
Freddy Woo writes, "My wife thinks calling the front room a lounge is common. Worse, a friend of hers recently admonished her daughter for calling a toilet, a toilet. Lavatory darling. It's lavatory."
My own mother refused to let me use the word 'oblong' instead of 'rectangle'. Which is just odd, to be honest.
What stuff do you think is common?
( , Thu 16 Oct 2008, 16:06)
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as above, "lounge" and "toilet" - but actually "front room" too - it was the sitting room, in my parents' house
"settee"
"serviette"
grammatical errors
discussing money esp. haggling over restaurant bills
commerce in general (I work in retail, and once said this to my MD at the start of a two hour car journey, just me and him. That was clever)
sports in general
football shirts as leisurewear
estuary English
pronouncing licorice "lickerish"
pronouncing tissue "tishoo"
(although I do draw the line at "suit" - I do pronounce it "sute")
conspicuous consumption - vulgar jewellery, flashy cars etc
faux-Tudor leading in windows
calling your grandmother "nan"
calling your evening meal "tea"- I've always thought that it's supper if at home and dinner if out
calling your lunch "dinner"
I find almost everything about modern life - particularly my own - insufferable, I have to admit. But then I'm quite posh, I'm afraid. Not in a plummy, knob-end way, but I can't help having fairly illustrious forebears and I'm rather proud of (albeit also rather daunted by) them.
Please don't hate me. My mother pretended we 'couldn't get ITV' until I sussed it out when I was about 6....
Let the flames begin.
( , Thu 16 Oct 2008, 16:38, 22 replies)

not discussing money is possibly the most ridiculous idea I've ever heard.
"settee" "serviette" - aren't these just pretty interchangable with "sofa" and "napkin"?
( , Thu 16 Oct 2008, 16:54, closed)

at school then. Surely no one calls them 'lunch ladies'?
( , Thu 16 Oct 2008, 17:43, closed)

they were called waiters.
*may contain traces of lie*
( , Fri 17 Oct 2008, 10:50, closed)

Hasn't that language changed enough to just be called 'American' by now?
( , Thu 16 Oct 2008, 23:06, closed)

aargh, in my parents house it is called the drawing room
( , Thu 16 Oct 2008, 20:24, closed)

I do five of those things :-p Mainly words. lickerish, tishoo, nan, tea and dinner. That's how I speak. But I've got Brummy blood in me, so it's allowed.
( , Fri 17 Oct 2008, 13:37, closed)

Oh yes.. a definite class indicator.
I was always confused by the children in my primary school who would refer to their "nan". I thought it was short for "nanny", and would wonder how such lower-middle-class people could afford nannies!
It took me a few years to work out that it should have been "gran" - short for grandma/grandmother.
( , Fri 17 Oct 2008, 17:25, closed)

I'm uneasy with "Gran" or "Gramps".
It's Grandma or Grandpa for me.
( , Tue 21 Oct 2008, 14:17, closed)

"Tissyou" sounds a bit Hyacinth Bucket to me!
And I also thought supper was the meal eaten after dinner.
In my defense, I moved here when I was six months old, so my parents just picked up speech patterns from those around them. Although they now think I sound posh.
( , Fri 17 Oct 2008, 20:36, closed)

Only the most desperate social climbers and pucker-lipped bbc newsreaders pronounce it tiss-you. I'm guessing you're not a newsreader.
( , Sun 19 Oct 2008, 17:39, closed)

and I'm sorry but saying something like 'scar tishoo' is just plain fucking wrong.
There are helpful pronunciation hints in most dictionaries, you know.
( , Mon 20 Oct 2008, 13:46, closed)
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