British people also call household items by different names!

10 years ago

With Houzz UK launching shortly, we've been thinking about how us Brits use different words for household items than our American and Aussie friends.

How about flat (apartment), rubbish bin (trash can) and BBQ (grill or Barbie)?

Do you have any other favourites? Can you think of other examples?

Richmond, 1930's refurbishment · More Info

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PRO

OnePlan

10 years ago

tea is a way of keeping a person that's in an accident but 'walking wounded' in one place. It can calm them, gives them something to do and makes them feel as though they are being looked after ... it's a bit like a hug in a mug - and can allow someone of a caring nature to feel that they have in someway helped someone who needed it ! so can be beneficial for both the walking wounded and the shocked bystander alike !

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Comments (209)

Cat Rowe
10 years ago
Hoover the carpet in the UK, as we vacuum ours in the U.S.
Cat Rowe
10 years ago
I ring my friend at Great Dixter, but call my friend in the U.S.
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stryker
10 years ago
Ah yes, chook!
anneowl
10 years ago
Nasmijati, most if not all of Europe has fixed permanent lighting. In the UK most bathrooms are fairly small so it is required to have the light switched on by the pull cord method rather than a light switch. Can't remember the actual measurement but it is do with the distance between the bath/shower and the ability to switch on lights. A cord being safer with wet hands.

Enjoying this post, I read the Australian one too and it is amusing to find what is so different and what is almost the same and yet can be for something completely different!
User
10 years ago
I'm getting completely confused.
auntiebuzzybee
10 years ago
Between which countries? About lighting? Or knockers ( a slang word for women's breast in the US, by the way) .
auntiebuzzybee
10 years ago
At the risk of repeating myself, 75% of dilemmas were abandoned or outdated by at least one year when I was on last night. Are there no new dilemmas, or what's going on? I even tried finding new ones pages down the way. When I have typed BUMP, nothing happens to it. Anybody else noticing any of this?
User
10 years ago
This is new and significant

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/choosing-color-of-sofa-dsvw-vd~922967
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HomeScapes Home Staging San Diego
10 years ago
I was Skyping with a relative who lives in London today (I'm in San Diego, CA) - she cut her finger and her boyfriend put a plaster on it (would be a BandAid here in the US)...and if you need to wash your pants while you're there, don't tell your host you'll get your pants to put in the washing machine, it's trousers in the UK, when I said pants they all started laughing... when we suspected some food had gone bad they said 'it's gone off' and when I asked for hot cereal it was always porridge...& when my friend was 'knackered' she went off to sleep....
PRO
ASVInteriors
10 years ago
Also the British get in a queue not a line! - This is turning out to be quite a lexicon!
kilkennykat
10 years ago
bsellers1394 I posted a dilemma few days ago about desk v. wardrobe space. I need lots more feedback because Hubs and I are bickering constantly about it!
cazzerole
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
An electrical outlet is a wall socket
A tub is called a bath here
We call a refrigerator a fridge
cazzerole
10 years ago
Knackered means exhausted and it is said as cream crackered in cockney ryhming slang, it derives from when they took old animals to the knackers yard to be put down or put to sleep (euthanised in the US)
cazzerole
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
rinqreation, that looks like what we would call a profiterole
krootje
10 years ago
Well, this POLL isn't making it any easier on me.....
I do notice that there are different words for the same items and it's driving me nuts sometimes! Coming from Holland, where we learn "British-English" in school, and living in Canada I have to translate everything twice!!! From Dutch to British-English and now from British-English to American/Canadian-English! ;)
I have a long way to go.....
K. Brown
10 years ago
Since we are on the subject of British things....my most favorite magazine for inspiration is "The World of Interiors" out of the UK. It is the only magazine I have kept every issue of since my first subscription 16 years ago.
nasmijati
10 years ago
@anneowl. Thank you for clarification and correction.
kathleen MK
10 years ago
ah, two countries divided by a common language as Shaw would say. And the US is more divided. Here In Texas we would be offering accident victims and contractors ICED tea (sweet no MILK) or Hot Coffee depending on the season. In Wales I remember hearing green fingers instead of a green thumb and a Mummy asking her son if he needed to go to the "little house" instead of the potty.
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HomeScapes Home Staging San Diego
10 years ago
In the US we think of 'high tea' as an afternoon tea with tea and little sandwiches & goodies, but in the UK it seemed that this might be "low tea" or 'afternoon' tea and 'high tea' was something else altogether...I am confused on this one
rinked
10 years ago
@cazzerole: yes, indeed! they do make several sizes over here too. only the 'bossche bol' is about 15cms (large man's fist)
bschr
10 years ago
@cazzerole and rinqreation, in Canada we refer to them as cream puffs.
?
kilkennykat
10 years ago
I'm going to be a total pedant here, despite my British wish to ply anyone and everyone with tea, no matter what the circumstance, I have to say that as a First Aider you should probably never give any sort of drink to an accident victim in case they need treatment at hospital, Casualty, A and E or ER, whatever you own country calls it!
jessegee
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Pavement - sidewalk
My sister was run over in new york after a car came up on the pavement. During the court case, they assumed she was crossing the road, Pavement means road , not sidewalk.......
auntiebuzzybee
10 years ago
In New York, the car drove up on the sidewalk (because it happened in NY). Too bad her attorney didn't clarfy that before they went to court, for heaven's sake! How could they not have a police report with diagrams, a private investigator, video...any number of ways for the attorney to at least understand his client ( and visa versa) What a boob! (numbskull=idiot)
I do hope your sister was not terribly harmed.
aky3
10 years ago
There are numerous examples, but as this is houzz.com, I would say Parlour vs. Living Room. Or maybe I'm just old school using the word parlour.

@ Jessica - Calling EMS or 911 is NOT the best you can do. I would be getting my area councillor to get the mayor to a town hall meeting with your folk's neighbours. There is definitely something wrong with the design of that roadway.

I can't remember who mentioned Canadians used serviette, but I find paper napkin to be the most commonly used term in Canada. Canada closely resembles the US in terms of vocabulary, and the Brits in spelling, though Canadians still spell tyre 'tire'.
Jessica Kerry Mack
10 years ago
Aky3 the road is State Road 212 which means that to have any changes made we have to go through the Maryland state legislature. My grandmother bought the house in 1953 when it was built and accidents in the front yard have been a fact of life ever since. The local neighborhood has collected petitions and gone to our legislators and gone to the state road transportation board on many occasions over the years like when one of our neighbors was killed standing at the bus stop, or when a van full of preschoolers was run off the road and shoved into a telephone pole by another vehicle. They will not change the road, nor will they install speed bumps or rumble strips. They will not install guard rails or barricades of any sort. The last time we went to them they just installed a few more signs and repainted the lines on the road. We have asked them to install a speed camera but they only do that in school zones so we don't qualify. There was an entire separate discussion I started asking for recommendations that we may not have already tried multiple times. We've gotten stories in the papers and on the news and nothing has changed. It doesn't mean we have stopped trying.
aky3
10 years ago
That really is quite unfortunate Jessica. I'm surprised the insurance companies for some of the casualties have not gone after the State.
Pauline Fearey
10 years ago
Some years ago my sister lived in america for a time. Her neighbours organised a meal so she could get to know people and everyone brought something to eat. My sister made an english sherry trifle and put it on the table of desserts, only to find it moved to the savouries table. Not sure if it was a Texas thing but apparently jelly dishes are served with the savoury part of the meal, not as a pudding.
tessybear100
10 years ago
Talking of puddings, in our school play one mother who was American had to come up with a Christmas pudding costume for her child and she came dressed as a pavlova! No one really knew what to say! I'm not sure what our Christmas pudding is called in US or if they even have it!
stryker
10 years ago
So does "pudding" always mean dessert? But there's the yorkshire kind, right? isn't that a savory dish?
PRO
ASVInteriors
10 years ago
Pudding means dessert - except for Yorkshire pudding... and let's not get into pronunciations of towns and cities in the UK Warwick pronounced Warrick, Reading pronounced redding etc etc
Jessica Kerry Mack
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Pauline, generally speaking gelatin dishes in the USA are treated as salads and served as part of the main meal at a potluck dinner. This is because Jello gelatin did huge marketing campaigns in the 1950s with recipe booklets which had people adding everything from celery, grapes, mayonnaise, etc. to the Jello gelatin to create multilayered spectacular looking dishes. At least in my church, you can't attend a potluck dinner without at least 3-5 women bringing some kind of Jello mould. Think more along the lines of an aspic type dish than a dessert.

Tessybear100 you can find specialty stores in the USA that sell Christmas puddings - usually the miniature kinds that are individually sized and imported from Europe. Generally speaking when you say "pudding" in the USA they will think of the vanilla, chocolate, or tapioca variety you'd buy in individual packs to put in children's lunches. In the deep south, banana pudding is quite popular and most frequently served with 'Nilla Wafers, a type of vanilla cookie (or biscuit for those in England).
tessybear100
10 years ago
I think what we in UK call Christmas pudding you might call plum pudding, that is if you have it at all! It's what we have on Christmas Day with our lunch and it's usually covered in brandy and set alight!
Jessica Kerry Mack
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
It is called a plum pudding or Christmas pudding or boiled pudding depending where you are in the USA. Yes, covered with some kind of sauce or brandy and flambeed. My sister attempted to make one the last two years following recipes she found online or in a cookbook of things they serve the Queen. I think my mother is the only one we know who actually owns a Christmas pudding mould so my sister borrowed it. They were two of the worst kitchen disasters any of us have run into!
Jessica Kerry Mack
10 years ago
Oh, and before I forget - boiled custard which would sometimes be used as a sauce for something like Christmas pudding is often drunk as an alternate to eggnog in some parts of the country and can be found at the grocers in the dairy aisle next to the milk, cream, and eggnog. Eggnog and boiled custard are seasonal items usually only available from Thanksgiving through New Years.
bschr
10 years ago
Plum or Christmas pudding was always a main stay growing up but now we seem to be replacing it with sticky toffee pudding mmmm.
stryker
10 years ago
Jessica, would you consider bread pudding the same as Christmas pudding? I have enjoyed bread puddings with hard sauce (with alcohol) in the past.

The Jello thing--I would not consider gelatin molds to be ubiquitous in pot lucks across the US.
Jessica Kerry Mack
10 years ago
Jeanstryker, that's why I said within my church - and I can only speak for church potlucks in the states where I've lived which include Maryland, Michigan, Pennsylvania, California, Mississippi and Virginia.

Bread puddings are not the same as Christmas puddings. Honestly, the closest thing I can think of taste-wise that you'd come across most frequently in the US is a super heavy and dark fruitcake. Here's a recipe for a Christmas pudding: http://britishfood.about.com/od/christmas/r/xmaspud.htm
cmaci
9 years ago
Great thread. I still have trouble with the word "cutlery" which in my British home was used for everything -knives, forks, spoons- with which you set the table. I think I finally figured out that the word 'flatware' is used in the US.
cmaci
9 years ago
Pauline, love your sherry trifle story. I have a thing going with an Aussie friend here in the US. If I invite him and his family to dinner, the first question is 'are we having trifle?' If I ever ask for a favor, then he asks for my trifle recipe (of course there's no such thing). My response is that I'm leaving him the recipe in my will!
User
9 years ago
Mmmmm dessert!
garyli1684
9 years ago
I've lived in Canada for yonks. Does anyone here recognise 'open concept' as a Canadian term?
It's 'open plan' in the UK and 'open floor plan' in the US.
aky3
9 years ago
I do. I guess Canadians are sophisticated like that :)
lovanc
9 years ago
"Do this match my pants?" does NOT go over w/ brits! :D
milfordmaid
8 years ago
Add in Hiberno-English;

Long pants are English trousers

Shorts are English men's underwear (boxer type)

English shorts are Irish short pants

Togs are English sports shorts.

Swim togs are English swimwear

To tog out is an Englishman changing into his sportswear.

Also means to get yourself ready, gather up all that's needed for whatever it is you plan to do.

A press is an English cupboard or wardrobe.

A hot-press is an English airing cupboard (both usually have immersion tank in them).

St Stephens day or Stephens Day is the same day as England's Boxing Day (26 Dec)

Going to the bog is cutting turf for fuel, an Englishman would be visiting the toilet.

A boreen (in a town) is an alley(-way) or lane (way) in England.

A flat in Ireland is local authority/public accommodation

An Irish apartment is privately owned/rented

A shift is not a period of work hours ....

Going for a ride does not mean you going for a drive for pleasure ....

Having a fag is smoking a cigarette - I shudder to think what the Americans interpret that as !
milfordmaid
8 years ago
Crockery is a good English word - dumbfounds both the Irish + Americans. Not sure what Aussies or Canadians make of it.

Cutlery + crockery has a lovely sound - sounds like setting the table!
User
8 years ago
Yes, we say the same.
Chevan Chuenchomboon
8 years ago
Funny conco, Im swedish moving to England. In school we not really learned the correct english words and often mixed up with American like elevator/lift and hoover/vacuum. I did learn to do the yorkshires though and gonna try the popovers, lovely recipe! I'd follow BBC's Best Yorkshire Puddings recipe.
User
8 years ago
https://www.houzz.com.au/discussions/chairs-funny-stories-unusual-chairs-dsvw-vd~3316995
Carole Wood
8 years ago
In the UK we keep rabbits in our hutches - I believe in the US you keep crockery in yours?

British people also call household items by different names!

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