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.

[Chopchopbusybusy]

Lobscouse, DD wanted to call her hamster twirl but she changed her mind because she said she didn't want it called twirrrull by me

[FruitOwl]

I remember an Australian friend telling me that he'd been running on the beach and his thong had fallen off. He meant his flip-flop, apparently

[deleted203]

LOL @ chop at the twirrulll.....my DH can't say 'Carl' he says, 'Carroll'. Which gives the lads at work hysterics as one of them is called Carl. All the boys are calling him 'Carol' now......

How about 'the morn' to you Scots? DH used to tell me 'I'll ring ye the morn' when we were first dating, and I'd be fuming by mid afternoon. To him, 'the morn' just means tomorrow (and he'd ring up in the evening to speak to me). Apparently if he was going to ring me in the MORNING (as I'd assumed) he'd have said, 'I'll ring you the morn's morn'.

In the States I was once on the phone to a friend how said, 'what are you doing?' and my reply was, 'Having a crafty fag'..... I had no idea you could confuse cigaretttes with homosexuals! (Although the stunned silence makes sense since I realised that).

[deleted203]

sorry...who said, not how said.

[ScarletLady02]

Some of these are funny....I remember saying to an American friend when I was about 15 "I neeeeeed a faaag!" in a drunken way...

He looked at me quizzically....to which I responded "A fag! You know....to smoke!"

He thought I wanted to go and shoot some gay people

I'd like to add, he is in now way homophobic which was why he was so shocked....but that only means one thing where he's from.

[badtime]

Travelin, you are supposed to call them gutties, like everybody else in Northern Ireland.

[deleted203]

No, no. A gutty is a slingshot!

[badtime]

Are you mad? Do you mean a catty?

[badtime]

Gutties:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plimsoll_shoe

[Panzee]

The black gym shoes are pumps! :) but it means I have no idea when fashion people talk about pumps. I keep imagining a posh dress worn with black canvas slip on shoes with elastic.... :o

[Whitamakafullo]

loving this thread I'm Scottish and there's so much mentioned here that I say!

My username comes from my gran, where if she thought she was going to get embarrassed by something would say Whit a mak a full oor what a make a fool off

She also got my grandad to pass her nightie out to her once by saying gees ma goon oot

talking about misunderstandings though, I used to process bank applications and came across one Yorkshire man who had did his application over the phone and whos occupation was apparently a Lion Erector <img loading="lazy" class="inline-flex mumsnet-emoji" alt="Hmm" src="https://www.mumsnet.com/assets/images/mumsnet-emojis/base/hmm.png"> I had to phone him and casually asked him on the call can I just ask you what your occupation is?He replied I work on the railways, I'm a line erecter `

[CecyHall]

I asked DH if he wanted 'buppie bread' with his tea not long ago, he looked at me as if I was an alien, it's always meant bread and butter to me, not sure if that's just our family though.

We also feel 'swimey' (rhymes with slimy) for that sicky dizzy ill feeling and he didn't now that either.

In return he gave me 'the snerts' for a runny nose and 'gooze' for saliva/dribble. I'm southern, he's West Midlands.

[tabulahrasa]

Those shoes you wear for gym are gym rubbers...

[ApplePippa]

The first Christmas I spent with DH's family I remember being utterly confused when his grandmother asked me in her broad Norfolk accent if we'd trimmed up before coming away.

I spent a few mmoments trying to work out what on earth I'd just been asked.... lock up?.. cut the grass?

MiL came to my rescue. In East Kent where I come from, we call it putting up Christmas decorations . I' 've heard it loads of times since then, and is probably a very common phrase for many of you!

[LemonBreeland]

Some of these are hilarious. i'm glad someone mentioned 'the back of 5'. DH is Scottish and he still doesn't know what that means. I have found it means different things to different people so most unhelpful.

My DC are Scottish and sometimes struggle with the Geordie things my family say. A wonderful one being 'don't do that or you'll get wrong'. It means get told off, but as an adult I can see now why it is complete nonsense.

I try to get my DC to pronounce words properly too, especially at a young age to help their spelling. If you say poot for put then you will end up spelling it like that. DS1 is 9 and just sighs and says I don't want to say it the geordie way.

[nickelbabe]

I know you've moved on, but I am from Nottingham ,too, and of course cobs are cobs.

DH is from Kent and didn't believe me that that was an actual official word, he thought I was just being awkward and calling stuff a common word for it.

When he came with me to Nottingham, his eyes were opened, as cob is the actual official word - he was gobsmacked because he saw "cob shop" and menus full of sandwiches and cobs etc.

[nickelbabe]

Blending - "where's it to?"
in Cornwall, it means "what's happening?"

[Deux]

I'm a Scot and say 'amn't I' instead of 'aren't I'. I just can't bring myself to say 'aren't I', it just sounds wrong to my ears.

Yes, yes to differentiating between softies and rolls. Then there's the buttery too.

A young American intern at work had us all guffawing as she talked about not being able to find her 'fanny pack'. We eventually worked out it was a bum bag.

Anyone want a piece an' jam?

[nickelbabe]

the black ones are pumps.
the white ones are plimsolls.

[nickelbabe]

Lemon - you should allow them to speak in the accent local to where you live. that's what they will grow up with, and that's how they will be taught the spellings for.

(so in my accent, g-r-ass is how you'd say grass, but in my DH's and DD's local accent, they would learn that gr-ah-ss is how you'd say it, but spell "ah" as "a"

[badtime]

Lemon "I try to get my DC to pronounce words properly too, especially at a young age to help their spelling. If you say poot for put then you will end up spelling it like that. "

Sorry, that doesn't make sense - they are saying 'put' even though you are hearing 'poot'. There is no reason at all why that would affect their spelling.

Believe me - I never had any problems with spelling and I was over 30 before I realised that most people (outside NI and some parts of Scotland) don't pronounce e.g. soot and suit exactly the same.