This thread was prompted after I viewed this example of Engrish:
http://www.engrish.com/recent_detail...ate=2008-07-02

And didn't find it funny.

In English, "queer" means "odd".

And it got me thinking about other differences between English and American English... and how our dialect must seem really funny to you xD

For example, "rumpy pumpy" is a jokey term for sex. xD
"to cop off" means to have sex, as does "shagging".

To "go tits up" means everything has gone wrong.

"twonk" "twat" "berk" and "tit" are mild insults.

Wow... :0 I didn't know all that--but of course English and American english
are bound to have differences I'd think. Accents, phrases, That is sort of funny.
One person told me they had problems trying to find a bathroom since they
couldn't understand the English way of talking when they got over to UK. XD;;

Ye-es. I still have trouble comprehending why Americans call trousers 'pants'. Do they call pant-pants 'underwear' all the time?

It's always wondered me.

@ Sun - I think they call them underwear or underpants, and panties instead of knickers.

Well I think "twonk" "twat" "berk" and "tit" would be insults in America =P

Anyway.
I don't find that sugar pot particularly humorous, but I can understand where it might have been mistranslated along the ways. Perhaps it was supposed to say "How gay everything is to-day!" to mean "How happy everything is to-day!" and somehow got mixered up to be "queer" -shrug- Or maybe it does just mean odd. I don't know. xD!

I personally enjoy the different words we have for the same and different things. I think it's fun! I have a question for you though. How does American English seem to you? Like what impression does it give you? Do you think about a person a different way if they speak American English?


As an underwear store employee:
Underwear, undergarments, underpants, panties, some do call them pants and knickers though. It all means the same =]
Slacks, trousers, pants are considered different by context.

I don't think of someone a different way. I just think they're American. xD

I do find some US phrases funny, but that's just the dialect, not the person.

If a British person uses a lot of American English, I will consider them a berk. xD

Well, i guess we are kinda weird, and slightly inferior to other nations. but many Americans think other nationalities are odd, too. I'm American and it is kind of normal to be different. i think that people think to much about the fact that they are like a group of people but others are not the same as them or as the the people they are similar to.

I kinda lost myself at the end ^^; but it's way more fun to have a ton of different kinds of people and things the say.

Yes, the insults you put up on the top post would probably be registered as mean in America, too.^^

That's good ^^ For some reason somebody told me that American English is bastardized and it pisses them off whenever they hear it o.O I was like....woah. That's extreme.

@ Han-Pan - well, I believe our version is much better, but hey, it's your mother tongue. 8D

I feel like, there are some words the language doesn't need (cursing!!!) but that's just my opinion, and every language has its insults and rude words.

Heeeheee cursing... <3 My granddaddy NEVER cursed. One time he dropped like a pair of pliers on his foot or something painful ( D: ) and my dad was there and he just went "D.....AAAGNABBIT!" :XD :heart: :heart: :heart:

Pearly: Yeah, this is true. But languages change and evolve with cultures, and ours are two completely different cultures, so that suppositions to why we have different words for different things and same words meaning different things ^^ But the basis of the language is the same.

Well, it's good to see that some of the old dialect has at least held on through the centuries (at least in the northeast).

I probably mention something "going tits up" at least once a day, though it's usually in reference to a business going out of business.

My mother-in-law has referred to odd or strange things as "queer" the entire time I've known her, as has her mother. :)

Originally Posted by Pearl

This thread was prompted after I viewed this example of Engrish:
http://www.engrish.com/recent_detail...ate=2008-07-02

And didn't find it funny.

In English, "queer" means "odd".

And it got me thinking about other differences between English and American English... and how our dialect must seem really funny to you xD

For example, "rumpy pumpy" is a jokey term for sex. xD
"to cop off" means to have sex, as does "shagging".

To "go tits up" means everything has gone wrong.

"twonk" "twat" "berk" and "tit" are mild insults.

Woah, when I saw this I thought everything would go tits uo and you would have to cop off with someone just to get things back in order.

Btw, a twat is a female sex organ...

Along the same vein of this topic, I was thinking:

It's actually really nice to live in a country a large as this one, since there are several sets of ENTIRELY different dialect. I had to practically learn a new language when I moved to Maine from Wisconsin, and when I spent time in the south it was also like a different language.

Then there's the border states with either Mexico OR Canada where they often quite literally do speak another language, or an amalgamation of the two.

lol I think its more based off of how different countries evolved. We started from the same roots.

Though I do find it odd that there seems to be a lot of animosity towards American English. Somebody told me that her brother was out of country where they spoke mostly Spanish, he was so excited to finaly meet someone who spoke English there so he went to greet them and they just looked at him funny said "You speak laaaaazy" and walked off.

Do they really all think that in the UK? American English is just lazy?

I've heard the phrase "tits up" many times. I think its considered improper to say that here though. ^^; Most girls I know would kick your ass for saying tits. Its kind of disrespectful.

I know some of those words, but not all. I worked at my college and my boss was English so I picked up a lot from her. She's such a sweet woman. But I thought it was interesting when she told us about the American words she was picking up, but they were the most common words to me. Like elevator. Elevator is an American term?

But yes. Americans are queer. I will admit that.

Wow..yeah, there are huge differences in English vs. American. I mean, you can say something in one place that's perfectly normal, yet it's insulting elsewhere. It's very confusing

@ Uzura - elevator is an American term. :3

In England we call it a 'lift'. Both names are very sensible.

I'm not being derrogatory.

"Fag"

I will never understand where this rediculous word came from for America's usage. It obviously was not from England. Or I would at least hope not

I am constantly amused by the fact that the word 'fanny' in English slang refers to a lady's frontal bits.

But here in the US it's a non-offensive, cutesy way of saying butt.

... That's comedy.

Originally Posted by Han-pan

That's good ^^ For some reason somebody told me that American English is bastardized and it pisses them off whenever they hear it o.O I was like....woah. That's extreme.

Of course it does becuase it's incorrect. British English is not always more true to word origins than American English but people assume so becuase of imperialism. Take tidbit (US)/titbit (UK) for a quick example. Tidbit is truer to the 17th century words tid and bit that it's made from (see Online Etymology Dictionary). Add to this the fact that the variation among Brits and among Americans is probably greater than the differences between the groups and that claim about Americanism being bastardizations of the Queen's English ends up sounding really pompous. As an American living in Britain and therefore experienced in this area, I'm comfortable saying the whole thing is completely blown out of proportion.

I love the word twat. Expessially said with a British accent. I also like the sound of 'piss off' from a british accent too. That just proves that British accents make everything sound good. XD I'm going to have to use the expression 'rumpy bumpy' now, because I find that mildly amusing too.

I had an Irish girl stay at my house for a week, and it was really cute hearing her talk and all of her little expressions. I can't remember much of them, I just remembered that chips are crispies and fries are chips.

I think one of my girls' chorus directors used the phrase "tits up" with us once. It was meant to refer to our posture. O_o

I love English, or as most Americans I know refer to it, British English ("English English" starts to sound weird). The words and phrases just sound so much... cooler than in American English. I don't know, it just sounds better.
Though, living in the Southern United States where everyone has a habit of mangling the English language until it's left as a heaping pile of compost material in the back yard (Not the people for whom English is not the first language, the people who grew up speaking English and seem to have some kind of personal vendetta against it), anything sounds better than the "English" I hear.

Yeah, English slang and American slang are different.

Do you call a lighter a "chick-chick"? My hubby used to date an English girl who called a lighter that.

I am often calling things weird meaning strange, not in a bad way just different. But every body thinks I mean it as an insult. I wish more people where I lived read some books.