Come Again?

[chris11xb 0]

Pissed! Ha. Yes, it also means drunk. That's the best response ever. I didn't realize that it does not translate as such in the US.

Now, shoes. Oh boy. Personally, I will either say runners or sneakers. But my Michigan fiance and everyone he knows calls them "tennis shoes." My automatic response was... you don't play tennis. And if you did? Those would not be the shoes you'd be wearing. So, I had a good laugh with that one. My favourite, though, is that we keep calling our shoes in line with our respective cultures. So, in one conversation it'll go something like....

Him: "Babe, you know where my tennis shoes are?"

Me: "Beside my sneakers in the closet."

Old habits and all. (Plus a little Canadian stubborness.)

Great list topic!

Lori (and Chris)

[Reba 2]

as for the ashphalt, it is actually Canadians who say it incorrectly:

1as·phalt

Pronunciation: \ˈas-ˌfȯlt also ˈash-, especially British -ˌfalt\

Variant(s): also as·phal·tum \as-ˈfȯl-təm, especially British -ˈfal-\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English aspalt, from Late Latin aspaltus, from Greek asphaltos

Date: 14th century

1 : a dark bituminous substance that is found in natural beds and is also obtained as a residue in petroleum refining and that consists chiefly of hydrocarbons

2 : an asphaltic composition used for pavements and as a waterproof cement

— as·phal·tic \as-ˈfȯl-tik, especially British -ˈfal-\ adjective

A larger bottle of liquor would be called either a twenty-sixer (for a 26 oz bottle, equiv. to "a fifth" here in the US) or a 40 pounder (for a 40 oz bottle). Which of course are all measured in metric now, but this goes back to before Canada switched. At least in my neck of the woods in Ontario. A mickie, as someone mentioned already, is small enough to fit in your pocket. I've no idea what they call that here in the US. Cheap date perhaps.

My husband now calls his winter knit hat a "toque" because I just Cannot call it a toboggan! WHY do they call it a toboggan? It's just crazy!

And why is the dog IN the floor, and not ON the floor? Whenever he says that, I have this vision of our house sucking up the dog INTO the floor, and it scares me!

And why, when he is helping me put groceries away, is he putting them UP, even if he has to bend down to do it? Why can't he just put them away?

And don't even get me started on "you'uns" ugh...####### is that?

[JillA 2]

as for the ashphalt, it is actually Canadians who say it incorrectly:

1as·phalt

Pronunciation: \ˈas-ˌfȯlt also ˈash-, especially British -ˌfalt\

Variant(s): also as·phal·tum \as-ˈfȯl-təm, especially British -ˈfal-\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English aspalt, from Late Latin aspaltus, from Greek asphaltos

Date: 14th century

1 : a dark bituminous substance that is found in natural beds and is also obtained as a residue in petroleum refining and that consists chiefly of hydrocarbons

2 : an asphaltic composition used for pavements and as a waterproof cement

— as·phal·tic \as-ˈfȯl-tik, especially British -ˈfal-\ adjective

A larger bottle of liquor would be called either a twenty-sixer (for a 26 oz bottle, equiv. to "a fifth" here in the US) or a 40 pounder (for a 40 oz bottle). Which of course are all measured in metric now, but this goes back to before Canada switched. At least in my neck of the woods in Ontario. A mickie, as someone mentioned already, is small enough to fit in your pocket. I've no idea what they call that here in the US. Cheap date perhaps.

My husband now calls his winter knit hat a "toque" because I just Cannot call it a toboggan! WHY do they call it a toboggan? It's just crazy!

And why is the dog IN the floor, and not ON the floor? Whenever he says that, I have this vision of our house sucking up the dog INTO the floor, and it scares me!

And why, when he is helping me put groceries away, is he putting them UP, even if he has to bend down to do it? Why can't he just put them away?

And don't even get me started on "you'uns" ugh...####### is that?

To me, a toboggan is a sled? To go down hills? The old-fashioned wooden ones!!

Edited January 18, 2009 by JillA

[Reba 2]

yeap, but here in the South, it is a winter knit hat, which we call a toque.

[trailmix 77]

as for the ashphalt, it is actually Canadians who say it incorrectly:

1as·phalt

Pronunciation: \ˈas-ˌfȯlt also ˈash-, especially British -ˌfalt\

Variant(s): also as·phal·tum \as-ˈfȯl-təm, especially British -ˈfal-\

Function: noun

Etymology: Middle English aspalt, from Late Latin aspaltus, from Greek asphaltos

Date: 14th century

1 : a dark bituminous substance that is found in natural beds and is also obtained as a residue in petroleum refining and that consists chiefly of hydrocarbons

2 : an asphaltic composition used for pavements and as a waterproof cement

— as·phal·tic \as-ˈfȯl-tik, especially British -ˈfal-\ adjective

So 'ashfault' is more of a british pronunciation - not surprising!

[SomberCat 0]

A larger bottle of liquor would be called either a twenty-sixer (for a 26 oz bottle, equiv. to "a fifth" here in the US) or a 40 pounder (for a 40 oz bottle). Which of course are all measured in metric now, but this goes back to before Canada switched. At least in my neck of the woods in Ontario. A mickie, as someone mentioned already, is small enough to fit in your pocket. I've no idea what they call that here in the US. Cheap date perhaps.

My husband now calls his winter knit hat a "toque" because I just Cannot call it a toboggan! WHY do they call it a toboggan? It's just crazy!

My son and I have taken to calling it a toque now too. It's shorter than saying sock hat or stocking cap like most people around here. I have never heard toboggan though unless used regarding a sled. Then again, there's not much snow in the south, so they've probably never seen true toboggans.

Now, shoes. Oh boy. Personally, I will either say runners or sneakers. But my Michigan fiance and everyone he knows calls them "tennis shoes." My automatic response was... you don't play tennis. And if you did? Those would not be the shoes you'd be wearing. So, I had a good laugh with that one. My favourite, though, is that we keep calling our shoes in line with our respective cultures. So, in one conversation it'll go something like....

Him: "Babe, you know where my tennis shoes are?"

Me: "Beside my sneakers in the closet."

Old habits and all. (Plus a little Canadian stubborness.)

Definitely old habits. We have all kinds of conversations like that where he keeps calling it what he calls it and I keep calling it what I call it. I think the only thing I've really changed in my usual langauge is toque and KD because they're both shorter than what I would normally say.

I totally forgot about tennis shoes. That's popular in Indiana too. If we don't say gym shoes, we say tennis shoes. Runners is still really interesting to me. I had never heard that before in my life.

Another one is my purse. People here call it a pocketbook, and I didn't understand what a pocketbook was at first.

That's a really good one JillA. Around here, the older folks say pocketbook, but the rest of us say purse. In the same respect, I tend to say billfold instead of wallet. Billfold is something older people would say and when I said it in Canada a while back, my SO and his daughters about laughed me out of the car and asked if I was 80.

[Krikit 1,164]

I do have a spreadsheet, so I have a million of these. Here are a few more of my favorites (or should I say favourites lol) from it. My very favorite one is the word "pissed". My SO was telling me a story of a weekend with his friend and over and over he kept saying, "He was so pissed." I couldn't figure out for the life of me why the guy was angry, so I finally asked what made him so mad and I got silence on the end of the phone followed by hysterical laughter. That was when I learned that "pissed" also means drunk. It gave me a whole new meaning for the song that Chumbawumba sings where they say "Pissing the night away". Do you use that term?

"Pissing the night away" means wasting time. lol

[SomberCat 0]

Oh #######, so just when I think I got it, I'm wrong again. So one can be pissed as in mad, one can be pissed as in drunk, and one can be pissing away time. Sheesh. Of course, there's always another alternate meaning that involves the restroom/bathroom/washroom.

[Marilyn. 340]

the funny thing about the washroom - I ran into that here in the South and so now say restroom - BUT I was watching an old Andy Griffiths show and what do you think they said? They used the word washroom! Aunt Bea was telling Opie to go to the washroom and brush his teeth before bed or something like that - so they did use to use that word here!

I wonder if that's a regional thing? My husband and his family all refer to the washroom as the laundry room. They're from NC. I guess that's the same here in Florida, too, because people look at me like this when I ask for it.

The word that surprised me here was calling license plates 'tags'. We need to get new stickers for our tags at the tag office! It sure was confusing untiil I figured out what tags were.

And there's not even a tag office here! It's in a place called the Tax Collector, which was somewhere else entirely. I remember going to the DMV to change over my car registration from Ontario to Florida. They said "You have to get that at the Tag Office."

"Uhhh..... okay. What's a Tag Office?"

"It's where you get the tags."

"Okay. What's a tag?"

Ashfault - me too! Born in Quebec, grew up in Ontario. All my family also says ashfault.

Ashfault for me too! The assfault refers to the crack in your behind, doesn't it?

I think I need to keep a spreadsheet. lol

around here they are called license plates but the stickers you put on them ever year are called tags... and we get them from the DMV....

a little aside .. what was strange for me here is that you can't just go to one places and get your car insurance and register your car at the same place....

[Krikit 1,164]

Oh #######, so just when I think I got it, I'm wrong again. So one can be pissed as in mad, one can be pissed as in drunk, and one can be pissing away time. Sheesh. Of course, there's always another alternate meaning that involves the restroom/bathroom/washroom.

pissed = angry

pissed = drunk

pissing the night away = wasting time

full of piss and vinegar = vivacious, lively

pissing and whining = complaining

pissing = bathroom/washroom activity

No wonder english is such a hard language to learn.

[Marilyn. 340]

I used to have a friend who was from England and it took me awhile to figure out what she was saying...

like she would say "put that bag in the boot" I finally figured out she meant the trunk of the car...

[SomberCat 0]

Here are a few more that I've noticed. Regarding school, I say grades and he says marks. Also, he differentiates between college and university. Americans use the word college to cover both. I say 5th grade or 8th grade and he says grade 5 or grade 8. Along that same line, he doesn't use the terms freshman, sophomore, junior or senior to denote 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th grades. In fact, he'd never heard of those terms.

Another of my favorites that just came up at Christmas - what does Santa come down? I say chimney and he says chimley. I nearly died laughing when he said it, but when I looked it up on the Internet, I found that it truly is a word. None of his friends in Ontario say it, so I know it's not a Canadian thing. The Internet says it's an English thing, so he must have picked it up when he was growing up in Nova Scotia. I did ask his parents and they both say chimley.

[minnew 4]

the funny thing about the washroom - I ran into that here in the South and so now say restroom - BUT I was watching an old Andy Griffiths show and what do you think they said? They used the word washroom! Aunt Bea was telling Opie to go to the washroom and brush his teeth before bed or something like that - so they did use to use that word here!

I wonder if that's a regional thing? My husband and his family all refer to the washroom as the laundry room. They're from NC. I guess that's the same here in Florida, too, because people look at me like this when I ask for it.

The word that surprised me here was calling license plates 'tags'. We need to get new stickers for our tags at the tag office! It sure was confusing untiil I figured out what tags were.

And there's not even a tag office here! It's in a place called the Tax Collector, which was somewhere else entirely. I remember going to the DMV to change over my car registration from Ontario to Florida. They said "You have to get that at the Tag Office."

"Uhhh..... okay. What's a Tag Office?"

"It's where you get the tags."

"Okay. What's a tag?"

Ashfault - me too! Born in Quebec, grew up in Ontario. All my family also says ashfault.

Ashfault for me too! The assfault refers to the crack in your behind, doesn't it?

I think I need to keep a spreadsheet. lol

around here they are called license plates but the stickers you put on them ever year are called tags... and we get them from the DMV....

a little aside .. what was strange for me here is that you can't just go to one places and get your car insurance and register your car at the same place....

Trying to explain that to my fiance was interesting....Which are the reasons his friends tease me about being communist....LOL....After being in the US for 6 years I've learned to choose my battles...

[Texanadian 10]

I tend to keep things simple myself. To me roads are made of either concrete (boooo, too noisy and bumpy) or they're made of blacktop (yaaaay, now if only Houston would build their roads of it)

Shoes are shoes or running shoes. Same thing. I never have used sneakers although I know what they are. I suppose tennis shoes would be clean running shoes that are never worn outside.

I still get a kick out of being asked if I'd like a sack instead of a bag. To me a sack is something potatoes come in.

For Christmas, the threat of being bad when I was a kid was to get rocks or coal in your stocking. My wife said switches was what she dreaded as a kid.....So I bought her a light switch for Christmas. She was wondering what the heck was the reasoning for it. Then I told her "it's a switch." She said you silly goof. A switch is a tree branch. Tree branch? Learn something new I guess.

The "tags" thing in TX seems to refer to both the license plate and the window sticker (rear plate sticker in other states). To further complicate things, they also refer to tags as the registration tag. But to me it's always been the insurance sticker. Because in BC, you don't get a registration sticker for your back plate. You get an insurance sticker for the back plate. But in the US, insurance is simply a piece of paper that goes in the glove box. I'd never registered a car before I moved to Texas.

How bizarre to me it was, when I figured out that in Texas a car can have 2 license plates and 2 windshield stickers (one inspection, one registration), but there is no way of knowing if the car is insured or not unless you look at the paper inside the glovebox (which can easily be fraudulent because if you cancel your insurance, you get to keep the paper. And the police can't verify if the paper is good or not)

Edited January 19, 2009 by Texanadian

[JillA 2]

Another that came to mind is I say "bun" as in a round piece of bread.... everyone here says roll! I went to this place in the food court and got some chili, I asked for some buns with it.... the lady looked at me so funny, as if I was asking for some butt with my chili!! She said "what is that" so I said oh I mean a roll? Then she clued in!! My husbands family also calls them rolls instead of buns.