General Chat

Cute........fit/fanciable Large (portions).......xtra large!!

DONT ask for fags Spud

Booze.........Liquar

Football - some weird game a bit like rugby that stops every few seconds. Boardwalk - pier Ice box - fridge Mailman - postman Apartment - flat

braces ....suspenders suspenders....garter belt behind ... in back of vest...undershirt waistcoat...vest to take away...to go credit card...charge card to stock...to carry, and my latest acquistion polyfilla....spackle (it was used in the context of filling in wrinkles, go figure

and if you want a cup of tea be sure to differentiate between hot tea or iced tea.

When we lived in Canada, we had a BBQ and as the evening wore on it got a bit chilly, so my hubby said he was going to put a jumper on. They all went quiet and waited expectantly..... It was then that we discovered that a 'jumper' was a pinafore dress and they were expecting him to reappear in drag!

Washing line - Clothes line (execpt where I live we are not allowed to have a washing line in our garden/yard, rules of our subdivision.) Housing Estate - Subdivision Skirting boards - Baseboards Sweets - Candy Washing machine - Washer Tumble dryer - Dryer Bath - Tub Aubergine - Egg Plant Carpet - Broadloom Pub - Bar Roundabouts - Americans/Canadians just laugh, can't get their head around how they work, cos they don't have them. Wellington boots - Rubber boots Jet ski - Sea-doo Snowmobile - Ski-doo Cinema - Movies Tarmac - Asphalt Full stop - Period Curtains - Drapes Curtain rods - Poles 2 seater settee - Loveseat Strimmer - Weed Whacker Father Christmas - Santa Claus Junior school - Elementary School Comprehensive school - High School Nursery - Junior/Senior Kindergarten Electricity - Hydro Jelly - Jello Windscreen - Windshield Coffee with double cream and 2 sugars - double-double Amanda Ontario, Canada

Fringe - bangs! Jacquie xxxxx

Sorry to inform you BUT................ We have BOTH...... chick peas AND grabanzo beans, ice cream AND frozen yogurt shopping centers AND malls credit cards AND charge cards Mums AND Moms but don't EVER confuse lessons and periods........ while the school day is divided into periods..... in general, the word period means something....... VERY different!!!!! And in Pennsylvania snowmobiles ARE snowmobiles and jet skis ARE jet skis and carpet IS carpet! BTW We haven't used ice boxes since the 1940's!!!!!

A few more corrections: Cookies = cookies (never heard them called biccys until I read that several times on these boards.) Bisquits = bisquits Pants or Trousers = Pants or Trousers (trousers being a dress pants opposed to a pair of jeans.) Road = road Underwear = underwear (or some women call them panties.) Handbag - handbag or pocketbook Tights = tights or leotards (which are different from pantihose, which we call pantihose.) Tuxedo = tuxedo which is different than a dinner jacket. 'knocking someone up' = the dirty deed! Battery = battery (never heard it called a cell.) Nursery = Day care for children under 5 Nursery = A garden center Nursery = A new born's room Jam = jam Jelly = jelly Jello = jello (the three being entirely different things.) Apartment = apartment Electricity = electricity (Hydro is a new on for me!) Tarmac - airport runway LOL, Ann on the eraser! A rubber here is used to prevent pregnancy (and the spread of infectious diseases.) Judy

Corrections noted and welcomed, but I suspect that there are some 'regional' differences given that America is so large. Who was it who said that Britain and the US are two great nations divided by a common language? :-)

Autumn - Fall. Autumn in such a lovely word everyone should use it. Gwynne

Kleenex = Tissue. When we first moved to Canada, my Mum asked the next door neighbour if he could 'knock her up on his way to work in the morning'! Thank goodness he was from Scotland and knew what he meant! Deb

Coriander - Cilantro

Judy - if Jam is Jam.... then what is in 'peanut butter and jelly sandwiches'? I always assumed it was peanut butter and jam. Can't stand the combination myself though! And the spelling - why spell things differently to the language that was originally adopted over there? Purely out of curiousity. Why 'center' instead of 'centre', 'color' instead of 'colour' etc?

Chloe The American spelling is different from ours because they had a Board for simplified spelling. The board was organised in Jan. 12 1906 and contained American and British members. All British and some American members were also members of the Simplified Spelling Soc. of Gt Britain, organized in Sept. 1908. Funk & Wagnels dictionary gives 31 rules for the spelling, one replaces gh with f, ie draft dor draught, and when ve is after l or r you drop the e, ie delv curv serv reserv. It is page 2780 in my copy of F & W's David

In several recent American books I have read, burglars burglarise; by extrapolation, players must playerise, and swimmers swimmerise - perhaps teachers teacherise! (In the first story, I had assumed that the writer was merely showing the villain's ignorance, but then the term kept popping up in every book I read!) Transport is now transportation - perhaps moving will become transportationizing? I know that language has to evolve to remain alive, but it can get ridiculous (ridiculus?) Rob

Chloe: Jam is a preserve made from whole fruit boiled to a pulp with sugar where as jelly has a more resilient consistency, made by the setting of a liquid containing pectin or gelatin and added to jam during processing. Jam goes on smoother than jelly where as jelly tends to go on in globs (because of the added geletin. ) Both are eaten with Peanut butter.....I prefer jelly, though!

Rob, the ones that irritate me are, detrain & deplane, rediculous!!!!!!!