If you’re looking for a job in the UK the signs you are looking for in shop windows say “Staff Required” or a more specific “Sales Staff Required”. In the US we ask for help. The sign says “Help Wanted”. I wonder if this has to do with some negative connotations to the word “Help”?…
Category: Britishisms
Till Vs Register
In the states the machine used to pay for things you buy is called a cash register, or the register for short. In the UK it’s called the till. I also confused a shop person at the Apple Store in Glasgow when I said I needed to “check out”. They don’t seem to use that…
Wee Scottishisms
Scots speak differently than the English and have a whole slurry of words that are different. Here a few that I’ve picked up recently. Wee = little Before I got here I really thought the Scots wouldn’t possibly use wee for little much. I was wrong. They pretty much always say wee vs little. Matter…
“Naughts and Crosses” vs “Tic-Tac-Toe”
Went to a comedy improv show in Leith the other night. They gave everyone a sheet of paper and said you could doodle on it and I played myself a game tic-tac-toe in the corner. It was a draw of course, just like thermonuclear war. Then they had us name a play. I tore off…
“Hold Ups” vs “Stockings”
Was reading a model’s profile and she said, “I love hold ups and heels.” Mmmmmmm…… I actually I was thinking it was going to be the same at “push up” as in bra. But a quick search showed me that it was stockings. Nor is it the same as garter belt.
“Fish Fingers” vs “Fish Sticks”
If you are a Dr Who fan you already know this one, but they refer to thin rectangular pieces of breaded fish as “Fish Fingers”. I guess it is no more unusual than our calling thin fried pieces of chicken as Chicken Fingers, though I haven’t seen chicken fingers on a UK menu yet. I…
“Pegs” vs “Clothes Pins”
In the UK what we call clothes pins, the things you attach washing to a clothes line with, they call Pegs. Wooden ones are called Wooden Pegs, though plastic ones are just referred to as Pegs. As an interesting addendum, in the film industry they call clothes pins C47s.
“Unattended” vs “Missed” Appointments
The Mrs has been having back problems since we got to the UK. In the US she’d make a couple of trips to the chiropractor and this would be fixed. In the UK, there are no chiropractors. The are osteopaths, which are like chiropractors, but have a different methodology which uses a slower method of…