Words Brits use that Americans don't?

One of the engineers I worked with at Texas Instruments from Manchester called them Apples, because Apples and Pears rhymes with Stairs. The only other one I can remember was minces for eyes cuz they rhyme with mince pies, whatever they are.

 

Actually that 'insure / ensure' is simple now-and-then misuse of the spelling, rather than in common usage. Drives me nuts when I see it.

And C.G., if you're gonna throw out Brit words, as above, put the flippin' US def next to them!

Spank you very much. BTW over here Ensure is a nutritional supplement.

 

Absolutely right

 

You can help with that. Na na na

 

"...Made me laugh, a good thing!..."

I do what I can......

 

Oh matey, you don't know what you've missed all these years !!!

Mince pies are (sweet) mincemeat baked inside a pastry pie - many people (including me ) add tots of Brandy to the mixture before baking so there is the delightful flavour of brandy when one bites into one - delicious !!!

 

Okey dokey Vlad will do a Christmas food nearer the time.
For now, I will keep shtumm.

 

Nearer the time Candy darlin' ??? - I've been eating (shop bought) mince pies for the past two weeks !!!

Last Wednesday I even made a 2 Lb mincemeat fruit loaf - I finished the last of it yesterday !!!

 

Trust you eh?
We have a chat thread Mr
Let's talk.

 

Well I have to worship my stomach - three times a day to keep body and sole (I have three) together !!!

 

Gotta try it! We rely on prune juice...

 

Have you got the recipe for mincemeat fruit loaf Angel darlin' ??? - or do you want me to give you the one I use. ???

 

Frumpy - dress old fashioned

 

Not going through all 63 pages to see if its been mentioned, but the first time I heard someone say `knackered' was a WTF? moment. The only other time something someone British said was a WTF? was when I heard how Tom Baker say `al-oo-min-e-um' on an episode of Doctor Who. (Took me a minute to realize he was saying `aluminum'.)

 

Gobsmacked

 

I think you Brits would be surprised at how many of your, well, some are just odd, phrases, are actually in use over here. Yes, even in some day-to-day conversation.

Of course, your lad Shakespeare managed to wedge a ton of casual phrases into us as well. I see phrases and words on this thread that don't seem unusual at all. I suppose it's like everything else, there's no one 'Brit' and no one 'American'.

And, oddly, it's even moreso in the deep rural southeast parts of this country. My wife's family are deep rural and I've heard phrases that I know are of Brit structure. Many Scots/Irish/English settled in the southeast part in the 1800s, and without many schools, the old phrases have persisted.

Personally, much as I love, adore and use the English language, my heritage was South Louisiana French. My father spoke both perfect English, and also the 17th century French which is now "Cajun" or more properly, "Acadian French". But in the early 1950s, among the 'educated' such as my mother, teaching children 'that French' was not allowed. I never learned it. I had to learn what little I know in college and have picked up since then. I went to elementary school hearing the old french from some people. We get visitors, tourists from France and they have a tricky time with the back-and-forth in conversation with the old folks (dying out now) who learned 17th french sentence structure. (Me, I'm gonna do that, me.) It's like me trying to read Chaucer in 'Ye Olde English'. (BTW, New Orleans is NOT the real South Louisiana.)

Wow, how did I get off onto all that? Ok, everybody back on topic now.

 

One of my favourites to use with American colleagues is fortnight. That’ll really confuse NJ guys

 

A right plonker - Idiot in a friendly way

 

There are many expressions with a similar meaning:

Silly sod. total prat, Idjit

being just three.