stolen vocabulary from all over the world, so have twenty words where one suffices in other languages. It does make it a subtle and nuanced language though (and therefore it's very easy to hide what you mean with an elegant sentence... I'm looking at you politicians...)

Ninkanink can you enlighten me, since you know both sides? I would think that even if brits don't have an equivalent concept, I imagine they still have second homes by the sea. If so what do you call them? If not, do they only travel to the beach for the day / stay in a hotel?

I don't think many people in England have holiday homes by the sea. People in London and the South East go on day trips to South Coast resorts, either by car or train. From the West Midlands it is easy to get to North Wales.

eddie is that due to tradition, because it is expensive or because the land at the seaside hasn't been sold to development? Or because brits don't see the attraction in stsying by the sea (but then there wouldn't be resorts either, so not likely).

I had no idea that 'summer houses' at the seaside wasn't a thing outside Scandinavia .

Property is seriously expensive here. England is very crowded and if we all had holiday homes the entire south coast would one long two-mile deep strip of concrete sprawl.

2nd homes are 1 expensive, 2 frowned upon. They can desimate communities. I know someone with a a cottage, it is rented out quite a bit in the summer,, but it is also a big responsibility, not sure how much use she makes of it herself.

People either go on holiday to the seaside and stay in hotel/air b’n’b/bed and breakfast/hired cottage or villa, or something similar. Or they might stay in a caravan park (in a rented caravan) or they might have their own caravan which they move about depending on where they want to go. Generally only the very comfortably well off will have their own second property in a holiday spot. There isn’t summer houses in the way that Scandinavians have them.

GrumpyMiddleAgedWoman I know London is much more expensive, but I think the rest is compatible to here (sort) of . And yes we had a lot of seaside developments, so much so that land along the coast has now been protected.

june2007 i have seen the frown on MN . Of course a lot of people here cannot afford a second home, but I don't think it is frowned upon in the same way. Perhaps it is you class devision perspective doing this?

Thank you Ninkaninka .

No, it’s really not comparable. - if you don’t live in London, your salary will generally be much lower. So although you might be easily able to afford a house in the area in which you live, you won’t be able to afford a place in the popular seaside towns.

Also summer houses as Scandinavia has them just don’t exist here.

It’s massively tied up in the class system (as is everything else here). It’s simply not conceivable to someone from Scandinavia, and impossible to meaningfully convey.

It’s also impossible to convey just how crowded it is here. England in particular is hugely overpopulated compared to any of the Scandinavian countries.

Ninkanink I truly didn't know it was a Scandinavian thing.

About salary i actually thought the lower British taxes evend things out compared to here. I stand corrected .

(Last comment, for now at least)

It’s also important to make the distinction that second homes here are actual, proper all-year-round houses that people own as holiday homes. So rather than just owning a little extra place by the sea, second homes pretty much mean that people who live and have grown up in holiday towns and areas are priced out of the housing market altogether because very wealthy people from elsewhere have bought up all the property. For that reason there is often a lot of bitterness/anger about second homes. Completely different situation from Scandinavia, where summer houses are generally outside the normal housing stock, and where renting is also much more secure than it is here and a viable long term solution for those who can’t afford to buy.

Thank again, I'll let you off the hook. Have a lovely evening .