Hey guys!  It's been a long time, I hope everyone is doing well especially since I know it's the end of bid week and it's Friday.  Just thought you might enjoy some of the things I've learned since I've been here about the English language.   Hopefully they'll give you chuckle.  

There are differences between British English and American English that I've noticed so far:

Pants are "trousers."  Don't make the mistake that I did:   I wrote, "Black Pants, Brown Pants, Khaki Pants" on my dry cleaning inventory to turn into the dry cleaners and got reminded that I was turning in "trousers" not pants with a smirk.  "Pants" are what they call underwear here.  Also, I almost fell over in my chair laughing one day when a girl in my group said "PANTS!" and hit her hand on the desk when her computer crashed.  Apparentely, it's the equivalent of saying "CRAP!"

I went to the grocery store around the block and I was looking to buy some orange juice.  On the outside of some of the containers it said "with extra bits" and some said "no bits."  I was puzzled until my boyfriend explained that it was "with pulp" or "without pulp."  

When I go to restaurants I have to remember that fries are "chips" on the menu (even at McDonalds), and chips are called "crisps."  If you want to get a baked potato it's called a "jacket potato."    And if you want mashed potatoes, just say "mash."  One of the favorite dishes at the pubs (not bars) here is "bangers and mash" which translates to sausages links and mashed potatoes.  

Here are a few more of the oddities:

You don't stand in line here, you "stand in queue."
Trash cans are "bins."  It's amusing to hear someone say, "I don't want it- just bin it."
Country boy or redneck types are called "wide boys" or "barrow boys."
When you spell things out loud, Z is pronounced "zed" and H is pronounced "haitch."
Cross walks are "zebra crossings"  since they are signified by white stripes on the road.  (Pronounced ZEB-bra, not ZEE-bra)
Panty hose are called "tights" regardless of their thickness.
Good  is pronounced "goote."
Yards no matter how big or small are all called gardens regardless of the fact that they're not growing any vegetables in them.

Well, I guess that's about it for the English lesson for today.  I hope you are all doing great and I'll try to do better about sending updates.

Cheers!  ( "Thanks")
Angie