Why do Americans call petrol 'gas'

reply to post by 4Starlight2Decay0


Ah I see, when I was in the US I drove from NY to a place called Old Saybrook in Conneticut, on the way I went through a port or fishing town called Mystic, and it was there that I bought a bag of cris....chips. I wish I'd kept the packet as I cant remember the name of the guy featured on the back but apparently he invented them, i think he was a chef of sorts and it was something to do with a request from someone wanting thinner chi....fries, so the guy that was cooking them decided, in an attempt at sarcasm, to slice them as thin as humanly possible for his grumpy customer. Much to his dismay the customer loved them and so was born the potato crisp! sorry chip.

I think that town, Mystic, was where they were conceived, I can't be sure as it was some time ago now. If im wrong please feel free to correct me. It may have all been lies and I could just be another marketing victim!!

And yes, they were called chips on the packet and they were mighty fine too! Cooked in peanut oil if i remember correctly.

What's the name of they guy that invented them?


Good old Wikipedia: George "Speck" Crum (1822 – 1914)

reply to post by WorstCaseScenario


Vandal? Lol! Hehe translation of my post. "hello friend. I know you can appreciate my vehicle, with the new paint job, and shiny 20 inch tire rims. because we like to spend money on our vehicles for no reason here in the southern states"

Dont know how to embed a photo, but if you can see my whole avatar pic, that's a slab. This ones even better
m.youtube.com...#/watch?v=Az7Kd8avG5U

Edit to add, star for you I needed a giggle! Gfs! Lol! I personally dislike "tagging" here, where little boys spray paint gang stuff on other peoples property but I love real Graffiti artists. Seen some amazing work!

reply to post by pyrodude


I meant to say some Brits say atchet, I screwed it up lol. Some up here call em winda's too, Me I was born in Jersey we call it soda or by name, were pretty basic. But we dont throw things we wing them lol

reply to post by WorstCaseScenario


As far as I know the story is true. Its crazy how there are so many names for the same thing eh

reply to post by sprocket2cog


have no idea what you said . but its hot. . I just envisioned a half naked Aussie saying that. Thats great.



Any who, my favorite is ya'll. keeps me from having to say the whole you all..lol

reply to post by stonebutterfly


Hey dont forget the silly words like widgie and bodgie lol

reply to post by showintail


hey man candy paint is more than just new paint lol

reply to post by showintail


HAHAHA well our ebonics differ greatly too.. heres how I interpreted your sentence, roughly!

Hello friend so close i'm adopting you into my family, I have recently purchased some spray paint of the highest quality and have been painting throw ups near the motorway, I did this because I have no brain and I'm delusional by thinking that everyone likes it but, being from the south, i've yet to learn some respect for my fellow neighbours and couldn't care less either....

haha something like that anyway. thanks for clearing that up though, your sentence in ebonics makes perfect sense to me either way!!

unfortunately it seems that, according to youtube in the UK, I cannot see the video of your nice paint job until I have learnt fluent enough ebonics. Also I cant figure out how to embed/upload a picture in order to show you some of my work. I can assure you that i find tagging unsightful to say the least but on the other less hypocritical hand, i know that being a talented graf writer takes tonnes of practice and this invariably starts with tags.

Originally posted by phatpackage

in Australia we call it fuel or Petrol (from the word Petroleum). but then again what an American calls a "Drug Store" we call a Chemist or Pharmacy!

Whaaaaa?

You mean you don't call it "guzzo-leen" like the copter pilot from The Road Warrior? hehe

Originally posted by mblahnikluver
Does it matter

You guys call cigarettes fags...why is that?

Just sayin

I will say I love the way men talk from the UK. I met some Royal Navy guys at work and my god their accent and wordage was pretty hot lol but I would think for the ladies in the UK it's no big deal. It seems like they talk more proper to women than they do here. I liked it

They probably seemed more proper because you simply couldn't understand the dirty innuendos they were using, If there was a string of nonsensical words you couldn't figure out, it was most likely something sexual

Originally posted by schuyler

Pop OR Soda? The difference will categorize you instantly. I once saw a linguistic map of this, but don't remember the details. It's Soda in the South, Pop in the Northwest. Hmm, deserves its own thread.

I can confirm that POP is almost always used in the NW. I life in Oregon and don't think I've ever heard anyone local NOT say "pop"

A guy I used to work with moved here from out east, and was freaking out because everyone was saying POP instead of SODA.

I still use POP but if I think about it too much, it starts sounding funny, so I don't think about it often

Originally posted by pyrodude
"Americans pronounce Herb, erb, we say herb because it has a F'n "H" in it!" - Eddie Izzard

Hey I've got to agree with this one here. I hate words with useless silent letters, it's just stupid. I say "HHHerb" out of protest. I do get funny looks sometimes though.

I'm questioning a few British pronunciations:

Think: I frequently hear (well, as frequently as I hear British people) say "Fink" instead of "THink" They change the "TH" sound to a "F" sound. Like a rat-fink. What's up with this? There isn't even an "F" in the word. Or instead of "Thoughtful" they turn it into "Fot-full" Finky finky finky it creeps me out whats it about?

Another one is how some British people add an "ER" sound to the end of words that end in an "A" sound.

Fantasia turns into "Fan-tase-e-er"

That's the only example I can think of now, Simon Cowell called that Fantasia chick on American Idol "Fan-tase-e-er" and I'm like WHAT?!!? Not that I watch American Idol. Seriously. I was living at home back then and my mother was watching it.

I know there are other times I have heard British people add the "ER" sound to a word that ends in "A" and I just don't get. Any brit folk care to explain?

This sums up most of my pet irks with the atlantic language divide.

Could care less vs couldn't care less bugs the hell out of me too, but I don't think that's an American thing. I have a German friend that says it, but that could just be because he doesn't have the best grasp of the English language (American or "kings")

Hold down the fort makes perfect sense to me. Look at the phrase "lock down" What does the down mean in that phrase? I'm not really sure.... but it works the same way in "Hold down the fort" Another way is if you are telling someone you are good at something, you say "I've got this down" not sure what the down means in that, either, to be honest.

Lock down, hold down the fort, hunker down, batten down, down is commonly used in these types of phrases, so I don't see a problem with "hold down the fort"

To each their own I guess though lol

reply to post by 4Starlight2Decay0


Lol I was keeping it simple.

reply to post by WorstCaseScenario


That's pretty neat! I can tottally see it your way now!

As for slab, think car, with unique paint job, big rims, and loud music (we call that bang) car that has been "slabbed out" also known as donks and bubbles, depending on body style.

I love the way my "ebonics" sentence can be interpetted so differently, depending on where you live! Even though we speak the same basic language. I love words though

reply to post by showintail


I getcha

reply to post by FanarFanar


This guy sucks and needs some sun

reply to post by Idonthaveabeard


That actually also depends on the location. I say mum, not Mom.

reply to post by Serizawa


Unless its a jeep.

reply to post by Dr Cosma


Actually that is a question we ask ourselves.

reply to post by SireFurious

The British are not any more current to historical English then Americans, Austrailians, Canadians, you name it.

Just because English may have originated in Europe does not make them the experts. Americans are not destroying it.

As far as the war goes:

In the early days, British travelers in the American colonies often commented on the ‘purity’ of the English spoken in the new world. It wasn’t until the American impertinence of 1776 that Americans seem to have begun ruining English

Just putting that in for fun. XD

The differences between American and British are not due to Americans changing from a British standard. American is not corrupt British plus barbarisms. Rather, both American and British evolved in different ways from a common sixteenth-century ancestral standard. Present-day British is no closer to that earlier form than present-day American is. Indeed, in some ways present-day American is more conservative, that is, closer to the common original standard than is present-day British.

pbs

Originally posted by James1982
Could care less vs couldn't care less bugs the hell out of me too, but I don't think that's an American thing. I have a German friend that says it, but that could just be because he doesn't have the best grasp of the English language (American or "kings")

That just about being right in what you say.

If you could care less about something it means you actually care for it somewhat. You have to care for it to be-able to care less.

Wereas couldn't care less means you can't care less than you already do, meaning you don't care for it at all. This is the right way to say the phrase and it bugs the crap out of me when peeps say the former.