Brits say these words wrong!

Post Reply New Topic

I would just call that a roll or a bun.

I've heard "REHP er cuh shuhns" (like repetition or represent)

Ah right. I think that's just someone who's never met the word before or only read it and not heard it spoken. That's really uncommon as far as I know. Or it might be Scottish?

I had a friend who used to pronounce INDICT as INDIKT. Not INDYTE as it should be. Because he'd only read the word online.

An elderly gentleman is a "geezer" (prounced "geezer").

Old Faithful in Yellowstone Park is pronounced "GUY-zer" or "GUY-ser".

Funny you should mention that "only read"... I constantly have "RTGame" AKA "Dan" playing on YT. He's a self proclaimed "Well studied English major" who took up doing "Let's Play" content on Twitch, and much of his gaming is him playing "story based" games, and so he needs to read all the dialogue (and does a bang up job IMO... he's very entertaining) He has a noticeable Irish accent, though not important to this topic. That said, he periodically MURDERS certain words, and it becomes obvious he's never had to say those words out loud, and his "Chat" then gives him so much s**t for it. "OH... so called English major can't read" It's hilarious. (recent example: "Fill It mig non" for "Filet Mignon"

Last edited by mrpieceofwork on 07 Jun 2023, 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

No, no, no. You American types always get it wrong

A geezer in Britain is a general term for a man of any age. It depends on the word used before it. e.g. 'proper geezer' is a compliment. 'some geezer' is insulting. 'geez' is another word for 'mate, pal, buddy.' I think it's more of a London/Cockney word. Not sure it's used anywhere else in Britain?

But we don't have geysers in Britain so we don't know how to pronounce them

haha. But we must remember that people who read are to be admired because people don't read anymore

I wonder what geysers are called in Icelandic...

lol

I looked it up! They are called GEYSIRS. So the same, really!

Blimey this pronunciation is confusing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmHrmNmojOY

English is rather a silly language really. Many words aren't pronounced as they are spelt. As a scrabble player and crossword ace I don't care much about pronunciation, only spelling. But occasionally people such as my Mom and others didn't know what I was talking about. For instance Ì mentioned taffeta fabric once saying taFEETa and she said it's TAFFeta

How do y'all say:
"Bailiff" ?

Bayliff

"Dan" I mentioned above keeps saying "BALLiff"

*cringe* lol

Thats interesting.

So you can be a "young geezer" ( or a proper geezer etc) in London Cockney. Basically the same thing as "fella".

Any old male person.

In the rest of the UK that meaning is taken up by "bloke".

In the US the niche is filled by "guy".

My theory: in the UK it was also originally "guy" because of Guy Fawkes. Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parlaiment back in the 1600s. Ever since that act aggravated terrorism the Brits have been burning him in effigy on Guy Fawkes Day. And children take his effigy (like a stuffed doll) around like in trick or treating asking for "a penny for the guy". So its easy to see how "guy" meaning "an effigy of Guy Fawke" could evolve to mean any doll or human like figure, and from there to "stuffed shirt", and from there to mean "any old flesh and blood male person". And the British colonists brought the term with them to the 13 colonies of the US.

We probably stopped doing Guy Fawkes day when we fought for Independence, but continued to use "guy" the same way. But back home in Britain- maybe in Victorian times "guy" went out of fashion and got replaced by "bloke". But we Americans retain "guy" to mean "any old male person.

But yeah...here in the States "geezer" is usually preceded by "old", or "old" is implied. Mom even described herself as a "geezette".

I never even knew that (about Guy Fawkes Night). We always called it Bonfire Night or Firework Night. It seems that a lot of Brits celebrate these things without actually acknowledging the meaning behind it but as just an excuse to socialise and drink.

The 4th of July here... celebrating our "FreeDumbs"...

such a joke. (esp. after experiencing the same damn thing for 5 decades... where's the Revolution now?)