Dueling phrases

[Flivver]

Here in Massachusetts, it was always a bag. But my mid-western cousins called it a sack...as in "Put those groceries in a paper sack".

 

[Miss 1929]

Flats vs apartments

Funny, in San Francisco, usually if they said "flat" they meant an apartment with its own door to the outside world, whereas "apartment" meant one that shared common hallways and foyer and door. That was the common useage in the newspaper ads anyway.
Now that I am a home-moaner, I don't read the ads anymore, maybe that has fallen off.
And most of the flats and apartments in SF were built that way, not very many converted buildings.

 

[kbadr]

I always thought "theatre" referred to the stage, while "theater" referred to a room showing a film. I could be waaaayyy off though.

There is no definitive answer on this, but my personal preference is that "theatre" refers to the art/medium, and "theater" is the place it is performed.

As for American English vs. British English, whenever I taught English abroad, I enjoyed telling my students (who had predominantly learned BE) that they needed to be careful when asking an American if they could borrow a rubber. A rubber in Britain is an eraser in the States.

This reminds me of one of my favorite and most embarrassing of my father's stories. He was born in Egypt, and attended boarding school in England through high school. He then came to the United States to attend college. While standing in line to register for classes for his first semester, my father pulled a cigarette out of his pocket, then turned to a stranger standing next to him and asked "Are fags allowed here?" It's such a wonderful moment that I am determined to use it in a story or screenplay one day.

 

[LizzieMaine]

If we're going to get into retro-Britishisms, I must confess I sometimes have the habit of concluding speeches to the staff with "I theng yaw!" But nobody around here knows who Arthur Askey was, so it loses much of its impact and they just think it's Lizzie being weird again.

 

[Haversack]

Another post regarding flats and apartments in San Francisco usage: "Flat" is a physical description of particular type of living unit in a multi-unit building. A flat is a living-unit which take up an entire floor of the building. In some cases, (like the building I live in), there is a separate front door and stairs for each unit. These are usually only found in small 2-unit buildings. In others, there is a single front door, a small foyer, and common stairs leading to the individual unit's doors, one to each floor. (There is sometimes also an elevator.) Each unit still take up the entire floor.

You find this second type in both taller, purpose-built, block-of-flats buildings, and in large older houses broken up into separate flats on the different floors. Also, flats can be rental or owned. When rented, they are considered apartments. When owned, condominiums. Some the tall block-of-flats buildings built here in the 1920s (Nob Hill, Russian Hill), feature very large, luxurious flats. 4,000+ SF, etc. Also, because of their increased privacy, flats tend to rent for more than apartments.

Haversack.

 

[Folly]

What are some Briticisms not used anymore? Does anyone still say bally this and bally that? Or tiggerty-boo? Did they ever?

I say demmed nuisance and demmnable if that helps lol
I have also used the term bally well

Slightly fftopic: but I make it my mission to use words that are not used often nowadays, like ghastly or hideous as that usually gets me looks suggesting I made it up from people with limited knowledge of the English language or a look that suggests they have just travelled back in time - Oooh, word nostalgia!

 

[Josephine]

I use "bloody peasants!" a lot, especially when I'm frustrated with something.

 

[Folly]

lol

I have been known to utter the phrase "Damn your eyes!" I blame GM Fraser.

 

[Lancealot]

I'm waiting for an invasion of "brilliant". The word has been really done to death in the UK (with the letter R evolving into "bwilliant" a lot, it seems). On the other hand, I'll be very bummed out if I started hearing a lot of Brits saying "awesome" all the time.

"Brilliant" in a British accent always reminds me of the Guinness commercials.

 

[jamespowers]

"Brilliant" in a British accent always reminds me of the Guinness commercials.

lol lol lol That's what I thought when I first saw it mentioned. lol

 

[JazzBaby]

i read somewhere (might have been here for all i remember) that here in the US there used to be a stigma attached to the term "flat." it was reserved and used to describe poor and cramped living spaces in urban areas? and an apartment was more cushy and like a home. so, it's amusing to me that the term "flat" is becoming fashionable. lol

That's the same understanding I always had of the words 'flat' and 'apartment'. A block of council flats near where I live have recently undergone expensive rennovation which has since caused people to quip "Oh, they're apartments now!"

I think the use of British slang words/spellings in America (and vice versa) is just a fad. A German friend of mine told me that when she was in school it was considered cool to say 'cool' in English whenever possible. Certain words come in and out of use all the time - even the word 'cool' has so many predecessors e.g. groovy, rad, wizard and I think words generally tend to come in and out of fashion and are rarely completely eradicated.

 

[miserabelle]

I think television helps - we get a lot of American things so younger people tend to pick up on American sayings more than I would (my mum's a bit old fashioned really bless her, she much prefers the British words for things). Actually I noticed online that a lot of British phrases came around with American users when Spike was featured in Buffy the Vampire slayer - our slang and profanities became pretty popular at that point ^-^

With 'film' and 'movie' I tend to say 'film' for a short piece of film or... if I'm talking about a particular scene or something but I'll refer to a big-screen release as a 'movie'. I think that's 'cause I hang out with film students quite a lot though, you tend to pick up on it. I'm pretty sure before I became a designer I said 'film' or even 'going to the pictures'

xx

 

[Real Swell Gal]

I have a really good internet friend that I talk to and we often argue over the correct spelling of "check", "flavor" and other words.
When my daughter needed new soccer cleats he sent her a pair of football boots.

But I still call pop pop and the letter z will always be z and not zed.

 

[Warbaby]

Film is what movies are printed on.

 

[Lancealot]

lol lol lol That's what I thought when I first saw it mentioned. lol

Great minds and all that.