Irish in the UK - what are the things that it took you ages to realise people don't say here.

[ConflictedCheetah]

Inspired by the thread about Pancake Tuesday.

That thread has cracked me up because SO many posters are insisting no one EVER calls pancake Tuesday - it's Pancake Day - and sayu it's weird and wanky to call it that. And then all the Irish people on the thread are like ' wait, we've always called it that and never noticed that no one else did.

So what else you got?

For me, and I'm here 20 years, I only found out about a year ago that no one here calls a birth certificate a 'birth cert'. My English husband thought it was proper weird that I kept saying that. I had never picked up that it wasn't a thing! I think Irish people are so used to talking about the Leaving Cert or Junior Cert etc. that the Cert but feels natural. DH says no.

What other ways have I been unknowingly embarrassing myself for 20 years?

Really, I have always thought poorly was from uo north somewhere as have only heard Northeners say it…

Yes I've noticed the I've not / I haven't difference, I'm English with a Scottish parent.

It’s old English, it’s in Shakespeare and all, it survived in the US and Ireland and died out in England. Main Street is another one.

Well exactly! Lots of hated Americanisms on here (and the sneering at Americanisms is a thread all its own) are actually old English.

I say 'needs washing' as an English person and would roll my eyes at anyone correcting me to the mouthful that is 'needs to be washed'. 'Needs washed' is a thing that MNers love to hate. Think it's common in some parts of the US.

Jane Eyre definitely has ‘starved’ for ‘cold’ — the younger girls at Lowood can’t get near the fire because of the bigger ones, so they wrap their ‘starved’ arms in their pinafores.

I’m pretty sure Pepys uses ‘press’ in his diary — I think he keeps his books in presses.

I do not know about now but I remember they called trainers runners in Ireland and the cupboard was the press. When people talked about kissing someone they used to say they shifted them.

I thought my family was the only one who used pretend with this meaning; I've never heard anyone else use it!

Yes people in the UK do say 'I'm off next week' meaning on holiday /leave or whatever, I've heard it frequently. Then there is the other meaning of 'I'm off' meaning I'm about to go somewhere. You could even say 'I'm off next week, we're off to Florida'. The word off is used a lot I suppose, you just have to work out the meaning from the context.

English living in NI for many years. Has anyone mentioned the turnip-swede thing yet? I was here some years before I learned a swede was a turnip in Ireland (and vice versa)

Also my friend here says "it gives rain" when asked about the weather forecast which I've always liked.

Very fond of 'catch yourself on' and 'wise yer head.'

I also really like how quite a few NI people but an emphasis on the word 'it' in a sentence. There's like a very slight punctuation, a nanosecond pause either side. It's a really lyrical version of English, wherever you are in Ireland and I really enjoy the structural differences that originate from the Irish.

Also, you 'have' Irish rather than speak it.

An expression being used in Ireland doesn't make it 'an Irish expression' in the context of the thread. Nobody is saying that they aren't used in Ireland, but that they aren't exclusive to Ireland.

And 'I'm off next week' is completely standard in British English (I hear it multiple times a week in work-planning meetings).

Generally an out-of-office message would be slightly more formal and say 'on leave', but 'I'm off' is the most common conversational way to phrase it.

I was here some years before I learned a swede was a turnip in Ireland (and vice versa)

Round here it's not vice versa. A swede is a turnip, and a turnip is a white turnip.

Has anyone mentioned the turnip-swede thing yet?

@NoBinturongsHereMate the poster meant it's the opposite way in England. Stop being bold.

Haven't had a chance yet to read the full thread but has 'giving out yards' been mentioned yet?

In lancashire you are offered a 'brew', tea or coffee.

If someone offers you a drink they mean alcoholic so yes at 10am it would be odd.

In Yorkshire turnip is a swede and they used to be carved (with great difficulty) for Halloween.

My English husband cracks up when we say 'roofspace' instead of loft

Love this something I always say.

Legoroses · Yesterday 22:02

Someone up thread said 'starving' to mean cold. My dad insists that famished can mean freezing cold but we've been telling him he's wrong for years.... Irish mumsnet, have we done him a disservice?

Beaten to it by another poster, but yes, it's time to get your kneepads on for a bit of grovelling!

Brilliant the amount of times I heard this growing up everyone got to know quickly anyway. And the person that its told to blessing there face coming out of mass was the worst. You would hear all the gossip for miles around with no social media it was the only opportunity to be nosy.

'To shift' in a pub club type environment means to snog a random, not shove them about of the way as I thought when going out with an Irish friend haha

I was watching a true crime story on YouTube yesterday and the detective was explaining the CCTV footage, ‘You can see where the car has knocked the victim over, she’s lying on the floor…..’

Agreed. That's not particularly Irish at all.