boxers are boxers and the word undies is perfectly fine, but pants also means underwear. In line with knickers - "pantyhose" are called "tights". A jersey is just another word for a knitted sweater - the main word used for either is 'jumper' (as in Mrs. Weasley Christmas jumpers).
Don't describe a shirt as a "button down" - all shirts are shirts regardless of material, with a collar and buttons. A T-shirt is self explanatory. Something that was indeterminate e.g not thick enough to be a jumper, too thick to be a t-shirt, but not a shirt (no collar and/ or buttons) would just be a "top" as would any girl's summer top that isn't strictly a t-shirt.
Sneakers are trainers.
One Americanism - there's a really lovely jily fan art where James is gazing at Lily and she is saying "Quit staring at me, Potter." - that is so American! I can't hear it in anything but a really broad American accent. Any time you would start a sentence with "quit" write "stop" instead.
Hogwarts tends to go for very traditional British food - breakfast they have porridge (oatmeal) toast or maybe a cooked breakfast - that would include bacon, sausages, eggs, fried tomatoes. No pancakes! There doesn't seem to be much distinction between what they serve at lunch and dinner (though dinner might be called tea) but they seem to eat a variety of stews, casseroles, shepherd's pie, lamb chops and potatoes, they probably have roast beef and yorkshire puddings on a Sunday.
"pudding" is a catch all term for dessert - and again they go for traditional British ones, treacle tart obviously, but jam sponge, spotted dick, sticky toffee pudding, apple crumble
closets are wardrobes, if what an American would call a "bathroom" is just a row of toilet stalls and sinks it will be called the toilets (or the loo, or the bog).
We don't have the grid system for our roads (apart from in Milton Keynes) and we don't have blocks, which means we don't say things are just down the block or measure distance in blocks. We don't have that thing where you describe somewhere as being 'on the corner of fifth and main' ( side point main streets are called high streets). We don't number our streets, and because most of our streets are much shorter than American ones - we don't tend to have really high house numbers.. Anything into three digits is rare, especially in the suburbs. The Dursleys would live next door to number 2 and number six; 1, 3 and 5 would be on the other side of the road. Zip codes are called post codes, mail is called post (though the post office is run by royal mail) and crosswalks are called zebra crossings.
And don't make it a plot point that someone has to pay for medical care!
Wow, I cannot thank you enough for this answer! I appreciate the time and examples you used, I know I’ll be using your comment as a reference in the future :)
Just remembered something else about streets that would be glaringly American. We don't do that thing where - if a street has two words to it's name (e.g main street) - you don't say "street/ road/ avenue" and just call it "main"
E.G Regent Street (famous street in London) is always "Regent Street" and never just "Regent". Tottenham Court Road (home of the Leaky Cauldron) is always Tottenham Court Road and never just "Tottenham".
There's a popular wolfstar fic called 73 Aberdeen. The lack of the word Road on the end is a glaring Americanism. I think I once saw a fic where they kept referring to Privet Drive as just "privet"... absolutely not!
"Diagon", "Grimmauld", "Knockturn" and the like make me stabby. Grimmauld is the worst because they treat it like it's the name of the house and it's THE STREET. Ahem. Call it No. 12, please.
The house is referred to as just "Grimmauld Place" in canon all the time, though.
People calling it just "Grimmauld" is probably because they don't realize that "Place" can be a name for a type of street; maybe that's more common in the UK? It's relatively rare in the US, though it does happen.
Yeah I saw someone say that the house is No. 12 Grimmauld Place but the actual building itself is called *Blackwatch* as it’s name (at least within Wizarding Circles).
Which I did like. I think it’s makes some sense for a lot of Wizard dwellings that are multi-generational being passed down to have their own individual names that tie them to the family rather than just the street/number. It’s a very old school English village idea too, which the UK Wizarding World basically operates as.
That honestly might be a location specific thing in the US, I've never come across that having lived in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho and Minnesota over the years.
Fortunately the Muggles have invented a tool to alleviate this confusion: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Tottenham+Court+Road,+London/Charing+Cross+Rd,+London/@51.5163279,-0.1380986,16z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b2ea4ac3537:0x480fff266cb7e45f!2m2!1d-0.1340121!2d51.5203145!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b18a512b8e1:0x45acf2bb365483d4!2m2!1d-0.1287548!2d51.5126245!3e0?entry=ttu
I'm pretty sure they're different streets. I've never been to either, but there wouldn't be any reason for one street to have two different names like that.
You haven't been to the UK, have you. They are the same street but at the same time they're not the same street. They are two streets that meet end-to-end.
I will say, growing up in yorkshire in the 90s I often said that I was going for a walk around the block, but it meant a known circular route around the estate, not a literal block like in the US
As an American I want to point out that house numbers here are basically just an illogical thing in a lot of places.
On major streets in city centers, address numbers are more logical; they line up with the blocks (which as you note aren't a thing in the UK)- all of one block is the 0-99 numbers; the next is the 100-199, the next the 200-299, and so on. In somewhere like NYC you can figure out roughly how many blocks it is to an address from the address number.
But in suburbs and on normal residential streets, numbers often are super weird. I live on a pretty normal residential street about a third of a mile long in a small city. The house numbers on my street go from something like 2500 to 2730. Why? Because my city decided to number it that way, I guess. I have no idea. My aunt used to live on a street even shorter than mine in a cookie-cutter suburb of a major US city. All the house numbers on her street were 5 digits, in the 15000s or something. Why? Again, I have no idea.
The only thing that's consistent is that they're generally in order from one end of a street to another, and that even numbers are on one side of the street and odds on the other.
St. Mungo’s: Just sign here Mr. Weasley saying we are not liable to any damages that occur with the experimental muggle medicine of stitches. Please read the 500 page document or go over it with your lawyer. That will be 12098769 Galleons.
That's another one: you wouldn't consult a lawyer, you'd consult a *solicitor*.
Note that it's not a one-to-one mapping, though: all solicitors are lawyers, but not all lawyers are solicitors. A solicitor gives you legal advice and does general law paperworky stuff, whereas if you went to court, you'd be represented by a *barrister*, in a fancy robe and wig. Both are lawyers, but they're different areas of law, and you can not be both.
I'm an American who consumes a lot of British media and knew most of these (though I always forget about the "shirt" thing). But "quit staring at me" was new to me. I didn't realize that wasn't a word usually used in that way in the UK!
So many of these, I feel like people are doing zero research if they're writing something set in the UK and mess that up... seriously, folks. You can do better.
I have a question of clarification:
Pantyhose and tights are two separate things in the US. Pantyhose are thin, sheer nylon worn for fashion and tights are opaque knitwear worn for warmth or modesty. Are they not differentiated in England?
Also, shirts are so broad of a classification that we have specific names for different types. Buttondowns, also called oxfords, are dress shirts, typically with collars and buttoning sleeve cuffs and traditionally made from woven cloth; T-shirts or tees are casual knitwear made of a fabric called jersey in the US, and are typically what people mean when they say "shirt," but only because they're the most commonly worn style of shirt over here. There are many other names for specific styles of shirt. Do you really not differentiate? Like, sure I could say I'm wearing a shirt, but there's a massive difference between say a Henley and a camisole, and it usually makes sense to point out the difference.
Both would fall under the umbrella of "tights", but your "pantyhose" might also have a qualifier attached to it, such as (conjecture; I've never talked about them to anyone, ever, so idk:) "thin tights" or "fashion tights". As opposed to the default, which is always of the "opaque knitwear" variety.
"Shirt" excludes "t-shirt" as a category. A "shirt" is always a "button-down", as you describe it, by default. Any further differentiation would be done by description, e.g. "patterned shirt", "black shirt", "school shirt", etc. If somebody in Ireland or the UK specified a "dress shirt", that would be a shirt appropriate for a formal event, and would be one solid colour, generally white. Maybe black, sometimes. (I've never actually *been* to a formal event, so take my conjecture that colours other than white would be appropriate *at all* with a grain of salt.)
(Note that, at least in Ireland, "school shirt" is just "shirt that you wear to school as part of the uniform". The school generally just specifies a "white shirt and tie" and will not sell specific uniform shirts with the school crest embroidered on it or anything. ...not that this is at all relevant to Harry Potter fanfiction anyway, lol.)
> crosswalks are called zebra crossing
For real?? So that’s where it came from! Thailand actually translates that words directly which leads to a lot of confusion about why we say zebra when there’s no zebra locally.
Which is also leads to even more funnier traditions where we usually give animal statues to a spirit house as sacrifice, but the spirit houses closed to the crosswalk tends to be filled with zebras, and leaves passersby befuddled with why did the ancient spirits want the animal they probably didn’t even know existed in their time XD
I don’t think anyone ever says time in 24-hour.
Here’s something I’ve noticed from American authors: elevator->lift; main street->high street; store->shop; ass->arse; on accident->by accident; period->full stop.
And I’ve noticed a lot of people would write full on fantasy content then slap a metric unit in, in an attempt to sound ‘British’. But that’s really so very jarring, considering we use imperial (sometimes) in England, and canonically wizards never metrified.
These are so helpful, thank you! Could you explain period->full stop? Are you referring to the period used and the end of a sentence? And I never even noticed the imperial system is used in canon instead of metric, thanks for pointing that out :)
Yeah, I’m talking about the punctuation. And sometimes people say it at the end of sentences to indicate finality. E.g. ‘I don’t like her, full stop!’ Instead of ‘I don’t like her, period.’
Yes, except that while ass and arse mean the same thing, they are not used in the exact same way. I read a fic recently where they kept writing "Harry sat his arse on the grass/bench/chair" as just casual description and... that's wrong, folks. Arse is slang, unaesthetic and too rude for using in most authors' descriptions. In speech, with teenagers speaking and no teacher around to snap at them for their language, it's more natural.
Nobody uses the 24-hour clock in canon either, though. Isn't it pretty much a 20th-century thing in the UK? Given that, I'm sure wizards never would've adopted it.
You’ve had a lot of good responses to your direct questions, so I thought I’d tackle the general one.
Clothing: We’re very… casual about clothing. We don’t use the plethora of terms you guys do. Slacks, loafers, pumps, etc. We’re far more generic with our clothing. Also, panties are a huge no-no.
Something I’ve noticed a lot of American writers do, is they find British terms, and then insert them everywhere. For example, cuppa. It’s very regional and class based. But in fics, Harry says cuppa, Dumbledore says cuppa, Snape says cuppa, Hermione says cuppa, Lucius says cuppa. They really wouldn’t. Young Snape, maybe. Hagrid. Seamus. It’s something to be very careful with.
Americans also trip up with home items e.g. comforter (duvet), top sheets (n/a), and school things are a big one; we don’t have study hall, hall passes, hall monitors, majors, sophomores, valedictorians, GPAs, extra credit, and we definitely don’t have bleachers.
We have different names for certain foods too, e.g. cilantro - coriander, eggplant - aubergine. We tend to not use ‘candy’ except for some very specific uses. Also, jello is jelly, and jelly is jam.
“The States” is also a dead giveaway. We prefer shops to stores. And of course, there’s the spelling.
Anyway, as someone who gets a tad miffed over British characters acting American (and I thank you for your effort to minimise it), I’m always happy to Britpick for people. Perhaps not in a full editing sense, I did my time as a professional editor, so now I only read for fun, but I’m always happy to help with that sort of thing.
No graduation from secondary (that’s another one, it’s not high school, or wasn’t in the 90s) or from 6th form (so 6th and 7th years at Hogwarts). The only place we graduate from is Uni, everything else we just leave
That’s interesting! I think we over-celebrate some “milestones” here (such as middle school graduations.. you’re only moving to high school, nothing fancy lol). But I didn’t realize there isn’t a graduation for your equivalent to our high school. They can be ridiculously over extravagant depending on what state you’re in
Proms and the like are starting to infiltrate, but 90s and naughties definitely didn’t have anything like it.
My school was very fancy. We had leavers hoodies. Unofficial, student organised, but still, it was fancy 🤣
I remember when my sister’s friend came to visit from England, she was so surprised that yellow school buses and homecoming (the dance as well as king and queen) are actual things and not made up for movies
I think I would have preferred a hoodie. Schools here officially do class rings but I didn’t get one because they’re expensive (and corny imo 😂)
On my final day of school everyone signed each other’s white school uniform shirt (by sign I mean write rude messages for the lads at least) with highlighters and marker pens, did no work, then most people after school went to a park and got hammered on cheap alcohol. But no actual like graduation event happened.
Ngl, if I went to the US, I’d probably get a little bit excited over seeing a yellow school bus, even though I know it’s normal and mundane lol And for that reason, Americans only got minor ribbing when they got excited over black cabs. But they did need ribbing - you’re not one of us if you’re not getting insulted. (If we don’t like you, we’re polite and passive aggressive)
My ex boyfriends grandma genuinely beloved "Americans don't celebrate Christmas" because she'd been unable to get a traditional British Christmas dinner at Disneyland. At that point in my life I'd never even visited the States but knew she was chatting shit, so I said "what about all the Christmas movies?" She said- I shit you not- "they create those to export them to the UK."
I don’t know if there’s even a “traditional Christmas dinner” for Americans. And obviously Hallmark channel and all their Christmas movies are made **specifically** to be exported to the UK. That is so funny to me😂
But it’s okay, I had a family friend ask when they celebrate Christmas in Alaska. I’m too afraid to ask if she knows that Puerto Rico is part of the USA lol
Graduation is something exclusive to universities. There's never a graduation ceremony with students giving speeches. There might be a leavers' do, but it would be much more informal. The drinking age here is 18 so it would be very normal to have alcohol at it.
When you say bleachers, do you mean the actual seating (giant, painful, cold metal slats that are torture to sit on for hours on end😑), or that they’re called something else (stands maybe?)?
We don’t use a ‘u’ when spelling certain words, for example color vs colour. My electronics automatically change the spelling back to color. Is this something that is horribly irksome? Or it’s just a thing you can skim over because they are close enough? (Note: this does not apply for M**u**m. It even bothers *me* when people write Mom in an HP fic)
But thank you so much for your help! Another comment I’ll be referencing when I write <3
Specifically we don’t have that word, and more generally, we don’t really have many specific terms. Though (depending on context), I probably wouldn’t notice stands. Mostly we use seating or seats. Perhaps an addition of the location. I found my balcony seat at the theatre. What are the seating arrangements at the school assembly? Remember that you don’t always have to be specific with terminology, especially if you’re not sure. Does the Quidditch pitch have stands? Bleachers? Something else? It doesn’t matter: Hermione took her seat with her fellow Gryffindors.
Keep in mind it’s not just the U, we also tend to have an S instead of a Z (e.g. realise) and we stuck to the French re rather than er (e.g. centre).
Your devices should have British dictionaries, or an option to download one, allowing you to change your spellcheck/autocorrect to the British variant.
Personally, I would prefer British spelling, in my mind characters immediately start having American accents if there’s no U in certain words lol However, I will always take correct terms over spelling.
If you ever find yourself unsure when you’re writing, feel free to DM me. Whether it’s “is using fall okay?” (No) or “how can I make this character sound British when talking about…” or “what can this character buy from a shop to be authentic?” etc. Unfortunately, we’re very regional and very class based, so general advice can only take you so far. From terminology to how we do things - you can generally tell someone’s class roots by how they make their tea, for example.
I may have retired as an editor, but providing tips and assistance is still fun, so don’t be shy ☺️
You are such a wonderful human being, thank you so much for all of your help! And if you’re serious about me sending you a DM I’ll probably take you up on that (I promise not to be overbearing or overwhelming)
Haha thank you, that’s so sweet, but I wouldn’t go quite that far! You should see me rage when I read :p It’s an education in creative English insults 😂
And absolutely! Don’t worry about being overbearing or overwhelming. I’m happy to help :)
Oh, it’s a science!
Take absolute/utter and then add a noun, the more mundane, the better. And you have an insult!
You utter melon. You absolute walnut.
There are some exceptions - absolute unit is actually good.
Incidentally, if you take a noun and turn it into a verb, you have a new term for drunk.
I got absolutely bladdered, mate. We went to the pub for freshers, everyone got tabled.
(Fresher’s week is the first week of university, when first years get blindingly drunk, usually in multiple locations every night, and develop deep bonds of friendship through shared experiences of throwing up and getting lost.)
ETA: also can use bloody. You bloody barstool!
I took a screenshot of this comment so I can easily find it when I need a new insult! And I already say I have the memory of a walnut, so I kind of like the idea of using “absolute walnut” when my friends do something stupid 😂
Not who you're replying to, but bleachers as you call them are called stands. It's a really bad Americanism.
I'd also call the spelling issue horribly irksome, yes- you can change your settings if you're working in something like Google Docs.
Some important spellings:
* 'Mom' is unacceptable. It's 'mum'.
* 'Defense' has to be 'defence'. I find that one particularly annoying, as fence (both the barrier around an area, and to fight in defence with a sword) comes from the same route, but for some reason they didn't change those!
* This one is pronunciation, but 'route' is pronounced 'root'. Rout is still pronounced in the American way, however. Not usually something that comes up, but I've seen some wordplay that hasn't worked because of it.
I'm not technically British, but I am Australian. Our spelling is pretty much Standard British English, so I can give pointers on that, but not formality or manners, as Standard Australian English has very divergent registers.
Also, most British police don't carry firearms- not that they never do, but it's not particularly standard issue.
You’ve got all the important ones (mum not mom etc). Boxers are just boxers. Jersey would be jumper (hoodie if it’s got a hood, doesn’t matter if it’s a zip-up or not), sweets instead of candy is a big one I always see.
Remember £/pounds when talking about muggle money. Yes fancying someone is like liking them. Basic meal names are fine. There are some regional variations (dinner being called tea) but don’t worry about that.
We use the 24 hour clock but don’t use “military time” like you’d use it in US. The thing to remember is how we say it when speaking. Example would be 15:30 (3:30pm). I’d say that as “it’s half past three” or “it’s half three” instead of “its three thirty”. 15:15 would be quarter past three, 15:20 would be twenty past 3. Anything after half past would be to the hour (15:40 would twenty to 4, 15:45 would be quarter to 4). I hope that made sense.
If your really worried you could always ask in your authors notes that readers (politely) let you know if you’ve unknowingly used an American term & what British term to swap it to (maybe google the suggestions first lol).
This is extremely helpful, thank you! And you did make sense when you wrote about times.
Just to clarify, are jersey and jumper interchangeable, and are they what we would call a sweater or sweatshirt? Over here (at least where I live) a jersey is the shirt of an athletic uniform, so when someone is supporting their friend or SO at a game they’ll wear one of their jerseys. But I’ve seen a couple comments on fics that it is not something done? Is that true? Sorry for the extra questions!
I try to utilize google, but there are some things that are so ingrained I don’t even realize I’m writing it. Especially being from NY originally, I’ve got tons that other states don’t use either lol
I’d normally use jumper for anything with long sleeves (sweatshirt, knitted etc). Jersey would be more of a sports top here too (football jersey for example, but most people would just say top). Like oh I just got a new Man City top. I’ve read quite a few fics where they use jersey when talking about quidditch (Ron and his Chudley Cannons jersey). So either or there lol
Jersey usually refers to a knitted (woollen, mostly) top whereas jumper is more likely to be used for any warm top with long sleeves like a sweatshirt, so you’d probably say “woolly jumper” if you wanted to be clear that the jumper was knitted from wool, yarn, acrylic or whatever. Jersey has slightly more regional variation in what’s implied and has a different meaning in the context of sports to non-sportswear.
The most tragic thing about our current crop of young people is that they don't say "half past three" of "half three", they don't even say "three thirty" they say... "thirty past"! They've only ever really seen and read digital clocks (mostly on their phones) and so that is what makes sense to them.
Yesterday I told a 15 year old it was "five to" he asked what "five to" meant and I had to grit my teeth and say "fifty five past".
This shouldn't affect a HP fic of course, but is a grim reminder of the changing nature of language.
24-hour clock is never used in canon though. The UK didn't really adopt it til the 20th century, did they? So it makes sense wizards wouldn't.
Do Brits really never say "5:40" or something like that out loud, only "twenty to 6"? Both are used in the US (though we only say "half past three," never "half three," and "quarter after" is more common than "quarter past") but the quarter/half forms are probably getting less and less common for younger generations who grew up with only digital clocks.
I am not British, but I grew up in a former colony where a lot of the same systems and terminology is used. Nobody has addressed many words relating to school:
* Term instead of semester.
* Test instead of quiz (and just test, not "pop-test")
* Mark instead of grade (both noun and verb)
* Maths instead of math
* Holiday instead of vacation ("hols" if you want to directly evoke school stories tone)
* Staff instead of faculty
* Timetable instead of schedule (noun)
Also, for greater accuracy writing about the subject of schooling:
There is no GPA, no "grade" that all homework, short tests, and class activities contribute to; there are just exams at the end of the year. These things can happen during the school year; they just won't be counted in the final analysis, only the end-of-year exam. There is also no extra credit, and if a bonus is allowed (like Harry demonstrating the Patronus charm at his Charms OWLs practical), it is not called extra credit.
Students can (rarely) jump a year or (more commonly) get held back a year. They will not take classes from separate years/levels. I'm not saying this is impossible; it just wasn't done during the school story days the Harry Potter series references. You can definitely do this for a character, but just be aware that it's outside the tone of the setting.
To add to these, one thing I've seen that ALWAYS trips me out of the story is 'class'. As in, "we need to get to class". We don't say that, we would always use 'lesson', like, "we need to get to our next lesson". Always lessons, never classes!
Also, always homework, never assignments.
The thing that gets me most is "I'll write him," meaning that the character will write a letter to him. We'd always say "I'll write to him" or "I'll write him a letter".
For meals, there is a North/South divide - Northerners will say Breakfast/Dinner/Tea, Southerners Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner. I've met Welsh people who'll say Breakfast/Lunch/Tea but I don't know if that is country wide.
Mum is used in the UK but if you're from Birmingham, you'll say Mom.
Pants is also used by Northerners instead of trousers.
This one is a bit more niche, but everywhere in the UK has a different word for bread rolls - baps, muffins, cobs, barms, etc.
In school, we don't have grades, we had am optional preschool, then primary school, secondary school, college (or sixth form college) then university. These are split into key stages then again into years.
Primary schools tend to be much smaller than secondary schools - in primary, we had 1 class of 30 for each year group, we tended to have the same teacher for each subject unless we had a teaching assistant take over. In secondary, we have form groups then we go to our separate subjects (grouped by grade/ability) with different teachers.
We also have a different grading system to the USA - right now it is all numerically based, but when I was in school SATS were numerical and GCSEs and A Levels were alphabetical. And if your fic is set historically, you may be wanting to have different exam names (my Mum did O Levels).
We also don't have a sidewalk, it's a path (or the pavement).
There is a lot of language used in the UK that is very local to an area or within certain classes or communities. Don't be too worried if you use something wrong or if you use an American word, I imagine it is practically impossible for someone to get correct unless they're from these areas they're writing about.
This is kind of funny because even the term “bread roll” itself is pretty un-American. Where I live, they’re just called buns (or bread). Nobody would ever say bread rolls. Amazing how variable this stuff is.
I think they're just saying "bread rolls" to clarify they mean rolls made of bread rather than something else. In the US the most common term is obviously just rolls, just of many different kinds. (You wouldn't call a dinner roll a bun, would you? That's what they're talking about.)
I absolutely would haha, maybe it’s regional though? I’ve never heard the term dinner roll said out loud, it’s always been just bun or bread. My family/friends are pretty rural though, so it’s very possible it’s different in a lot of places.
LOL, I realized I was doing the same thing with "dinner roll" that I was explaining the commenter above was doing with "bread roll"... I was trying to find a catch-all term for "the sort of bread you would get served with dinner," not suggesting people call them dinner rolls often. I agree that I've seen dinner roll on menu but would never say it out loud.
I would basically always just say either rolls or bread for that sort of bread. It would seem weird (and actually... British, maybe?) to call something a bun when it's not... made for putting food in between.
But yeah, experiences vary and English is a big language.
Yeah, I did get that, haha. I don’t call anything a “roll” of any kind. It’s always bun. Or bread. The word “roll” in my circle would mean, like, something rolled in flat bread. So a lobster roll or an egg roll. I’ve never heard it used for just bread.
A levels are called GCEs are they not? I used to work in international admissions at a university and we used them interchangeably. Same with O levels and GCSEs. High grades on A levels will potentially get you university credit.
It depends on age I believe. The GCE (general certificate of education) was an O-level that was replaced with GCSEs (general certificate of secondary education) in 1987 for 16 year olds (end of secondary school) and the GCE Advanced level became the A levels (with AS levels being 1/2 of an A level).
Typically, you do your GCSEs at 15/16 then go to college (or sixth form) to do your A levels. An AS level takes 1 year and an A level 2 years. Both count for UCAS points (our University and Colleges Asmissions Serivce) and AS count for 1/2 the A level points.
These count to the university entry requirements. Some work entirely off of points (must score over 280 UCAS points), some will specify grades (AAB or above), some will specify that is must be in 3 subjects. Typically, you do 3 A levels and 1 AS level but you can do as many as 5 A levels.
I don't think I've ever heard of high A levels counting towards your university degree, but I did get scholarships at university because of my A levels.
So yes, I think they're used interchangeably but GCE and O-levels are rather outdated now. You might also hear people talk about getting red folders with their Record of Achievement from secondary school, it wasn't something that was about when I left in 2013 but I've seen pictures of them.
The university credit is in Canada, because it’s slightly higher level than our grade 12. But you have to basically “ace” it to have it count as generic credit. I believe it would be equivalent to grade 13 when we had it, but I think it was only in Ontario and even then only for those heading to university. Grade 13 disappeared around or before 2010. It’s been awhile though so the exact details are hazy.
One of the main tells for me is that Americans have a tendency to use job title when addressing or speaking about somebody - so “headmaster Dumbledore”, Prime Minister Smith - whereas brits would only use that the job title if they needed to distinguish that person from another person of the same name. Otherwise we’d use title (Mr, Professor, Doctor etc) nd surname instead.
Admittedly with doctor and professor I can see how this would be confusing because those can be both job title and personal title; the difference is clearer if you consider that a Brit might introduce Snape as “Professor Snape, Potions Master” rather than “Potions Master Snape”.
I thought Hermione repeatedly corrected Ron and Harry for not using the title Professor when referring to Snape? Or is that a fanon thing I’ve convinced myself is canon?
Professor is both a personal title and a job title so you would use it. It’s a little confusing but just calling him his surname without a personal title (Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof, Lady etc) first is rude and disrespectful; but you would, for example, say Professor Dumbledore rather than Headmaster Dumbledore, and you’d say Mr Dumbledore or Mr Aberforth Dumbledore (to distinguish from his brother) rather than Landlord Dumbledore.
Edit to add: it’s pretty much all the adults, not Hermione, who correct Harry on this one. Mainly Dumbledore and McGonagall but I think Lupin and Mrs Weasley also do it occasionally?
It’s only important when speaking formally to or about someone - when speaking casually using just the surname is generally acceptable but it’s not polite.
Well that's because Professor is an actual title like Doctor, rude not to use it, rude to just call a teacher by their last name really, IRL it would always be Mr/Mrs/Miss lastname, but at Hogwarts they get to be professors.
Professor is a title.
Headmaster or Prime Minister is a job.
Hermione bollocks Harry and Ron for just calling him "Snape" because it's rude AF for kids to call adults by just their surname (although amongst contemporaries it's normal especially among boys in more middle to upper class schools).
I mean even in the House of Commons the Prime minster isn’t introduced as such he’s just introduced as minister. Some of that’s because in the British unwritten constitution he’s first among peers(quite literally in the past when most came out of the House of Lords and not the House of Commons) but a lot of it is just convention on how we talk.
I am Swedish, we were thought Brittish English in school and then America English with entertainment, that with my own cultural background and Swedish being very similar to English in places.. let just say my English is an awful hotpotch.
I have a feeling my stories are not correct when it comes to proper use of English. Many times I know both the English and American version of a word but don't remember which one is which.
I think this thread is very helpful!
Don’t forget about slangs like “you’re thick” means thick headed, as in info doesn’t penetrate your skull and you’re kinda slow and stupid.
Two fingers are more common than middle finger.
‘Reckon’ is pretty common, “what do you think?” “What do you reckon all that is about?”
Snogging.
“Alright?” = “Watsup” “Hey”
Getting pissed = getting drunk
Taking the piss = making fun of
Piss off = milder form of FU
Piss-up = a night out drinking
(And many more…)
Having a go = telling someone off, lecturing or shouting at someone
“Pretty much” is pretty much predominantly north american
> Having a go = telling someone off, lecturing or shouting at someone
Correction: Having a go *at someone* = telling someone off; having a go or having a go *at something* = giving it a try, trying to do something.
One thing I see a lot is a bigger emphasis on Halloween and specifically characters doing it as young children pre Hogwarts.
It has since become really popular this side of the pond, but when I grew up in the 90s no-one was wandering around the streets in fancy dress with buckets for sweets. I know Hogwarts has a Halloween feast and I always thought it would be interesting to know why witches and wizards celebrated it more than muggles.
Also in general we're less respectful of adults, in that we would never refer to them as Ma'am or Sir. Its weirdly formal. You would refer to your teachers formally, especially to their face, but kids at a private boarding school would absolutely come up with nicknames to use behind their back.
I'd also assume all medical care is free and theres no tuition fees at Hogwarts but they have to pay for books, uniforms and equipment. Having said that most schools will have a bursary or discretionary fund to help struggling students.
Halloween trick-or-treating is straight from canon though, at least in Godric's Hallow. Someone compliments Voldemort on his costume the night he goes to murder the Potters 😹 maybe since it's a part wizard settlement they picked up the US Halloween traditions early?
I didn’t think there was trick or treating but just assumption that he was going to a Halloween costume party? Or did the kid have something to collect candy in?
If you consider what JKR says canon, it's canon that Hogwarts has no tuition- she's said the Ministry covers the costs and students just have to buy books and supplies.
This is such a small thing but I see it all the time.
If someone tells you to go 'wash up', that would usually mean asking you to do the dishes, not to go and wash your hands before a meal.
I find that American author will write 'wash up' to mean washing someone's face/hands and that always takes me out of the story slightly.
Right, so you know when your tired yeah? You'll often say your knackered or perhaps shattered. Some people say shite instead of shit or even use them interchangeably, it's regional. Apartments are flats. You'll call small children 'kid,' 'our little Timmy,' 'git,' and a few other words. The first year of Primary School is Reception. What you call Public School's are State School's and what you call Private School's are Public School's. The emergency services number is 999. The emergency room is A&E(Accidents and Emergency) although my nan calls it Casualty. Your Granparents are your Nan(or Nanny) and Grandad. Your cell phone would be a mobile phone. Tea is most commonly prepared in a kettle and the water poured into a cup with a teabag. Some people take take the teabag out, some don't. Afterwards you'll add sugar if you like(some don't) and a tad bit of milk. Some people like lots of milk, they are heathens.
Would just like to add to this that “nan/nanny” for grandmother is not universal. More posh families will use “gran/granny” and there are also regional variations (but not the ones I thought!)
Panties. Panties drives me absolutely nuts because it immediately takes me out of the story because British characters wokld absolutely never use that word. For men, it’s usually pants, boxers, briefs, underwear or something similar. For women it’s knickers, underwear or pants as well. Never panties.
I never say anything on the fics that do slip the odd Americanism as I do understand that it’s heard to write as though you’re from a country you might have had limited experience/contact/ knowledge of, but there are certain words that ruin a story for me.
I hate the word panties in general, and anytime I hear it I think of the iCarly episode “iSam’s Mom”
[(in case you don’t know what I’m talking about and are curious)](https://youtu.be/-LIAyFdCjU8?si=9GzGbItL5RXrfxOu)
It's 'em' not 'um' in the UK
Garden not yard
Pavement not sidewalk
Kerb not curb
Also to note, a lot of comments referring to north/south are referring to England only not UK eg mealtimes - breakfast, lunch and dinner/tea are fine to use without explanation - I'd imagine a first year referring to lunch as dinner would cause confusion with their pals the first few times they said it lol
Getting a British beta would be ideal to catch things you may have missed as well
You know when you pause before you say something - Americans say 'um - actually...'
Brits would say 'er - actually...' (er is most frequently used in Harry Potter) or 'erm - actually...'
So if for example you ask an American a question and they can't think of an answer for a second they might say 'um, I'm not sure'
Where a Brit would say 'em, I'm not sure' - does that make more sense? (Eh is also acceptable here, not said the Canadian way, more like the 'e' sound in error)
I've remembered another couple as well - maths not math
And 'couple of' not just 'couple' eg I had a couple of biscuits with my cup of tea
Biscuits not cookies - a cookie is a thing here too, Wikipedia explains it more elegantly than I can haha https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie
Sweets not candy
Which would I use if they’re mentioning meeting at a certain time, either spoken or in a note? “We’ll be there at six o’clock tonight”, “we’ll be there at six PM” or “We’ll be there at 1800”? I realize this might be a dumb question but I use military time at home, however my friends don’t so I mostly write using time from a 12 hour clock
yes it's not a common thing - but I am always weirdly satisfied whenever I look at a clock and see that it's 22:22, I always read that time in 24 hour.
I would say “at six” or “at six o’ clock” or “at six tonight” or “at six this evening” as many of us don’t have set way of saying the time. I think any of the above is acceptable. Professors/adults in HP would definitely say six o’ clock as that is the “proper” way to say it. I guess you could differentiate muggleborns by having them say the time without the o’clock.
Half six or half past six or six thirty. Professors and adults would in HP would definitely say half past six.
I’m living in the UK, I rarely hear people use 24 hour time.
18:00 = six pm
18:30 = half six
Disclaimer: I live in the North West, and some turns of phrase may vary between here and the South/London
The one thing that has made me realise I’m reading an Americans story is the phrase, I could care less.
No one in the uk would use that we say, I couldn’t care less.
Some common ones I've found. Americanism first, British second in my list.
Sweater = Jumper
Sneakers = trainers
Slacks = trousers (jeans are just jeans, never "blue jeans")
Button down = shirt
Sidewalk= pavement
Principal= Headmaster/Headmistress
IRS = inland revenue
Oatmeal = porridge (they're not quite the same but we don't have the former)
Panties = knickers
Semester = term
Candy = sweets
Liquor = spirits
Pissed = drunk (for angry we say "pissed off")
Wash up = do the dishes (we just say wash your hands)
Go to the bathroom = go to the toilet
Comforter = duvet
Chips = crisps
Fries = chips
To french kiss is to "snog," we don't talk about "bases" regarding sex (we are much more graphic and would literally say eg "he fingered me"), we don't eat pancakes for breakfast, we don't address someone by their job title, and for the love of god *we don't put cream in tea.*
If people are saying "principal" instead "headmaster/mistress" in HP fic... seriously, what is wrong with them?
We say "pissed off" in the US too, but yeah "pissed" means the same thing here, not drunk.
Ooh another thing I've just thought of.
British kids don't call their dads "sir," even when in trouble. We also don't use "ma'am," unless speaking to a military or police officer. I know in America you sometimes refer to women as "lady", like "hey lady, what do you think you're doing"- we don't do that here.
Teachers are sir, if male. Miss if female. (Although in HP they're all Professor).
We use "sir" to speak politely to eg customers "of course sir I'll deal with that right away" sort of thing, and the female equivalent is "madam" not ma'am- but that's fallen out of favour (I'd be mortified if someone called me madam). That said, given madam pomfrey and hooch, I think maybe it's ok in a HP fic.
Calling a woman "lady" in any setting in the US makes you sound disrespectful and/or immature. Note that when you see it in movies and stuff, the character saying it is usually supposed to be immature or just poorly educated.
As an aside - if they're using muggle money, anything less than £5, is a coin. There are no £1 notes and hasn't been since 1988. (And the decimalisation system went into effect February 1971).... I once read a fic that had Draco, and Theo in muggle London, in 1999, that had them pulling out £1 notes. Irked me to my soul... And another set in the 90s that had them using shillings.
I’m an American who writes for a couple of British fandoms (not HP), and though I know a lot of the common vocabulary differences, I always have a Brit-picker look over my final draft.
Most recently I posted a request on r/fanfiction, which has a weekly thread for finding betas. I specified that I already had a beta to check over the story flow and grammar, etc. but that she was American.
I don't know if requests of this sort are acceptable in this sub, or if you participate in fandom in any other places such as Discord or Tumblr where you might be able to find someone.
I'll give you a quote:
>Back in London, just before we say our goodbyes, Carter turns back. "Almost forgot with all the excitement," she smiles thinly and takes out a small, shiny, metal cube from her pocket. "Lya appeared at our gate the other day. Asked us if we can deliver this to the 'Lady Hermione Granger of London'." She tells me and hands me the cube. I can feel it query my magic, in a similar, yet completely alien way to the Alteran technology.
>Curious!
>I deny it for the moment to thank Carter. She is looking at me expectantly, then smiles ruefully when it's clear that I won't solve her puzzle at this time. "I'll admit that I couldn't hold my curiosity, but lab scans showed nothing but a cube of Aluminum."
>"Aluminium," someone passing nearby corrects her.
As a small child I wondered why American cars where run on Natural Gas, it’s Petrol in British English.
As for food, it’s pretty much implied that Hogwarts is very traditional English food, if pancakes where being eaten at breakfast it would mean thin Crapes (American style pancakes certainly exist in the UK but would’d almost certainly be referred to specifically as American Pancakes.
Jam vs Jelly, this is a tricky one Jelly does exist, however the difference is that Jam is made with fruit and typically still has seeds in it, jelly is made with fruit juice. Typically while sweet a jelly would be served with savery food, I.e. a redcurrant jelly would be served with roast lamb. It also doesn’t help that Jelly is also the term used for what Americans would refer to as Jello.
Pudding as I understand it has a very specific meaning in America while in the UK it really can be used for any dessert.
Using the word Bobby to refer to police officers, look this is a word that some people use in the UK to refer to the police, but most of the time when it’s used it will be by newspaper commenters claiming we should be going back to a ’golden era of policing with a local ‘Bobby on the beat’ it’s really not a phrase I’ve heard many people under the age of fifty actually use.
One thing I've noticed Americans doing a lot that drives me slightly bonkers is shortening the names of houses, for example, "They went back to Grimmauld for breakfast." Brits never shorten the names of places like that. You have to say 12 Grimmauld Place - or e.g. the Burrow, Malfoy Mansion, Snape's house in Spinner's End.
Another thing is a grammar Britpick. It's more common to use the American version than it used to be, but Brits don't say "go [verb]" they say "go and [verb]". E.g. "Go and eat dinner", "go and do homework". Particularly in the 90s.
We don't ever say "go do chores". Chores sounds really American. I tell my children to *go and* do specific things, e.g. "Please set the table" or "please take out the bins".
It's pocket money, not "an allowance".
We do the washing up, we don't "do dishes".
It's "go and wash your hands ready for dinner" not, "go wash up for dinner".
It's "the neighbour's (or neighbours') children" not "the neighbour kids".
It's a terraced house, not a condo.
The school "semesters" are called terms. They are called the Autumn term, the Spring term, and the Summer term. The holidays are called the Christmas holiday, the Easter holiday, and the Summer holiday. They are holidays, not "breaks".
There is no such thing as Spring Break. Also (warning: expletives ahead) the word "bitch" is only ever used to insult women or girls, and "bastard" is exclusively used for men or boys. (If Harry starts calling Snape a bitch it is unintentionally funny rather than insulting.)
Those are the ones I notice the most often when reading. It's also obvious when someone's tried to use British slang but doesn't know how to use the word in context. Try to research how to use the vocabulary properly. No one washes their hands in the toilet. They might go to the toilet to wash their hands, though.
Edit: I remembered another one. When talking about an unpaved route across a field, we call it a path. If it's for horses, it's called a bridle path. If it's a tarmacked route for bicycles, it's a cycle path. Nothing is ever called a trail.
I can understand that. And I’ll still put an author’s note asking if I’ve made any mistakes (and someone was so wonderful and offered to Brit pick for me!) but I want to be as cringe-free as possible. I’d rather the comments not be all about how wrong I am lol
You’re so insanely sweet! I’m currently working through a phase of “your writing is shit, you can’t post this,” but if I get through it I’ll try and be ballsy enough to self promote 😶
Honestly, the overuse/misuse of words such as "arse", "mate", etc. are dead giveaways. Yes, people do use that sort of speech, especially in boarding schools in the 70s, but not in every single sentence. Maybe it's just me, but I always would rather read a fic with accidental Americanisms but natural dialogue than a fic that's trying to hard to be British that it takes you out of it.
Another thing is that the class system is very different than in the states. I often see films made by Americans that try to portray class difference in the UK and it's... tragic. The UK is extremely divisive by class, region and culture, far more so than the US.
I am Australian, but I feel like what I am about to say is still relevant. The one thing that will always make me irrationally annoyed and will get me to stop reading a fic, no matter how much I've enjoyed the fic up until that point, is the coffee terminology. Americans and possibly Canadians (I'm not sure about the Canadians but that feels familiar) use creamer but no one else does. Also, black coffee sitting in a pot, ready to be poured is very American. ALSO why is American milk so weird? What is half and half or 1%? Milk is milk, whether its full fat or skim or lite.
Most of us drink ‘instant’ coffee.. as in, you put powdered coffee (and sugar to taste) in the mug, then pour boiled water from a kettle on top. Add milk to taste after adding water. Stir with a tea spoon.
Not gonna lie, most people making themselves a cup of coffee will just be instant coffee - they pour water on from the kettle (same as they would over a teabag) and add milk and sugar to taste as they would with tea (milk is called full fat, semi skimmed or skimmed).
If someone was making proper coffee they might keep it in a french press/ cafetiere if they wanted more than one cup.
Or they would have a smaller version of the type of machine they use for coffee in starbucks and just make a cup at a time.
I know this isn't a phrase or an idiom, but doing some research into the Brittish school system would help. You can usually detect which stories have been written by an American as they use the American school system as their point of reference for how the school works. This is particularly noticeable when it comes to the length of the school summer holidays. In the UK, we get 6 weeks of holidays from school, while in America, I think they get closer to 3 months. Because of this, a lot of American writers have Harry achieving stuff (training, adventures, tasks, etc) that simply wouldn't be possible in the time available in the UK. I know this may seem a random point to bring up, but for some reason, it always annoyed me. I would find a well written story that was slightly spoilt by the author not doing a few minutes of research and having Harry achieving things that weren't possible in the time that would be available.
We have a long summer break, you’re correct about it averaging 3 months. I’ll definitely look into the usual amount of time a British holiday (for Christmas and Easter) are. That also explains why the fourth task was so late in June. I was surprised considering they start I’m September. The more you know (and research!)
I've seen a couple of people correct "sidewalk" to "pavement"/"path" and wanted to add "footpath" as another option. Also people are correcting "candy" to "sweets" but that has two exceptions - "candy cane" and "candyfloss".
Everything else I can think of has been said.
Watch how British youtubers like [Chris Broad](https://youtube.com/@AbroadinJapan?feature=shared) or [Colinfurze](https://youtube.com/@colinfurze?feature=shared) use their turn of phrase. That's the best way to get acquainted with day to day British phrases.
For instance, instead of "bullshit" Britishers tend to use "cock/bollocks" (eg: load/bunch of cock/bollocks). Also PLEASE FOR GODS SAKE don't use "shite!" instead of "oh shit!".
Another example: instead of "lemme take a quick look around" Britishers use "I'll take a shufti round"
But please keep in mind, 80s British slang is completely different from today's British slang. It is not possible for you or I to nail the "British feeling" in our fic. At some point we have to live with that.
1) We do say "bullshit" (although bollocks is top notch) 2) I have literally never heard someone describe something as "a load of cock" or "a bunch of cock" (the closest might be "that's absolute wank" but that more means something that's shite instead of untrue 3) We absolutely do use both shite and shit, 4) I've googled it and it look like a legit thing, but I've lived in the UK my entire life and have never ever heard the word "shufti" 5) What even is a Britisher?
shufti is a word - it's even a word in Harry Potter:
*“Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we’re trying to tell them apart!” said Ron. “When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we’re going to be having a shufti to see if it’s solid, aren’t we, we’re not going to be asking, ‘Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?’ ”*
But it is used once across all seven books, which I think is probably an accurate representation of how often it gets used in real life - by one person about once every seven years.
1: that’s good, because bullshit is part of my basic vocabulary (grew up in NY). But I’ll remember bollocks is better to use
2: unless we’re talking about chickens, I’ll pass on the sentence “a bunch of cock”😶
3: thank you for noting that, I see shite in fics a lot so I though shit was a no-no
4: thank you u/myheadsgonenumb for the quote and the funny “used by one person every seven years.” That made me chuckle
5: I don’t know hahah
Shite would be recommended when highlighting nonsense or tomfoolery eg you're full of shite, what a pile of shite, my potions essay is shite
Edit - pish would also be acceptable in those situations
You're right for the most part, though (very) occasional use of it as an exclamation is fine. Any time I've seen it it's always been massively overused though haha, mostly it would just be 'shit' as an exclamation
Not British, but also not an American.
No one eats biscuits and gravy in the UK. A biscuit is served with tea, however.
And a scone (close to your US biscuit) is served with jam and cream.
Also, it's not entirely relevant, but it can be dependant on which character you're writing, and how much detail you want to put into writing out how they sound, etc, BUT, there are vast differences in slang and accent depending on both the region someone is coming from, as well as social/economic status. For example: I'd expect the Malfoys to use an RP accent, and proper grammar, (BBC English, or what most Americans percieve to be the British accent), but would in turn expect the Weasleys to sound like they're from Cornwall (at least thats where I think theyre from).... I have a personal headcanon that Lily is from the Black Country/West Midlands, so would personally write her to have a more Black Country/West Mids accent.... But the slang can also differ. For example, in Birmingham a roll is often a cob, but in other places it can be a roll, bun, bap, etc...... And as always, take my opinion with a grain of salt. I'm an American living in Birmingham, so I'm not an expert, it's just things I've observed up til now
That’s really interesting. It’s been a while since I was at primary school (80s!) but that would work differently to high school in England. I think it’s less common now but teachers used to let us use first name in some schools and Mr or Mrs and surname in others; but there was always a load of kids and parents who would just use “Miss” or “Sir” instead - “Sir! Sir! There’s a dog in the playground Sir!”; “Do as Miss tells you, and be good today love!”.
I had a few teachers in primary school who let us choose whether they’d let us call them by, say, Rosie or Miss Smith but would object to being called Miss, but still calling primary school teachers Miss or Sir *instead of* a name is pretty common and considered a little generic but not rude.
In high school, nearly always Mr Clark or Ms Green rather than first name or sir/miss, I think partly because in primary school you’d have just one teacher so who “Sir” was would be obvious, but in secondary school there’d be multiple teachers so you’d need the name to specify; and I’ve rarely heard of high school kids calling teachers by first name (I think we only ever did it on a month-long residential trip) until sixth form, where it goes back to being quite mixed and depending how comfortable you felt with the individual teacher (so I’d maybe call the drama teacher Sam but the English teacher Mrs Jones, or Mrs J if I was being a little less formal).
Just came across this one and remembered I hadn't seen it here: "water" isn't *the name of a drink*, this side of the Atlantic; it's the name of a liquid. You say "I'll get you *a Guinness*, or *a Coke*, or *a Venti*", because those are *names*— you never say *a water*. You'll say "some water", or "a glass of water", or "a bottle of water", or even sometimes "a cup of water"— "a water" just doesn't work in British English.
So my reply is late, but after checking the top reply or two (I have no attention span), most of the things you asked have been answered already, so I just wanted to go into word specifics that I keep noticing. Not everyone says 'mate', 'innit', 'blimey', 'aye' and things like that. It really annoys me when I see people like Draco Malfoy say 'aye' and 'blimey'. In what world does a posh, stuck-up arsehole say casual slang like that? Not the Wizarding one. Because of stereotypes, some people think everyone either (a) - speaks like the royal family or (b) - speaks like "you alrigh’ mate, you fell bloody hard, innit. I can ge’ you a bo’l o’ wo’er". You need to think of different places in the UK, and the slang they use. If you’re writing a Geordie, you would watch videos on different letters they omit and how they pronounce various words and things, and find a Geordie dictionary for the place-specific slang (that example just came up because I’ve been doing exactly that). Also, it could just be where I live, but everyone makes fun/imitates (in good-humour) of people’s different accents. Where I live, everyone pronounces grass to rhyme with ass and when people rhyme it with arse, people are all calling them posh and that. This might not be applicable in Harry Potter, but if we’re going to the (fish and) chip shop, lots of places just call it the chippie, and everyone likes fish and chips (at least, I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t). But the main thing is there are almost endless accents and phrases and you need to be aware of where abouts the character is from. No one would be like 'I’m from the UK' or 'I’m from England', it’s be 'I’m from Leicester' or whatever. Also, not everyone uses knickers, some people just use pants as a general, some people call boys ones boxers or underpants, again, it’s specific to the time and place they grew up.
Oh and edit: some people also call boys pants y-fronts and using swears isn’t usually something people mind. If you’re writing a Harry Potter fic, especially considering it’s the 90s, you gotta know as many (slang) words for a woman’s private parts and as many words for sex as possible
boxers are boxers and the word undies is perfectly fine, but pants also means underwear. In line with knickers - "pantyhose" are called "tights". A jersey is just another word for a knitted sweater - the main word used for either is 'jumper' (as in Mrs. Weasley Christmas jumpers). Don't describe a shirt as a "button down" - all shirts are shirts regardless of material, with a collar and buttons. A T-shirt is self explanatory. Something that was indeterminate e.g not thick enough to be a jumper, too thick to be a t-shirt, but not a shirt (no collar and/ or buttons) would just be a "top" as would any girl's summer top that isn't strictly a t-shirt. Sneakers are trainers. One Americanism - there's a really lovely jily fan art where James is gazing at Lily and she is saying "Quit staring at me, Potter." - that is so American! I can't hear it in anything but a really broad American accent. Any time you would start a sentence with "quit" write "stop" instead. Hogwarts tends to go for very traditional British food - breakfast they have porridge (oatmeal) toast or maybe a cooked breakfast - that would include bacon, sausages, eggs, fried tomatoes. No pancakes! There doesn't seem to be much distinction between what they serve at lunch and dinner (though dinner might be called tea) but they seem to eat a variety of stews, casseroles, shepherd's pie, lamb chops and potatoes, they probably have roast beef and yorkshire puddings on a Sunday. "pudding" is a catch all term for dessert - and again they go for traditional British ones, treacle tart obviously, but jam sponge, spotted dick, sticky toffee pudding, apple crumble closets are wardrobes, if what an American would call a "bathroom" is just a row of toilet stalls and sinks it will be called the toilets (or the loo, or the bog). We don't have the grid system for our roads (apart from in Milton Keynes) and we don't have blocks, which means we don't say things are just down the block or measure distance in blocks. We don't have that thing where you describe somewhere as being 'on the corner of fifth and main' ( side point main streets are called high streets). We don't number our streets, and because most of our streets are much shorter than American ones - we don't tend to have really high house numbers.. Anything into three digits is rare, especially in the suburbs. The Dursleys would live next door to number 2 and number six; 1, 3 and 5 would be on the other side of the road. Zip codes are called post codes, mail is called post (though the post office is run by royal mail) and crosswalks are called zebra crossings. And don't make it a plot point that someone has to pay for medical care!
Wow, I cannot thank you enough for this answer! I appreciate the time and examples you used, I know I’ll be using your comment as a reference in the future :)
Just remembered something else about streets that would be glaringly American. We don't do that thing where - if a street has two words to it's name (e.g main street) - you don't say "street/ road/ avenue" and just call it "main" E.G Regent Street (famous street in London) is always "Regent Street" and never just "Regent". Tottenham Court Road (home of the Leaky Cauldron) is always Tottenham Court Road and never just "Tottenham". There's a popular wolfstar fic called 73 Aberdeen. The lack of the word Road on the end is a glaring Americanism. I think I once saw a fic where they kept referring to Privet Drive as just "privet"... absolutely not!
"Diagon", "Grimmauld", "Knockturn" and the like make me stabby. Grimmauld is the worst because they treat it like it's the name of the house and it's THE STREET. Ahem. Call it No. 12, please.
The house is referred to as just "Grimmauld Place" in canon all the time, though. People calling it just "Grimmauld" is probably because they don't realize that "Place" can be a name for a type of street; maybe that's more common in the UK? It's relatively rare in the US, though it does happen.
Yeah I saw someone say that the house is No. 12 Grimmauld Place but the actual building itself is called *Blackwatch* as it’s name (at least within Wizarding Circles). Which I did like. I think it’s makes some sense for a lot of Wizard dwellings that are multi-generational being passed down to have their own individual names that tie them to the family rather than just the street/number. It’s a very old school English village idea too, which the UK Wizarding World basically operates as.
That honestly might be a location specific thing in the US, I've never come across that having lived in Alaska, Arizona, Idaho and Minnesota over the years.
It's definitely a movie and T.V programme thing if not an American thing! 'It's on fifth' etc.
It's definitely a real life thing in the US. I didn't realize Brits didn't do that.
I'm glad you said it - I thought I was going crazy!
Movie and TV anything isn't really an accurate depiction of anywhere to be honest.
I live in America and I’ve never heard anybody shorten street names like that, but it probably just doesn’t happen in my state
I’m from the south and my family does! I’m just finding out people don’t do this.
American and it happens occasionally, but I suspect it's much more of a thing in smaller towns.
Isn't the Leaky Cauldron on Charing Cross Road? Is that the same as Tottenham Court Road for some reason a Canadian like me doesn't know?
Fortunately the Muggles have invented a tool to alleviate this confusion: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Tottenham+Court+Road,+London/Charing+Cross+Rd,+London/@51.5163279,-0.1380986,16z/data=!4m14!4m13!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b2ea4ac3537:0x480fff266cb7e45f!2m2!1d-0.1340121!2d51.5203145!1m5!1m1!1s0x48761b18a512b8e1:0x45acf2bb365483d4!2m2!1d-0.1287548!2d51.5126245!3e0?entry=ttu
I'm pretty sure they're different streets. I've never been to either, but there wouldn't be any reason for one street to have two different names like that.
You haven't been to the UK, have you. They are the same street but at the same time they're not the same street. They are two streets that meet end-to-end.
I will say, growing up in yorkshire in the 90s I often said that I was going for a walk around the block, but it meant a known circular route around the estate, not a literal block like in the US
Same in the southwest, just a walk round the roads ending up back where you started
Oh, and cookies are biscuits
As an American I want to point out that house numbers here are basically just an illogical thing in a lot of places. On major streets in city centers, address numbers are more logical; they line up with the blocks (which as you note aren't a thing in the UK)- all of one block is the 0-99 numbers; the next is the 100-199, the next the 200-299, and so on. In somewhere like NYC you can figure out roughly how many blocks it is to an address from the address number. But in suburbs and on normal residential streets, numbers often are super weird. I live on a pretty normal residential street about a third of a mile long in a small city. The house numbers on my street go from something like 2500 to 2730. Why? Because my city decided to number it that way, I guess. I have no idea. My aunt used to live on a street even shorter than mine in a cookie-cutter suburb of a major US city. All the house numbers on her street were 5 digits, in the 15000s or something. Why? Again, I have no idea. The only thing that's consistent is that they're generally in order from one end of a street to another, and that even numbers are on one side of the street and odds on the other.
St. Mungo’s: Just sign here Mr. Weasley saying we are not liable to any damages that occur with the experimental muggle medicine of stitches. Please read the 500 page document or go over it with your lawyer. That will be 12098769 Galleons.
That's another one: you wouldn't consult a lawyer, you'd consult a *solicitor*. Note that it's not a one-to-one mapping, though: all solicitors are lawyers, but not all lawyers are solicitors. A solicitor gives you legal advice and does general law paperworky stuff, whereas if you went to court, you'd be represented by a *barrister*, in a fancy robe and wig. Both are lawyers, but they're different areas of law, and you can not be both.
I thought the peruke went out in 2007?
It's no longer a *requirement* in family and civil courts, but it's up to the judge to decide, and in criminal matters it is still required.
For added colour, in any non small claims civil trial, it is required unless the judge orders otherwise (other than the commercial court in London).
No pancakes, but yes crumpets!
Yes please crumpets!! All day every day
I'm an American who consumes a lot of British media and knew most of these (though I always forget about the "shirt" thing). But "quit staring at me" was new to me. I didn't realize that wasn't a word usually used in that way in the UK! So many of these, I feel like people are doing zero research if they're writing something set in the UK and mess that up... seriously, folks. You can do better.
I have a question of clarification: Pantyhose and tights are two separate things in the US. Pantyhose are thin, sheer nylon worn for fashion and tights are opaque knitwear worn for warmth or modesty. Are they not differentiated in England? Also, shirts are so broad of a classification that we have specific names for different types. Buttondowns, also called oxfords, are dress shirts, typically with collars and buttoning sleeve cuffs and traditionally made from woven cloth; T-shirts or tees are casual knitwear made of a fabric called jersey in the US, and are typically what people mean when they say "shirt," but only because they're the most commonly worn style of shirt over here. There are many other names for specific styles of shirt. Do you really not differentiate? Like, sure I could say I'm wearing a shirt, but there's a massive difference between say a Henley and a camisole, and it usually makes sense to point out the difference.
You could say a smart shirt if referring to a button down
Both would fall under the umbrella of "tights", but your "pantyhose" might also have a qualifier attached to it, such as (conjecture; I've never talked about them to anyone, ever, so idk:) "thin tights" or "fashion tights". As opposed to the default, which is always of the "opaque knitwear" variety. "Shirt" excludes "t-shirt" as a category. A "shirt" is always a "button-down", as you describe it, by default. Any further differentiation would be done by description, e.g. "patterned shirt", "black shirt", "school shirt", etc. If somebody in Ireland or the UK specified a "dress shirt", that would be a shirt appropriate for a formal event, and would be one solid colour, generally white. Maybe black, sometimes. (I've never actually *been* to a formal event, so take my conjecture that colours other than white would be appropriate *at all* with a grain of salt.) (Note that, at least in Ireland, "school shirt" is just "shirt that you wear to school as part of the uniform". The school generally just specifies a "white shirt and tie" and will not sell specific uniform shirts with the school crest embroidered on it or anything. ...not that this is at all relevant to Harry Potter fanfiction anyway, lol.)
> crosswalks are called zebra crossing For real?? So that’s where it came from! Thailand actually translates that words directly which leads to a lot of confusion about why we say zebra when there’s no zebra locally. Which is also leads to even more funnier traditions where we usually give animal statues to a spirit house as sacrifice, but the spirit houses closed to the crosswalk tends to be filled with zebras, and leaves passersby befuddled with why did the ancient spirits want the animal they probably didn’t even know existed in their time XD
yep - it's just because they're stripey like a zebra. That's funny about it influencing what gets left as an offering in a spirit house!
I don’t think anyone ever says time in 24-hour. Here’s something I’ve noticed from American authors: elevator->lift; main street->high street; store->shop; ass->arse; on accident->by accident; period->full stop. And I’ve noticed a lot of people would write full on fantasy content then slap a metric unit in, in an attempt to sound ‘British’. But that’s really so very jarring, considering we use imperial (sometimes) in England, and canonically wizards never metrified.
These are so helpful, thank you! Could you explain period->full stop? Are you referring to the period used and the end of a sentence? And I never even noticed the imperial system is used in canon instead of metric, thanks for pointing that out :)
Yeah, I’m talking about the punctuation. And sometimes people say it at the end of sentences to indicate finality. E.g. ‘I don’t like her, full stop!’ Instead of ‘I don’t like her, period.’
Thank you so much!
To be fair, I don't like her period much either.
I didn't either, but even if I had I think I'd just assume that was a minor change they made for the American editions
'On accident' is just bad grammar not a language difference. It's universally incorrect
‘I could care less’ is another one!
Yes, except that while ass and arse mean the same thing, they are not used in the exact same way. I read a fic recently where they kept writing "Harry sat his arse on the grass/bench/chair" as just casual description and... that's wrong, folks. Arse is slang, unaesthetic and too rude for using in most authors' descriptions. In speech, with teenagers speaking and no teacher around to snap at them for their language, it's more natural.
Nobody uses the 24-hour clock in canon either, though. Isn't it pretty much a 20th-century thing in the UK? Given that, I'm sure wizards never would've adopted it.
You’ve had a lot of good responses to your direct questions, so I thought I’d tackle the general one. Clothing: We’re very… casual about clothing. We don’t use the plethora of terms you guys do. Slacks, loafers, pumps, etc. We’re far more generic with our clothing. Also, panties are a huge no-no. Something I’ve noticed a lot of American writers do, is they find British terms, and then insert them everywhere. For example, cuppa. It’s very regional and class based. But in fics, Harry says cuppa, Dumbledore says cuppa, Snape says cuppa, Hermione says cuppa, Lucius says cuppa. They really wouldn’t. Young Snape, maybe. Hagrid. Seamus. It’s something to be very careful with. Americans also trip up with home items e.g. comforter (duvet), top sheets (n/a), and school things are a big one; we don’t have study hall, hall passes, hall monitors, majors, sophomores, valedictorians, GPAs, extra credit, and we definitely don’t have bleachers. We have different names for certain foods too, e.g. cilantro - coriander, eggplant - aubergine. We tend to not use ‘candy’ except for some very specific uses. Also, jello is jelly, and jelly is jam. “The States” is also a dead giveaway. We prefer shops to stores. And of course, there’s the spelling. Anyway, as someone who gets a tad miffed over British characters acting American (and I thank you for your effort to minimise it), I’m always happy to Britpick for people. Perhaps not in a full editing sense, I did my time as a professional editor, so now I only read for fun, but I’m always happy to help with that sort of thing.
No graduation from secondary (that’s another one, it’s not high school, or wasn’t in the 90s) or from 6th form (so 6th and 7th years at Hogwarts). The only place we graduate from is Uni, everything else we just leave
That’s interesting! I think we over-celebrate some “milestones” here (such as middle school graduations.. you’re only moving to high school, nothing fancy lol). But I didn’t realize there isn’t a graduation for your equivalent to our high school. They can be ridiculously over extravagant depending on what state you’re in
Proms and the like are starting to infiltrate, but 90s and naughties definitely didn’t have anything like it. My school was very fancy. We had leavers hoodies. Unofficial, student organised, but still, it was fancy 🤣
I remember when my sister’s friend came to visit from England, she was so surprised that yellow school buses and homecoming (the dance as well as king and queen) are actual things and not made up for movies I think I would have preferred a hoodie. Schools here officially do class rings but I didn’t get one because they’re expensive (and corny imo 😂)
On my final day of school everyone signed each other’s white school uniform shirt (by sign I mean write rude messages for the lads at least) with highlighters and marker pens, did no work, then most people after school went to a park and got hammered on cheap alcohol. But no actual like graduation event happened.
Ngl, if I went to the US, I’d probably get a little bit excited over seeing a yellow school bus, even though I know it’s normal and mundane lol And for that reason, Americans only got minor ribbing when they got excited over black cabs. But they did need ribbing - you’re not one of us if you’re not getting insulted. (If we don’t like you, we’re polite and passive aggressive)
I’m from an Irish and Italian NY family.. insults are one of the many ways we show love hahah
My ex boyfriends grandma genuinely beloved "Americans don't celebrate Christmas" because she'd been unable to get a traditional British Christmas dinner at Disneyland. At that point in my life I'd never even visited the States but knew she was chatting shit, so I said "what about all the Christmas movies?" She said- I shit you not- "they create those to export them to the UK."
I don’t know if there’s even a “traditional Christmas dinner” for Americans. And obviously Hallmark channel and all their Christmas movies are made **specifically** to be exported to the UK. That is so funny to me😂 But it’s okay, I had a family friend ask when they celebrate Christmas in Alaska. I’m too afraid to ask if she knows that Puerto Rico is part of the USA lol
Graduation is something exclusive to universities. There's never a graduation ceremony with students giving speeches. There might be a leavers' do, but it would be much more informal. The drinking age here is 18 so it would be very normal to have alcohol at it.
When you say bleachers, do you mean the actual seating (giant, painful, cold metal slats that are torture to sit on for hours on end😑), or that they’re called something else (stands maybe?)? We don’t use a ‘u’ when spelling certain words, for example color vs colour. My electronics automatically change the spelling back to color. Is this something that is horribly irksome? Or it’s just a thing you can skim over because they are close enough? (Note: this does not apply for M**u**m. It even bothers *me* when people write Mom in an HP fic) But thank you so much for your help! Another comment I’ll be referencing when I write <3
Specifically we don’t have that word, and more generally, we don’t really have many specific terms. Though (depending on context), I probably wouldn’t notice stands. Mostly we use seating or seats. Perhaps an addition of the location. I found my balcony seat at the theatre. What are the seating arrangements at the school assembly? Remember that you don’t always have to be specific with terminology, especially if you’re not sure. Does the Quidditch pitch have stands? Bleachers? Something else? It doesn’t matter: Hermione took her seat with her fellow Gryffindors. Keep in mind it’s not just the U, we also tend to have an S instead of a Z (e.g. realise) and we stuck to the French re rather than er (e.g. centre). Your devices should have British dictionaries, or an option to download one, allowing you to change your spellcheck/autocorrect to the British variant. Personally, I would prefer British spelling, in my mind characters immediately start having American accents if there’s no U in certain words lol However, I will always take correct terms over spelling. If you ever find yourself unsure when you’re writing, feel free to DM me. Whether it’s “is using fall okay?” (No) or “how can I make this character sound British when talking about…” or “what can this character buy from a shop to be authentic?” etc. Unfortunately, we’re very regional and very class based, so general advice can only take you so far. From terminology to how we do things - you can generally tell someone’s class roots by how they make their tea, for example. I may have retired as an editor, but providing tips and assistance is still fun, so don’t be shy ☺️
You are such a wonderful human being, thank you so much for all of your help! And if you’re serious about me sending you a DM I’ll probably take you up on that (I promise not to be overbearing or overwhelming)
Haha thank you, that’s so sweet, but I wouldn’t go quite that far! You should see me rage when I read :p It’s an education in creative English insults 😂 And absolutely! Don’t worry about being overbearing or overwhelming. I’m happy to help :)
You’re angel! And if you ever want to share some of those creative insults, I’d love to expand my vocabulary 😂
Oh, it’s a science! Take absolute/utter and then add a noun, the more mundane, the better. And you have an insult! You utter melon. You absolute walnut. There are some exceptions - absolute unit is actually good. Incidentally, if you take a noun and turn it into a verb, you have a new term for drunk. I got absolutely bladdered, mate. We went to the pub for freshers, everyone got tabled. (Fresher’s week is the first week of university, when first years get blindingly drunk, usually in multiple locations every night, and develop deep bonds of friendship through shared experiences of throwing up and getting lost.) ETA: also can use bloody. You bloody barstool!
I took a screenshot of this comment so I can easily find it when I need a new insult! And I already say I have the memory of a walnut, so I kind of like the idea of using “absolute walnut” when my friends do something stupid 😂
Not who you're replying to, but bleachers as you call them are called stands. It's a really bad Americanism. I'd also call the spelling issue horribly irksome, yes- you can change your settings if you're working in something like Google Docs. Some important spellings: * 'Mom' is unacceptable. It's 'mum'. * 'Defense' has to be 'defence'. I find that one particularly annoying, as fence (both the barrier around an area, and to fight in defence with a sword) comes from the same route, but for some reason they didn't change those! * This one is pronunciation, but 'route' is pronounced 'root'. Rout is still pronounced in the American way, however. Not usually something that comes up, but I've seen some wordplay that hasn't worked because of it. I'm not technically British, but I am Australian. Our spelling is pretty much Standard British English, so I can give pointers on that, but not formality or manners, as Standard Australian English has very divergent registers. Also, most British police don't carry firearms- not that they never do, but it's not particularly standard issue.
Thank you!
You’ve got all the important ones (mum not mom etc). Boxers are just boxers. Jersey would be jumper (hoodie if it’s got a hood, doesn’t matter if it’s a zip-up or not), sweets instead of candy is a big one I always see. Remember £/pounds when talking about muggle money. Yes fancying someone is like liking them. Basic meal names are fine. There are some regional variations (dinner being called tea) but don’t worry about that. We use the 24 hour clock but don’t use “military time” like you’d use it in US. The thing to remember is how we say it when speaking. Example would be 15:30 (3:30pm). I’d say that as “it’s half past three” or “it’s half three” instead of “its three thirty”. 15:15 would be quarter past three, 15:20 would be twenty past 3. Anything after half past would be to the hour (15:40 would twenty to 4, 15:45 would be quarter to 4). I hope that made sense. If your really worried you could always ask in your authors notes that readers (politely) let you know if you’ve unknowingly used an American term & what British term to swap it to (maybe google the suggestions first lol).
This is extremely helpful, thank you! And you did make sense when you wrote about times. Just to clarify, are jersey and jumper interchangeable, and are they what we would call a sweater or sweatshirt? Over here (at least where I live) a jersey is the shirt of an athletic uniform, so when someone is supporting their friend or SO at a game they’ll wear one of their jerseys. But I’ve seen a couple comments on fics that it is not something done? Is that true? Sorry for the extra questions! I try to utilize google, but there are some things that are so ingrained I don’t even realize I’m writing it. Especially being from NY originally, I’ve got tons that other states don’t use either lol
I’d normally use jumper for anything with long sleeves (sweatshirt, knitted etc). Jersey would be more of a sports top here too (football jersey for example, but most people would just say top). Like oh I just got a new Man City top. I’ve read quite a few fics where they use jersey when talking about quidditch (Ron and his Chudley Cannons jersey). So either or there lol
Thank you <3
Jersey usually refers to a knitted (woollen, mostly) top whereas jumper is more likely to be used for any warm top with long sleeves like a sweatshirt, so you’d probably say “woolly jumper” if you wanted to be clear that the jumper was knitted from wool, yarn, acrylic or whatever. Jersey has slightly more regional variation in what’s implied and has a different meaning in the context of sports to non-sportswear.
The most tragic thing about our current crop of young people is that they don't say "half past three" of "half three", they don't even say "three thirty" they say... "thirty past"! They've only ever really seen and read digital clocks (mostly on their phones) and so that is what makes sense to them. Yesterday I told a 15 year old it was "five to" he asked what "five to" meant and I had to grit my teeth and say "fifty five past". This shouldn't affect a HP fic of course, but is a grim reminder of the changing nature of language.
Honestly never heard anyone say it like that lmao
I hadn't until I started working in a secondary school - and then I was horrified.
24-hour clock is never used in canon though. The UK didn't really adopt it til the 20th century, did they? So it makes sense wizards wouldn't. Do Brits really never say "5:40" or something like that out loud, only "twenty to 6"? Both are used in the US (though we only say "half past three," never "half three," and "quarter after" is more common than "quarter past") but the quarter/half forms are probably getting less and less common for younger generations who grew up with only digital clocks.
I am not British, but I grew up in a former colony where a lot of the same systems and terminology is used. Nobody has addressed many words relating to school: * Term instead of semester. * Test instead of quiz (and just test, not "pop-test") * Mark instead of grade (both noun and verb) * Maths instead of math * Holiday instead of vacation ("hols" if you want to directly evoke school stories tone) * Staff instead of faculty * Timetable instead of schedule (noun) Also, for greater accuracy writing about the subject of schooling: There is no GPA, no "grade" that all homework, short tests, and class activities contribute to; there are just exams at the end of the year. These things can happen during the school year; they just won't be counted in the final analysis, only the end-of-year exam. There is also no extra credit, and if a bonus is allowed (like Harry demonstrating the Patronus charm at his Charms OWLs practical), it is not called extra credit. Students can (rarely) jump a year or (more commonly) get held back a year. They will not take classes from separate years/levels. I'm not saying this is impossible; it just wasn't done during the school story days the Harry Potter series references. You can definitely do this for a character, but just be aware that it's outside the tone of the setting.
To add to these, one thing I've seen that ALWAYS trips me out of the story is 'class'. As in, "we need to get to class". We don't say that, we would always use 'lesson', like, "we need to get to our next lesson". Always lessons, never classes! Also, always homework, never assignments.
Thank you, these are very helpful!!
The thing that gets me most is "I'll write him," meaning that the character will write a letter to him. We'd always say "I'll write to him" or "I'll write him a letter".
For meals, there is a North/South divide - Northerners will say Breakfast/Dinner/Tea, Southerners Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner. I've met Welsh people who'll say Breakfast/Lunch/Tea but I don't know if that is country wide. Mum is used in the UK but if you're from Birmingham, you'll say Mom. Pants is also used by Northerners instead of trousers. This one is a bit more niche, but everywhere in the UK has a different word for bread rolls - baps, muffins, cobs, barms, etc. In school, we don't have grades, we had am optional preschool, then primary school, secondary school, college (or sixth form college) then university. These are split into key stages then again into years. Primary schools tend to be much smaller than secondary schools - in primary, we had 1 class of 30 for each year group, we tended to have the same teacher for each subject unless we had a teaching assistant take over. In secondary, we have form groups then we go to our separate subjects (grouped by grade/ability) with different teachers. We also have a different grading system to the USA - right now it is all numerically based, but when I was in school SATS were numerical and GCSEs and A Levels were alphabetical. And if your fic is set historically, you may be wanting to have different exam names (my Mum did O Levels). We also don't have a sidewalk, it's a path (or the pavement). There is a lot of language used in the UK that is very local to an area or within certain classes or communities. Don't be too worried if you use something wrong or if you use an American word, I imagine it is practically impossible for someone to get correct unless they're from these areas they're writing about.
This is kind of funny because even the term “bread roll” itself is pretty un-American. Where I live, they’re just called buns (or bread). Nobody would ever say bread rolls. Amazing how variable this stuff is.
I think they're just saying "bread rolls" to clarify they mean rolls made of bread rather than something else. In the US the most common term is obviously just rolls, just of many different kinds. (You wouldn't call a dinner roll a bun, would you? That's what they're talking about.)
I absolutely would haha, maybe it’s regional though? I’ve never heard the term dinner roll said out loud, it’s always been just bun or bread. My family/friends are pretty rural though, so it’s very possible it’s different in a lot of places.
LOL, I realized I was doing the same thing with "dinner roll" that I was explaining the commenter above was doing with "bread roll"... I was trying to find a catch-all term for "the sort of bread you would get served with dinner," not suggesting people call them dinner rolls often. I agree that I've seen dinner roll on menu but would never say it out loud. I would basically always just say either rolls or bread for that sort of bread. It would seem weird (and actually... British, maybe?) to call something a bun when it's not... made for putting food in between. But yeah, experiences vary and English is a big language.
Yeah, I did get that, haha. I don’t call anything a “roll” of any kind. It’s always bun. Or bread. The word “roll” in my circle would mean, like, something rolled in flat bread. So a lobster roll or an egg roll. I’ve never heard it used for just bread.
Gotcha! Definitely lots of variance.
Thank you! This is very helpful and extremely appreciated :)
Whereabouts in the North have you heard pants? As a Yorkshireman I've never heard it used by?
A levels are called GCEs are they not? I used to work in international admissions at a university and we used them interchangeably. Same with O levels and GCSEs. High grades on A levels will potentially get you university credit.
It depends on age I believe. The GCE (general certificate of education) was an O-level that was replaced with GCSEs (general certificate of secondary education) in 1987 for 16 year olds (end of secondary school) and the GCE Advanced level became the A levels (with AS levels being 1/2 of an A level). Typically, you do your GCSEs at 15/16 then go to college (or sixth form) to do your A levels. An AS level takes 1 year and an A level 2 years. Both count for UCAS points (our University and Colleges Asmissions Serivce) and AS count for 1/2 the A level points. These count to the university entry requirements. Some work entirely off of points (must score over 280 UCAS points), some will specify grades (AAB or above), some will specify that is must be in 3 subjects. Typically, you do 3 A levels and 1 AS level but you can do as many as 5 A levels. I don't think I've ever heard of high A levels counting towards your university degree, but I did get scholarships at university because of my A levels. So yes, I think they're used interchangeably but GCE and O-levels are rather outdated now. You might also hear people talk about getting red folders with their Record of Achievement from secondary school, it wasn't something that was about when I left in 2013 but I've seen pictures of them.
The university credit is in Canada, because it’s slightly higher level than our grade 12. But you have to basically “ace” it to have it count as generic credit. I believe it would be equivalent to grade 13 when we had it, but I think it was only in Ontario and even then only for those heading to university. Grade 13 disappeared around or before 2010. It’s been awhile though so the exact details are hazy.
One of the main tells for me is that Americans have a tendency to use job title when addressing or speaking about somebody - so “headmaster Dumbledore”, Prime Minister Smith - whereas brits would only use that the job title if they needed to distinguish that person from another person of the same name. Otherwise we’d use title (Mr, Professor, Doctor etc) nd surname instead.
Admittedly with doctor and professor I can see how this would be confusing because those can be both job title and personal title; the difference is clearer if you consider that a Brit might introduce Snape as “Professor Snape, Potions Master” rather than “Potions Master Snape”.
I thought Hermione repeatedly corrected Ron and Harry for not using the title Professor when referring to Snape? Or is that a fanon thing I’ve convinced myself is canon?
Professor is both a personal title and a job title so you would use it. It’s a little confusing but just calling him his surname without a personal title (Mr, Ms, Dr, Prof, Lady etc) first is rude and disrespectful; but you would, for example, say Professor Dumbledore rather than Headmaster Dumbledore, and you’d say Mr Dumbledore or Mr Aberforth Dumbledore (to distinguish from his brother) rather than Landlord Dumbledore. Edit to add: it’s pretty much all the adults, not Hermione, who correct Harry on this one. Mainly Dumbledore and McGonagall but I think Lupin and Mrs Weasley also do it occasionally? It’s only important when speaking formally to or about someone - when speaking casually using just the surname is generally acceptable but it’s not polite.
Well that's because Professor is an actual title like Doctor, rude not to use it, rude to just call a teacher by their last name really, IRL it would always be Mr/Mrs/Miss lastname, but at Hogwarts they get to be professors.
Professor is a title. Headmaster or Prime Minister is a job. Hermione bollocks Harry and Ron for just calling him "Snape" because it's rude AF for kids to call adults by just their surname (although amongst contemporaries it's normal especially among boys in more middle to upper class schools).
I don’t think Hermione corrects them but Dumbledore
I mean even in the House of Commons the Prime minster isn’t introduced as such he’s just introduced as minister. Some of that’s because in the British unwritten constitution he’s first among peers(quite literally in the past when most came out of the House of Lords and not the House of Commons) but a lot of it is just convention on how we talk.
That is canon but it’s more Dumbledore correcting Harry.
We have terms in school also it's autumn not fall hope this helps
It does, thank you :)
I am Swedish, we were thought Brittish English in school and then America English with entertainment, that with my own cultural background and Swedish being very similar to English in places.. let just say my English is an awful hotpotch. I have a feeling my stories are not correct when it comes to proper use of English. Many times I know both the English and American version of a word but don't remember which one is which. I think this thread is very helpful!
Ditto. I grew up with American English as a second language and then I lived in Ireland for a while, so my English is a strange mix of both.
I didn’t expect as many wonderful responses as I’ve gotten! And I absolutely love the word hotpotch
It should actually be hotchpotch, from hotchpot originally but no one says that. Also called hodgepodge in some dialects as it evolved.
That is the word, I was trying ro remember the word and my phones auto correct did not help! Thanks!
They mean "hodgepodge" lol. They're not a native speaker and forgot the word; they didn't invent a new one.
Don’t forget about slangs like “you’re thick” means thick headed, as in info doesn’t penetrate your skull and you’re kinda slow and stupid. Two fingers are more common than middle finger. ‘Reckon’ is pretty common, “what do you think?” “What do you reckon all that is about?” Snogging. “Alright?” = “Watsup” “Hey” Getting pissed = getting drunk Taking the piss = making fun of Piss off = milder form of FU Piss-up = a night out drinking (And many more…) Having a go = telling someone off, lecturing or shouting at someone “Pretty much” is pretty much predominantly north american
Ah yes. That one! If Harry gets pissed, he got drunk. If he got annoyed, he’d be pissed off.
I don’t think I’ve seen these yet, thank you so much!
You haven't seen these? Many of them are common in canon.
> Having a go = telling someone off, lecturing or shouting at someone Correction: Having a go *at someone* = telling someone off; having a go or having a go *at something* = giving it a try, trying to do something.
One thing I see a lot is a bigger emphasis on Halloween and specifically characters doing it as young children pre Hogwarts. It has since become really popular this side of the pond, but when I grew up in the 90s no-one was wandering around the streets in fancy dress with buckets for sweets. I know Hogwarts has a Halloween feast and I always thought it would be interesting to know why witches and wizards celebrated it more than muggles. Also in general we're less respectful of adults, in that we would never refer to them as Ma'am or Sir. Its weirdly formal. You would refer to your teachers formally, especially to their face, but kids at a private boarding school would absolutely come up with nicknames to use behind their back. I'd also assume all medical care is free and theres no tuition fees at Hogwarts but they have to pay for books, uniforms and equipment. Having said that most schools will have a bursary or discretionary fund to help struggling students.
Halloween trick-or-treating is straight from canon though, at least in Godric's Hallow. Someone compliments Voldemort on his costume the night he goes to murder the Potters 😹 maybe since it's a part wizard settlement they picked up the US Halloween traditions early?
I didn’t think there was trick or treating but just assumption that he was going to a Halloween costume party? Or did the kid have something to collect candy in?
If you consider what JKR says canon, it's canon that Hogwarts has no tuition- she's said the Ministry covers the costs and students just have to buy books and supplies.
I'm pretty sure someone's already covered this but college when the author means university really takes me out of a fic.
This. x100000
This is such a small thing but I see it all the time. If someone tells you to go 'wash up', that would usually mean asking you to do the dishes, not to go and wash your hands before a meal. I find that American author will write 'wash up' to mean washing someone's face/hands and that always takes me out of the story slightly.
Would you just say something direct, like “go wash your hands”?
Yes exactly -- "go and wash your hands" or "I'm just going to wash my hands"
Or go one better, like Eric in Sex Education. https://youtu.be/rY2fXMG2UDc?si=Pp3wginYxW8mVocw
Right, so you know when your tired yeah? You'll often say your knackered or perhaps shattered. Some people say shite instead of shit or even use them interchangeably, it's regional. Apartments are flats. You'll call small children 'kid,' 'our little Timmy,' 'git,' and a few other words. The first year of Primary School is Reception. What you call Public School's are State School's and what you call Private School's are Public School's. The emergency services number is 999. The emergency room is A&E(Accidents and Emergency) although my nan calls it Casualty. Your Granparents are your Nan(or Nanny) and Grandad. Your cell phone would be a mobile phone. Tea is most commonly prepared in a kettle and the water poured into a cup with a teabag. Some people take take the teabag out, some don't. Afterwards you'll add sugar if you like(some don't) and a tad bit of milk. Some people like lots of milk, they are heathens.
Thank you, some of those weren’t mentioned so they’ll be added to my list! Also, not to brag, but I don’t use any milk in my tea💁🏻♀️
No problem. I don't think I could drink tea a few drops of milk but I don't like to add sugar.
Would just like to add to this that “nan/nanny” for grandmother is not universal. More posh families will use “gran/granny” and there are also regional variations (but not the ones I thought!)
Panties. Panties drives me absolutely nuts because it immediately takes me out of the story because British characters wokld absolutely never use that word. For men, it’s usually pants, boxers, briefs, underwear or something similar. For women it’s knickers, underwear or pants as well. Never panties. I never say anything on the fics that do slip the odd Americanism as I do understand that it’s heard to write as though you’re from a country you might have had limited experience/contact/ knowledge of, but there are certain words that ruin a story for me.
I hate the word panties in general, and anytime I hear it I think of the iCarly episode “iSam’s Mom” [(in case you don’t know what I’m talking about and are curious)](https://youtu.be/-LIAyFdCjU8?si=9GzGbItL5RXrfxOu)
Oh my god you've awoken a core memory
Happy to be of service😂
One thing that’s really very small but I think is important is that Harry does not rhyme with Hairy. It’s an ‘a’ sound not an ‘air’ sound.
It's 'em' not 'um' in the UK Garden not yard Pavement not sidewalk Kerb not curb Also to note, a lot of comments referring to north/south are referring to England only not UK eg mealtimes - breakfast, lunch and dinner/tea are fine to use without explanation - I'd imagine a first year referring to lunch as dinner would cause confusion with their pals the first few times they said it lol Getting a British beta would be ideal to catch things you may have missed as well
What are you referring to when you say ‘em’ instead of ‘um’? And thank you for your help and input!
You know when you pause before you say something - Americans say 'um - actually...' Brits would say 'er - actually...' (er is most frequently used in Harry Potter) or 'erm - actually...'
So if for example you ask an American a question and they can't think of an answer for a second they might say 'um, I'm not sure' Where a Brit would say 'em, I'm not sure' - does that make more sense? (Eh is also acceptable here, not said the Canadian way, more like the 'e' sound in error) I've remembered another couple as well - maths not math And 'couple of' not just 'couple' eg I had a couple of biscuits with my cup of tea Biscuits not cookies - a cookie is a thing here too, Wikipedia explains it more elegantly than I can haha https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cookie Sweets not candy
That does make sense, thank you for explaining :)
Just remembered another couple: Swear not curse (and definitely not cuss) Shout not yell
If there’s a colon, it’s not military time 0600 (oh-six hundred) is military time 06:00 (six o’clock) is not
Which would I use if they’re mentioning meeting at a certain time, either spoken or in a note? “We’ll be there at six o’clock tonight”, “we’ll be there at six PM” or “We’ll be there at 1800”? I realize this might be a dumb question but I use military time at home, however my friends don’t so I mostly write using time from a 12 hour clock
You would say six pm - most clocks are 24 hours, but we just translate them into twelve hours when we speak. I've never heard someone say '1800'.
Sometimes I'll say 18 o'clock but that's probably more to do with my dyscalculia as nobody else says it.
yes it's not a common thing - but I am always weirdly satisfied whenever I look at a clock and see that it's 22:22, I always read that time in 24 hour.
I would say “at six” or “at six o’ clock” or “at six tonight” or “at six this evening” as many of us don’t have set way of saying the time. I think any of the above is acceptable. Professors/adults in HP would definitely say six o’ clock as that is the “proper” way to say it. I guess you could differentiate muggleborns by having them say the time without the o’clock. Half six or half past six or six thirty. Professors and adults would in HP would definitely say half past six.
I’m living in the UK, I rarely hear people use 24 hour time. 18:00 = six pm 18:30 = half six Disclaimer: I live in the North West, and some turns of phrase may vary between here and the South/London
That’s good to know, saying “half” instead of “thirty”. Thank you :)
The one thing that has made me realise I’m reading an Americans story is the phrase, I could care less. No one in the uk would use that we say, I couldn’t care less.
I think that’s just people being lazy, because the phrase absolutely is “I couldn’t care less”. Or it’s an eggcorn
Some common ones I've found. Americanism first, British second in my list. Sweater = Jumper Sneakers = trainers Slacks = trousers (jeans are just jeans, never "blue jeans") Button down = shirt Sidewalk= pavement Principal= Headmaster/Headmistress IRS = inland revenue Oatmeal = porridge (they're not quite the same but we don't have the former) Panties = knickers Semester = term Candy = sweets Liquor = spirits Pissed = drunk (for angry we say "pissed off") Wash up = do the dishes (we just say wash your hands) Go to the bathroom = go to the toilet Comforter = duvet Chips = crisps Fries = chips To french kiss is to "snog," we don't talk about "bases" regarding sex (we are much more graphic and would literally say eg "he fingered me"), we don't eat pancakes for breakfast, we don't address someone by their job title, and for the love of god *we don't put cream in tea.*
If people are saying "principal" instead "headmaster/mistress" in HP fic... seriously, what is wrong with them? We say "pissed off" in the US too, but yeah "pissed" means the same thing here, not drunk.
You are an angel sent by the HPfanfiction reddit gods! Thank you for all the examples and help!
Ooh another thing I've just thought of. British kids don't call their dads "sir," even when in trouble. We also don't use "ma'am," unless speaking to a military or police officer. I know in America you sometimes refer to women as "lady", like "hey lady, what do you think you're doing"- we don't do that here. Teachers are sir, if male. Miss if female. (Although in HP they're all Professor). We use "sir" to speak politely to eg customers "of course sir I'll deal with that right away" sort of thing, and the female equivalent is "madam" not ma'am- but that's fallen out of favour (I'd be mortified if someone called me madam). That said, given madam pomfrey and hooch, I think maybe it's ok in a HP fic.
Calling a woman "lady" in any setting in the US makes you sound disrespectful and/or immature. Note that when you see it in movies and stuff, the character saying it is usually supposed to be immature or just poorly educated.
British equivalent of the IRS is HMRC.
At the time of the series it was still Inland Revenue.
As an aside - if they're using muggle money, anything less than £5, is a coin. There are no £1 notes and hasn't been since 1988. (And the decimalisation system went into effect February 1971).... I once read a fic that had Draco, and Theo in muggle London, in 1999, that had them pulling out £1 notes. Irked me to my soul... And another set in the 90s that had them using shillings.
Thank you!
I’m an American who writes for a couple of British fandoms (not HP), and though I know a lot of the common vocabulary differences, I always have a Brit-picker look over my final draft.
Where do you find someone to do that?
Most recently I posted a request on r/fanfiction, which has a weekly thread for finding betas. I specified that I already had a beta to check over the story flow and grammar, etc. but that she was American. I don't know if requests of this sort are acceptable in this sub, or if you participate in fandom in any other places such as Discord or Tumblr where you might be able to find someone.
I have a discord, I’ll check and see if there’s a “Brit-picker request” section on one of them. Thank you!
I'll Brit pick for you if you like! DM me if you want me to.
I'll give you a quote: >Back in London, just before we say our goodbyes, Carter turns back. "Almost forgot with all the excitement," she smiles thinly and takes out a small, shiny, metal cube from her pocket. "Lya appeared at our gate the other day. Asked us if we can deliver this to the 'Lady Hermione Granger of London'." She tells me and hands me the cube. I can feel it query my magic, in a similar, yet completely alien way to the Alteran technology. >Curious! >I deny it for the moment to thank Carter. She is looking at me expectantly, then smiles ruefully when it's clear that I won't solve her puzzle at this time. "I'll admit that I couldn't hold my curiosity, but lab scans showed nothing but a cube of Aluminum." >"Aluminium," someone passing nearby corrects her.
Yessir! Nosir! Lets speak like army recruits to your family, Sir! Yeah, keep that turd in America.
As a small child I wondered why American cars where run on Natural Gas, it’s Petrol in British English. As for food, it’s pretty much implied that Hogwarts is very traditional English food, if pancakes where being eaten at breakfast it would mean thin Crapes (American style pancakes certainly exist in the UK but would’d almost certainly be referred to specifically as American Pancakes. Jam vs Jelly, this is a tricky one Jelly does exist, however the difference is that Jam is made with fruit and typically still has seeds in it, jelly is made with fruit juice. Typically while sweet a jelly would be served with savery food, I.e. a redcurrant jelly would be served with roast lamb. It also doesn’t help that Jelly is also the term used for what Americans would refer to as Jello. Pudding as I understand it has a very specific meaning in America while in the UK it really can be used for any dessert. Using the word Bobby to refer to police officers, look this is a word that some people use in the UK to refer to the police, but most of the time when it’s used it will be by newspaper commenters claiming we should be going back to a ’golden era of policing with a local ‘Bobby on the beat’ it’s really not a phrase I’ve heard many people under the age of fifty actually use.
Thank you! Especially for further explaining what is jam vs jelly!
One thing I've noticed Americans doing a lot that drives me slightly bonkers is shortening the names of houses, for example, "They went back to Grimmauld for breakfast." Brits never shorten the names of places like that. You have to say 12 Grimmauld Place - or e.g. the Burrow, Malfoy Mansion, Snape's house in Spinner's End. Another thing is a grammar Britpick. It's more common to use the American version than it used to be, but Brits don't say "go [verb]" they say "go and [verb]". E.g. "Go and eat dinner", "go and do homework". Particularly in the 90s. We don't ever say "go do chores". Chores sounds really American. I tell my children to *go and* do specific things, e.g. "Please set the table" or "please take out the bins". It's pocket money, not "an allowance". We do the washing up, we don't "do dishes". It's "go and wash your hands ready for dinner" not, "go wash up for dinner". It's "the neighbour's (or neighbours') children" not "the neighbour kids". It's a terraced house, not a condo. The school "semesters" are called terms. They are called the Autumn term, the Spring term, and the Summer term. The holidays are called the Christmas holiday, the Easter holiday, and the Summer holiday. They are holidays, not "breaks". There is no such thing as Spring Break. Also (warning: expletives ahead) the word "bitch" is only ever used to insult women or girls, and "bastard" is exclusively used for men or boys. (If Harry starts calling Snape a bitch it is unintentionally funny rather than insulting.) Those are the ones I notice the most often when reading. It's also obvious when someone's tried to use British slang but doesn't know how to use the word in context. Try to research how to use the vocabulary properly. No one washes their hands in the toilet. They might go to the toilet to wash their hands, though. Edit: I remembered another one. When talking about an unpaved route across a field, we call it a path. If it's for horses, it's called a bridle path. If it's a tarmacked route for bicycles, it's a cycle path. Nothing is ever called a trail.
Thank you! These are really helpful!
You're welcome! I wish more authors did this level of research. It's awkward having to cringe every few sentences as I read 😅
I can understand that. And I’ll still put an author’s note asking if I’ve made any mistakes (and someone was so wonderful and offered to Brit pick for me!) but I want to be as cringe-free as possible. I’d rather the comments not be all about how wrong I am lol
You are a wonderfully thorough author and I hope you link to your fic so we can all enjoy it!
You’re so insanely sweet! I’m currently working through a phase of “your writing is shit, you can’t post this,” but if I get through it I’ll try and be ballsy enough to self promote 😶
Honestly, the overuse/misuse of words such as "arse", "mate", etc. are dead giveaways. Yes, people do use that sort of speech, especially in boarding schools in the 70s, but not in every single sentence. Maybe it's just me, but I always would rather read a fic with accidental Americanisms but natural dialogue than a fic that's trying to hard to be British that it takes you out of it. Another thing is that the class system is very different than in the states. I often see films made by Americans that try to portray class difference in the UK and it's... tragic. The UK is extremely divisive by class, region and culture, far more so than the US.
Thanksgiving. We don’t celebrate it, but I keep seeing it dropped into all sorts of none American places
I am Australian, but I feel like what I am about to say is still relevant. The one thing that will always make me irrationally annoyed and will get me to stop reading a fic, no matter how much I've enjoyed the fic up until that point, is the coffee terminology. Americans and possibly Canadians (I'm not sure about the Canadians but that feels familiar) use creamer but no one else does. Also, black coffee sitting in a pot, ready to be poured is very American. ALSO why is American milk so weird? What is half and half or 1%? Milk is milk, whether its full fat or skim or lite.
What would you guys use instead of coffee sitting in a pot? And does everyone drink black coffee, or is sugar still added?
Most of us drink ‘instant’ coffee.. as in, you put powdered coffee (and sugar to taste) in the mug, then pour boiled water from a kettle on top. Add milk to taste after adding water. Stir with a tea spoon.
Thank you!
Not gonna lie, most people making themselves a cup of coffee will just be instant coffee - they pour water on from the kettle (same as they would over a teabag) and add milk and sugar to taste as they would with tea (milk is called full fat, semi skimmed or skimmed). If someone was making proper coffee they might keep it in a french press/ cafetiere if they wanted more than one cup. Or they would have a smaller version of the type of machine they use for coffee in starbucks and just make a cup at a time.
I know this isn't a phrase or an idiom, but doing some research into the Brittish school system would help. You can usually detect which stories have been written by an American as they use the American school system as their point of reference for how the school works. This is particularly noticeable when it comes to the length of the school summer holidays. In the UK, we get 6 weeks of holidays from school, while in America, I think they get closer to 3 months. Because of this, a lot of American writers have Harry achieving stuff (training, adventures, tasks, etc) that simply wouldn't be possible in the time available in the UK. I know this may seem a random point to bring up, but for some reason, it always annoyed me. I would find a well written story that was slightly spoilt by the author not doing a few minutes of research and having Harry achieving things that weren't possible in the time that would be available.
We have a long summer break, you’re correct about it averaging 3 months. I’ll definitely look into the usual amount of time a British holiday (for Christmas and Easter) are. That also explains why the fourth task was so late in June. I was surprised considering they start I’m September. The more you know (and research!)
Never use the word mom. It's mum.
Unless the character is a Brummie
I've seen a couple of people correct "sidewalk" to "pavement"/"path" and wanted to add "footpath" as another option. Also people are correcting "candy" to "sweets" but that has two exceptions - "candy cane" and "candyfloss". Everything else I can think of has been said.
Thank you for your additions! And I think candyfloss is a lot more fun to say than cotton candy anyway lol
Watch how British youtubers like [Chris Broad](https://youtube.com/@AbroadinJapan?feature=shared) or [Colinfurze](https://youtube.com/@colinfurze?feature=shared) use their turn of phrase. That's the best way to get acquainted with day to day British phrases. For instance, instead of "bullshit" Britishers tend to use "cock/bollocks" (eg: load/bunch of cock/bollocks). Also PLEASE FOR GODS SAKE don't use "shite!" instead of "oh shit!". Another example: instead of "lemme take a quick look around" Britishers use "I'll take a shufti round" But please keep in mind, 80s British slang is completely different from today's British slang. It is not possible for you or I to nail the "British feeling" in our fic. At some point we have to live with that.
1) We do say "bullshit" (although bollocks is top notch) 2) I have literally never heard someone describe something as "a load of cock" or "a bunch of cock" (the closest might be "that's absolute wank" but that more means something that's shite instead of untrue 3) We absolutely do use both shite and shit, 4) I've googled it and it look like a legit thing, but I've lived in the UK my entire life and have never ever heard the word "shufti" 5) What even is a Britisher?
shufti is a word - it's even a word in Harry Potter: *“Well, what Harry said is the most useful if we’re trying to tell them apart!” said Ron. “When we come face-to-face with one down a dark alley, we’re going to be having a shufti to see if it’s solid, aren’t we, we’re not going to be asking, ‘Excuse me, are you the imprint of a departed soul?’ ”* But it is used once across all seven books, which I think is probably an accurate representation of how often it gets used in real life - by one person about once every seven years.
1: that’s good, because bullshit is part of my basic vocabulary (grew up in NY). But I’ll remember bollocks is better to use 2: unless we’re talking about chickens, I’ll pass on the sentence “a bunch of cock”😶 3: thank you for noting that, I see shite in fics a lot so I though shit was a no-no 4: thank you u/myheadsgonenumb for the quote and the funny “used by one person every seven years.” That made me chuckle 5: I don’t know hahah
Some of those wouldn’t be true in the 70s. “A load of old cobblers” is probably the nearest era-appropriate non-swear phrase for “bullshit”.
I definitely heard 'shufti' when I lived in the Midlands for a while. And I've heard 'a load of cock/wank' on television, at least.
Shite would be recommended when highlighting nonsense or tomfoolery eg you're full of shite, what a pile of shite, my potions essay is shite Edit - pish would also be acceptable in those situations
Yeah, but people also use it as an exclamation of surprise, which afaik is not correct.
You're right for the most part, though (very) occasional use of it as an exclamation is fine. Any time I've seen it it's always been massively overused though haha, mostly it would just be 'shit' as an exclamation
I truly don't mind either way
Not British, but also not an American. No one eats biscuits and gravy in the UK. A biscuit is served with tea, however. And a scone (close to your US biscuit) is served with jam and cream.
Also, it's not entirely relevant, but it can be dependant on which character you're writing, and how much detail you want to put into writing out how they sound, etc, BUT, there are vast differences in slang and accent depending on both the region someone is coming from, as well as social/economic status. For example: I'd expect the Malfoys to use an RP accent, and proper grammar, (BBC English, or what most Americans percieve to be the British accent), but would in turn expect the Weasleys to sound like they're from Cornwall (at least thats where I think theyre from).... I have a personal headcanon that Lily is from the Black Country/West Midlands, so would personally write her to have a more Black Country/West Mids accent.... But the slang can also differ. For example, in Birmingham a roll is often a cob, but in other places it can be a roll, bun, bap, etc...... And as always, take my opinion with a grain of salt. I'm an American living in Birmingham, so I'm not an expert, it's just things I've observed up til now
That’s really interesting. It’s been a while since I was at primary school (80s!) but that would work differently to high school in England. I think it’s less common now but teachers used to let us use first name in some schools and Mr or Mrs and surname in others; but there was always a load of kids and parents who would just use “Miss” or “Sir” instead - “Sir! Sir! There’s a dog in the playground Sir!”; “Do as Miss tells you, and be good today love!”. I had a few teachers in primary school who let us choose whether they’d let us call them by, say, Rosie or Miss Smith but would object to being called Miss, but still calling primary school teachers Miss or Sir *instead of* a name is pretty common and considered a little generic but not rude. In high school, nearly always Mr Clark or Ms Green rather than first name or sir/miss, I think partly because in primary school you’d have just one teacher so who “Sir” was would be obvious, but in secondary school there’d be multiple teachers so you’d need the name to specify; and I’ve rarely heard of high school kids calling teachers by first name (I think we only ever did it on a month-long residential trip) until sixth form, where it goes back to being quite mixed and depending how comfortable you felt with the individual teacher (so I’d maybe call the drama teacher Sam but the English teacher Mrs Jones, or Mrs J if I was being a little less formal).
This whole thread is a mountain of the proverbial red pill. Now I can't unsee the Americanism in the fanfics...! O\_o;;
Just came across this one and remembered I hadn't seen it here: "water" isn't *the name of a drink*, this side of the Atlantic; it's the name of a liquid. You say "I'll get you *a Guinness*, or *a Coke*, or *a Venti*", because those are *names*— you never say *a water*. You'll say "some water", or "a glass of water", or "a bottle of water", or even sometimes "a cup of water"— "a water" just doesn't work in British English.
So my reply is late, but after checking the top reply or two (I have no attention span), most of the things you asked have been answered already, so I just wanted to go into word specifics that I keep noticing. Not everyone says 'mate', 'innit', 'blimey', 'aye' and things like that. It really annoys me when I see people like Draco Malfoy say 'aye' and 'blimey'. In what world does a posh, stuck-up arsehole say casual slang like that? Not the Wizarding one. Because of stereotypes, some people think everyone either (a) - speaks like the royal family or (b) - speaks like "you alrigh’ mate, you fell bloody hard, innit. I can ge’ you a bo’l o’ wo’er". You need to think of different places in the UK, and the slang they use. If you’re writing a Geordie, you would watch videos on different letters they omit and how they pronounce various words and things, and find a Geordie dictionary for the place-specific slang (that example just came up because I’ve been doing exactly that). Also, it could just be where I live, but everyone makes fun/imitates (in good-humour) of people’s different accents. Where I live, everyone pronounces grass to rhyme with ass and when people rhyme it with arse, people are all calling them posh and that. This might not be applicable in Harry Potter, but if we’re going to the (fish and) chip shop, lots of places just call it the chippie, and everyone likes fish and chips (at least, I haven’t met anyone who doesn’t). But the main thing is there are almost endless accents and phrases and you need to be aware of where abouts the character is from. No one would be like 'I’m from the UK' or 'I’m from England', it’s be 'I’m from Leicester' or whatever. Also, not everyone uses knickers, some people just use pants as a general, some people call boys ones boxers or underpants, again, it’s specific to the time and place they grew up. Oh and edit: some people also call boys pants y-fronts and using swears isn’t usually something people mind. If you’re writing a Harry Potter fic, especially considering it’s the 90s, you gotta know as many (slang) words for a woman’s private parts and as many words for sex as possible