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I would not have said pants to start with, but now its been said, all I can see is pants. [0] Maybe this is more about the power of suggestion 0. UK, where pa
by alan_cx 13y ago
I would not have said pants to start with, but now its been said, all I can see is pants. [0]
Maybe this is more about the power of suggestion
0. UK, where pants is pants and not trousers. ;)
Edit:
Also, pants is a UK way of saying rubbish. So, "that web site is a load of pants", might be said. Might be a sense of humor at work here.
- goatforce5 13y agoI spilled some coffee on some light coloured trousers on the way to the London office. The stain was centered right in my lap and I couldn't really go around like that all day, so I stopped and bought some cheap trousers at Gap to sort me out. Pro-tip: Telling your local UK colleagues that you were running late because you stained your pants and needed to get new pants, and then offering to show people the stained pants is going to lead to some awkward moments.
- alan_cx 13y agoAh, wonderfully divided by a common language!!!! :) "Fanny" is a great cause of transatlantic fun too. And if you are a Brit in the US, never ever say, "Im diving out for a fag". You're gonna get some odd looks.
- cschmidt 13y agoMy British in-laws always have a good laugh when we go by the "Frugal Fannies" store in the States.
- ronaldx 13y agoReading that in British English: coffee, meet keyboard.
- madaxe 13y agoEven better is "can I bum a fag?", which wins odd looks on both sides of the pond.
- moioci 13y agoAnd British hosts, please don't offer to knock your American houseguests up in the morning, or any other time.
- btilly 13y agoUnless you're attractive. Then they might appreciate the offer.
- JonnieCache 13y agoFascinating fact: the phrase "knock up," as in awaken by knocking, comes from the industrial revolution, after people were having to rise at a certain hour for the first time in history, but before the invention of the alarm clock. The "knocker-upper" was a person who went round with a long wooden pole, knocking on the windows to get people out of bed for their factory shifts. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker-up https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker-up
- BerislavLopac 13y agoMy favo(u)rite ambiguous sentence: I'm mad about the flat. What do you think it means? ;-)
- chimeracoder 13y ago> . UK, where pants is pants and not trousers. ;) I made this mistake once when I spent a summer in Ireland in high school. (I should add here that the people at this summer program were noticeably more homophobic than I was used to back home[0]) I had borrowed a pair of "trousers" from a friend for a costume for some event. When asking permission from the RA later that night to go to a different dorm after lights-out, I told him, 'I need to give <friend> his pants back'. I will never forget the look of horror that he gave me. [0] Not sure if it's a cultural thing or just the program I happened to be at, but either way, it's relevant.
- JonnieCache 13y agoConfusingly, in the north of england and in scotland, pants means trousers, just like in the US.
- laumars 13y agoNot in any areas of the north I've lived / stayed in. the only people in England who call pants 'underpants' and trousers as 'pants' are those who watch excessive amounts of US TV shows.
- jwdunne 13y agoI'm from Salford and use pants/trousers interchangeably, have done since I was young. Perhaps this is also due to watching films too, which are mostly from the US over here. I haven't watched that many US programmes in my life time. I don't watch much TV at all really! As a side note, I saw undies in the original too!
- popopje 13y agonot in my experience of scotland, though i do know geordies and irish who say pants.
- stordoff 13y agoNever heard that in Yorkshire. Possibly a more localised thing?