Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

It's been quite a long time since I did a Dash of Different Diction. I've been a bit discouraged with blogging lately but I've realised that this is something I will appreciate in a long time so I'm going to post it whether or not anyone reads it! In a catch-up effort, I'm going to just post a whole bunch of different diction you probably already know in hopes that I will have a dash of really different diction in the future.

• Boot: This the the British word for a trunk of a car. "Put it in the boot!" But, psh, everyone knows that!
• Postgraduate: Instead of being a graduate student in Scotland, you are called a postgraduate student.
• Wee: When I came to Scotland, I thought everyone would be saying "wee". Such as, "Would you look at that wee doggie! Isn't he cute?" They do say it a bit but not as much as I'd expected. My flatmate Sophie, who's from Northern Ireland, says it all the time and so do her parents. It's so cute! Speaking of cute, wee means "little" but with an emphasis on "cute little". It can also be used without the cute context. "I'll have a wee bit of that."
• Ye: Another thing I thought Scottish people would be throwing around is "ye". This is the plural version of "you". It's kind of like "ya'll" or "you guys". My flatmate, Caoimh, is the only one I've ever heard use it so I think it's just an Irish thing!
• Rubbish: People here don't really use the word "trash". Instead they use "rubbish". So you're more like to hear "Throw it in the rubbish (or in the bin)" instead of "Put it in the trash." Rubbish is also used in the context of something you're disappointed in. "That's rubbish!" would be equal to the slang "That sucks!"
  

And you'll have heard these before, but their meanings are A LOT trickier than you would ever imagine!

• Cheers: "Cheers" isn't just something you say for a quick toast when you're out drinking with your friends like "Ching Ching" (the European one...or maybe it's "Chin Chin"). Here it is a completely versatile word. I still don't completely understand when it's proper to use (or not proper to use...). In most cases, it is interchangable with the word "thanks". Here are some examples:
1. A shopkeeper hands you your change and says "cheers."
2. You take your said change and items from shopkeeper and say "cheers."
3. Someone drops something and you hand it to them and they say "cheers."
As these examples show, "cheers" is very interchangeable with "thanks" but I still don't, and neither do a lot of my non-British friends, feel comfortable using it.

• Grand: "Grand" is a tricky one because you think you know what it means, but you really don't. You'd think you would use it in the context of the word grand as you know it - when something is "grand" it's big, great, impressive, over the top, etc, etc. Here you'll hear people say, "It's grand." (your intonation should go down or stay relatively the same, not go up). What they mean is, "It's fine" or "It's okay". So if you were to say "Oh no, you've got a stain on your shirt!" your friend could reply "Oh, it's grande. It'll come out no problem in the wash." You should never (or else suffer an extreme diction failure and receive a rolling of the eyes) use it to describe yourself by saying "I'm grand!" or after a night of drinking, you wake up with no hangover (jealousy) and say "I feel grand!". We, and I include myself now that I know how to use it properly, giggle when one of our North American friends use it in the incorrect way. I'm not going to lie though, it took a couple discussions with Caoimh to make sure I got it right.

Next time on Dash of Different Diction we'll be venturing into words I'd never heard of before coming here! Hopefully you won't have heard them either.