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Heaven: 2021 Proof Americans and Brits speak a different language

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  • I see! I didn't realize that was called a chaise. I have learned something new. Thank you!
  • It’s a living room or front room or lounge. I call mine the living room.

    A den is what you build in the park from twigs & stuff as a kid.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    …or the lair of a wild creature
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    Growing up we had a living room and a front room. The living room was where the family lived watched TV and ate—it had a fold away table so it doubled as a dining room, the front room was unused most of the time and contained the best (i.e. most unused, not necessarily most expensive) furniture. It was where the adults would take their guests and was a no-go area for us kids. We got to go in there at Christmas.
  • I'm going back to your pronunciations from earlier

    Thought, Lot, Cot and Caught all rhyme for me (a Scot - which also rhymes) but caught and court are completely different

    I remember a first year (year 7 ?) English lesson on homophones. ( i had just moved from a school of all Scots to one of people with many backgrounds)

    I insisted that Cot and Caught were valid, someone else thought that Island and Ireland were valid

  • DooneDoone Shipmate
    balaam wrote: »
    Growing up we had a living room and a front room. The living room was where the family lived watched TV and ate—it had a fold away table so it doubled as a dining room, the front room was unused most of the time and contained the best (i.e. most unused, not necessarily most expensive) furniture. It was where the adults would take their guests and was a no-go area for us kids. We got to go in there at Christmas.

    Yes, same for me. Ridiculous really as there was mum, dad and 5 children in a small terraced inner-city house - me and 2 sisters in a small bedroom (no bunk beds, so we had to climb over each other to go to bed!). Also, definitely a settee, a sofa was ‘posh’ 😂.
  • Blck cats are lucky in England (not sure about the rest of the UK), but unlucky in the US, I understand. What, if anything, are we to make of that?
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    Blck cats are lucky in England (not sure about the rest of the UK), but unlucky in the US, I understand. What, if anything, are we to make of that?

    Interesting point! Perhaps there is a surfeit of feral black cats in America? Someone accused of witchcraft at Salem had a pet black cat? A black cat once spoke in a deep and satanic voice to threaten a member of the press?
  • PigletPiglet All Saints Host, Circus Host
    I saw something recently about an unlucky black cat, and thought I must have mis-read it. Are they really considered unlucky in the US? Definitely regarded as lucky in the UK.
  • Piglet wrote: »
    I saw something recently about an unlucky black cat, and thought I must have mis-read it. Are they really considered unlucky in the US?
    Generally yes, and they're also a common motif for Halloween. The Wiki on the topic.

    We have a black cat.

  • Every year around Halloween they run PSA's by people like PETA and the Humane Society telling people that black cats are not evil and asking them not to hurt or kill them.
  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited August 2019
    mousethief wrote: »
    Middle- and working-class American homes have neither sitting rooms nor drawing rooms. You would have a living room or front room (same thing), and larger homes might have a family room (for kids to play in, but more mature than a nursery) or a den (place for dad to smoke his pipe and look stentorian).

    My youngest has decided that we do, in fact, have a drawing room - it's the room in which he does drawing. That doesn't seem to unreasonable to me - he likes drawing.
  • Wet Kipper wrote: »
    I'm going back to your pronunciations from earlier

    Thought, Lot, Cot and Caught all rhyme for me (a Scot - which also rhymes) but caught and court are completely different

    I remember a first year (year 7 ?) English lesson on homophones. ( i had just moved from a school of all Scots to one of people with many backgrounds)

    I insisted that Cot and Caught were valid, someone else thought that Island and Ireland were valid
    Saskatchewan agrees with Scotland: all these words rhyme.

    We call "years" in school grades, and we say them "grade 1", "grade 8" etc. We do not say 1st grade, 8th grade etc.

    We don't have "proms". We have "grad dances" from high schools.

    We call years in university 1st year, 2nd year, 3rd year, 4th year.

    Sororities and fraternities on university campuses in this province are illegal. I don't know if they exist in the UK.

  • mousethief wrote: »
    Every year around Halloween they run PSA's by people like PETA and the Humane Society telling people that black cats are not evil and asking them not to hurt or kill them.

    They also remind cat owners -- especially those who have black cats -- to keep them indoors.
  • Some pet adoption places won't adopt out black cats just before Halloween for fear people will just take them to do nasty things to them.
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    Huh. I don't think I've ever come across the Halloween warnings about protecting black cats.

    Other than that: yes, they're considered bad here. Evil, associated with witches, etc.
  • LydaLyda Shipmate
    edited August 2019
    mousethief wrote: »
    Every year around Halloween they run PSA's by people like PETA and the Humane Society telling people that black cats are not evil and asking them not to hurt or kill them.

    And for owners to keep theirs out of harm's way.
    ETA: As said Pigwidgeon
  • Could it be that in the UK the "old" religion was not necessarily feared by people, and while in the UK too a black cat was often seen as the familiar of a witch, the witch herself (occasionally himself) was not seen as evil, rather regarded as the local "wise woman".

    Contrast that to the US, founded in the English speaking bit by religious dissenters and fundamentalists who even in the UK were obsessed with possession by demons, the evil one, etc, and maybe this is where the US thing about black cats, the familiars of witches, being seen as evil. So, the black cats being evil trope is a Protestant thing.
  • Robert ArminRobert Armin Shipmate, Glory
    Not sure the UK'S track record on witchcraft is quite so enlightened, but I'd like to be proved wrong.

    When did UK and USA wedding customs begin to differ? I'm thinking of the procession into church in particular.
  • SparrowSparrow Shipmate
    Not sure the UK'S track record on witchcraft is quite so enlightened, but I'd like to be proved wrong.

    When did UK and USA wedding customs begin to differ? I'm thinking of the procession into church in particular.

    Oh yes ... and the bride throwing the bouquet thing, which as far as I remember was not usually done in the UK until we started to get a lot more American movies and TV.
  • I dunno - it was certainly common practice, in Scotland at least, by the early 1980s.
  • Sororities and fraternities on university campuses in this province are illegal. I don't know if they exist in the UK.

    No, there's nothing quite like that in the UK. There are any number of student societies at universities, not a small number of which are more or less dedicated to repeated and prolonged drunkenness, but nothing anything like as all-encompassing as the US greek societies. Of course, a significant difference between the UK and the US (I suppose Canada is in the middle here) is that the vast majority of UK students are of legal drinking age.
  • Or, rather, that the legal drinking age encompasses the vast majority of students ...
  • Wedding procession INTO church? Please explain. I have not heard of or witnessed such.
  • Robert ArminRobert Armin Shipmate, Glory
    Not that I'm biased or anything, but the way I explain it to brides is:

    Royal way - Priest leads procession. Then bride and father, followed by bridesmaids.

    American way - Priest leads, followed by bridesmaids. Bride and father at end.

    Luckily, although the term "groomsmen" is creeping in, they are still ushers, and not expected to process.
  • TheOrganistTheOrganist Shipmate
    edited August 2019
    mousethief wrote: »
    Wedding procession INTO church? Please explain. I have not heard of or witnessed such.

    I'm gobsmacked, but here goes.

    Technically its the Bridal Procession and should be as follows: verger (if you have one) OR processional cross (with or without acolytes); priest marrying couple; Bride on her father's RIGHT arm; pages carrying train (if appropriate); small bridesmaids; larger bridesmaids; matron of honour (if there is one).

    Oh, and the Bridal Procession is at a normal(ish) walking pace, none of this one-step-and-close nonsense.

    At the end things are reversed IYSWIM and it is: Groom with Bride on his LEFT arm; smaller attendants as before; senior bridesmaid or matron of honour walks down the aisle on the left arm of the Best Man; Bride's father with Groom's mother on his left arm; Groom's father with Bride's mother on his right arm.

    @RobertArmin There is nothing "royal" about it. One way is the traditional British, the other is what they do across the pond.
  • Baptist TrainfanBaptist Trainfan Shipmate
    edited August 2019
    In Nonconformist churches (and, I guess, many Anglican ones) the presiding clergyperson doesn't process but stands at the front ready to welcome The Happy Couple and entourage. The Groom and Best Man sit in a pew at the front of the church, stand as the bridal procession enters and merge with it at the front of the church. However older couples especially may simply choose to enter together, with or without bridesmaids and other close family members (there's no legal necessity for anyone to "give the bride away" and some brides regard it as an obsolete archaism).

    I do ask them to walk fairly slowly so that (a) the organist gets a good go at whatever entrance music has been chosen and (b) so everyone can have a good look at them.
  • Robert ArminRobert Armin Shipmate, Glory

    @RobertArmin There is nothing "royal" about it. One way is the traditional British, the other is what they do across the pond.

    Oh, I agree completely. It's my not very subtle way of trying to influence brides into choosing the way I prefer. Televised Royal Weddings are a help.
  • Many British terraced houses (not the smallest) had a front room, a middle room (often rather dark), and a "back extension".
    Victorian working class terraces did, I used to live in one in Bethnal Green that had been part of a notorious slum. Our bathroom was downstairs in the end bit that had once held the scullery and the outside loo.

    My northern working class grandparents had a back room, it was the room which my northern working class parents would have called the sitting room and my southern middle class husband would call the lounge. It contained the settee, which my husband would call the sofa (I am a nurse and a couch is for medical examinations).
    My grandparents’ house was entered via the back door through the ‘lean to’, which was a working class conservatory. I never entered the front door or the front room (old fashioned middle class: parlour) until my grandfather’s funeral when I was 16.
    My 14 year old gets very cross that I call ‘lunch’ dinner and ‘dinner’ tea but old habits die hard.
  • LeafLeaf Shipmate
    In the parlance with which I am familiar, a "lounge" is only used of a casual seating area within a public building. Often food and drink are permitted in the lounge while not allowed in other parts of the building. Examples: the teachers' lounge in a school, the students' lounge in a college.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Mrs LB has started to refer to the extra sitting room in our extension as the "Drawing Room" but I'm pretty sure she's extracting the aqueous products of blood filtration.
  • balaambalaam Shipmate
    My 14 year old gets very cross that I call ‘lunch’ dinner and ‘dinner’ tea but old habits die hard.

    That is the norm 'round 'ere.
  • Breakfast, dinner (lunch if packed lunch) and tea. Although roast dinner is dinner whatever time of day.
  • Sorry I have been off this page so long.

    Boy Scouts and American Troops wear leggings if they are in the bush where they would likely pick up burrs.

    Any British equivalent to "Man Cave?"

    Or "She Shed"? (Am wondering if there could be a Biblical precedent on this one.
  • Although roast dinner is dinner whatever time of day.

    Which reminds me of my aunt and uncle's story of how, after moving from the UK to Canada, they found that they got strange looks when they referred to the Sunday joint.

  • Although roast dinner is dinner whatever time of day.

    Which reminds me of my aunt and uncle's story of how, after moving from the UK to Canada, they found that they got strange looks when they referred to the Sunday joint.

    Lol. Yup, that would attract an odd look.
  • Re. the outside procession: from where to where?

    Re. names for dinner/lunch/etc: in this country it varies by region. Out here lunch is at noon (or thereabouts), and dinner/supper are interchangeable. My relatives in the midwest have dinner at noon and supper at 5/6ish pm.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    Sorry I have been off this page so long.

    Boy Scouts and American Troops wear leggings if they are in the bush where they would likely pick up burrs.

    Any British equivalent to "Man Cave?"

    Or "She Shed"? (Am wondering if there could be a Biblical precedent on this one.

    This is made somewhat amusing by the fact that what we call leggings I gather you lot call yoga pants.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    mousethief wrote: »
    Re. the outside procession: from where to where?


    In Church of England terms, usually, from the main door of the nave to the chancel step.

    In many older churches this will mean the bridal procession assembling in the porch, or outside altogether, or - if raining - just inside the main door.

    Newer churches may have a vestibule or narthex etc. in which the procession can assemble.
  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    edited August 2019
    mousethief wrote: »
    Every year around Halloween they run PSA's by people like PETA and the Humane Society telling people that black cats are not evil and asking them not to hurt or kill them.
    Most animal shelters will not adopt out black cats as Hallowe'en approaches. It's too dangerous for them. For those who are not superstitious (or inclined to evil deeds), however, it is a mitzvah to adopt one, since they can be hard to place.

    I have a black cat. Her name is Aida, as she is beautiful, a princess in disguise, and a soprano. She's also pretty cuddlesome, which is always good.

    ETA: As said @NicoleMR (the first two lines, anyway).


  • RossweisseRossweisse Hell Host, 8th Day Host, Glory
    Gramps49 wrote: »
    ...Any British equivalent to "Man Cave?"

    Or "She Shed"? (Am wondering if there could be a Biblical precedent on this one.
    Well.... https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4989.The_Red_Tent


  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    The British nearest equivalent to a ‘Man Cave’ would be a shed, or perhaps a ‘study’. I suspect many ordinary British houses wouldn’t run to a room for the man’s use only.
  • I think a Man Cave" is often a room fixed up in the basement, or perhaps a garage. The essential furnishings seem to be a Lazy-Boy chair, the biggest television possible (for watching sports), and a refrigerator for BEER (not real BEER, the cheap yellow stuff). It might also involve "manly" wall décor, e.g., dead animal heads.
  • BroJames wrote: »
    mousethief wrote: »
    Re. the outside procession: from where to where?


    In Church of England terms, usually, from the main door of the nave to the chancel step.

    In many older churches this will mean the bridal procession assembling in the porch, or outside altogether, or - if raining - just inside the main door.

    Newer churches may have a vestibule or narthex etc. in which the procession can assemble.

    That sounds more inside than outside.
  • AMEN!

    Do you pronounce the first syllable to rhyme with "ray" and "say" and "play", or to rhyme with "ah" and "raw" and "caw" -- or something else? (or do my triplets not even rhyme with each other in your dialect/accent?)
  • Golden KeyGolden Key Shipmate, Glory
    edited August 2019
    Re "man cave":

    And now for an interlude that's both humorous and educational.

    Behold the "Man's Bathroom" scene from the sitcom "Home Improvement".

    Show's basic premise is Tim, a family man, who has a tool show ("Tool Time") on a local cable channel. His enthusiasm and ego far exceed his abilities and safety caution. Al, his sidekick, provides balance.

    In this scene, they create a bathroom that's basically a man cave--something special. Oh, and the right-hand nav bar on that page has a link to "Home Improvement: The Man's Kitchen", which has another sort of man cave.

    For a "she shed", look for the "Woman's Bathroom" episode! ;)

    Enjoy.
  • R-men.
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    Ahmen here (England, UK). "Ray", "say" and "play" rhyme. "Raw" and "caw" rhyme. 'Ah' doesn't rhyme with either of those groups. "Ah" is a simple long 'a', as in the RP version of 'bath'. "Raw" and "caw" rhyme with 'roar' and 'bore' as pronounced with a non-rhotic accent, or the first syllable in 'awful' or 'awe-inspiring'.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    mousethief wrote: »
    AMEN!

    Do you pronounce the first syllable to rhyme with "ray" and "say" and "play", or to rhyme with "ah" and "raw" and "caw" -- or something else? (or do my triplets not even rhyme with each other in your dialect/accent?)
    In my accent "ray" and "say" and "play" rhyme, and "raw" and "caw" rhyme with each other (and with “or”) but not with “ah” - which rhymes with the vowel sound in “bath”, “calf”, and “carve”. (In “calf” and “carve” the consonant immediately after the “a” is unsounded, it simply modifies the way the “a” is pronounced.)
  • EnochEnoch Shipmate
    edited August 2019
    BroJames wrote: »
    In my accent "ray" and "say" and "play" rhyme, and "raw" and "caw" rhyme with each other (and with “or”) but not with “ah” - which rhymes with the vowel sound in “bath”, “calf”, and “carve”. (In “calf” and “carve” the consonant immediately after the “a” is unsounded, it simply modifies the way the “a” is pronounced.)
    In RP, the the consonant immediately after the “a” is unsounded, but in the local accent round here, the 'r' is and the 'l' quite often is. It's pronounced from the back of the throat, and not with the tongue.
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