American and English words

Similar problem when Americans use their term for one’s bottom. ‘He patted her on her bottom’ is a bad enough notion but translates even worse.

I have noticed that on you tube.
We are very similar in many ways yet totally different in other ways,even down to food.

FWIW…
My wife is American so we are quite comfortable with USA and British language words. We mix and match quite regularly. Just now and again a few need correction. Like Fahrenheit/Centigrade…

I think the US is now one of a very, very few countries that still use the complex and meaningless Fahrenheit temperature scale. I can see that if you grow up with Fahrenheit then it is the comparison you are familiar with (hot day is 80 deg and a cold day is 40 deg). However that is where its value, even for people growing up with it, simply ends.
What’s the American word for “utterly redundant and out of date”?

I grew up with F deg. But went to Cdeg for school science. My education was electrical engineering and that was all Cdeg. And all Metric…

Exactly. Centigrade makes sense and eases calculations. And once you are familiar with it the comparisons are as valid (hot day is 33 deg and a cold day is 1 deg).

I still use Fahrenheit, 70+ is good and below 50 not so.

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Actually I’m comfortable with both. The engineer in me ? And my ancient age of course…

Fahrenheit,
takes me back to the shipping forecast on the radio, I used to listen in sometimes: dogger, fisher, german bight, what fun!

I was 9 in '62, that when the beeb switched to Centigrade, so I’ve never thought in Fahrenheit.

Many people do, especially with elder people. A little tale. Our nurse gives me a regular check up which included a temperature check which is done in Celsius. She then expects me to concert it to deg F. I remind her I don’t need the correction. I expect she think it’s my age at late seventies.

A few irritating ones

Hacks -hints

Hacks always sounds like a cough sweet

Candy - sweets

Bangs - fringe

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That’s your take being English. Americans are just fine with their words.

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Naturally I speak English :grinning:

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Indeed you do and probably do so rather eloquently. I do also even though I am a Scotsman.

I hadn’t even started school in 1962. But don’t think people were using centigrade then because I remember the summers of 1975 and 1976 when daily the tv and newspapers would have headlines about temperatures being in the 70s and 80s Fahrenheit

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Yeah, 100 in the shade, sounds more dramatic than the true figure. Plus a lot of old tabloid readers were living in the past.

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@Muddy There is one universal small phrase that almost everyone will recognise
image

I started school in 1960 and I have always worked and thought in Centigrade or Celsius.
In my senior school, all our science lessons used temperatures in °C and in my further education and in my home heating system and cooking equipment, all temperatures are expressed in °C, so if temperatures are expressed in °F, it means nothing to me - I always have to use “Google” to convert °F to °C to get a feel for how hot or cold it is.

I remember the heatwaves of 1976 - I was married by then and living in County Down in Northern Ireland - I remember the temperatures soaring up to about 30°C that Summer - I have no idea what that equates to under the old system of temperature measurements.

The cookies, biscuits, scones thing is a minefield!

Also jelly/jello and jam/jelly :rofl:

I have some family in the States and It can be confusing if you tell them that the temperature was 86 degrees in the summer but gets down to minus 6 degrees in the winter.

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