General Chat

My friends husband is in hospital after a nasty fall breaking his humerus.
Although it isn't funny we had to laugh when she told us that the Indian doctor spoke very fast and they had a job to understand,but her husband explaining how he had fallen said......
I just went for a Burton ...wonder what the doctor made of that?

An exchange between a British HCA assistant with a new Italian member of staff who had been interacting with a patient.

"He's coming on to you" "Eh?"
"He's chatting you up" "Eh?"
"He wants to be your boyfriend" "Oh no, no, no "

As it happens, there are a number of EU & other nationalities employed at the same place. Their colloquial English is probably better than the patients born & raised there.

Aaaah, when we moved to West Wales many moons ago my husband went to the local shop to get kindling for the Rayburn.

Having moved from the Essex/Herts borders kindling = faggots.

When he asked the shop keeper for faggots she went to the freezer and plonked a box of 4 in gravy in the counter...

Husband "how am I supposed to light the fire with those?"

That little convo was laughed about for many years :-D

Asked my mates daughter to bring the eating irons out last Christmas. That 'ad 'er!

when in the USA never say you had a good screw!!!!

A few days after I came here decades ago and I was 'settling in', I asked Cherie, the office secretary, if I might borrow her rubber.
SILENCE all around!!
Apparently I should have said 'eraser', I was politely advised.
A 'rubber' came in a pack of three, apparently!
At least they did way back when. Dunno about today!

dinner
snorkers
good oh

If in say an emergency,when calling on your neighbour late at night ....don't apologize for "Knocking her up"

means something entirely different, in the states, than in the UK....

If you are an Aussie never ask for thongs in the UK as they are flip flops here!

LOL can just about imagine a aussie thong where a UK one should be..............

Similarly, don't ask, if you are a gardener, for rooting powder in Oz ;-)

USA have fanny bags
UK have bum bags

what has your fanny or bum got to do with bags

dont no why it was never called a hip bag
i mean we have shoulder bags clutch bags hand bags shoping bags

I've got an old bag at home :-D :-D

allan i bet its one of them bag for life

bless her :-D :-D

ullo Shell.............long time no see.......

The following aren't "bad", but still will not be understood.

don't ask for a "Biro" in America or Canada ................ they have no idea what you mean

Never say you've "hoovered" ....... it's always "vacuumed"

Don't go in a department store and ask to be directed to where you might "buy a duster", if you are looking for dusting cloths ..... you'll be sent to the ladies department to buy a "duster", aka ladies house-coat.

"petrol", "bonnet", "boot", etc when referring to parts of cars are likely to produce blank stares in many areas

Make sure you know what you are asking for when asking for food items ............ if you ask for "chips" here, you'll get "potato crisps"

I used the phrase "it feels a little proud" a couple of years ago when the dentist asked how the new filling felt .................. had never used it over here before, but it just popped into my head from childhood. He looked quizzically at me, and I began to apologise ............ but he said that he had gathered the meaning after he thought about it for a few seconds!



and as for "knock you up in the morning" .................... I used that phrase one week after arriving in the US, fortunately to a close Swiss friend, who laughed uproariously, then told me never to do it again!

What about going to buy Manchester in Oz?
You will get bedding/ sheets etc! :-) :-D

If you asked for "Manchester" here, you'd just get a blank look!


Sheets etc are just called Linens or Bed Linens.

and Manchester? A shrug probably, as in "never heard of it"!!!!

A dialect word used to say that someone is not very happy about something.

If they weren't exactly angry they were certainly, to resort to an old Somerset phrase, a bit begrumpled.

I am over the moon to read about all the little quirks.

Sylvia, it's always been vacuumed in our house, never hoovered.

Gotta vamoose, Poldark's coming on. :-D