The past simple over the present perfect in AE.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:41 am

Let's just say that northern chippys put the south and midlands chippys to shame.

Hear, hear! In the south, they:
1) Don't make the oil hot enough,
2) Don't change the oil often enough and
3) Fry the fish hours in advance, then keep it warm until someone wants to eat it, resulting in soggy batter.

Result - the tourists who never make it out of London all think fish and chips is disgusting.

I understand now from the dictionaries that 'chip' is North American, while 'chips' is Brit usage.

Can you give an example? My understanding is that what Brits call "chips", Americans call "fries", and what Americans call "chips", Brits call "crisps". And what the English call "fish and chips" is known in Scotland as a "fish supper".

Oh, Metal, I appear to have hijacked your thread by discussing chippies, but I'm glad you don't seem to mind

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 9:47 am

Oh, Metal, I appear to have hijacked your thread by discussing chippies, but I'm glad you don't seem to mind

I only begin to mind if someone begins justifying the term "freedom fries".

Anuradha Chepur · Post by **Anuradha Chepur** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:03 am

My understanding is that what Brits call "chips", Americans call "fries", and what Americans call "chips", Brits call "crisps".

And my dictionaries confirm that. I hadn't read carefully earlier.
For us, Americans' chips are chips and their fries are fries.
Gosh! I wasn't aware that Brits call chips crisps and fries chips.

Thanks.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 11:31 am

I wasn't aware that Brits call chips crisps and fries chips.

No, we call chips chips and crisps crisps. It's everyone else who gets it wrong

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:57 pm

lolwhites wrote:
I wasn't aware that Brits call chips crisps and fries chips.
No, we call chips chips and crisps crisps. It's everyone else who gets it wrong

I agree. Is a crisp really chip-shaped? No, it's a slice.

jotham · Post by **jotham** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 12:23 am

Gosh! I wasn't aware that Brits call chips crisps and fries chips

It gets just as confusing when talking about biscuits, cookies, and cakes. What we call biscuits, they call scones. What we call cookies, they call biscuits, or something like that.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 6:25 am

jotham wrote:
What we call biscuits, they call scones. What we call cookies, they call biscuits, or something like that.
Normally, we put things in order of origin first. So, your comment should really be:

What they call scones, we call biscuits. What they call biscuits, we call cookies, or something like that.

It's you who differ, not us.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 7:47 am

Thanks to the Sesame Street's cookie monster, I knew about the biscuit/cookie thing, but I had no idea that scones were called biscuits. Are scones cooked twice? That is what "biscuit" means, after all (French for "cooked twice", according to my schoolteacher).

And do Americans pronounce "scone" with a short vowel or a dipthong? It's something the Brits are quite unable to agree upon!

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:44 am

lolwhites wrote:Thanks to the Sesame Street's cookie monster, I knew about the biscuit/cookie thing, but I had no idea that scones were called biscuits. Are scones cooked twice? That is what "biscuit" means, after all (French for "cooked twice", according to my schoolteacher).

Still, we don't say "chocolate chip biscuits". Odd.

How do you pronounce the name of the town Scone, Scotland?

jotham · Post by **jotham** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 9:02 am

And do Americans pronounce "scone" with a short vowel or a dipthong? It's something the Brits are quite unable to agree upon!

We avoid the controversy: we don't say it at all---it's totally British. But when I refer to it, I use the long O.

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 9:43 am

jotham wrote:
And do Americans pronounce "scone" with a short vowel or a dipthong? It's something the Brits are quite unable to agree upon!
We avoid the controversy: we don't say it at all---it's totally British. But when I refer to it, I use the long O.

AHD says both the long and short O are used in AE.

lolwhites · Post by **lolwhites** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 10:18 am

How do you pronounce the name of the town Scone, Scotalnd?

I always thought it had a third pronunciation - /sku:n/ (as opposed to /skɒn/ or /skəʊn/)

metal56 · Post by **metal56** » Fri Jul 06, 2007 1:44 pm

lolwhites wrote:
How do you pronounce the name of the town Scone, Scotalnd?
I always thought it had a third pronunciation - /sku:n/ (as opposed to /skɒn/ or /skəʊn/)

From the original Dutch?