Telling time in U. K. English

[DMB]

And a picture is hung on the wall.

[SeaBookGuy]

I had asked earlier if British people give birthdays as "25th of December" in conversation (vs. U. S. "December 25th")?

[Bilbo1967]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

I had asked earlier if British people give birthdays as "25th of December" in conversation (vs. U. S. "December 25th")?

I can't speak for all of us, but I would usually say "25th of December ".

[SeaBookGuy]

I couldn't possibly speak for all of my countrymen either -- why, I've run across some who were dumbfounded when I used the expression "Better than a sharp stick in the eye!"

[markbond1007]

Or even:

Better than a two by four up the arse

Mark

[amward]

Or better than a slap in the face with a wet fish.

On the birthday thing, it would be 25th December here

[MV64]

Weird, I don't see what's so formal about just giving someone the time. I use both forms myself, but it's entirely random. The fact that an entire culture seems to have a reason for using one over the other surprises me.

[SeaBookGuy]

Since it's vaguely related to the thread topic -- when is "teatime"? And is it a class distinction, or does almost everyone partake of it?

As a digression, last year I read A Yank Back to England, in which two phenomena rather startled the writer's American wife:

1) Sliced bread is never to be presented on the table un-buttered. (Pre-buttered bread gives me childhood flashbacks of tinned spaghetti)

2) A summer visit to the seaside must include hot tea on the beach as a beverage, pot and all! (as opposed to purchased by the cup from the snack bar). Myself, I am not fond of iced tea, and would prefer iced coffee at the beach.

[issybird]

Speaking of teatime, one of my pet peeves is when an author uses the phrase "high tea" to mean a formal tea with teeny sandwiches, scones and so forth, not realizing that high tea is a working class meal akin to supper, dinner having been eaten midday. Americans get this one wrong a lot.

[mrbanana]

I've never heard the evening meal being called 'high tea', just 'tea' or 'teatime'. I'm originally from the North West of England. I'd always thought 'high tea' was a mid afternoon snack of tea and cakes, as depicted in Victorian and Edwardian books about upper class English life, which of course bears no resemblance at all to modern day life in Britain.

In the North West it's usual for people to say breakfast, dinner, and tea. With supper being interchangeable with tea. It can sometimes mean a late night snack too.

On moving South you generally hear breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the evening meal.

'Pardon' is another odd word. 'Pardon', is a normal response in the North West if you don't hear someone and would like them to repeat what they said, but in the South of England, some people see nothing wrong in simply saying 'What', which sounds rude to me. This probably has its roots in the old fashioned class system.

On the subject of greetings, I've always thought the formal 'How do you do?' with the automatic response of 'How do you do?' without the expectation of a response to be rather silly.

In the North West you hear 'Are you all right.' or simply 'All right' all the time, along with 'Hiya', both delivered in what to my ear is a rather annoying high pitched sing song voice.

For birthdays, as already stated, people tend to say 4th of July, 10th of November, etc.

The trouble is, due to fashion, and the influence of modern global media, the language is constantly in flux, and what might be accurate today in one social group, may not be accurate a few years later.

A perfect example is the modern use of 'like' and 'love'. Just about everyone under 30 seems to say 'I am loving it' or 'I am liking it'. If you point out the verb tense is wrong, you will then probably have to explain what a verb is, and by the time you realise you will then have to explain the differences between dynamic and stative verbs both parties will probably have lost the will to live.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

Since it's vaguely related to the thread topic -- when is "teatime"? And is it a class distinction, or does almost everyone partake of it?

Well, "time for tea" is just anytime you want some tea.

Teatime varies. In my house it was tea and biscuits after the children got home from school, say around 4pm.

[djchapple]

With reference to the usage of dates in the form 20110911 - all I can say in favour (or is it favor!!!) is that it in this form oi is easier to sort in chronological order.

Aaaaah! the world is going to pieces - my **** American Microsoft software does not like me using favour!!!!!!!!

[djchapple]

Originally Posted by SeaBookGuy

He "lighted" a cigarette in the States would sound as though you were a non-English speaker grasping incorrectly and coming up with the wrong form. Even the least "bookish" among us would look down on that one.

I have a very dim recollection of having run across "burglarised" in print, and could swear the example was British! If one American said that to another it would seem comical - although "robbed" is far more common than "burgled" in the first place.

My parents' generation is used to listening to a lot of radio, where the time is always given in numbers - even in New York where they also give a sunset alert for Orthodox Jews on Fridays. My 73 year old mother would likely use numbers off an analog clock (always numbers from a digital one), except that for "quarter after" and "quarter of", and even those I'm not certain of unless I asked her as an experiment -- 18:30 would definitely be said by most of her cohorts as "six thirty".

Extending this to dates - in conversation, when asked one's birthday, in the U. K. does one expect to hear it spoken as "25th of May"?

My American friends who come from Rhode Island but have lived nearly all their married lives in Florida always uses burgularis(z!)ed and I have seen it in the local papers whilst over there.

One othjer difference between American English and UK English is the that sometimes one sees surprized and at other times surprised. I an a very old ex university lecturer (engineer) and i am still confused and delighted by the wonderful differences in language that continue to crop up in everyday usage.

[djchapple]

Some one above mentioned that the word gifted cam from the NOUN gift.

The Americans love turning nouns into verbs, for example "deplaned" for leaving an aircraft. I find that bastardisation of the language annoying.

However I have done work for a UK company that was doing work for NASA and the use of "inlet egress port" for door and "terminal negative recovery" for dying has left me shell shocked.

[DMB]

MY origins are in southern England. For us, tea was a meal between lunch and dinner and apart from the beverage, often served with a choice of "Indian or China?", might be accompanied by bread and butter, sandwiches and the odd cake. "High tea" was something eaten by working-class people and northerners who might call their midday meal "dinner" and would probably still have the ubiquitous drink but a much more substantial hot meal.

I still remember the agony of going out to tea when I was a small child. The rule was always that one couldn't have cake until one had first eaten at least one slice of bread and butter. No children ever wanted to eat the bread and butter.

My first English job (and second after university) was in a very old-fashioned office in London. (This was in the early 1960s.) Mid-morning and mid-afternoon the tea-lady would come round with her trolley and dish out tea to everyone. In the afternoon we also got a slice of bread and butter and a biscuit (English biscuit, not American). I had a rather peculiar colleague who begged for other people's bread and butter. He then piled the slices up on a plate that he kept in his desk drawer and nibbled his way through the bread throughout the rest of the afternoon and during the morning of the subsequent day.