UK/US Translation Thread

[pocossin]

Crisco is 'shortening'. What's that ?

Mama's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin',
Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread,
Mama's little baby loves shortnin', shortnin',
Mama's little baby loves shortnin' bread.

Put on the skillet, slip on the lid,
Mama's gonna make a little shortnin' bread.
That ain't all she's gonna do,
Mama's gonna make a little coffee, too.

http://www.songsforteaching.com/folk/shortninbread.php

 

[Liselle]

I think plenty of people like gravy. I don't, unless it's onion gravy. I don't like gravy on mashed potatoes. Yuk. But that's just a personal taste, I find meaty gravy revolting as am not really much of a meat eater anyway. I guess I would have to sample one of these biscuit things to understand....though I don't think I would like it.

Ah. I could see not liking gravy, especially if you don't like meat very much. If gravy is badly made it can be lumpy or just not tasty, and if it sits it's not good. I liked my mom's gravy, but I find most restaurant gravy to be pretty unappetizing.

I think liking American biscuits would depend on how you like starchy things in general. If you like other starchy things, I think you'd probably like our biscuits.

And I wonder how similar our "cookies" actually are to what you call "biscuits." When you say biscuits, do you mean just things like McVitie's Digestives or very similar? Maybe we would call your biscuits cookies, but you wouldn't call all our cookies biscuits.

Our cookies come in many forms and flavors - some are hard, some are soft, some are filled, some are not... Look in the Wikipedia article, especially down in the "classification of cookies" section, and see if you have many of those sorts of things there. (The article is "semi-protected indefinitely in reponse to an ongoing high risk of vandalism"??? What on earth, people?! )

 

[Trojina]

Yes whenever I have heard that song Tom, I've wondered what 'shortening bread' was. Something that makes bread short ? Aha shortbread !

And I wonder how similar our "cookies" actually are to what you call "biscuits." When you say biscuits, do you mean just things like McVitie's Digestives or very similar? Maybe we would call your biscuits cookies, but you wouldn't call all our cookies biscuits.

Biscuits here are mainly defined by being hard, like McVitie's digestive but also many others like ginger biscuits or shortbread or choc chip etc etc

I think I am going to have to take a break from food differences, it's too complicated

 

[Liselle]

Trojina .

 

[Trojina]

Thankyou... and I'm glad you appreciate how bewildering it is being the only brit around here.

I am going to have a nice rest, with coffee, a biscuit., yes a nice ordinary biscuit I may dunk or I may not. No gravy.

When I started this thread I had no idea of the culture shock I was in for. Compared to the biscuit issue, the underwear issue we started with was simple.

 

[Liselle]

Compared to the biscuit issue, the underwear issue we started with was simple.

 

[Liselle]

White-out (U.S.) = Tippex (U.K.) ?

(Little bottles of white paint-like liquid used to cover over typing or handwriting mistakes. Applied with a little brush attached to the cap.)

 

[pocossin]

UK: mange tout. US: sugar snap peas, snow peas.

 

[Trojina]

they are in shops in UK as both sugar snap peas and mange tout

 

[pocossin]

Apparently the mangetout in the UK are shipped in by air freight from Kenya or Peru. There was an attempt to grow mangetout in the Cotswolds in 2010, but as there is no futher news report on this venture, it was likely a commercial failure.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/jul/25/british-mange-tout-sale-first

Mangetout should be available from home and allotment gardeners throughout the UK up to Scotland. My objection to the term mangetout (one or two words) is that I consider frenchified English pretentious and that it is ambiguous in that it covers both the snow pea and the sugar snap pea, which are different vegetables, the snow pea being harvested before the seed begin to grow and the sugar snap pea being best harvested once the seed is at least half grown. After a 35 year hiatus, I grew sugar snap peas again this year. Previously I did not understand the special care needed in harvesting and preparing for cooking. When all is done correctly, the sugar snap pea is a superior vegetable.

 

[Liselle]

After a 35 year hiatus, I grew sugar snap peas again this year. Previously I did not understand the special care needed in harvesting and preparting for cooking. When all is done correctly, the sugar snap pea is a superior vegetable.

What should be done to prepare for cooking? I've used bags of frozen ones (which is maybe the explanation), and all I do is steam them or boil them in water for a little while - just the usual, nothing special, and they seem fine? (And tasty. I like them .)

 

[pocossin]

What should be done to prepare for cooking?

When you grow your own, the strings of sugar snap peas must be carefully removed. (Snow peas have this string too.) The 'string' is a fiber that surrounds each pod. To properly remove it, one needs to use a paring knife to seize it. I was using my finger nails, and my sister informed me that I needed to do a better job. Your ready-to-cook frozen peas already have the strings removed. Sautéed in a little olive oil, sugar snap peas with a slice of bread make a superb meal.

 

[Liselle]

Aha. Thanks for the explanation - I was wondering if my frozen snap peas were maybe not the real thing!

I'm sure your fingernails are grateful to your sister .

 

[pocossin]

UK: pram, buggy. US: stroller, baby carriage.

I just had the frustrating experience of trying to refer to a baby four-wheel transport in Britspeak. I could not think of "pram", which word is never used here.

http://overtheretohere.com/british-baby-strollers-or-prams-or-baby-carriages/

Does any British person in their right mind use "perambulator"? Sounds like a vehicle for a quadriplegic.

 

[Trojina]

I have been pushing a pushchair today with a 1 year old in and I 'm trying to think what we call it. It could be any of these words...

buggy
pushchair
pram
stroller

If any adults todays said any of those words we'd know what the other meant.

People actually don't use old fashioned prams which were a different shape....not that I'm an expert

No no one says 'perambulator' at least not in my life time, but the word 'pram' is derived from it.

You said we didn't have sugar snap peas and called them 'mange tout'. I do live here...trust me, I see and buy them in the shops and spoke to a friend this week who grows them on her allotment.

I don't think websites and newspapers are a reliable guide to real life in these matters.....

 

[pocossin]

You said we didn't have sugar snap peas and called them 'mange tout'. I do live here...trust me, I see and buy them in the shops and spoke to a friend this week who grows them on her allotment.

Surely I didn't say that Brits have no sugar snap peas. I did say that they were shipped in by air freight. So far as I have found, they are not commercially grown in the UK although, except for labor costs, it would be a good place to grow them -- much better than here. Today's culinary novelty was leek soup -- leeks, carrots, celery, potatoes, and a little olive oil. I had been wanting to try a leek, and so grew some. Leeks are so mild that I see how they could have been a major foodstuff in the UK a few hundred years ago.

 

[Trojina]

Surely I didn't say that Brits have no sugar snap peas

Some sentences shine out in a thread. That is one of them.


I meant you said we didn't call them sugar snap peas here.

pocossin


UK: mange tout. US: sugar snap peas, snow peas.

....well I'm glad we sorted that out.​

I like leeks. Nice non contentious vegetables.

 

[sooo]

I purchased fresh snow peas this week. I use my nails to remove the string but will try the paring knife this time. It's been awhile since I cooked them, two times ago I forgot to remove the string. It was a mess but I managed after cooked, not advisable. I either like to steam them, keep them fresh, crispy (also called snap peas) and deep green, or hot fry them in a little canola oil (olive oil burns). Great with fish or just about anything. I like mixing hot salmon over cold mixed spring salad and baby spinach too with a little olive oil and red wine vinegar, the hot and cold work well together, interacting. Refreshing and light. A little Basmati rice on the side is good too, not overly steamed, a bit firm with a nutty flavor.

Has a Bobby and a cop been mentioned already? And isn't a bonnet distinctly British? In the US it used to be associated with Easter hats, but I don't hear the term anymore.

 

[Trojina]

Bonnet ? It's an old term for a bonnet/ladies hat.... not a term any one uses these days, except maybe a baby's bonnet...but even that would be an old term no one uses any more. I mean bonnets belong in the 1800s....no one in my or my mother's generation would use the term 'bonnet'...except in the term 'Easter bonnet' ....not that anyone wears easter bonnets..except in parades/fetes etc ..afterthought...I'm sure I have heard the term 'bonnet' used in all kinds of historical American TV shows etc Little House on the Prairie...sure they wore sun bonnets and Sunday bonnets...

Also 'bobby' is fairly antiquated. It's a sort of 1950s word no longer used much except in a sort of wistful way. 'Coppers' is used by some people. I think Cockneys say 'the old bill' on TV anyway.........but that's another world.

 

[Liselle]

Do regular British people wear hats much? (Decorative dressy hats, I mean, not sun hats or winter hats for keeping warm.) I think we have the impression it's more common there than here because even the younger members of the royal family seem to wear them routinely (Duchess Kate, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie - it's not just the Queen who we see in hats).

What do you usually call police officers? We just say "police officer," "police," or "cop."

 

[Trojina]

Do regular British people wear hats much? (Decorative dressy hats, I mean, not sun hats or winter hats for keeping warm.) I think we have the impression it's more common there than here because even the younger members of the royal family seem to wear them routinely (Duchess Kate, Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie - it's not just the Queen who we see in hats).

Remember the UK is multi cultural like US.....what the royal family wears doesn't represent anything much except that some women apparently like to copy Kate. I have never met any of them though. As for the princesses I don't know anything about them or what they look like...except I think apparently they wore ridiculous hats at the royal wedding. They don't interest me so I don't really pay much attention to them. Another example of media hype. The media makes out everyone is totally interested in the royal family...but they aren't. They even have it on our news....a form of brainwashing.....




Hats ? No I don't think people wear dressy hats except at events like wedding and Ascot and so on...and all that. I mean those kind of hats aren't practical, or even attractive, in every day life are they

What do you usually call police officers? We just say "police officer," "police," or "cop."

we say 'policeman' or referred to formally a 'police officer' or a PC which stands for 'police constable'
the first rank of policeman. That is their title....ie PC Jones or PC Smith etc etc. A woman police constable is a WPC. So she'd be called in court for example WPC Jones.

 

[pocossin]

Bonnet ? It's an old term for a bonnet/ladies hat.... not a term any one uses these days, except maybe a baby's bonnet...but even that would be an old term no one uses any more. I mean bonnets belong in the 1800s

Even today British cars wear bonnets

 

[Trojina]

oh yes there is the car bonnet of course ! forgot that.

 

[sooo]

In the US cars and trucks, but mostly sporty cars, wear bras. I always thought that was too weird. I mean, enough with the car fetishes already!

 

[Trojina]

The thread has gone full circle. We started with underwear and we are back to underwear again.

The omen must be 10.6.

 

[pocossin]

UK: tonne. US: ton, short ton.

1 tonne = 1.10231 ton

tonne = metric ton = imperial ton

When I read statistics and want approximate results, I ignore the difference.

 

[pocossin]

UK: wing mirror. US: side mirror.

UK: wing. US: fender.

 

[goddessliss]

In the US cars and trucks, but mostly sporty cars, wear bras. I always thought that was too weird. I mean, enough with the car fetishes already!

Bras????? seriously!! what do you guys call Vegemite?

 

[sooo]

Bras????? seriously!! what do you guys call Vegemite?

I've never seen Vegemite sold or served in the US. The first time I heard of it was in an 80's song from Men At Work, and it was about coming from "the land down under". The only time I tasted it was during a trip to New Zealand. It must be an acquired taste, which I have not acquired.

Car and truck bras have been around in the US for decades. It was a fashion statement in the 80's (hence my fetish comment), with a practical function of protecting the paint from chipping and squished bugs. I had one that came with a small truck but always thought they were pretty silly, especially since the, um, headlights poked through.

But now it seems some have really gone too far. She's a dirty girl.

 

[pocossin]

Car and truck bras have been around in the US for decades. It was a fashion statement in the 80's (hence my fetish comment), with a practical function of protecting the paint from chipping and squished bugs. I had one that came with a small truck but always thought they were pretty silly, especially since the, um, headlights poked through.

An uncle from Florida told me that in areas of lovebug infestation, these screens were necessary to prevent radiator grills from becoming clogged.

Because airborne lovebugs can exist in enormous numbers near highways, they die in large numbers on automobile windshields, hoods, and radiator grills when the vehicles travel at high speeds. If left for more than an hour or two, the remains become extremely difficult to remove. Their body chemistry has a nearly neutral 6.5 pH but may become acidic at 4.25 pH if left on the car for a day. In the past, the acidity of the dead adult body, especially the female's egg masses, often resulted in pits and etches in automotive paint and chrome if not quickly removed. However, advances in automotive paints and protective coatings have reduced this threat significantly. Now the greatest concern is excessive clogging of vehicle radiator air passages with the bodies of the adults, with the reduction of the cooling effect on engines, and the obstruction of windshields when the remains of the adults and egg masses are smeared on the glass.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lovebug