Brit-isms and Irish-isms

I have decided to 'splain some of the differences I have come across since flying over the pond. It is hoped that I can help reduce the confusion one might feel when visiting over here.

Your man: used when talking about another person. As an example, two people are talking and one says to the other: “the surveyor came around and started to measure the property. Then your man starts talking to the neighbor.” Your man refers to the surveyor, whether or not the other person knows the surveyor or not. The first time “your man” was used in conversation I was thrown for a loop. I thought I had lost the thread of the conversation and we were now talking about someone I knew.

Europeans are tougher than we Americans. They leave butter out of the fridge, and thaw chicken and shrimp out overnight. No namby-pambies over here. They also have margarine, but no one who likes food to taste proper would be caught dead using it.

Hire car is a rental car. On offer is a sale. Tea is either the drink tea or dinner. Dinner is lunch. Bread goes in a bread bin, sometime in a wrapper, sometimes not. Tomatoes are not kept in the fridge.

Courgette is a zucchini in the UK, Ireland, New Zealand and France (zuchini in US, Germany, Italy and just to be different from New Zealand, Australia).

Chips are French fries. Crisps are potato chips. A biscuit is what we call a cookie because it is sweet. If it isn’t sweet, it is called savory and is a cracker.

Half and Half doesn’t exist. Seriously. Neither do screen doors or screens on windows. We open the windows and doors and swat flies and wasps all day. Or at least I do. Maybe I haven’t adjusted to this yet.

A trolley is a shopping cart. Stick a coin in a slot on the handle of the trolley and the trolley is released from the one in front of it. To get the coin back, return it to the rack and attach it again to the trolley in front of it. Out pops the coin. Magical.

Tennis shoes are runners. Pants are trousers. Sweaters are jumpers. Button-up sweaters are cardigans. Panties are knickers.

Dual carriageway is a freeway. A lorry is a 18 wheeler. A garage can be a filling station, a place you get your car fixed, or the part of your house where you store all of your stuff instead of parking your car in it. Diesel is sometimes called derv. I don’t know, it just is.

Drivers use the parking brake (they call it the handbrake), put the car in neutral and let out the clutch when they stop in traffic. I kid you not. They drive on the wrong side of the road.

Hardly anyone has an automatic transmission here. They are very, very expensive. Even in the rental cars. If you want an automatic in a rental car, expect to pay about double the price. Lots of roundabouts and drivers use their signals way more than in the US. Especially getting in and out of the roundabouts. Did I mention they drive on the wrong side of the road?

It is quite common to have a small on-demand water heater in the shower (like the ones used on boats). And most have the movable shower head instead of the built-in kind.

I hope this short list is of use to those of you who haven't been over yet. All tongue-in-cheek of course, except for the half and half. I mean, really.

And lastly, take aways are take-outs.

Béke my friends!
(Hungarian for peace)