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Trueno
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18 Oct 2017, 8:08 am

I remember trying to buy a kettle in Indianapolis once. More to do with the hoosier accent than anything else, but great fun nonetheless.


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Biscuitman
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18 Oct 2017, 11:20 am

OutsideView wrote:
When I was in the USA I confused people by asking someone to put something in the "bin" for me. Apparently that would be some kind of big container you might keep apples in rather than a "trash can".
I also kept getting laughed at for calling groups of people "folk".
When I asked someone where "Katy" was they kept not knowning who I was talking about until I pronounced it "Kady".


Stayed on Long Island for work about 5 years ago, got sick and had to go to hospital. The guy on the reception desk couldn't understand me at all and just kept looking at me blankly. I had to write down where I was from on a piece of paper as he couldn't understand where in the world I was saying. His computer then asked him what state I was from, he asked me and I said none as we don't have them but he may as well put my county in as it is probably the closest thing, he didn't get it, kept looking at me funny and asking if Berkshire was a state. :lol:



OutsideView
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19 Oct 2017, 7:38 am

They were't too bad with my Manchester accent when I was staying in California but the girl I was working with was from Newcastle and they had no idea what she was talking about! I kept having to be her translator :lol:


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naturalplastic
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19 Oct 2017, 9:49 am

OutsideView wrote:
When I asked someone where "Katy" was they kept not knowning who I was talking about until I pronounced it "Kady".
.


Am an American, and I still don't get it.

Who/what is "Kady"?



OutsideView
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19 Oct 2017, 11:52 am

Ah sorry, Katy was someone I worked with. As an English person I was pronouncing her name with a "t" in the middle but the person I was speaking to didn't ralise who I was talking about until I pronounced it like it had a "d" in the middle. Not so much terminology as accent causing the problem :)


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19 Oct 2017, 12:27 pm

That happened to someone I know who's daughter is called Molly. No one in America could understand the British pronunciation. They're like, 'what's her name? Moolly? Mully?'

My friend was like. No it's Maally. And they're like, oh Maally.



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27 Oct 2017, 4:20 am

I don't think it's used in all areas of the UK but certainly where I'm from we call a fart a trump. Which makes President Trump really funny and Ivana Trump even better! :lol:


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Biscuitman
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27 Oct 2017, 5:46 am

OutsideView wrote:
I don't think it's used in all areas of the UK but certainly where I'm from we call a fart a trump. Which makes President Trump really funny and Ivana Trump even better! :lol:


Yeah my daughter calls farts 'trumps'. She saw me watching the news a while back and heard them say Trump and burst out laughing



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27 Oct 2017, 6:15 am

Another good one is that "fanny" means "vagina" here not "bum". Sometimes it comes up in American shows like Skinner's mum in one episode of The Simpsons saying something along the lines of "I've been sitting here so long my fanny is all red and swollen" :lol:
Also we have a bumbag here not a fannypack and since I wear them round the front I think the American name makes more sense :P


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27 Oct 2017, 6:19 am

Alexanderplatz wrote:
Can I bum a fag off you? is an polite informal way of asking someone for a free cigarette.
Do you mind if I bum a fag? is also commonly heard.

Yup. And that’s even funnier if you’re queer – it’s a slang term especially among gay men for casual hookups / beats / the act of doing that. You’re “going out to bum a fag,” means you’re going hunting for a one night stand, usually involving grindr or scruff, to bang some dude you’ll never see again and never knew his name to begin with. If you said that in some very gay male circles, he’d think you were propositioning him!
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ASPartOfMe wrote:
“Fag” or “fa***t” is roughly the homophobe equivalent to “n****r” in America.

Not necessarily. A lot of LGBT people “reclaim” that one. I know I use it for my everywhere sense of sexuality sometimes, and also a lot of gay men often refer to themselves as “fags,” “poofters,” etc. It’s kind of an in-your-face attitude – “you want to sling off at me for being a fag? You think that’s insulting? It’s not! I’m proud to be a fag!”
A lot of “bad” words like that have been re-interpreted to a degree, as noted, language changes. For example I use “tranny,” I’ll refer to myself as a tranny. Some people smile, but others look at me like I’ve just spat on them. Pick your crowd I guess.
Raleigh wrote:
Also, can't be stuffed = can't be bothered.

Yah, and it can also mean too tired - “You coming out tonight?”
“Nah man I’m stuffed.”
OutsideView wrote:
They were't too bad with my Manchester accent when I was staying in California but the girl I was working with was from Newcastle and they had no idea what she was talking about! I kept having to be her translator

The most bizarre thing happened to me I think in San Francisco, where some woman actually told me my accent was “sexy.” 8O
Michael829 wrote:
In a related topic, it's funny about accents. None of us think we have one

I know I do, whichever country I’m in. Speech issues give me this weird, nowhereland accent and everyone thinks I’m from somewhere else.
As to spellings, I like the American versions of many things just for phonetics – if you actually said “realise,” as in the British spelling, you’d be pronouncing it “real – ice.”
No one says that. It’s a z sound – hence the American spelling “realize” is more phonetically correct .


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Luna035
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27 Oct 2017, 9:02 am

They call cigarettes fags



babybird
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27 Oct 2017, 12:46 pm

Luna035 wrote:
They call cigarettes fags


Who are "they"?


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27 Oct 2017, 12:56 pm

The only word when reading American written books that does my brain in is 'normalcy'



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27 Oct 2017, 7:59 pm

I remember my first introduction to the American use of the word fanny. A friend was telling me that if the baby had wind just pat her on the fanny - "I nearly dropped my bacon sandwich" ( which I think originated in the UK , it's an expression that means being gob smacked , having your jaw drop , shocked etc )


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28 Oct 2017, 9:40 pm

People saying, can you drive a stick?
Drive a stick?
A broomsick, perhaps?
Drive a stick into a hole?
:scratch:

Oh, you mean a manual transmission?
Yes, I can drive a manual.


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28 Oct 2017, 9:58 pm

babybird wrote:
Luna035 wrote:
They call cigarettes fags


Who are "they"?


They are group of individuals known as crab people, they operate several imperial star destroyers with tinted windows. They f**k s**t up but only when they feel like it and when they aren't high which is infrequently. If they don't feel like it, they normally make pop corn while in low orbit of any given observed comedy. If they feel threatened, they obliterate s**t with ease normally never letting go of the popcorn they made earlier, before proceeding to smoke more marijuana. The best thing you can do if you come across they is start laughing insanely because they love lulz, their addicted to it. If your really unlucky, they will get you indicted by Darth Vader. Where you must proceed to continuously blow you foot off with an AR15 in front of a jury, they will usually be eating popcorn during this too. If your lucky you'll see a star destroyer and get schizophrenia afterwards, at this point, its probably best to have schizophrenia because they might come back, with additional star destroyers. They also REALLY don't like to be identified as the Imperial legion, it makes them feel unsafe for some reason or another, even if you absolutely would have no problem if they said they were the Imperial legion. If you identify one, they will venomously deny it and then everyone in the room gets schizophrenia if they don't just kill everyone at that point. They are also quite skilled it keeping people alive, with medical knowledge that seemed to surpass that of most doctors but will still integrate you even when you are busy dying though at this point they will go ahead and tell you they work for Darth Vader cause they will assume you won't remember it. They also do not like to be told how to do their job and will bite your head off if you tell them regardless of if you are dying of an overdose or not.

That is who they are, I saw a group of star destroyers and I shat bricks but they decided I had schizophrenia so I was in luck.