wolves3012
Veteran
But milk isn't - it's sold in 568ml (=1 pint) and multiples of - in the UK anyway! I seem to recall the pubs had a fight to resist metric measurements for beer.
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Y'got me again, Roger... I dunno. It might be the same. The Canucks had to get it from somewhere, eh?
But WRT Brits... what's the expression they use in Lancs. for "mate"? I seem to recall finding that quite odd. Ahh, now I recall - they say, "Luv". Queer, I thought (implying multiple definitions of that word).
Wide regional variation here. When I was a boy in the 50s, a shopkeeper would commonly address customers as 'my handsome' and 'my beauty' (sex related). Sounds impossibly 18th century now, but it survived well into the 20th. 'My lover' was also normal, and so was 'my bird' (both non-sex-related). This was in my native Cornwall and in Devon too.
In the Borders they apparently use/used 'marra' for 'mate' (cf the late George McDonald Fraser, 'Quartered Safe Here') and of course there's the London use 'sunshine':
Terence Donovan: Let's face it, cameras are so ****ing cheap you can buy a new ****ing camera for each ****ing job.
Me: Maybe you can, but we're not all Terence Donovan.
TD: Not my problem, sunshine.
"Not my problem, sunshine" has been one of my guiding lights ever since.
Cheers,
R.
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Gumby
Veteran
Gumby
It`s usually " All right luv " but cheers as a sign off is used all the time now. By the way where is the toilet ?
It has been a while since I've been in your fair land... but, that's right... that is the context. I found it oddly unfamiliar and uncomfortable nonetheless. It is the one British expression that never "grew on me".
The loo is out back and to the left... just ask "recentCLA".
wolves3012
Veteran
Slightly related, we now have the claimed ability to "pause live TV". Did I miss something in thinking that "live" means real, now, as-it-happens and once paused it ceases to be live?
Roger Hicks
Veteran
Eh?
(Think of that said with a Cornish accent. Rider: No, 'tidn [it isn't], cap'n.'
Of course, in Cornwall, we can conduct entire conversation in one syllable per side:
Ah? [How are you]
Ah. [All right. And you?]
Ah. [About the same] or
Ah... [Not so good] or
Ah! [Pretty damn' good, thanks]
And of course we used 'Yo' as a greeting long before it was adopted by the rest of the world.
Cheers,
R.
Michael Markey
Veteran
Going forward and the exortation (often used by British politicians and presenters on the Today programme) to "be clear" as in "lets be clear".
Gumby
Veteran
Equally slightly related: near-real-time. I tried explaining that to my wife, then tried explaining how we can pause and re-play a real-time TV broadcast. As you say, that concept is unexplainable. We almost ended up divorced when I mentioned that most "live" TV shows have a 3 or 8 second delay.
Dave Wilkinson
Veteran
I have six 50mm lenses - two are 'sexy', two are 'awsome', one 'sucks' and I have 'optimised' the other for 1 metre!
wgerrard
Veteran
I think use of "cheers" by those other than the Queen's subjects is brilliant, just brilliant.
I did notice when I was there last month that guys typically said "cheers, mate", while women just went with an unaccompanied "cheers". Is there a female equivalent of "cheers, mate"? Cheers, luv?
I have known a few of the Queen's subjects who looked at a Yank like me and said "Have a nice day" with mischievous eyes. It's a caricatured expression, although I think we are more likely to use "Take care" these days.
I did notice when I was there last month that guys typically said "cheers, mate", while women just went with an unaccompanied "cheers". Is there a female equivalent of "cheers, mate"? Cheers, luv?
I have known a few of the Queen's subjects who looked at a Yank like me and said "Have a nice day" with mischievous eyes. It's a caricatured expression, although I think we are more likely to use "Take care" these days.
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Roger Hicks
Veteran
Flanders and Swan, from 'The English are Best', of other nations:
"It's not that they're wicked
Or naturally bad
Its knowing they're foreign
That makes them so mad."
Cheers,
R.
"It's not that they're wicked
Or naturally bad
Its knowing they're foreign
That makes them so mad."
Cheers,
R.
wolves3012
Veteran
There are parts of the Black Country, near me, where "mate" is what you serve with vegetables or have sliced, cold on a sandwich (the pronunciation of meat!). No wonder foreigners can't understand us black country folk!
In the Stoke-on-Trent and potteries area "me (my) duck" is an often-used term - as in "how are you, me duck?"
gns
Well-known
Thanks. So bandwidth would be correct. As in, "I don't have the bandwidth for that". Meaning, "How in the hell am I supposed to get all that done by tomorrow"?
Cheers, (sorry)
Gary
Michael Markey
Veteran
Bill
I don`t think that there is a female equivalent now you mention it. They usually leave the mate off. As for "Have a nice day" you are right. People thought it odd but then usually said that it made a change from the indifference which is the norm here ,it never really caught on though.
Michael
I don`t think that there is a female equivalent now you mention it. They usually leave the mate off. As for "Have a nice day" you are right. People thought it odd but then usually said that it made a change from the indifference which is the norm here ,it never really caught on though.
Michael
ferider
Veteran
Sparrow
Veteran
DanOnRoute66
I now live in Des Moines
You beat me to the phrase "cleaning marks," which is another way of saying the lens has been scratched all to Hell! I also hate seeing a piece of equipment described as "minty." This seems like a weasly way of trying to pass off something as being mint but leaving an "out" for the seller when it's discovered to have "cleaning marks." My favorite description on evilBay a while back described a lens as "mint, but with cleaning marks." Yeah, right!
wolves3012
Veteran
Walt G
-
English is not a nationality.
At the Olympic Games when an Englishman wins a medal it's "another medal for England!"
But when a Scot, Northern Irelander or Welshman wins, it's "another medal for Britain!"
wgerrard
Veteran
Should I have used a smiley with my subtle little brilliant usage?
Re: minty: Almost devalued of meaning these days, unless someone is talking about the actual flavor. To me, mint means absolutely unused, like a coin in mint condition.
"Minty" is just an amorphous mess.
Re: minty: Almost devalued of meaning these days, unless someone is talking about the actual flavor. To me, mint means absolutely unused, like a coin in mint condition.
"Minty" is just an amorphous mess.
wolves3012
Veteran
Well I suspect the Welsh would like out and Scotland's half way there so English may become a nationality again...