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Original poster

Do you say binoculars...

77 replies

WildRosie · 08/04/2023 19:53

...or field glasses ?
Sandpaper or glasspaper ?
Sitting room or living room (or lounge, drawing room etc) ?
Cutlery or irons ?
Dining table or dinner table ?
Footpath or pavement (I know, they're not necessarily the same thing) ?
Lead or leash ?
Glass or tumbler ?
Mug or beaker ?
Tea or dinner (or supper) ?

BTW, I don't know anybody who calls binoculars 'field glasses'. It sounds very old school Ministry of Defence!

OP posts:
Hellocatshome · 08/04/2023 19:55

.or field glasses ? Well binoculars but I never really have a reason to say it.
Sandpaper or glasspaper ? Aren't they two different things?
Sitting room or living room (or lounge, drawing room etc) ? Living room
Cutlery or irons ? Cutlery
Dining table or dinner table ? Dinner table
Footpath or pavement (I know, they're not necessarily the same thing) ? Path
Lead or leash ? Lead
Glass or tumbler ? Two different things
Mug or beaker ? Two different things
Tea or dinner (or supper) ? Tea

IamSmarticus · 08/04/2023 20:15

Binoculars
Sandpaper
living room (sometimes lounge)
Cutlery
Dining table
pavement
Lead
Glass
Mug
Tea

Original poster
WildRosie · 08/04/2023 20:17

Thankyou Hello. My Mum always used to say beaker and I've only met one person who said irons rather than cutlery. He is from Tyneside (I'm in West Yorkshire) so it might be a regional thing.

OP posts:
MajorCarolDanvers · 08/04/2023 20:19

Binoculars
Sandpaper
Sitting room
Cutlery
Dining table / dinner table - both
pavement
Lead
Glass
Mug
Tea / dinner - both

Hellocatshome · 08/04/2023 20:24

To me a beaker is a plastic mug. And a tumbler is a glass like the kind you would have a whisky in.

SBAM · 08/04/2023 20:24

...or field glasses ? Binoculars (or ‘nock-leers’ if you’re my child)
Sandpaper or glasspaper ? Sandpaper. Never heard it called
glasspaper.
Sitting room or living room (or lounge, drawing room etc) ? Living room for the everyday space, sitting room/front room for the posh one.
Cutlery or irons ? Cutlery. Though my dad and grandad sometimes call them fighting irons.
Dining table or dinner table ? Dining table. Or usually just the table.
Footpath or pavement (I know, they're not necessarily the same thing) ? Pavement in a town, footpath for the countryside kind.
Lead or leash ? Lead
Glass or tumbler ? Glass
Mug or beaker ? Mug
Tea or dinner (or supper) ? I grew up with tea, then spent a few years living with people for whom English wasn’t their first language and changed to dinner to minimise confusion.
I am from Yorkshire but now living in Essex.

Original poster
WildRosie · 08/04/2023 20:29

My woodwork teacher at secondary school insisted the proper term was glasspaper and could get quite arsey with anyone who thought otherwise!

OP posts:
supernaturaldelight · 08/04/2023 20:31

binoculars
Sandpaper
living room
Cutlery- although I’d probably just say knives and forks
Dining table
pavement
Lead
Glass
Mug- Beaker to me is usually a plastic cup/bottle that a child would drink from
Tea

Original poster
WildRosie · 08/04/2023 20:33

There are others:

Tomato sauce, red sauce or ketchup ?
Stool or buffet ?
Loo or toilet or lavatory, bog etc ? Bathroom even!!
Pub or bar ?
Starter or hors d'oeuvre ?
Pudding or dessert ? Or afters ?

Love the variations the English language has blessed us with🙂.

OP posts:
NoSquirrels · 08/04/2023 20:36

I’m sort of vaguely relieved that the other option for binoculars is the odd ‘fieldglasses’ and not ‘bins’ which gives me the irrational rage.

Never heard ‘irons’ for cutlery either. We’d say ‘knives and forks’ (spoons apparently not necessary to specify).

Sandpaper
living room (or lounge)
Dining table
pavement (footpath for countryside walks)
Lead
Glass
Mug
Tea or dinner (or supper) - all of them depending.

NoSquirrels · 08/04/2023 20:37

Stool or buffet ?

Say what now? Is a buffet-stool a bit like a pouffe?

lipikar · 08/04/2023 20:37

By-knock-you-laars a la snatch

duvetcovereddissident · 08/04/2023 20:39

Binoculars or field glasses - Bins
Sandpaper or glasspaper ? - they are two different things
Sitting room or living room (or lounge, drawing room etc) ?- living room, mostly
Cutlery or irons ? - cutlery
Dining table or dinner table ? - neither, its just a table
Footpath or pavement (I know, they're not necessarily the same thing) ? - again, two different things
Lead or leash ? lead, probably
Glass or tumbler ? two totally different things
Mug or beaker ?two totally different things
Tea or dinner (or supper) depends

duvetcovereddissident · 08/04/2023 20:41

WildRosie · 08/04/2023 20:33

There are others:

Tomato sauce, red sauce or ketchup ?
Stool or buffet ?
Loo or toilet or lavatory, bog etc ? Bathroom even!!
Pub or bar ?
Starter or hors d'oeuvre ?
Pudding or dessert ? Or afters ?

Love the variations the English language has blessed us with🙂.

lots of these pairs are not the same things though,

zaffa · 08/04/2023 20:41

SBAM · 08/04/2023 20:24

...or field glasses ? Binoculars (or ‘nock-leers’ if you’re my child)
Sandpaper or glasspaper ? Sandpaper. Never heard it called
glasspaper.
Sitting room or living room (or lounge, drawing room etc) ? Living room for the everyday space, sitting room/front room for the posh one.
Cutlery or irons ? Cutlery. Though my dad and grandad sometimes call them fighting irons.
Dining table or dinner table ? Dining table. Or usually just the table.
Footpath or pavement (I know, they're not necessarily the same thing) ? Pavement in a town, footpath for the countryside kind.
Lead or leash ? Lead
Glass or tumbler ? Glass
Mug or beaker ? Mug
Tea or dinner (or supper) ? I grew up with tea, then spent a few years living with people for whom English wasn’t their first language and changed to dinner to minimise confusion.
I am from Yorkshire but now living in Essex.

My child also says if like that! It's turned out to be a very popular word in this house since DH helped her make some from old loo roll innards

zaffa · 08/04/2023 20:46

Binoculars or field glasses - Binoculars
Sandpaper or glasspaper ? - sandpaper - I've never heard of glass paper
Sitting room or living room (or lounge, drawing room etc) ?- sitting room (but lounge growing up, i grew up in another country though)
Cutlery or irons ? - cutlery
Dining table or dinner table ? - dining table
Footpath or pavement (I know, they're not necessarily the same thing) ? - both depending on which one it is
Lead or leash ? lead (but I think leash growing up!)
Glass or tumbler ? Glass
Mug or beaker if it's what I drink my coffee out off I use cup even if it is a mug
Tea or dinner (or supper) dinner or supper (more supper when growing up)

Original poster
WildRosie · 08/04/2023 20:50

I've heard of 'bar' being used as a substitute for 'pub' in Scotland and northeast England. My elderly neighbour once offered me two buffets before he disposed of them; they turned out to be very low backless stools. I appreciate not all these alternatives are strictly accurate, e.g. a bar is found within a pub, but they exist nonetheless. In our family home, it was usually tomato sauce, occasionally ketchup but never red sauce. On a similar theme, there is only one brown sauce and that is HP. There. I have spoken!

OP posts:
duvetcovereddissident · 08/04/2023 20:52

WildRosie · 08/04/2023 20:50

I've heard of 'bar' being used as a substitute for 'pub' in Scotland and northeast England. My elderly neighbour once offered me two buffets before he disposed of them; they turned out to be very low backless stools. I appreciate not all these alternatives are strictly accurate, e.g. a bar is found within a pub, but they exist nonetheless. In our family home, it was usually tomato sauce, occasionally ketchup but never red sauce. On a similar theme, there is only one brown sauce and that is HP. There. I have spoken!

A bar and a pub are very different things. A pub might have a bar.

Ooolaaaala · 08/04/2023 21:03

Spy-glasses

….is the expression my Irish grandmother on the west coast of Ireland uses - in a heavy accent cracks me right up….

“Grab the spy-glasses Bridget can you see that ginger bullock coming over the field”

WhatWouldJeevesDo · 08/04/2023 21:07

My husband says field glasses and irons. I say ‘fighting irons’ sometimes.

itssquidstella · 08/04/2023 21:08

Binoculars
Sandpaper
Sitting room
Cutlery
Dining table
Footpath/pavement - pavement is paved; a footpath is a country track
Lead
Glass
Mug/beaker - a mug is ceramic, a beaker is plastic
Dinner (although my 10 month old has tea because he eats his evening meal at 4pm)

itssquidstella · 08/04/2023 21:11

Tomato sauce growing up, ketchup now
Stool (but we had one piece of furniture which my mum called the buffet when I was a child)
Loo or bathroom
Pub and bar are different things. A bar is nice and serves cocktails
Hors d'oeuvres come before the starter and/or are served on platters like canapés
Pudding

bloodywhitecat · 08/04/2023 21:13

Binoculars
Sandpaper
Living room/lounge
Cutlery
I interchange dining table/dinner table
Pavement/footpath, I use both depending on whether I am on a pavement or a footpath
Lead
Glass
Mug/cup
Dinner

Tessisme · 08/04/2023 21:14

Pubs are often called bars here in NI. Some have the word 'bar' in their name.

twosquashedmelons · 08/04/2023 21:21

Binoculars
Sandpaper
Front room
Cutlery
Kitchen table
Pavement
Lead
Glass
Mug
Dinner
And ketchup!