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English 101 (for Americans)


flyday58
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We've started getting roundabouts.

Ah as in the traffic icon of milton keynes? ie a roundabout. Or are you talking generally about something or someone? In a roundabouts way.....?

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D ya ken waht these girls are singin aboot

I ken...sorta.

Want anything translated? I'm a Cockney, lived in East Anglia for a few years, moved to Scotland (Teuchter country), married a lass from the Wirral who had parents from Dundee and Banff, so I've got most of it covered. Also fluent in Civil Service speak, got an aunt from Southern Ireland, had long conversations with various gentlemen from Norn Iron, went to a school populated mostly by pupils of a Yiddish background and my first job was at a petrol station run by Islamic persons. Multi-culturalism, I am your natural end product!

(This post fuelled by OVD rum)

Um, wow. That's well versed, that is. At the risk of sending this thread roundabout, how's your Cockney rhyming slang? First heard that while (whilst) on a layover in Windsor. Slough. Actually Langley.

As Sacha mentioned, we've started to see roundabouts appear in the States, but most can't figure out how to get back out of 'em so they are damned tricky to get into in the first place.

Oh, and a biscuit is only supposed to go with a box of KFC, not be sprinkled with sugar, chocolate, or other confections. That would be called a cookie! :biglaugha:

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We've started getting roundabouts.

A great idea when traffic is light. A right pain when there is more than a few vehicles. Here is how they end up

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Oh, and a biscuit is only supposed to go with a box of KFC, not be sprinkled with sugar, chocolate, or other confections. That would be called a cookie! :biglaugha:

The only thing you need with a bucket of KFC is a kebab, or Kebob as It seems to appear in some parts of the US.

We cant even agree on what a sandwich is. To us it's 2 slices of bread and butter with something in between, to others it is a sub roll with no butter and a quarter slice of gurkin (pickle).

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A great idea when traffic is light. A right pain when there is more than a few vehicles. Here is how they end up

%7B4F9269D3-297F-4B87-9DE8-A21EF3FFAB1A%

The only thing you need with a bucket of KFC is a kebab, or Kebob as It seems to appear in some parts of the US.

We cant even agree on what a sandwich is. To us it's 2 slices of bread and butter with something in between, to others it is a sub roll with no butter and a quarter slice of gurkin (pickle).

I thought Sandwich was a village somewhere? And it's kabob, pronounced "Kuh BOB". We're very big on the schwa sound over here, which is why most Americans suck at foreign languages. They just can't unlearn that 'uh' sound. Sounds like we're all stuttering idiots. Duh.

"...getting glammed up and sitting on the fence, now..."

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Ah, the magic roundabout...

one of my first rideouts was across the magic roundabout with some mates on our peds to george whites in swindon, about 8 of us all on 50s' having just passed our CBTs... it was carnage :o

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Nappies = diapers

Prams = baby buggy where the baby is fully reclined (Perambulator)

Boots = foot ware. retail outlet for pharmaceutical goods,also the trunk of a car and you can be given the boot, meaning to be sacked from a job or task, the word ' BOOT' can also be the word given to a flexible covering on a joint in a mechanical linkage, the word 'Gaiter' fits this description also

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Oh, and a biscuit is only supposed to go with a box of KFC, not be sprinkled with sugar, chocolate, or other confections. That would be called a cookie! :biglaugha:

Cookies are large and semi-squishy if you pinch them. Biscuit - Bis Cuit (French for Cooked Twice, I believe) are quite brittle and crumble if you pinch them. Also, biscuits go soft when stale, cookies don't.

However, Maryland chocolate chip cookies are actually biscuits.

Ye follow? :D

I thought Sandwich was a village somewhere?

I think it's a town in Kent, actually, although likely also a place somewhere like Illinois, I imagine.

One evening, the Earl of Sandwich was playing cards and so wanted food that he could eat with one hand. Meat between two slices of bread was his idea and thus it was named. People had obviously been doing that for years earlier, but he was the one who got famous for it.

Ah, the magic roundabout...

I believe the original/first-named Magic Roundabout is the one in Hemel Hempstead with *six* minis, innit?

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Excellent explanation of biscuits and cookies. We've really got the terms bodged in the states, FUBAR'd that is. :spin2:

I've wandered a bit from my initial post. Any other motorcycle-related words? C'mon Paul, shirley YOU"VE got one or two!

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Fender (US) = Mudguard (UK).

Kickstand = Sidestand

Turn Signal = Indicator.

Shifter = Gear Lever (pronounced LEE-ver, not Levv-er)

Stick = Manual transmission (cars, mainly)

Wrench = Spanner

Monkey Wrench = Adjustable Spanner

Ratchet = Wrench

Sidewalk = Pavement

Pavement = Road/Tarmac

MSF course = CBT & DAS

Scooter = Cruiser

Scooter = Scooter/Moped

Harley Davidson = Overly expensive lump that cries if you show it a corner. ;)

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yeah when an an engine is idling it,s actually ticking over so adjust the tickover screw for the correct speed

idle is resting here in UK or just plain lazy

fender is mudguard but i'm sure you'd know that

petcock its a petrol tap, that's not a gasoline faucet :)

hood, that's something you wear on your head but our cars wear bonnets on theirs. Bonnet is also fancy headwear for girls

oops I started this with yeah...what I meant to say was yes :babyha:

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Just my 2 cents worth here but FUBAR does it not mean Fucked Up Beyond All Reconision? Dose here

Round abouts LMAO we just got one in London ontario with only 2 intersecting streets,and it took about 8 months for the normal traffic to figure out how to use it,created traffic jam's for months.If the gov was to incorporate you style of round abouts most of the dum ass cage drivers would never get anywhere be stuck going around and around for hours.

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Yeah, don't EVEN get me started on HDs. They are at plague levels where I live.

Spanner is good, forgot that one. Is pillion something? Seems I have heard the word.

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Is pillion something? Seems I have heard the word.

Both the passenger on a bike and the seat they are sat on - 'Murcans have it as 'riding bitch' on the 'bitch seat/pad'.

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Spanner is good, forgot that one.

A Spanner can also be a person with little or no common sense.

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A 'Spanner' is normally the ‘loose nut’ holding the Handle bars, or the person holding the steering wheel on a rep-mobile,

We are all ‘Spanners’ from time to time,

I am defiantly guilty sometimes

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A 'Spanner' is normally the ‘loose nut’ holding the Handle bars, or the person holding the steering wheel on a rep-mobile,

We are all ‘Spanners’ from time to time,

I am defiantly guilty sometimes

Yup, me too. My wife says i'm too damn defiantly guilty most of the time. :shrug:

Craziest roundabout I've ever seen, if it is one, is the one that circles the Arc de Triomphe. Our airport bus driver seemed to take pleasure in running us through the bloody thing at rush hour. Makes Piccadilly Circus look tame. There's another one, "circus".

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It's not the Arc De Triumphe roundabout that's bad, it's the French drivers going round it.

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A circus is usually a giant tent set up in a field to entertain the locals with acts such as clowns, lions, elephants etc. Although nowadays I don't think they use animals.

They usually travel from place to place on a weekly basis.

If you want to know some very odd wording google cockney rhyming slang, as in

"dog and bone" = phone

"apple and pears" = stairs

"trouble and strife" = wife

although they tend to drop some of the words to make it more complicated, "barnet" = hair, it was originally "barnet fair" but they drop the word fair.

And if you want to go even further you ought to try and understand "Jackspeak"

Which is a totally different language used by the sailors in the Royal Navy that most of the British population haven't even heard of.

A couple of examples are

"shit on a raft" = kidney's on toast

"harbour cotters" = cod in batter

"cheesey,ammy,eggy" = cheese and ham on toast with an egg on top

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Sorry if i've rambled on but it's due to the amber nectar.

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