Differences in item names in various countries

My ex is from England, I can second this. haha

 

I'm from the Southern USA and we sort of have different dialect.
Huckleberries- Wild blueberries
Coon- Raccoon
Critter- Animal, generally a non-human one.
Coke/Co-cola- Soda, or whatever y'all call non-alcoholic fizzy sugar beverages.
Caint- Can not.
Britches- Pants, trousers, you get the idea.
Nairy- None, zilch, nada, etc.
Pitcher- Not just something you pour water out of.....picture.
Sticks- Not small branches; the Backwoods.
Bulldog- Pit Bull, Staffy, etc.
Rester Room- Bathroom
Buggy- Shopping cart. Those baskets on wheels you put groceries in.

 

^^ you'd call fanta and sprite coke too?

Nairy is a word people in the UK used to use. Apparently southern US dialect has some similarities to British dialect (if such a thing even exists).

 

I've heard Americans say "bathroom" more often, the impression I got is that "restroom" is more commonly used for facilities at service stations or other open-to-the-public locations as opposed to say, homes, schools, businesses etc where I tend to hear bathroom used. Whereas here the public facilities are nearly always just "the toilets", or less commonly "the bathroom", or "that stinky place no one wants to go in because they never clean it and there's wee all over the floor" :lol:

I had wondered about The Holidays. I thought it was either a political correctness thing or just an example of cheerful seasonal speaking because "Happy Holidays" has a particularly optimistic sound to it.

Yeah my source was similar, a boyfriend of my mother's had traveled to US and said when he got a McDonalds for example it was like 3 times the size (he may have been exaggerating, slightly). Although from his perspective it was a good thing because he was into body building at the time and said he needed extra calories anyway.

Oh and another interesting language side note about that, I've never once heard a British person walk into a McDonalds and order: "Chicken McNuggets" for example. We just say chicken nuggets if people know where we got them whereas when I hear Americans say it, the branding is always added on there. I'm sure not EVERYONE says the full brand name all the time, but it does demonstrate the power of many years of mass advertising.

I think Patrick Stewart offers the most compelling proof that his native Yorkshire dialect is pretty close to being another language entirely lol :
Patrick Stewart recites a poem in his native Yorkshire dialect. [VIDEO]

 

Well, whenever someone says "Happy Holidays", they usually are referring to Christmas. But people typically say it just so some people who don't celebrate it don't feel 'left out'. I guess we would just use it whenever we're not sure what holiday someone celebrates. Otherwise we will just say Christmas.

 

Canada- Washrooms!

Although we tend to use all three words, washrooms is the variation used most often, and what is written on signs.

 

here are some Irish terms for you
acting the maggot=fooling around
bad dose=severe illness
to make a bags of something=to make a mess of it
banjaxed=broken
black stuff=a pint of Guinness
boyo=young male
brutal=awful
bucketing down=raining hard
chancer=someone who takes a risk
codding ya=making a joke
craic=good fun
crack on=carry on
culchie=someone from a rural area
deadly=great
dosser=someone not doing what they should be/slacking off
eejit=idiot
effin and blindin=cursing
eff off=polite way off saying fuck off
fair play=well done
feck off=go away
my fella=partner/husband/boyfriend
fine thing=good looking person
gaff=home
gammy=crooked
gander=quick look
gawk=stare rudely
grand=ok/good
holy joe=self righteous person
holy show=disgraceful scene
howya=hello
jacks=toilet
kip=a dump of a place or a sleep
knackered=exhausted
lash=rain hard or give something a go or go drinking
leg it=run away quickly
locked=very drunk
manky=dirty/filthy
mortified=embarrassed
ossified=drunk
oul fella=father
oul dear/wan=mother
savage=brilliant
slag=to make fun of your friend
suckin diesel=doing well
thick=extremely stupid or angry

 

In addition to making explicit:

biscuit in UK = cookie in US

(which is actually out-of-type for both countries, since the UK seems to want to <blank>ie everything and the US seems to want the more serious names)

I also want to take exception to the two noted above. I think xfinity, *maybe* got the hoover/vacuum directionality wrong...in any case, the US certainly does not call a vacuum a "Hoover"...although we do call Hoovers vacuums.

Also (and I could be mistaken here)...I *believe* the UK and US have the same sense of "jam"...basically a sweet gelatinous fruit goo with fruit bits in. Or does the UK truly not use jam in this sense at all? Regardless, in the US we distinguish between jam and jelly. If the goo has no fruit bits in, it's a jelly; if it does, it's a jam...we use either on toast, but most of us have a preference one way or the other. Some US jam-makers have even made a thing of this distinction in their advertising.

 

You should see the different movie titles in Spain vs Latin America xDD

 

It's called jam whether it has fruit bits or not.

This is what we call jelly: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/08/27/article-2402671-1B78ABE0000005DC-201_634x455.jpg

 

I can't talk about the differences in English, as I'm scandinavian, but I can tell you about some of the word similarities in Danish and Norwegian.
The two languages are frightenigly similar, especially written, but there are a few words that are different.
My favourite comparison would be the words 'rar' and 'griner'.
In Danish, 'rar' = 'nice', and 'griner' = 'laughing.'
In Norwegian, 'rar' = 'weird', and 'griner' = crying.

This has created some confusion at times. If you want to say "Peter is so nice, he laughs all the time" to a Norwegian, but you use the Danish words, the sentence would mean that "Peter is so weird, he cries all the time".

Not as impressive as the differences in English, but I thought I'd share it nonetheless.