[TAG] English->American dictionary

[Mike Orr]

Thomas Adam wrote:

>--- Mike Orr <mso at oz.net> wrote:
>
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>>Suramya Tomar wrote:
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>>>Check out an American's guide to speaking British: 
>>>http://www.effingpot.com/
>>>
>>>      
>>>
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>I just couldn't pass this up, without a reply.  :)
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I knew you wouldn't be able to.



>>Scone.  The hospital I worked at served them with raspberry jam.  No 
>>clotted cream, tea, or strawberry jam.  That may be highly gauche but
>>they're great tasting that way.
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>Indeed.  Mmmm, clotted cream is nice with them, though.
>


Clotted cream sounds very tasty from all the descriptions I've read.


>>Water.  Why would you ask a salesman in a washing machine shop, "Is 
>>water metered here?"  What does that mean?  Everyone buys water by
>>the 
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>'metered' as in the amount of water used is registered on a meter (that
>is in units of something or rather).
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It sounds like "Mind the gap" or "Does the red light not apply?" (as a 
Dublin garda said).  All these verbs sound too formal for the 
situation.  The equivalent here would be, "Do you have to pay for water 
around here or is it free?"  But it's still a strange question to ask a 
washing machine salesman.


>>White tea.  If white tea means black tea with milk, what do you call 
>>real white tea? 
>>http://coffeetea.about.com/od/typesoftea/a/whitetea.htm
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>Pass.  :)
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You mean your white tea isn't?


>>Healthful vs healthy.  Not sure what he means.  People are healthy if
>>they're not sick.  Food is healthy or healthful.  But a healthy snack
>>is a big snack, which is probably not healthful.
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>Apply Modeus Tollens to that, to see where you get.  :)  Indeed, we
>know what we mean by it.  :)
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Apply what?  Is that like Igpay Atinlay?