Okay, can someone please explain for my dumb american self what the deal is with aluminum, Toosday, and men's and lady's rooms?

-- Angelalala (smashmole@home.com), December 10, 2000

Answers

For real. A Fellow American

-- (mackey@chickmail.com), December 10, 2000.

Yeah, I wanna know too (I'm even worse, I'm an Arkansan!)

-- Dee (earthangel@arkansas.net), December 10, 2000.

How do you pronounce "Tuesday" in England?!

-- Haley (hawkgirl13@hotmail.com), December 10, 2000.

I would say chewsday or maybe "oh shit I've got Mr Bbeer for biology again" day

-- Mr Rubery! (mrrubery@hotmail.com), December 11, 2000.

Tuesday, I'd pronounce i guess like T-You-S-Day. Aluminum I'd call aluminium, and I'd call the men's or lady's room the 'toilet'.

My favourite American expression that gets weird looks over this side of the pond is 'fanny'.

-- Tim (tim@almighty.co.uk), December 11, 2000.

Actually, we don't say fanny. Not in good ol' modern Pennsylvania, anyway!

There are those waist packs that they call fanny packs, but they're so.. early 90's.

Carly

-- Carly (michiruka@excite.com), December 12, 2000.

Okay, I don't think I've ever said the word "fanny" and meant it. :)

Does anyone over there still say ",what?" after a sentence? I think that rocks.

-- Angelala (smashmole@home.com), December 12, 2000.

Anyone on the European side of the pond say 'yeah' after every sentence? Terribly cute :)

-- Sister Des (sisterdes@diaryland.com), December 13, 2000.

aluminium? how dumb does that sound?! :o)

fanny is something said by old ladies, and only old ladies. example: "Oopsidasies, I fell on my fanny, dear." like Mrs. Doubtfire, I can imagine her saying that...except she was originally supposed to be from england...hmmm...

and we normally say "I'm going to the bathroom," not "the ladies room" or anything like that. Well, that's what I say, anyway.

-- Jessica (essicaj@pacbell.net), December 14, 2000.

Ahh, you see in Britain, fanny is childs slang for a girl's naughty bits.

And I really don't want to imagine an old person, such as my grandma, saying it, thankyouverymuck!

-- Tim (tim@almighty.co.uk), December 16, 2000.

seriously? Where did that saying come from?

I'd also like to know why cigarrettes (or however they're spelled...I don't smoke...) are called fags? Last time I checked, a gay guy and a cigarrette don't have much in common...except that maybe you will usually see them with another guy attatched to one end...but that's a whole nother story.

-- Jessica (essicaj@pacbell.net), December 16, 2000.

Isn't the original meaning of fag like firewood or kindling or something? I think the firewood thing is probably where the cigarette connotation came from... Maybe it relates to gay people b/c of the whole "flaming gay" thing. I don't know. Could be. But I'm just drawing erroneous conclusions here, so don't any word-origin afficionados come down too hard on me okay?

-- Angelala (smashmole@home.com), December 17, 2000.

Hee hee! Tim said fanny. That's naughty!

-- Sean (sean.c@fatal.co.uk), December 20, 2000.

My sister had a cabbage patch kid named Fanny May...

... Aaaaaahahaaahahaa!

-- Kate (frozenfire@chek.com), December 23, 2000.

I'm really late on this, but in case anyone's still reading, the origin of "fag" to mean cigarette and gay man are similar because, as someone mentioned, it originally came from kindling, and progressed to gay man because sodomites and such were burned for their crimes against nature and all that. The fag to mean cigarette origin is obviously due to burning a cigarette like one might burn kindling.

And I'm really odd in that I live in the States but I speak like a Brit (not in terms of accent, tho', of course..though I tend to slip into it when hearing English or Scottish accents)...I say "ad*vert*isement" not "adver*tise*ment", "toilet," not "bathroom", "lift", not "elevator", have the proper u's and o's where they should be (as in colour and foetal, respectively), use re's instead of er's and ise's instead of ize's where appropriate, and so o

-- James (z@eristocracy.net), January 17, 2001.

Actually, a bundle of kindling is called a faggot. My guess is a shortened version of this was an appropriate description of a cigarette, since it too is smaller.

-- ? (?@?.?), September 17, 2001.

Hey from england, Al-u-min-um is how you pronounce that, and Tue-sday is the way to say it! And for the lady's and mens room, its called the toilet or the bog, or the ladies and gentlemens! And if ya ever in London you've gotta say INIT after every sentance!

-- Gaz (Gryclltt@aol.com), April 14, 2002.

can someone please tell me some british words! I love calling people things and them not knowing what they have been called

-- cassie (cherryshampoo2@hotmail.com), May 13, 2002.

hello from England....the Tuesday thing, very easy, think of the word 'use', add a 't' at the front and end with day...tuseday. we don't use bathroom as a rule as most public pee pee places don't have baths in them - and we generally don't 'rest' in them :-) 'bogs' is a very slang tongue-in-cheek version of a toilet. You would definately NOT use it in polite company or to your grandmother :-))

Do Americans use the word 'pillock'?

-- Jeanne (midsummer85@hotmail.com), November 08, 2002.

in germany it's "aluminium", "Dienstag" and "Toiletten" or more slang "klo" from closet. Does americans love british accent? cannot decide among BE and AE!

-- Stephan (gg@fashionleader.de), November 08, 2002.

Men's Room and Women's Room can really be broken down a bathroom has a tub and a restroom doesn't. Don't use the term toilet people think its vulgar.

-- Teresa (na@na.com), November 11, 2002.

I havent herd the word "pillock" used in the States before. Whats it mean? I am trying to add some British phrases and words in my everyday talk. So if anybody has any cool sayings i could use it would be much appreciated. Also i am making a shirt with the Bitish flag on the front and i wanna put a cool British quote on the back that americans wont understand, so if you have any of those i can use i would be grateful. Thank ya

-- Matt (hitanrun99@aol.com), December 31, 2002.

Greetings from the US! hee hee We don't ever use the word pillock-or however you spell it. I've never even heard it before. I have a question from any british people: do you think that mid-western americans have an accent? For example, my cheer squad just went to florida for the citrus bowl (i live in wisconsin) and there were all these southerners and i thought they had the accents, but they thought we did! it's very messed up...

-- Ali (me_encanta_cantar@hotmail.com), March 23, 2003.

did you know a bassoon is called a faggot? its german or something likethat... anywho. klo huh? well thats interesting im going to have to use that. im from texas and we do have a southern accent, it relly just depends on the area you live in. and NO im not a cow girl. i would like to know some cool british words i could use on my friends, because the only 'british' words that i know of are off of bbc and movies. i love bbc and changing rooms, thair accents are so awesome, i plan of living in britain or some place in europe for a couple of years to possibly pick up the accent, and possible raise my kids up there(when i have kids) that would be awesome.

-- Melissa Penton (skeeterstar68@yahoo.com), March 27, 2003.

if you want to call someone something and want them to have no clue... go to...

http://www.dictionaryofslang.co.uk/

have a great time.. i know i did..

-- Ayen Kai (oswarmel@mad.scientist.com), April 03, 2003.

well hollooo fellow amaricans>f.do HI ME WONT BEAR ahahaha im so stupid OR IS IT YOOOOO THATS STUPID weeeeeeeeell i think man and boob rooms should be called GITTY crapers couse the ya crap in em and after that im alwees gitty AHAHAHA ... i like cottin balls

-- mememe (bobo@aol.com), April 13, 2003.

im a scouser from liverpool,england and i love american accents!i dont really no any totally english words to be honest!and hey i like cotton balls too!Lmao

-- im not telling u (brianformela@aol.com), April 06, 2004.

I love british accents, so much. Anyone that has one is almost, automatically hotter. So, just come to American, all those with the British charm. I can garuntee you will have the best luck with girls or boys, which ever you prefer, then you would there. I want so, cool sayings too. That would be awesome.

-- Emily Lauren (emily_lauren38@hotmail.com), May 17, 2004.

I'm very sorry if I offend anyone, but I can't stand British accents. They bore me to death, as well as the TV shows, and news reporters!! How do the Americans sound to you?

-- Michelle Burkholder (me@me.com), May 25, 2004.

The deal is that the americans can't speak properly. If you say your going to speak english you might as well speak it right. Spell it right as well i mean what kind of twat spells grey with an a.

-- Nolwenn (nollygog@hotmail.com), May 28, 2004.

i'm from canada!! yeah...and i think british people have really awesome accents...and i think american accents can be really cute...especially really southern states...lol...well i just thought i'd let u know!!!

-- meaghan (tropical_twiste@hotmail.com), June 15, 2004.

wel personally, i say bog when im going to the toilet, the deal wiv this ladies and gents toilets is tht we go 2 the toilet, and the posh ppl say im going to the lavortry, and the americans cant really so our accent when they try, it neva WORKS!!!! hahaha,and what is cus? swearing?

-- leon (basha_fernova@hotmail.com), June 17, 2004.

i would like to say that our accent is GR8!! and the americans accent has FAR to much errrrrrr wen they say like "look over there" they focuse on the rrrrrr to much HAHAHHA. sory americans, and english tv ROCKS and americans have agrred with tht, the fact it "bores" u is cuz u dont understand real british humour, we have these funny things that ameicans dont understand, and y do u love ur country so much "im a proud american", u really need to understand it, we have alot of sex and freaky stuff, which is really funny, its hard to explain what i mean, but american tv is tooo well u know!!

-- leon (basha_fernova@hotmail.com), June 17, 2004.