To ask if you've ever had a dialect fail

[DizzyZebra]

I think dialect is the right word?

Anyway, I once really offended a girl who was new to my school. I had made friends with her and she invited me to her house, She got changed and i said 'Omg that suits you dead bad!'. Now, As an adult, I agree with her and can see the stupidity in saying something like that, BUT it was something EVERYONE where i lived said when really what they meant was 'That really suits you'.

She imediately looked hurt and i could tell by the look on her face she thought i was back pedaling as i sort of choked and tried to explain, and stuttered through it. I think she realised within a few weeks when she made more friends though.

My Mum also, after moving to the north, became increasingly frustrated one night. Her partners son came downstairs and asked her (As she was folding laundry) if there were any of his pants in there.

She said 'Yeah there are some over in the other pile'

He went over to look and said he couldn't find any, My mum said there were definitely some in there. He searches again and still can't find any. My mum said 'I just this minute put some red pants of yours in there, i know i did! They must be there'

He says 'I don't have any red pants'

My mum marches over, Grabs a pair of red boxers and says 'Look! red pants! See!'

Only for him to fall about laughing as he had actually meant trousers, and everyone here calls them pants, she just didn't know.

[Wallace]

Thanks Jolly - was rather confused at "food yer food"!

[JollyRedGiant]

And food yer food should read "foos yer doos"

[JollyRedGiant]

Poor should say poot. Autocorrect got me.

[JollyRedGiant]

And I say chute instead of slide.

[JollyRedGiant]

In Scotland an alleyway is a close.

Another NE Scot here.

I confused an ex boyfriend by asking for a Bosie. (A cuddle)

Some words are very local. To the question "where's ds?" My mum would say "In below the table". My dad wouId say "in a blo the table" and i would say "underneath the table"! The difference is a few miles.

I used to go swimming in dookers (A swimming costume). I didn't know 'tuggy' was a Scots word.

I also genuinely didn't know the English word for oxter until I was 15.

A field on a farm is a park. One where children play is a play park.

Pretty much any farm animal is a beast, but mainly cattle.

A duck is a dewk and a cow is a coo.

Bane (or ben) is a word with no English equivalent. You can have left your keys "bane the hoose" for "through the house" or you can go "bane the road" for "along the road".

I'm not from Aberdeen so use "buttry" rather than "rowie" for the lard-filled snack. Soft bread rolls are baps.

There is no difference in pronunciation between Luke and look or put and poor or suit and soot.

We used "press" for cupboard. And scullery for kitchen.

And Aye Aye means hello. Fit like? Means how are you. As does Food yer food?

A bit or a beet is a boot and a fit is a foot. Ken is know. A forkytail is an earwig and a Slater is a woodlouse.

A guddle is a mess. A rax is a stretch. If you've raxed your gansey you've stretched your jumper. Muckle is a lot. Do you can say "fit a guddle. There's a Muckle rax in ma gansey".

And finally, a neep is a turnip. Or a Swede. There's really no differentiation between the two around here.

[IAmLouisWalsh]

Oooh, shuggy boats! No idea if they are still there!

[JazzAnnNonMouse]

It took me a while to get used to 'where to' and 'where you to'.
The other day my very Bristol friend said 'ah I was gunna take the kids on the gert sliders down by asdol but I can if it's pitched'
Um what? After much hilarity I discovered that she was going to take her children to the park with the big slides by Asda but she couldn't if the snow had settled...

[chateauferret]

That 'ahm ah' (actually 'am ur') is a calque (loan translation) on Gaelic 'tha mi' isn't correct, or at least it isn't always.

Etymology is as follows. 'Ah' is a variant of 'I' (first person pronoun). The 'm' is there for liaison between the vowels. 'Ur' is a middle Scots substitute for the verb 'to be' coming from old Norse via Viking invaders around the tenth century (cf. modern Norwegian 'er'). The negative 'I'm not' is 'ahm urny' (not 'ahm no ur').

There are such calques and it is true that verb precedes subject in Gaelic. 'I'm want'n' instead of 'I want' comes about from the Garlic usage of a continuous verb in sentences of this kind ('tha mi a'dh'iarraidh' literally 'is me at wanting' - not sure I've spelled that right).

(See Michael Munro and John Byrne, 'The Complete Patter', Birlinn 2007)

[Wereonourway]

Ontesterhooks- my ex mil lives not far away from Belfast and on my first trip there the accent had me perplexed. Ex bil(who is ten) says "what abeut ya" and I love it.
I asked in a pub where the toilets were and Barman told me " in that there bookcase", the bloody toilets were behind a secret door.
Northern Ireland is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, hopefully will get over in the summer again

[Ontesterhooks]

Coming from what is considered a posh area of Norm Iron in my first job in belfast the cleaner came in and asked had I seen the map ? The map of where I replied ! No the map for mappin the flure! (Mop) v embarrassing !

[sashh]

"Put wood in toil" means shut the door

I once said that at work in Lancashire, but forgot I was speaking to the one Scot in the department.

The next time I saw such a stunned look was when I told a Dr on Oxford to 'give over mytherin me'.

Another vote for lugs here.

I spelled wean wain because I have only heard it not seen it written down, to me wain is fairly phonetic, as in waxing and waining, wean looks like what you do when you start introducing proper food to a baby.

The small pathway between houses is a ginel.

[DizzyZebra]

God I didn't think id get this many replies, I only posted as I've been reading 'scouselyrics' on twitter and found them hilarious and it made me think.

This is so funny though reading these.

My london friend had trouble understanding mardy too.

I have a good mix of midland and northern expressions now. I haven't been home for ages though and have picked up an accent here, but I don't sound like where I live - its sort of ended up like a snooty trying to be posh slightly irish sounding thing.

My friends will be horrified nextweek when they see me.

[SashaSashays]

nickelbabe we always say indoors (am in Essex). I didn't realise that was even a thing. It means at home or inside to most people or no?

This thread is funny, although I don't know most of the terms as I'm from East Lndon and lots seem to be Scottish or northern. DH is from the Caribbean, we both speak English as our first language. Sometimes we can get so mixed up because of one or two words.

My parents and even my generation use quite a lot of cockney sayings and slang which drives DH mad! Also the way someone like my dad talks about money in terms of scores, tons, Ponys etc can lead to lots of confusion.

[ComposHat]

I grew up in the Black Country and we'd say Gulley for Alleyway.

[Greige]

SP - nowt, owt but when I see the words nought and ought in books I always pronounce them nowt and owt.

Some words I think might have been pretty local to us in my part of Northumberland as I've never heard them anywhere else - gowk for apple core and ket for sweets, though I think ket might be an old Northumbrian word for rubbish.

Do any Geordies remember the shuggy boats at Whitley Bay? Are they still there?

[louisianablue2000]

Oh, and I got very funny looks the first time I tried to order a fish supper in a chippy in Oxford.

[louisianablue2000]

First time I mixed with folk from Englandshire somone asked me where something was, to which I (naturally) replied 'I don't ken' and they were really grumpy with me. Apparently she thought I'd said 'I don't care'. she was a grumpy cow herself so assumed the worst of everyone else

When living down south I phoned up a Ford dealership to ask if they had any Ka's for sale. We had a very confusing conversation while he asked me what kind of ca' I was interested in and I kept saying 'just a Ka' and eventually I spelt it and he said 'Oh, we call them K-A to avoid the confusion' to which I replied 'there is no confusion if you pronounce the letter 'r' in car'. I bought a Nissan instead.

[SuzysZoo]

Oh - just seen I've repeated the alleyway thing - should have read to the end - sorry!

[SuzysZoo]

oo - I love this thread. Not quite read all yet, though. We have a word here for small passageways between houses or footpaths, and it's "twitten". I think this is local to the South East. I have heard "jitty" used in Leicestershire for the same sort of thing. Tell me your "twitten"!

[CheerMum]

I'm from Birmingham and years ago offered to go to the outdoor for my boyfriend and myself. Outdoor is off licence for non-brummies. I asked him what he would like and he, being from the Black Country (dudley etc) said " don't mind, as long us they're Colduns". I had never heard of Colduns and asked him repeatedly what he meant before he explained that Colduns meant " cold ones" I.e. didn't care what brand as long as they came out of the fridge.

Weirdo ( but i still married him)

[nickelbabe]

nottingham has twitchell

[IAmLouisWalsh]

I quite like 'how' - pronounced like across between how and who - as a general exclamation:'How, what y'deein?' Or just, 'How, man, lad'.

I do say 'Haway'. And 'Haddaway and shite'

[auntpetunia]

I terrified a new mum at our school, who isnt a locaI l when I phoned and told her her DD had a coggi on her head. Coggi is a bump which has come out in big lump..