Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to ask English people not to say poorly?! (lighthearted)

586 replies

SliAnCroix · 29/04/2020 19:02

It sounds a bit moany and weak. Can't get to grips with grown women saying their husband was poorly. It would be like saying my husband took a week off work because he had a bubu. I know we all have our own slang and some Irish slang probably sounds strange outside of Ireland in the next village

I am not speaking on behalf of everybody outside of England, I do realise this.

And full disclaimer, the word dodi makes me wince. I have done my best to eradicate that word. Service to my country.

OP posts:
FlamingoAndJohn · 30/04/2020 13:14

Scarf and giraffe rhyme in my accent. And they clearly do for Julia Donaldson too.

I never understand these ‘how on earth can these words rhyme’ threads. Are there some people who only ever listen to people speak in their own accent?

It reminds me of a thread where people couldn’t understand how some people had a front door with no handle.

Firecarrier · 30/04/2020 13:16

Abbccc

I wish people would still saying "sick" when they mean "ill". When you're sick you're throwing up. Grin

Came here to say this too I don't know anyone who would just say 'theyre sick' without specifying, probably most would say 'not well' if being vague.

Notverybright · 30/04/2020 13:38

It reminds me of a thread where people couldn’t understand how some people had a front door with no handle.

What a bunch of knobs Grin

SoupDragon · 30/04/2020 13:41

I never understand these ‘how on earth can these words rhyme’ threads. Are there some people who only ever listen to people speak in their own accent?

Apparently so given some claim to have "never heard" words said in a very common way. I guess they don't watch any TV.

LaurieMarlow · 30/04/2020 13:45

Apparently so given some claim to have "never heard" words said in a very common way. I guess they don't watch any TV.

Well all I can say is that I honestly haven’t on the ‘scarf/giraffe’ example.

And I’ve lived in the south of England where apparently it’s commonplace.

But I think we need to consider how people’s ears are trained by what they hear when they’re growing up. Differences in accents can be incredibly subtle to those not tuned into them.

SchadenfreudePersonified · 30/04/2020 13:52

Gi RaFF to my northern ears, Gi rarf just makes me Laff

But does it make you Larff, Politics?

BrooHaHa · 30/04/2020 14:03

Bockle is acceptable grown up speak in parts of the North.

Really? I did not know that.

Seetheprettysnowdrops · 30/04/2020 15:18

So for those that don't use sick for ill, what do you call your work policies.

Poorly Absence Procedures?

pigsDOfly · 30/04/2020 15:22

Yeah, scarf and giraffe rhyme for me as well; South East England.

PineappleDanish · 30/04/2020 16:33

Apparently so given some claim to have "never heard" words said in a very common way. I guess they don't watch any TV.

Or travel to other parts of the UK! I am well aware that southerners say poor/door in the same way, because I'm not one of those people who never leaves the town I grew up in.

Even if you don't ever travel but do watch TV you'll hear a range of accents. It's not the 1940s "BBC English" cut class accent any more. And quite right too.

isabellerossignol · 30/04/2020 16:38

I don't think it's that people are necessarily claiming to have never heard it, maybe it's that when they see it written down, and then they sound it out in their head, they're using their own accent (naturally) and they think ' well I've never heard someone say that'. It took me years of Mumsnet threads until the penny dropped that when people said that they eg asked for a lar-tay in a coffee shop, they weren't actually putting an R into the word, because in their accent the R isn't pronounced. If I'd been speaking to someone instead of seeing it written down, I'd have understood within seconds.

Abbccc · 30/04/2020 17:21

Well! It should be called an Illness Policy!

StirCrazy2020 · 30/04/2020 17:24

I don't like poorly either. It's so wishy washy.

Anoisagusaris · 30/04/2020 21:07

It’s not that I haven’t heard people speak in different accents Hmm - it’s more that when someone says x rhymes with y, as if they are speaking on behalf of the entire English speaking population, if it doesn’t rhyme in my accent then I will say it.

eggandonion · 30/04/2020 21:38

This is why when you read picture books aloud, you have to give the animals different voices.
Owl Babies in an Ulster accent is great, because owl and oul' are a sort of pun.

SillyCow6 · 30/04/2020 21:58

It's funny really how we can get so het up over accents and protective over our own pronunciations! I had a friend once who while ripping the piss out of my "posh" pr accent because I say grass like arse, proceeded to tell me her dd had started pronouncing it the same way as her dh spoke that way, she proceeded to tell her off any time she said it the "wrong" way Hmm

mathanxiety · 30/04/2020 21:59

zingally Thu 30-Apr-20 12:03:36

What the f is a bubu?

AKA boo boo....

boo-boo
/ˈbo͞obo͞o/
noun informal
noun: booboo

a mistake.
"you could make a big boo-boo if you leap to any drastic conclusions"
    North American
    a minor injury, such as a scratch.
    "there is no one to kiss the boo-boo!
eggandonion · 30/04/2020 22:05

The Irish Health Minister apologised for making a booboo.

SleepingStandingUp · 30/04/2020 22:28

I never understand these ‘how on earth can these words rhyme’ threads. Are there some people who only ever listen to people speak in their own accent?
No, but i cannot for the life of me ever remember anyone ever making put and but NOT rhyme

MrsAvocet · 30/04/2020 22:55

True SillyCow6 Is any one accent really superior to another? I don't personally think so.
My DH gets worked up over our children having the local accent. It doesn't bother me though as they were born and bred here, it is not an unpleasant accent and they don't even have it particularly strongly. But he thinks it will disadvantage them. Hmm
It also interests me how easily or otherwise different people pick up accents. One of my siblings lived in Australia for less than 2 years and came back speaking like a (fairly bad) extra from Crocodile Dundee whereas another has lived in Scotland for decades and still has no trace of the local accent. I have lived in a number of places and whilst I have a noticeably Northern English accent nobody can ever identify exactly where I am from. My DH is from a major city with a strong and easily identifiable accent, but he sounds like he belongs in a1950s BBC newsroom. His slightly younger brother who was brought up in exactly the same place and attended the same school has quite a strong local accent, as do his parents. My DH is very musical so I wonder if he somehow hears things differently to his brother and hence found it easier to change his accent to the one that I am sure was considered desirable at that particular school? I would love to understand more about these things as I find it all fascinating.

GreenGill · 30/04/2020 23:00
Biscuit
LaurieMarlow · 30/04/2020 23:13

That’s very interesting MrsAvocet. I find it the difference fascinating too.

I am very quick to morph into another accent. I’m musical, yes, so that stacks up. However I think it’s also to do with a desire to fit in.

I once sat beside a guy on a plane who’d lived in London for 40 years. But he was born in Belfast and his NI accent hadn’t softened a single jot Grin

OnTheMoors · 30/04/2020 23:15

It's what we say in my city !

Crunchymum · 30/04/2020 23:27

Sorry to just barge in but I've been on another thread and discovered the vile term "indie school"

It's made me irrationally angry.

I don't know why.

And breath!!!

Crunchymum · 30/04/2020 23:28

Indie school to mean independent school, for clarity.

Swipe left for the next trending thread