talkmagic.co.uk

OK, that last bit isn't true. Do you have any idea why American peanut butter might be different from the sort in the UK? I've had Reese's Peanut Butter Cups and the peanut butter seems pretty much the same as the brands you get here.

I think that was some sarcasm on Ben's part. If it was't...

I think your peanut butter is the same as ours, sorry to burst your bubble!

Don't know enough about "posh" to comment on how it came about, although it's amusing to think that if the same favourable treatment were given these days people would choose S.O.P.H. so they could top up their tans! In terms of usage, I would use it either to describe someone upper class, or something clearly but knowingly superior or fancy - chocolate coated shortbreads would be "posh biscuits" for those who are used to digestives etc.

Everyone seems to be coming up with very rude meanings for "chuff", but a a Northerner myself I feel qualified to say that it is a fairly inoffensive and "friendly" insult, used by Dads and uncles. No one seems to associate it with *ahem* girly bits *ahem* up here.

Farls,

No idea about peanut butter, us northerners much prefer mucky fat.

As for chuff, I agree with you entirely, up north its not used at all for slang terms of ladies bits. Now if I won a local talent competition I'd go in the pub and tell my mates, yes I do have one or two, that I was chuffed I'd won the competition, meaning 'really pleased.'

I've eaten plenty of peanut butter in the US and the UK, and there's no real difference except for brands. The main brand in the UK is Sun-Pat. And no, I have no idea why anyone thought Sun-Pat was an appropriate name for peanut butter.

One of the major brands in the USA is Skippy, which was the name of a popular cartoon character when it first came out in 1933. The legal argument over the name is still continuing. Wikipedia has a brief history. The Skippy cartoon website contains much recrimination.

Another US peanut butter brand is Jif. In the UK, Jif is a brand of lemon juice. It was also a brand of cleanser until a recent renaming to the pan-European Cif. So to a Brit, a commercial about making Jif sandwiches would be baffling.

W.S.Churchill wrote:Two nations divided by a common language

In the UK the sentence, 'I'm mad about my flat' would indicate great pleasure over an apartment. In the US it would indicate anger over a punctured tyre/tire. Which leads rather neatly to:

Things which are heard in the UK but probably not the US:

Pass the cutlery and I'll lay the table.
I made a mistake, may I borrow your rubber?
Bum bag (even worse to UK ears in the US version of Fanny Pack!)


C'mon folks, there must be loads more - but keep 'em as clean as possible !

I've only just stumbled onto this blog. Informative and funny:
Separated by a Common Language

Americans say "p*ssed" for our "p*ssed off", i.e. being annoyed. (Yanks - being just "p*ssed" means being drunk over here).

Then there's the well known and boring jelly/jello/jam issue, which is plain stupid - clearly jam is not jelly. Bah.

One that I've noticed is some pronunciations. Not the ones from eddie izzard's sketch, but a single one I've heard that drives me "mad" (I'm using my British talk now ).

The word "kahki" like Kahki pants. In the states it sounds like Kah as in the beginning of cap, key like a house key. While I've heard Car Key over there in the UK.

That's all.

In American restaurants you ask for the check and pay with bills.
In the UK you ask for the bill and pay with a cheque.

I've also noticed that a lot of American words for things kind of explain what the thing is, too. They're not just the word for a thing, but also the description of it.

Like we have a pavement, whereas they have a sidewalk (for walking on at the side of the road). Also a "trash can" compared to our "bin" and a "speak-claw" instead of a "telephone".

OK, I might have made that last one up.

Hmm... what does that say about the average level of intelligence over there...?!

I think you're right - it goes with their consumables too - far more "cheez-it", "stick'ums" etc. Don't want the darlings getting confused, do we...

UK English is bad enough as it is - Plough, Through, Tough and Cough are spelled similarly but pronounced differently. I feel very sorry for those from other nations trying to learn our language, I really do!

Mandrake wrote:UK English is bad enough as it is - Plough, Through, Tough and Cough are spelled similarly but pronounced differently. I feel very sorry for those from other nations trying to learn our language, I really do!

You should try Polish. There are plenty of Pole around here, so I thought I'd learn a few words to make friends. Boy, is that a difficult language!

In American restaurants you ask for the check and pay with bills.
In the UK you ask for the bill and pay with a cheque.

That's not always the case actually.

magicmindben wrote:

In American restaurants you ask for the check and pay with bills.
In the UK you ask for the bill and pay with a cheque.

That's not always the case actually.

I know. I sometimes sneak out without paying, too. The old "I need to go outside to get better signal on my speak-claw" ruse

a-loo-me-numb rather than our al-you-min-ee-yum

advert-eyes-ment rather than our advert-is-munt

but then again, dependant on where you're from in the UK - there's:
scone as sounding like gone
scone as sounding like cone

And as for "chuff", i thought it meant many a different thing:
going for a cigarette
being pleased
"parts"

There is an episode of Steptoe & Son (old brit comedy) - where the dad says "He was tighter than a gnat's chuff!"