10 Things Americans don't realize are offensive to Brits

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reading the link on the opening page I was surprised to see that sticking 2 fingers up is not an insulting gesture in the U.S.

The reason for it here is that in centuries gone by when the French caught our best fighters - archers - they would cut those 2 fingers off so that they were now useless in battle, it was also cheaper than enslaving them and therefore feeding them etc. We stuck our fingers up at the french to show them that we still have them as a way of saying we were winning.

yeah we do that with a lot of their words. Just had them a long time and end up changing over the years.

the history of French words in the English language is actually quite interesting (no, really!) and dates back to 1066 when King Harold took a stick in the eye and the Normans took control. We quickly began to use 2 languages, one for the rulers and one for the man in the street, and as such both stuck and we now have many words for the same thing.

This means that many of the words we use referring to authority and the higher places in the social ladder are actually French - government, parliament etc, while the words for basic farm work would be English.

i also like that we have 2 words for some things as we kept the England and French versions.

example - pig & pork

We call a live pig in a field a pig as it was the English that always dealt with them yet couldn't afford to eat them. The french rulers in England at the time would only ever see it when served up on a plate so used their own word, pork, and we ended up using both in years to come.

^^^
wow thanx for that

fact of the day - 29% of the English language is originally French and nearly all of that was brought here during the Norman invasion in 11th century

We in England (as opposed to Britain as it is not so relevant to Wales & Scotland - hence why the Welsh language and Gaelic languages were , and still are, maintained today) are Anglo-Saxons which by definition is a mongrel breed created from various invasions and foreign influence

My mum was born in England so I'm half a pom.

Got family in Perth. went over to stay with them around 8 years ago as we hadn't met them before (aside from one). went up and down the western coast (Fremantle was the winner, like paradise on earth) and then stupidly took a bus, 3 days, to Sydney.

Pertaining to British sailors who consumed limes to stave off scurvy? seems a tad out of date

umm Isn't that in Australia?

Mainly because of its use by anti-British types in the past - like the Provisional IRA/physical force Irish republicans.



I'm from Northern England and I pronounce it 'garridge'. It varies across the country.



Particularly effective when combined with a descriptive. So you have "old cow", "fat cow", "stupid cow" etc etc.



Never heard that expression before in the style that you mean it.



And also remember that the British often denigrate or praise their towns and cities depending on how nice or awful the speaker thinks they are (but note: this can cause conflict and is often offensive!) and there is a certain type of rivalry which, in some cases, can be fierce. For instance, I really dislike Harrogate because it's too poncy and twee, Birmingham and London because they are dirty, smelly, and feel visibly not particularly British in character (London feels like an international rather than a British city) but I might like, say, Lancaster because it's small and compact and has some things to do and I can find my way round.

Some immigrants have been told in the past that they should "go back to where they came from". Increasingly, though, they are second and third generation - this led one highly successful man, a Birmingham-born man of Pakistani Muslim descent who is Chief Prosecutor in England, to remark: "I was born in Birmingham and I'm not going back there." - which leads to sympathy as we both know the context of the meaning and also that, erm, Birmingham isn't known for being particularly pretty and perhaps even a place you'd want to leave if you could.



I certainly have heard British people take offence to the word. Much depends on how frequent it is, the context in which it is used and whether it's used negatively or not.

In Australia, a group representing British expatriates sued an advertising company for using the word 'pom'.

If you were abused every day with remarks against your British character, you'd get hacked off with the word after a while.



They serve fried potatoes, but they are more thickly cut than French fries used elsewhere. I like mine with battered white pudding, but it's not sold around here. I have had battered haggis with fish and chips but it tends to get sickly very quickly.



A chip shop.

In Scotland and in Northern Ireland, fish and chips is commonly referred to as a fish supper when bought from a chippy.

yes, Western Australia

Thanks very much, con.

(I know that kind of language is still very offensive in Australia. Some things still run deep, I guess.)

which reminds me. depending on where in the country you are the evening meal may be referred to differently.

i am from the south and I call my evening meal my 'tea', which I guess could easily confuse someone coming to visit the country.

It's "tea" up here too.

which reminds me. depending on where in the country you are the evening meal may be referred to differently.

i am from the south and I call my evening meal my 'tea', which I guess could easily confuse someone coming to visit the country.[/quote

I always call my evening meal "tea"

Con! steady on there auld boy!

Hm... what a lovely collection of broken glass bottles you have.

Probably time to flee.