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.

SP I've seen nowt /owt written down. There's nowt wrong with your spelling.

Thank you lob You know when you write something down and it just doesn't look right it was one of those moments.

Does anyone else type in same way as the talk? I know I do

In Belfast - 'bout ye? means how are you? Stickin out- means Ism doing well. Yer doing ma bap in - means you are giving me a headache. Faffin - messing about or not working. Keep yer neb out - stop being nosey. Lamped - drunk. Yer heads a marley - you are not making any sense.

My DH finds it strange that where I am from in Yorkshire we say 'working while 8 o'clock' not 'until 8 o'clock'.

Which is why level crossings in Yorkshire really shouldn't have a sign saying, "wait while the red light is on".

Anyone mentioned

Ruaring - crying in Yorkshire
Skriking - same in Lancashire
mythering - bothering
missling - leaving suddenly without saying good bye

And any Scots, do you say child, baby, bairn or wain?

sashh all of the above depending who I'm talking to and the context :o My mum is from london and to her I would say child/baby, dad from Aberdeen and to him I would say bairn, Fil from stirling and to him I would say bairn/wean, and Mil from Inverness and she would say kid/wee one. I lived in London as a child and Aberdeen/shire as a tween then Inverness as a teen/adult and my accent is a bit odd and can vary depending who I'm talking to :o

my accent is also odd and can cross three counties in onw sentence.

Not sure I should be posting on here this morning, I'm teacching IT to ESOL students later.

Ooh, another one - when I joined the police, a sergeant from Ayrshire in one of our training sessions kept talking about a 'howf'. I had NO idea what in gods name he was speaking about, and phones dh in my break to ask him as felt too self conscious to ask anyone. Turns out its a den.

My Geordie DSF is borderline incomprehensible. "Wits thoo deein?" "Sup it marra, bestuvordernoo" "Shurrup man woman man yiv got nae class ye, ye want thraain oot the piggin windur" "I winna trust thoo wia bonny dog"

Even people from ten miles up the road have trouble.

sarahlund, you've just solved something for me - our nanny is from Doncaster and she uses a word that sounds to my South West ears like "woll". Now I realise it's "while" - no problems understanding what she was saying because of the context but just didn't recognise the word! DCs now have some words they pronounce in a Yorkshire accent (bath and grass have a short "a" sound, not the longer more Southern version).

At my school (in the West Country) we had a maths teacher from Birmingham. He used to prove his pronunciation by writing "grass" on the board and asking how we'd pronounce it, so we'd all chorus "grahss". Then he'd rub out the first two letters and ask how we'd pronounce that. We were in a convent school so couldn't all shout "arse" in unison. Shut up a class of smart alek 15 year olds quite nicely.

I used to work with a girl who was from up North somewhere (mind you, everywhere is up north when you're in Cornwall). One night in the pub where we both worked I asked her what she was going to do with her night off and she told me she was off to get stoned. My jaw hit the floor as she'd announced this in front of a bunch of customers - to me it means smoking cannabis. To her it meant she was off to get drunk. Took a few minutes to work that one out!

SPsFanjo, I type the way I talk too. Then I read it back and wonder how the hell anyone ever understands wtf I am saying.

As far as I know, west coast Scotland say wean, east coast say bairn. Think it comes from the Norwegian 'barn' meaning child.

Badguider - my Dad is from Sheffield and he used to call the knots in my hair "lugs" - are tugs the same as lugs?

My sister having just moved to LondOn from York asking for 'one of each' in a chip shop, the bloke serving thought she wanted the whole menu and she just wanted one fish one chips.

yes Thumbwitch - tugs are knots, and if you have lots, your hair is "all tuggy"... i think it's because if you put a comb through it it 'tugs' at your head when it hits a knot (at least that's what i've always assumed).

I see no-one has mentioned the marvellous expression 'bidey-in'. As used my granny for a couple who were living together but not married 'Aye, him up the road and his bidey-in'. I love it.

This is a great thread.

I am scottish. I didnt realise till I started in a national It Support that "wee" is a scottish word .. apparently the rest of the uk says small

I told one of our london colleagues that her computer was gubbed ... completely broken.. the wrote it on their wall in the office as word of the week

badguider I've got 3yo DS1complaining about tuggy hair :)

poledra my mum was maybe happy when DH and I finally got married, I'm sure she still uses bidey-in occasionally"

Gubbed is a v useful word.

absolutely crying with laughter at this thread.

My DD constantly has tuggy hair. I also find it difficult to say small or little instead of wee. Just as well my Welsh friends think it's sweet ;-)

I lived in France for a bit and by the end of the year I had my German, American and Irish housemates describing fluff under the bed as oose. I dearly hope they took it back home and passed it on.

A cob is a type of horse, gym shoes are pumps. I have always lived in berkshire.

I had no idea that tuggy was a Scottish word until now.

When DS is home in Glasgow with me he is a wain, when he visits his dad on the east coast he is a bairn.

LilBlonde, a "howf" is specifically a drinking den, not the kind of thing kids play in. Think very male, very spit-and-sawdust, beer and whisky only, not so familiar with Environmental Health standards...

Poledra - I love the term bidey-in. Years ago before we were married we had 2 friends who were 'bidey-ins'. DH and I each had our own place but spent most of our time together in one home or the other. So we were 'bidey-oots' :)

Not sure if anyone's mentioned this as I've just scanned the thread so far, but I'm from the North and say 'craic' a lot, meaning 'gossip/chat' etc. When I went to uni I got a few funny looks from new friends when I asked if they'd "got any crack?"

Once I was chatting to a friend about something I was looking for, and I said "I'll have a ratch in the attic later if I can't find it here." She thought it meant I'd have a bit of a meltdown that I'd lost something, but 'ratch' just means search/rummage (perfect visualisation is a hamster ratching up sawdust to find food!)