Dianna's Dash of Different Diction

This week's Dash of Different Diction is craic. This may be primarily an Irish word, as it comes from Irish Gaelic, but there are a good number of Irish over here (both my flatmates use it) so it's good to know. It is pronounced like crack and it has no reference to cocaine. There are two primary uses for it:

-"What's the craic?" What's happening? What's going on tonight? You would ask this to your friends to find out what the plans are or even what the gossip is.
-"It'll be good craic." It'll be great fun.

Here is a good definition from Urban Dictionary.
Irish word for fun/enjoyment that has been brought into the English language. (usually when mixed with alcohol and/or music). Fun doesn't really cut it though. General banter, good times had by all. Also, a person who is good fun/great company.

I hope you have some good craic tonight!

Dianna's Dash of Different Diction

On this week's Dash of Different Diction we will be keeping the same diction and definition. I'm not exactly sure if I can explain what I mean by that so I'll just start...

Over here, they label floors definitely. Pretty much, if you think the office you're visiting or the flat you're heading to is on the third floor, it's actually on the fourth so prepare yourself for some serious stair climbing. In Britain, there is a ground floor, first floor, second floor, etc while in America the ground floor and first floor are equivalent so it would be first floor, second floor, third floor, etc. For example, I live on the first floor of my flat building but my windows are one floor up from the ground.

To go hand in hand with this, I will also provide a bit of information on the British flat mailing system. If you're going to visit someone who lives at 53 3F2 Road Street, that means they live in building 53, on the third floor (fourth floor to the Americans!) in flat number 2 (otherwise known as the second flat you approach after climbing all those stairs.

Confusing? Absolutely! Even the Brits don't know how it works sometimes! I often have postmen buzzing into the building and then wandering around aimlessly until I open the door.

In fact to make matters even more complicated, in the Old Medical School at Edinburgh University I had a class on the second floor and prepared myself for three flights of stairs. No. Apparently they decided to have G, GM, 1, 1M, then 2 so it was much higher up than expected and I want to die every time the elevator takes too long and I have to climb all those stairs. Prepare yourself for winding curling spiraling staircases nearly wherever you go!

Dianna's Dash of Different Diction

Over the last two weeks we learned how to pronounce products differently on Dash of Different Diction. This week, I will be sharing with you the interestingly complex interchangeable chocolate bars (insert dramatic music as that is being read). If you come here craving a Milky Way and see one on the shelf, don't get too excited when you see the name. It's time to judge a candy by it's wrapper. Inside, they're different! (Gasp!)

An American Milky Way is equivalent to a British Mars Bar.

A British Milky Way is equivalent to an American 3 Musketeers (however the Brits do not seem to have obtained the amazingly light fluffiness of the 3 Musketeers).

 

 
You have been forewarned!
...I hope this post doesn't make you want chocolate! :) I kind of want some...

Dianna's Dash of Different Diction

Continuing with last week's Dash of Different Diction we're going to learn how to pronounce Nissan in both American and British!

In the UK, they pronounce it like Nih-San or Nigh-Ssan. I apologise but I didn't take a phonetics class that show you how to officially write the pronunciation of something! I guess you'll just have to watch this commercial from YouTube.

Over in America, they say Knee-San. Here is another YouTube Commercial. It was very difficult to find! Apparently the US Nissan company doesn't like saying the name in their commercials!

I think there is a definite difference between the choice of pronouncing both Ss.

I hope you've enjoyed learning how to pronounce different products in the UK and USA. These are all I've noticed for now but if I come across more, I'll be sure to share!

Dianna's Dash of Different Diction

We're going a bit of a different route on this weeks Dash of Different Diction. One thing I have always found interesting are the different pronunciations companies use across the world. I took a class that included how to target your product/organisation to different countries and population groups which I completely understand. But over here, they even pronounce the names of some products differently. This week we will learn how to pronounce the name of a hair product called Pantene Pro V.

In America, you would say Pan-Teen (teen as in teenager). Here is a US commerical I found on YouTube.


In Britain though you would say Pan-Ten (ten as in the number). Here is a UK commercial from YouTube.


Can you hear the difference?

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's edition of Dash of Different Diction. Today's phrase is "going to get my messages."

I've actually never heard anyone use this before but when my mom and I first came to Scotland we stayed in a private flat for a week. The lady who owned the place had her flat managed by a nice woman named Gill. She was from England and warned us that when someone said they were "going to get their messages" it meant they were running errands. I spent a little while speculating where this might have originated from and finally decided it might come from your husband or wife leaving you little messages around the house telling you what to do like "Get milk and bread" or "Pick up package from the post office". I still haven't heard it yet but I'll be really excited when I do!

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's edition of Dash of Different Diction. Today's phrase is "Nice to see you".

I've used this one myself a few times in America saying, "Nice to see you again." One of my favourite British shows is now Come Dine With Me where four or five strangers come together for a week's worth of dinners at each others homes. Each person takes a turn impressing the others in a bid to win a 1,000 pound prize. Oooh! The first night is always the most awkward. Now, you might not think this is strange but I sure did. Person A would walk up to Person B and say, "Hi, I'm Ellen." *hand shake* And Person B would respond by saying, "Hi Ellen, I'm Daniel. Nice to see you." I let it pass the first few times I heard it and finally I was like, "What...?" So... "nice to see you" = "nice to meet you"!

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's edition of Dash of Different Diction. Today's word is pants.

Okay, so I'm assuming your initial reaction is hmm...I think I know this one. Those things you wear on your legs? Those are referred to as trousers in most areas of Britain (although not all...see awkward story coming up). Pants are what you wear underneath those trousers...also commonly referred to as undergarments, bloomers, pantaloons, etc.. Apparently there are areas in Britain that use pants to refer to those things you wear on your legs just like we Americans do. I've got a friend from Manchester who found out the hard way that people in Scotland mean panties when they refer to pants. He'd just moved to Edinburgh and met some new friends. They asked him if he'd like to go out with them that evening. His reply, "Sure, I just need to go home to change my pants." *Commence Awkward Staring* They thought he was very awkwardly informing them he needed to change his underwear. Moral of the story: pants don't equal trousers (everywhere).

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's edition of Dash of Different Diction. Today's word is fancy dress.

When I first came to Scotland, my flatmates and I organised some dinners with some new friends we'd met. I suggested that we should all dress fancy and have a fun night with wine and champagne. I think they might have looked at me strangely but then nodded and said okay. What I meant is I thought it would be fun to put on your nice dresses while the guys wear shirts and ties. Little did I know they were envisioning something different. Over here, fancy dress refers to costumes. They have 'fancy dress shops' and on Halloween you go to 'fancy dress parties'. It's been a bit hard to get used to but I think I've got it down finally!

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's edition of Dash of Different Diction. Today's word is plaster.

When someone cuts their finger and they need something to put on their bleeding, painful wound, what do they ask you for? A Band-Aid? Well, not to burst your bubble but, technically, that's just a brand although it's what everyone in America calls it. Over here they call them plasters! Who knew? I sure didn't. So when someone asks you for a plaster, don't think they want...well, who knows what you might think they want if you don't know what it means... They just have a boo-boo and need a Band-Aid.

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.

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction. Sorry we're a bit late this week. It wasn't on my calendar to write it so I forgot! Today's word is take away. When you're in a restaurant here, instead of being asked "Here or to-go" you'll be asked "sit in or take away". So, essentially, take away is synonymous with to-go. There is also a difference in pricing between sit in and take away. Sitting in is always a bit more expensive even for something as simple as coffee from Starbucks. When you sit in there they usually give you a non-disposable cup.

Speaking of eating, tipping is different in the UK compared to the US. Stay tuned for next week. Instead of a word, we'll go over tipping!

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction. Today's word is bagsy. This is just a cute little phrase equivalent to "dibs" in the US. If you want something and have to pick it before everyone else, you bagsy it. Example:

1. If you're having a potluck with your friends, and you'd want to bring dessert, you'd say "Bagsy pudding".

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction. Today's word is pudding. Now, I know you know what pudding here but they sometimes use it different here. Here is a really good description from Wikipedia.

"In the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth countries, pudding refers to rich, fairly homogeneous starch (or dairy) based desserts such as rice pudding and Christmas pudding, or, informally, any dessert. The word is also used for savoury dishes such as Yorkshire pudding, black pudding, and steak and kidney pudding.

In the United States, pudding characteristically denotes a sweet milk-based dessert similar in consistency to egg-based custards, though it may also refer to other types such as bread and rice pudding."


I decided to choose this as my word of the week in honour of all the dinner parties I've been going to! My flatmates and I have started a tradition. About three weeks ago we invited our new friends Mags, Danny, and Matt over for dinner. Then last weekend we went over to dinner at Mag's flat and this weekend we've been invited for dinner at Danny's. It's a nice Sunday dinner tradition! I hope we keep it up. But that's how my new word was learned. Sophie offered to bring cupcakes for pudding. The phrase threw me off completely when I first heard it! I said cupcakes FOR pudding? How does that happen? And then she kindly explained to me that pudding just meant dessert. Yum!

These are the cupcakes Sophie made! Don't they look delicious? (Trust me, they were!) They were almost too pretty to eat! The one on the right is chocolate with Baileys flavoured butter cream icing. YUM!

Dianna's Weekly Dash of Different Diction

Welcome to this week's Dash of Different Diction.Today's word is queue. This can be defined in two (similar) ways.

• (n.): a file or line, esp. of people waiting their turn.
• (v.): to form in a line while waiting (often fol. by up).

In Scotland, and most likely all of Britain (I heard this in Ireland as well), you would use this instead of line. No one here will say, "Are you in line?" Instead you would say, "Are you in the queue?" Other ways to say this are...

1. "Would you look at the queue for the tickets!"
2. "Were you queuing before me?" or "Are you queuing?"
   
3. "Queue starts here."

A bonus to this week's Weekly Dash of Different Diction, to not throw you off while you're queuing, is that instead of saying "Next in line" or "Who's next?" at the register, the salesperson is more likely to say "Who's first?" or "I'll take who's first." I went shopping all day Saturday last weekend and heard it for the first time. Don't know why but it made me giggle.

"First!"