UK/US Translation Thread

[Liselle]

from this I learned that 'bitties' are newly hatched chicks where you come from.

"Peeps" is another word here for baby chicks.

 

[Trojina]

I think we just call them chicks.

I think we may as well go round to Tom's for supper Lisa.....

 

[Trojina]

....in the service of US/UK relations at Clarity that is

 

[Liselle]

I think we may as well go round to Tom's for supper Lisa.....

Ha ha! It would depend on what was for dinner. No pretty little fuzzy gray critters. (I get that they can be pests and destructive and all, but they are not pests to me personally.)

I will come to your house for mushy peas instead, and I will bring...what's an American food that you don't have there?

 

[Trojina]

I was going to say 'tootsie roll' , I never did know what that was, but I saw it on the supermarket shelf the other day. 'Tootsie roll' seems to feature in songs quite a lot. Some kind of confectionary, a chocolate bar ?

ART GARFUNKEL
"Disney Girls"



Clearing skies and drying eyes now I see your smile.
Darkness goes and softness shows a changing style.
Just in time, words that rhyme, well bless your soul.
Now I'll fill your hands with kisses and a Tootsie Roll.
Reality, it's not for me and it makes me laugh.
But fantasy world and Disney Girls, I'm comin' back.

 

[Liselle]

Tootsie Rolls are more like chocolate flavored taffy. They're chewy little logs, with a flavor all their own. I think if you were handed one blindfolded without being told it's supposed to be chocolate, you might guess chocolate, but you might not be quite sure.

I'm making them sound unappetizing, but they're really okay, in a cheap candy sort of way.

Since you have them there already, I won't try to teleport one via the Internet.

 

[pocossin]

I think we may as well go round to Tom's for supper Lisa.....

I just finished supper, turned on the computer, and find that I missed two guests. Supper was spaghetti with hamburger meatballs, canned diced tomatoes, mozzarella, and the walking onions and cilantro I grow. And a glass or two of sangria for its blood-thinning qualities, of course.

 

[Trojina]

Tootsie Rolls are more like chocolate flavored taffy. They're chewy little logs, with a flavor all their own. I think if you were handed one blindfolded without being told it's supposed to be chocolate, you might guess chocolate, but you might not be quite sure.

I'm making them sound unappetizing, but they're really okay, in a cheap candy sort of way.

Since you have them there already, I won't try to teleport one via the Internet.

'taffy' what is that ? Do you mean 'toffee' ?

As for 'candy'....I have never really known what exactly that includes

Does candy mean sweets and chocolate of all kinds...like would it include for example fruit sweets you suck, or peppermints, and hard sweets...? What we call 'sweets' you call 'candy' I think, but I'm not sure what 'candy' includes ? That is a word never used here...except for candy floss which is the pink sugar spun stuff you only get at fairs and so on.

 

[Trojina]

I just finished supper, turned on the computer, and find that I missed two guests. Supper was spaghetti with hamburger meatballs, canned diced tomatoes, mozzarella, and the walking onions and cilantro I grow. And a glass or two of sangria for its blood-thinning qualities, of course.

That would have suited me fine.

 

[Liselle]

I just finished supper, turned on the computer, and find that I missed two guests. Supper was spaghetti with hamburger meatballs, canned diced tomatoes, mozzarella, and the walking onions and cilantro I grow. And a glass or two of sangria for its blood-thinning qualities, of course.

Oh hush. Am having a ham sandwich for supper. (I like ham sandwiches, but still.) See, Trojina, we should have actually fired up our backyard Concordes.

 

[pocossin]

candy floss

candy floss = cotton candy

“Fairy floss” in Australia, WiseGeek says.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-cotton-candy.htm

 

[Trojina]

Oh hush. Am having a ham sandwich for supper. (I like ham sandwiches, but still.) See, Trojina, we should have actually fired up our backyard Concordes.

what is a backyard concorde ?

okay I'll guess it's a barbecue....but I don't have a backyard either.

 

[Trojina]

when I was 16 I worked in a laundry and an American girl started. She kept talking about the 'wash cloths'. I remember asking her to repeat herself...'wash cloths' ??? Finally I figured she meant flannels,

Flannel = a piece of cloth you use to wash with.....yes it should have been obvious to me what a 'wash cloth' was I suppose but I wasn't always as clever as I am now

'Biscuits' UK = 'cookies' US I think

.....but I have heard American people talk of eating gravy with biscuits and I don't know what they mean at all ? You couldn't possibly eat gravy with biscuits here because biscuits are small cookies. I mean they are small sweet things one eats when drinking tea or coffee and so on.

Oh and gravy is the juice of meat usually...so why would you put it on biscuits.

 

[Liselle]

'taffy' what is that ? Do you mean 'toffee' ?

I started to say yes...but then I realized the spelling might actually matter.

"Taffy" to me is soft, chewy, variously-flavored nuggets individually wrapped in waxy paper. It is most commonly seen as "salt-water taffy."

"Toffee" I think of as like Heath bars, or ice cream with pieces of toffee in it. Hard, crunchy, caramel-flavored. (Shall we go down the caramel road? There are hard caramels like Werther's Originals, and soft chewy caramels, and when/why you call it "caramel" rather than "toffee" I have no idea[sup]*[/sup], and there is also the debate over pronunciation: CAR-MULL (car pronounced like an automobile "car"), CAR-a-mull (three syllables, accent on the first, car as in auto - this is how I say it), or CAAAR-a-mell ("car" prounounced as in the word "carry," and you pronouce "mel" rather than "mull" at the end.)

[sup]*[/sup] Well okay..."t-a-f-f-y" as in salt-water taffy comes in many flavors, but one of them is never caramel flavor. Caramel flavor is what you get when you boil sugar and butter together (more or less, there are probably other ingredients; I've never made it). "T-o-f-f-e-e" as far as I know is always caramel-flavored.

Oh my goodness

Tootsie rolls are similar to the soft taffy, only chocoloate-flavored.

Does candy mean sweets and chocolate of all kinds

Yes

...like would it include for example fruit sweets you suck, or peppermints, and hard sweets...? What we call 'sweets' you call 'candy' I think

Yes, exactly.

That is a word never used here...except for candy floss which is the pink sugar spun stuff you only get at fairs and so on.

We call that "cotton candy." (I do not like it.)

 

[Liselle]

what is a backyard concorde ?

okay I'll guess it's a barbecue....but I don't have a backyard either.

Concorde = dearly departed supersonic airplanes, R.I.P.

(am crossing posts all over the place, sorry folks)

 

[Liselle]

when I was 16 I worked in a laundry and an American girl started. She kept talking about the 'wash cloths'. I remember asking her to repeat herself...'wash cloths' ??? Finally I figured she meant flannels,

Not quite...what I call washcloths are small-ish square pieces of terrycloth that are used in bathing oneself. They are terrycloth, not flannel. Terrycloth is fabric made of many, many tiny loops. It is therefore absorbent and also slightly rough. (Thank you to Wikipedia and Google Images.)

Flannel = a piece of cloth you use to wash with.....

In the U.S., flannel is soft brushed cotton fabric that is most commonly found in pajamas, shirts, and bed sheets/pillowcases. Flannel is used to clean with when you're cleaning things that might be easily scratched: windows, silverware, musical instruments, etc.

'Biscuits' UK = 'cookies' US I think

Right.

.....but I have heard American people talk of eating gravy with biscuits and I don't know what they mean at all ? You couldn't possibly eat gravy with biscuits here because biscuits are small cookies. I mean they are small sweet things one eats when drinking tea or coffee and so on.

Wikipedia literally distinguishes between "American" and "British" biscuits. It says that American biscuits are similar to scones, but without eggs or sugar. (We have scones here, too.)

Do you have anything equivalent to American biscuits? IF NOT, YOU ARE SORELY DEPRIVED. They are YUMMY, particularly warm with butter on them.

Oh and gravy is the juice of meat usually...so why would you put it on biscuits.

Yes, gravy is the thickened juice of meat, and I can see why it would never be put on British biscuits!

 

[Liselle]

By the way - do any of you have problems distinguishing between links and normal text on this site?

I often miss links on the forums here unless I wiggle my mouse pointer around to see if it changes to a hand anywhere. The link text appearance seems almost identical to regular body text.

But it could just be my particular laptop screen, which is why I'm wondering if it's okay for everyone else.

 

[pocossin]

By the way - do any of you have problems distinguishing between links and normal text on this site?

In message #71 of this thread I see the URL and "connotation" in blue while the other text is black. How does it look to you?

 

[Trojina]

But here we call the wash cloth made of terry cloth a 'flannel' , as well as the other meanings

flan·nel [flan-l] Show IPA


noun

1.

a soft, slightly napped fabric of wool or wool and another fiber, used for trousers, jackets, shirts, etc.


2.

a soft, warm, light fabric of cotton or cotton and another fiber, thickly napped on one side and used for sleepwear, undergarments, sheets, etc.


3.

flannels.

a.

an outer garment, especially trousers, made of flannel.


b.

woolen undergarments.


4.

British .

a.

a washcloth.


b.

Informal. nonsense; humbug; empty talk.


c.

Informal. flattery; insincere or overdone praise.

 

[Trojina]

Do you have anything equivalent to American biscuits? IF NOT, YOU ARE SORELY DEPRIVED. They are YUMMY, particularly warm with butter on them.

we have scones, which seem similar and put butter and jam or cream and jam on them...but I can't imagine why anyone would put gravy on them.

 

[Liselle]

In message #71 of this thread I see the URL and "connotation" in blue while the other text is black. How does it look to you?

The text is black, and the links (to me) are very dark blue. I can't really distinguish them at a glance. I have to peer intently or hover the mouse if I think there might be links.

Sounds like you don't have a problem. It must be my laptop screen.

 

[Liselle]

But here we call the wash cloth made of terry cloth a 'flannel' , as well as the other meanings

Oh, I see. Interesting. I completely forgot about wool flannel, for suits. And "flannel" is an insult! How fascinating .

 

[Liselle]

we have scones, which seem similar and put butter and jam or cream and jam on them...but I can't imagine why anyone would put gravy on them.

Imagine if someone made scones, but didn't put sugar in them. Our biscuits are not the least bit sweet. However, they still are good with jam or honey on them. They're very versatile,I guess. Jam, butter, gravy...

I mean, the texture is different from bread, but you can make an open-face hot beef sandwich out of bread which would have gravy on it, or you can eat bread with jam and butter. Similar sort of thing.

 

[pocossin]

The text is black, and the links (to me) are very dark blue. I can't really distinguish them at a glance. I have to peer intently or hover the mouse if I think there might be links.

Sounds like you don't have a problem. It must be my laptop screen.

Yes, I don't have a problem. If you have a windows computer, you might be able to improve your display by making changes in Customize Colors on the Control Panel.

 

[Liselle]

you might be able to improve your display by making changes in Customize Colors on the Control Panel.

I just tried changing the hyperlink color there, and it had no effect. Maybe those settings don't apply to what happens on webpages?

I found a place in Firefox to change the colors of links and also tell it to underline all links. But I can't get that to work, either. The "Underline links' box was already checked, and yet it's not underlining them. I suspect these settings only take effect if you override everything the page itself wants to do, in favor of what you tell it. There is a setting for that, but when I used it, the entire Clarity website looked ugly as sin. The yellow page background was gone, and so forth.

I'll just live with it. It's certainly not the worst thing in the world. I mostly just wanted to confirm that the problem is on my end. Thank you for trying, though .

 

[Liselle]

I am tempted to say, "Caramels and taffy/toffee being so complicated is a bunch of flannel."



(Am I doing that right?)

 

[Trojina]

Hmm sorry not quite...flannel is more like 'soft soap' someone, I think, you know butter someone up, flatter them, crawl to them so they do what you want, insincere flattery.. but 'flannel' isn't much used in that way anymore, but if it were it could not be a 'bunch' I don't think. It's not a word I use, I'm more likely to say "don't give me that load of ****...." if suspecting flannel ...I think.

BTW I have visited Canada a long time ago and don't remember having much trouble except with the eggs...all that 'easy over' and 'over easy'...never did get the hang of that. How many terms can there be for a fried egg ?

I didn't even meet any bears

 

[blue_angel]

Over easy, the egg is cooked lightly enough for the yolk in the center to remain runny, but the white to be firm. I like mine over medium, that way the white is sure not to be runny, and a little more fried flavor. Do you have sunny side up? Where the egg is not flipped, but only cooked on one side. Or scrambled?

These differences sure are interesting, I never realized there are so many.

 

[Trojina]

I thought 'over easy' meant the egg was flipped over in the pan. I never heard of 'over medium' I suppose to us eggs are wither soft/runny or hard/well done.

I assume 'sunny side up' means the yellow round side is up....but where else would it be anyway ? Maybe it means you don't turn the egg over. In my family no one ever turned the egg over when frying, just spooned hot fat over the top...but now I flip them over cos I cannot abide eggs that are too runny.

well well, you see even to this day I had no idea what 'over easy' was. Why would it be called 'over easy' what does that mean ? Why not just 'soft'.

scrambled are just scrambled, hopefully no translation needed.


I'm not too sure about 'sneakers' ? Are they plimsolls/pumps/trainers ? Or are they all of those things ?


Aha....seems so http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plimsoll_shoe

even in UK regions they are called different things. I grew up calling them 'pumps' but where I am now they are 'daps'. I had no idea what daps were when I moved here

what is the difference between them and 'converse' ? back to wiki

how are converse different to plimsolls ? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Converse_(shoe_company) maybe it's because the ankle goes higher.

 

[moss elk]

People sure are particular about how they like their eggs.

I knew a man who wanted his eggs nearly raw, only slightly cooked.
(As soon as they became slightly opaque on the bottom he was ready for them)
I would call his 'pan seared raw eggs.'
and yucky. ;p