![]() ![]() “Fancy a cuppa?” meaning: “Would you like a cup of tea?”.What is the most British thing to say?ġ1 Bloody Brilliant British English Phrases The word flat may also be linked to the “flatness” of the abode. In Old English, flet means house or floor. It is derived from the Scottish word ‘flet’ which means the interior of a house. In the United Kingdom, Australia and many other parts of the world, the word ‘flat’ is used to mean an apartment or a house. (The German name for the Thames is “die Temse”). As a German, the “th” was difficult for him to pronounce and he pronounced it as “Tems”. This comes from Queen Victoria’s husband, Prince Albert. Recent post: Is It Acceptable To Pronounce The L In Salmon? Why is Thames pronounced? The British and others pronounce “z”, “zed”, owing to the origin of the letter “z”, the Greek letter “Zeta”. The primary exception, of course, is in the United States where “z” is pronounced “zee”. The vast majority of the English speaking world does this. It’s not just the British that pronounce “z” as “zed”. put together in 2013 by Joshua Katz of North Carolina State’s department of statistics, showing that the “ car-mel” pronunciation dominates the western and northern part of the nation, while “car-uh-mel” starts in southeast Texas and slowly slides diagonally up the Is it zed or zee? Jamie also shared a pronunciation map of the U.S. ![]() They often use, “OK, cheers!” to mean “Goodbye!”. In fact, British people say “cheers” all the time without noticing they’re doing it – a bit like the way they say “sorry” all the time. The difference is that people from the UK also use “cheers” to mean “thank you”. The term is also sometimes still used in the armed forces and security services when addressing female superiors. In British English, ma’am has become uncommon, although it is prescribed when addressing the queen more than once: after first addressing her as Your Majesty, one uses ma’am. If someone says “Frick”, they aren’t going to start World War 3. No one is going to get offended by someone saying “frick”. I know there are certain individuals who think c r a p is a swear word (even though it really isn’t), but “frick” isn’t a swear word by any sense of the meaning of “swear word”. ![]() Recent post: Is North Dakota Retirement Friendly? Is Frick a swear word? The emergence of the pronunciation /reɪf/ seems clearly connected with the Great Vowel Shift, since it is around this time that people in Southern and Central England start interchangeably spelling their names both “Ralph” and “Rafe”. The American Chemical Society adopted “aluminum” because of how widely it was used by the public, but the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially designated the metal as “aluminium” as recently as 1990. The lower ranked soldier on the “left” protected the senior officers left side. This courtesy developed when swords were still used on the battle field. Why do British people say leftenant?Īccording to military customs, a lower ranking soldier walks on the left side of a senior officer. Many people say “us” but if they are writing will use the word “me”. It’s just an old English way of speaking. “Us” for me is common in the north east (of England) particularly Co Durham Land of Prince Bishops. ![]() Much of our modern alphabet comes directly from the Greek alphabet, including a letter, that looked just like our “Z,” that the Greeks called “zeta.” “Zeta” evolved into the French “zede,” which in turn gave us “zed” as English was shaped by Romance languages like French. In the film clip, Keeley Hawes appears to be playing the Prime Minister, whose bodyguard addresses her as ‘ma’am’ with the reduced vowel. In British English, it is mostly used as a sign of repect for a woman of superior rank, say, in the military or police. Recent post: Who Does Wisconsin Have Reciprocity With? Why do British people say mum? Having said that, British people do sometimes use it when expressing anger… Something may be “bloody marvellous” or “bloody awful“. Don’t worry, it’s not a violent word… it has nothing to do with “blood”.”Bloody” is a common word to give more emphasis to the sentence, mostly used as an exclamation of surprise. In short, the British pronounce “Z” as /zɛd/ (zed) whereas Americans pronounce it as /ziː/ (zee). The zed pronunciation is older, and it more closely resembles the Greek letter, zeta, from which the English letter is derived. Neither is right or wrong, and nobody is ignorant for pronouncing z the way they do. Zee is the American way of saying the letter z. English speakers in other Commonwealth countries also prefer the pronunciation zed. The pronunciation zed is more commonly used in Canadian English than zee. ![]()
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