or this
or maybe this
But when I say cookies you should think of this
or this
or even better this
Now what other words do we need work out a complete definition for?
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Biscuits and Cookies
I have so many friend in England now and for the most part, we seems to speak the same language. But one place we seem to speak different languages is when it come to biscuits and cookies. Ami and I have discussed it a little. You need to know that when you say biscuit, I see this
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In the UK, a fag is a cigarette. The trunk of a car is a boot, the hood of the car is a bonnet, the human bottom is a bum not a butt. Those are the ones that come to mind lol.
ReplyDeleteStrange how different English can be.
DeleteLOL PK...there are quite a few that can be misunderstood. When Nick is going to check under the hood and possibly use a wrench, Dan is going to check under the bonnet and possible use a spanner.
ReplyDeleteWhen I say my doctor's office is on the second floor of a building and I am going to take the elevator, Ami would be taking a lift to what we would consider the 3rd floor because our first floor is her ground floor.
These are just a very few of the easier ones I can think of this time of the morning. LOL
Oh and if you want some really good gravy, I shared my grandpa's chocolate gravy recipe a while back. It is awesome on buttermilk biscuits.
Hugs and Blessings...
Cat
Spanner? Didn't know that one. I haven't tried chocolate gravy, that could be interesting.
DeleteLoL PK, yum, now I'm suddenly hungry! LoL
ReplyDeleteStaying on the food theme, how about the difference between chips, chippies and crisps. Hotdogs too.
Hugs
Roz
Okay explain each of these. Chips - potato chips come in a bag, thin, crispy and salty. French fries - what McDonalds sells. I know what I think a hot dog is, what's are chippies?
DeleteOh and don't forget that our pants are your panties (and men don't wear pants!) and your pants are our trousers!
ReplyDeleteI hear knickers and I think old fashion underwear worn in the old west - coming almost to your knees. You're men don't wear pants? I may have to come visit!
DeleteI think the word "cake" is used differently too. In Canada a cake is a big round or square confection that is sliced and serves several people. A British cake is the equivalent of our cupcake. Our cake is their gateau.
ReplyDeleteHugs,
Hermione
Gateau is a new word to me - I agree with what you say a cake is. I think I'm getting more confused.
DeleteHi Pk, nice pictures, I just fancy one of those scones! I am definitely an English biscuit expert. lol
ReplyDeletelove Jan,xx
Scones - that's our biscuit right?
DeleteLove love love me some biscuits! And cookies too!
ReplyDeleteI was a nanny for a British family. I adapted quickly enough to figure out what they meant when it mattered. While they were traveling, my to do list included buying rubbers for the three kids. Two 2 year olds and a baby couldn't help me figure it out. I knew they didn't mean what first came to mind! Later on the phone they said to find some cheap Wellies, then instantly realized they needed rainboots. Turns out they were messing with me because they knew I'd be stumped!
Glad you got it figured out before the kids were set for safe sex! I remember a friends mom telling me one time, "There's a dope and some nabs it that poke over there." Do you know what she was saying?
DeleteNabs here are the orange peanut butter sandwich crackers. I heard an old timey use of poke that I think was either or oven or a purse or something? That I think was in one of those old timey villages with the museums and churches and stuff where there's people in old costumes speaking the old language... Don't think that's British though more Eastern European or something? So my guess on that one is going to be a teenage babysitter with crackers in the purse for the little heathens. Lol, no clue!
DeleteYou got the nabs right. Sometimes here in the south a soft drink (soda) was called a dope and a paper bag was a poke. So all she was trying to tell me was that there were some cheese crackers and a soft drink in the paper bag!
Deletefor me the easy definition is biscuits are for crunching and cookies for chewing. whenever I sit down to write a book I always write British English and then a US editor makes the necessary alterations.
ReplyDeleteI feel like I can usually figure everything out and sometimes trying to do that can be fun.
DeleteIt is interesting, sometimes when I'm reading a post, it takes me a minute to figure out what they mean. But then, I sometimes have the same problem with the idioms within the USA.
ReplyDeleteTrue Leigh, and it's not getting any easier.
DeleteOh scones, jam and cream, love that picture.
ReplyDeleteIt is interesting the differences - Off the top of my head -
Block of flats - apartment building
Bill - check
Chemist - Drugstore
Boot of a car - trunk.
Love,
Ronnie
xx
I hadn't heard of a block of flats - although I knew a flat was an apartment. And a chemist, I'd think they were making a bomb!
DeletePK, I just had to get Dan in to see this! It makes me feel so good inside to know that all these great ladies are able to make such heartwarming jokes and comments. It's also lovely to know I have some other crazy Limies over here with me!
ReplyDeleteI still prefer saying 'knickers' to 'panties'! Funny how no-one mentioned the way in England the word "fanny" refers to an entirely different part of the anatomy! I still have difficulty reading that word.
We also have aubergine instead of egg-plant; curtains instead of drapes, tap instead of faucet, bumper instead of fender, silencer instead of muffler. I could go on and on.
Savoury scones over here are called cobblers and placed on top of casseroles, but I love the idea of eating them with perhaps a mushroom sauce. The scones with jam and clotted cream are a tradition that comes from the West Country - Devon and Cornwall, and the cream is fiercely fought over as both counties claim to do the BEST cream teas.
I love listening to the various different words and dialects in any country I visit. Sometimes over here it is quite difficult to understand if a person has a very strong local dialect, and of course, all Counties in England have many words that are only used within that particular county.
Thank you PK for really making me feel good today!
Hugs
Ami
I've enjoyed this too. I have to ask what's a fanny if it's not your behind? Knickers don't sound sexy to me, just brings a totally different picture to mind. I don't have much trouble understanding anyone in the US, but I love a southern accent while a Bronx accent from NYC is rough on my ear.
DeleteThe downunder foot ware are thongs, Knickers get removed for a spanking, a soda is plain carbonated water, we smoke a fag...all this and we also drive on the wrong side of the road
ReplyDeleteYou poor folks are so confused! LOL! Soft drinks - carbonated, flavored, sugar water is my biggest diet downfall. And smoking a fag sounds horrible to the mother of a gay man!! You rarely hear the word fag unless someone wants to be extremely insulting!
DeleteWhat we call a pacifier they call a dummy ti*. I had such a hard time when my Scotsman asked for one of our kids dummy.....! They would shorten it.
ReplyDeleteHow about in spank lingo? In Scotland they use the word skelp...to mean spank.... Not that there are not other words... But initially when I heard or pronounced that word I thought of a sharp knife that sliced away someone's scalp!
You're right being skelpped sounds much worse than being spanked!
DeleteChips, crisps, and fries. I *believe* that what we think of as "fries" are actually called "chips" in England. And what we think of as chips are called "crisps." I'm not sure if "fries" are even in the British vocab. Frites, maybe?
ReplyDeleteAlso, I LOVE biscuits and gravy...mmmm!
Chips, crisps, fries… I may need more pictures to fully understand all this.
DeleteToo funny! PK, I'm with you....
ReplyDeleteA biscuit comes with butter and/or gravy (omg, chocolate) and a cookie is sweet concoction. :)
So true, us southern girls know!
DeleteHi PK
ReplyDeleteReferring back to the chips, chippies and pokes. Chips in Scotland are thick slices of potato, deep fried in oil and served hot, with vinegar in the west of the country and brown sauce in the east. They are bought at a chippie (the name of the fast food shop selling fish and chips and other culinary delights) and, before the advent of polystyrene trays, the chips were served in a poke (a paper bag)! They are always washed down with some delicious(!?) irn bru (iron brew), an orange fizzy drink (our name for a soda) which is reputed to be "made in Scotland from girders".
For a more refined palate, you could try taking afternoon tea with a scone and jam (the third of your pictures above). I have to take issue with my southern counterparts who lay claim to it for Devon or Cornwall. Their cream teas with clotted cream are divine but the scone is a Scottish invention (you can check out Wikipedia if you don't believe me). It should very definitely be pronounced to rhyme with gone and not tone! There is a town in Scotland called Scone but, perversely, it is pronounced to rhyme with soon!
Of course I know fine well that there is no right or wrong pronunciation for any of these things, but we Brits like to argue over such inane matters. A bit like talking about the weather. We share a common language, for sure, but the local variations are what give us each our own characteristic flavour!
N
N! Thank you - I really do love these little bits of information, but you've actually made me a little hungry. You're right about the poke - that had been what my friends mom had been calling a paper bag, but I'd never heard it before as a kid and you almost never hear it now. Glad you stopped by.
DeletePK: I came across the term "cutty sark" in a DD book once. Of course, I think of it as a "traditional beverage." When I looked it up, I discovered it is a Scottish term for "a woman's short undergarment."
ReplyDeleteWhether this is a reference to the famous "knickers" I dunno. Somehow saying "I inched down her cutty sark" lacks ...
While I was on that trail, I found the definition of "cutty" which may translate from Scottish as "whore." Which led to "cutty stool" defined as "the church seat on which an unchaste person sat while being harangued by the minister."
"After haranguing the cutty in the vicarage for over an hour, the minister required her to bend over the cutty seat and lift up her petticoats, whereupon he ripped down her cutty sark to below her knees and began to ..."
Unfortunately, as a friend of Bill's in good standing I can't take this research and new-found knowledge down to the pub for a Cutty in a "jar" [glass] and shout it around. Jon