Interpreting British

Good Morning!

As you all know I follow quite a few beauty bloggers and their vlogs! I'm not sure why most of the ones I follow live in England I guess I just haven't come across in the State or Canada, minus Kate from the Small Things blog or ones that I enjoy.

In the last year I have really gotten into makeup, different kinds of makeup and makeup application. I so enjoy trying new products, especially when they come from recommendations or reviews from others. Its interesting to see what works for people and why, the comparison of high end to drug store products and so on.

Anyways in all my beauty vlog watching I have learned that although the British speak English obviously they tend to use a lot of different words than we do. Some I cant help but giggle about and so I started keeping a list on my phone of all the things we say different and thought I might share.

Obviously every tends to speak differently, state to state, country to country so some of these may not seem all that surprising.. or maybe they will.

• Q Tip - Cotton bud. As you can see this would make complete sense, maybe they don't have the brand "Q Tip" there. If we didn't have the brand, what would you call it?

• Dollar - Pound/Quid. Apparently they use the word Pound and Quid interchangeably as they mean the same thing. Here I suppose we may call it a dollar or a buck. I cant say I ever say "buck" though when referring to money. 

• Bobby Pin - Hair grip. Again I'm not sure if its a brand thing, because calling it a hair grip makes perfect sense. 

• Braid - Platt. You know, braiding your hair. I'm not sure if you're aware but braids are all the rave these days!! Everyone is braiding their hair, and there are a million different kinds of braids, dutch braid, fish tail braid, etc. Who knew?

• Run in your tights - Ladder in your tights. Again it makes perfect sense, but I cant say I would have ever thought to call it a ladder. Not that I wear tights often. But if you do I recommend the ones from H&M, they are cheap and super strong and sturdy. I love them. 

• Bad - Rubbish. This one I like, I am going to start using it I swear. How much cooler does it sound to say, "My day was rubbish" rather than "My day was bad" so much better right?

• Nail Polish - Nail Varnish. 

• Face Cloth - Flannel. This has nothing to do with the material itself, their face cloths are made of the same things ours are, they just call them something different. 

• Bumper Cars - Dodge Em's. HA! This one is actually pretty hilarious. 

• Potato Chips - Crisps. I suppose this is because of the next one...

• French Fries - Chips. You will find Canadians who say this too. I will say in all of this Canadians and British are much more alike than British and American's... obviously. 

• Green House - Hot House. You know, where you grow plants in a small specialty building? It makes sense, they are hot. Where did the term Green House come from anyways? Why do we call it that?

• On Sale - On Offer. Same meaning, different word. I actually prefer "on sale" though.. there is no novelty calling it "on offer". 

• Cookies - Biscuits. We would call an actual biscuit a biscuit.. like a tea biscuit. I don't know what they call those. However when I Googled the picture below it brought up a few pictures of cookies. 

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• Infinity Scarf - Loop Scarf. Infinity scarf sounds more posh.

• Elevator - Lift. Makes sense again, why do we call it an elevator? I can see why they would call it a lift, where did elevator come from? Their words seem more simple I suppose, and make more sense.

• Bar - Pub. We have bar and grills called pubs but we don't ever say "I'm going to the pub", I suppose we could though.   

• Vacuum - Hoover. I crack up every time I hear one of them say that they have to go and hoover, or the dogs scared of the hoover. Maybe they only have that brand in the England, ya never know!

• Bill - Note. As in we would say " I found a ten dollar bill in the park today" and they would say "I found a ten pound note in the park today". Interesting. 

• Parking Lot - Car Park. I would say a parking lot was outside of a restaurant, a parking garage/underground parking is at the mall, but they refer to every kind of parking area as a "car park". 

• Chat - Chinwag. This one kills me every.single.time. Can you imagine saying "Oh I had a nice little chinwag with so and so today". Haha!!

• Pillow - Cushion. When I think of cushion I think of the couch cushion you actually sit on, or an outdoor cushion for your outdoor furniture, I cant say I have ever called a pillow a cushion although I am sure some people do. 

• This and That or Knick Knacks - Bit and Bobs. "I went shopping today and picked up a few bits and bobs", "I was cleaning and found a few bits and bobs out of place". 

• Car Trunk - Car Boot. This one I will admit is a little weird to me. I first heard it when Essie Button was talking about going to a "car boot sale" and I was like.. huh? Apparently its a large rummage sale where people sell everything out of the trunk of their car. A little strange if you ask me. I also once watched a video where they kept talking about how "the boot was stuck closed with all their shopping loot inside" - they don't always call it a "car boot" sometimes just a "boot". 

• Friend - Chum. 

• Shopping Cart - Trolley. 

• Zucchini - Courguette. This took me awhile to catch on to what they were talking about. 

• Eggplant - Aubergine. I really don't know why these are called something so completely different and quite obscure if you ask me. I guess that's what they know, they probably thing Zucchini and Eggplant are strange.. maybe they are. 

• Sausage - Banger. You would know this if you visited an Irish pub as well, you mostly likely will have seen "bangers and mash" (sausages and mashed potatoes) on the menu. 

•  Cotton Candy - Candy Floss. I like cotton candy better, but you can see where they are coming from with this one as well. 

• Plastic Wrap - Clingfilm.

• Tooth Pick - Cocktail Stick. 

• Baked Potato - Jacket Potato. Haha!

• Hungry - Peckish. I can see people here saying this as well. I would. 

• Soda - Pop. We Canadian's call it "pop" too!

• Take out food - Take away food. "We're ordering take away for dinner!"

• Line Up - Queue. This one is strange to me.."You wouldn't believe how long the queue is outside the book shop!". 

• Pouring Rain - Chucking Down Rain. This one is fantastic. From now on if its raining out count on my saying its CHUCKING down rain!

• Shots (vaccinations) - Jabs. Obviously this sounds more appropriate, basically someone is jabbing you with a sharp object. It should be called "stabs".

• Talking A Lot - Waffling On. I waffle on all the freakin' time. What can I say, I'm a waffler! Ha! 

So there you have it, its funny that we speak the same language but can have such different words for things. I can see how their words and sayings would make sense, but cant help but wonder how their words came to be and how ours did. I suppose I could do a little research!

Just a bit of a different post I've been waiting to share with you guys!! Thanks for stopping in today!!