I hate to be the Clueless American, but I have no idea what this is.

:34853_huh:

Anyone able to clue me in?

I hate to be the Clueless American, but I have no idea what this is.

:34853_huh:

Anyone able to clue me in?

Here Lirpa:

http://www.butlinsonline.co.uk/

Butlins are a chain of cheap cost holidays set in caravan parks.. we all went as kids:D

Awwww, Butlins.

It's a British holiday camp place. I remember watching the ads when I was a kid and thinking how cool it would be to go there. :biggrin:

*sigh* I love Charlie

This will explain it better to non-Brits like us http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlins

I found that other website confusing, and it didn't really explain what it is, unless you already knew about it.

By the way "holiday" is Brit for "vacation"
and "caravan park" is Brit for RV park, or campground.

Thanks for the link!

Where was "butlins" used in the eppy?

It was the swimming pool flashback!

Best thread ever!

am from england myself but have never been to a butlins, my friend took his nephew but said it was $%^$%£$%$%£"$% and there really bad swear words

This will explain it better to non-Brits like us http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butlins

I found that other website confusing, and it didn't really explain what it is, unless you already knew about it.

By the way "holiday" is Brit for "vacation"
and "caravan park" is Brit for RV park, or campground.

I would have thought America had caravan parks, it isnt an RV, caravans dont move. Personally though i wouldnt live in one at all i would have a hippy van. I always thought Butlins had chalets (cabins) rather than caravans .... even though we have cabins too ... im so confused right now

The pic on that wiki page reminds me of otherville.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Irl_Butlins_Mosney.jpg

I would have thought America had caravan parks, it isnt an RV, caravans dont move. Personally though i wouldnt live in one at all i would have a hippy van. I always thought Butlins had chalets (cabins) rather than caravans .... even though we have cabins too ... im so confused right now

In North America, if the "houses on wheels" don't normally move, it is called a "trailer park" and is considered to be the lowest of low class.

However, my father, who was English, told me that the "caravans" at Butlins did move, and a family would rent one, park it at a Butlins camp, and then go touring in it on the way back.

In the Butlins clip it sounded to me like Charlies dad had a scottish accent:confused:

Butlins anagram=B.T.Linus.
Familiar with Bens middle name anyone?

In the Butlins clip it sounded to me like Charlies dad had a scottish accent:confused:
Yeah, it did. It sounded as though he started out with a gruff Yorkshire accent which gradually degenerated into a Scottish one.

I always thought Butlins was a chalet-based holiday camp rather than a caravan park. Mind you, I've never been there, maybe I was influenced by Hi-de-Hi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hi-de-Hi%21) (it's a shame Ruth Madoc didn't make an appearance in Charlie's flashback.)

Butlins anagram=B.T.Linus.
Familiar with Bens middle name anyone?

I'd take a stab at 'Theodore' but for Alex having used it for her and Karl's constelation when she were none to keen on dear old dad .....hmmmmm. I'll think about it.

(Locke has a secret middle name too - it was omited from a piece of his documentation where 'None or not applicable' should have appeared if that were the case; but did not. But then I think the document was iffy anyway so... ;) Bad John!)

I used to clean chalets at a holiday park. Both my sisters too. It's a rights of passage thing for young women around here; first experience of the realities of wage slavery: working somewhere you cant afford to stay on the wage they pay you.

Hi-de-hi! had it bang to rights. The chalets I worked were little more than hutches with bunks. :angel:

Basically, in Btitain post-WWII, nobody went abroad for holidays but instead they went to places like Butlins (and it's main rival, Pontins).

They were hugely popular with the working classes during the 50's, 60's and part of the '760's but when cheap air-travel kicked in, it virtually killed the industry.

Most camps were based around wooden 'chalet' style living quarters and the entertainment would invariably involve family activities.

Rebranded themselves over the last few years as a place for weekend parties

I was going to go to Butlins once as a child. I was going to go with my friend for his birthday and our parents were going to let us have the day off school and everything, all the other kids were really jealous. Then during the night before there was a big hurricane (the only one in england in like forever) and they had to shut Butlins. Everyone got the day off school and we never got to go to Butlins.
After all these years it still hurts.
Damn you Charlie for bringing back these memories.

I'd take a stab at 'Theodore' but for Alex having used it for her and Karl's constelation when she were none to keen on dear old dad .....hmmmmm. I'll think about it.

(Locke has a secret middle name too - it was omited from a piece of his documentation where 'None or not applicable' should have appeared if that were the case; but did not. But then I think the document was iffy anyway so... ;) Bad John!)

I used to clean chalets at a holiday park. Both my sisters too. It's a rights of passage thing for young women around here; first experience of the realities of wage slavery: working somewhere you cant afford to stay on the wage they pay you.

Hi-de-hi! had it bang to rights. The chalets I worked were little more than hutches with bunks. :angel:

hey there liplocked!i like your guess!Theodore sounds promising to me!Dont forget what a surprise it was when we found out bout Charlies middle name!Thay all mean sth!
No doubt Butlins is a Ben hint.

Is your signature taken by Clive Barker's book,Sacrament?they burn a lot of moths there:biggrin:

Hee hee, i giggled to myself when he wrote "taught me to swim at BUTLINS" lol - i was quote impressed with the writers because it made it seem more realistic to have a british holiday camp...

His flashback families accents were awful though.. *le sigh*

Reading the Butlins description brings back fond memories for me. I went to the American equivalent with my family as a kid: a YMCA-run family camp in Wisconsin. We had our own cabin, there were scheduled activities, and a big lake for swimming and canoeing.

I also went there as a kid, liked that they added that in there. :)
I also thought Mr Pace sounded Scottish, perhaps he is supposed to be, maybe met Mrs Pace in Manchester?
You know how daddy issues are so prevelant in this show, I was expecting him to not catch Charlie.

My first holiday was to a butlins camp in Pwllheli when i was 10 . There was a free fairground, beach and an out door swiming pool . You dont need much more than that when your ten. I live near manchester and Pwllheli is the closest one, so if charlie went to a Butlins , chances are it was there..

I would have thought America had caravan parks, it isnt an RV, caravans dont move. Personally though i wouldnt live in one at all i would have a hippy van. I always thought Butlins had chalets (cabins) rather than caravans .... even though we have cabins too ... im so confused right now

Trailer is the word for the ones that don't move. Caravans are several cars in a row following each other to get somewhere. (to us Americans). But, if we are going on vacation it would be to a campground where we either take our RV, tent, or rent a cabin.

I just want to say that I love you Brits!!!!!

Always standing by our side in crisis (unlike France!)

Never heard of "Butlins"...pretty cool word.

And that language you guys speak is tha Bomb! It's kinda like English but different?

;)

I just want to say that I love you Brits!!!!!

Always standing by our side in crisis (unlike France!)

Never heard of "Butlins"...pretty cool word.

And that language you guys speak is tha Bomb! It's kinda like English but different?

;)

I too learned to swim at Butlins! My Dad loved to take us there.

We also went to Coronation Holiday Camp on Hayling Island and Prestatyn Holiday Camp in Wales. Oh and the Butlins at Minehead and the Butlins on Barry Island!

I can confirm there were no caravans that I ever saw there - ever! There were chalets and you all ate your meals in a big dining room and Dad complained that they used teabags instead of real tea!

There were fancy dress competitions and talent contests - baby shows, sports days oh and of course The Redcoats! The entertainment staff all wore red blazers.

The Camps were named after the inventor - Billy Butlin.

Oh and Lenny, whilst your Anglophilia is charming, could I just point out that WE don't have accents - you do!:cool:
100%
Oh and yes, to previous poster - Hi di hi! was spot on! A perfect representation (albeit exaggerated for laughs) of a Butlins Holiday Camp.

Poor Peggy finally got to become a "Yellow Coat" the day it closed!

Oh and Lenny, whilst your Anglophilia is charming, could I just point out that WE don't have accents - you do!:cool:
I take it youve never been to Yorkshire then. ;)

Oh and Lenny, whilst your Anglophilia is charming, could I just point out that WE don't have accents - you do!:cool:

Your Queen was in my country recently, I saw when she met our President, the odd thing is the Queen didn't sound much like Charlie or Naomi, and NOBODY in America besides the President says nucyuler instead of nuclear. SO who has the accent?

There were fancy dress competitions

Another translation:
British:"fancy dress"
American: "costume"

Your Queen was in my country recently, I saw when she met our President, the odd thing is the Queen didn't sound much like Charlie or Naomi, and NOBODY in America besides the President says nucyuler instead of nuclear. SO who has the accent?

If I may just quote from the Oxford Dictionary of English:-

"USAGE The standard pronunciation of the word "nuclear" in British and US English rhymes with "clear".

A variant pronunciation exists in US English, famously used by Presidents Eisenhower and Carter, which pronounces the second part of the word like "-ular" in "circular" or "particular". This pronunciation is not acceptable in standard British or US English, although it is still widely heard."

My point about accents is, that whilst British English has many regional variations, as does American English, (a New Yorker sounds rather different from a Southern Belle) the English that we speak is closer to the original language that was developed on the island of it's birth - i.e. England! Therefore any deviation from that, is the "accent".

Just because people in other countries don't pronounce words in the same way that you personally do, does not mean THEY have an accent and YOU do not!

We all have some kind of an accent but to say everyone who does not speak like you do "has a weird accent" is rather daft.

Homer J. also pronounces it nu-cular,so that must be it!End of story!:beer:

In the States we have KOA Kampgrounds and Jellystone Parks that appear to be like the Butlins in the England. Or are the KOA and Jellystone only in the South?

i too learned to swim at butlins filey in yorkshire :)
it was mainly chalets, like a down market otherville with organised 'fun' activities and a free fairground.

as far as i know, most of the camps were initially army barracks during the war, then built upon to provide holidays for the masses post war.

would claire though, as an australian, have any clue what butlins means when she would hypothetically read the note? she'd be just as confused as americans, wouldn't she? and be like wtf is a butlins charlie?

Homer J. also pronounces it nu-cular,so that must be it!End of story!:beer:

But wait! Mr Burns pronounces it "new-clear"!

So that's the Oxford Dictionary, H.M. the Queen, Montgomery Burns, me - oh and every other British person I know! How stupid are we?:biggrin:
100%
would claire though, as an australian, have any clue what butlins means when she would hypothetically read the note? she'd be just as confused as americans, wouldn't she? and be like wtf is a butlins charlie?

I'm sure she could ask someone. It's not that hard to find out. Desmond would know.

In the States we have KOA Kampgrounds and Jellystone Parks that appear to be like the Butlins in the England. Or are the KOA and Jellystone only in the South?
We have KOA's on the West Coast too - so it's a nation wide chain.
But everything I learned about Jellystone I got from Yogi & Boo & Boo :biggrin:

I picked up the probable meaning of Butlins from the context of the show, but still nice nice to see the reference explained.

Interesting. Not *quite* as interesting as the Jelly/Jam/Jello discussion last time, but interesting none the less. :) I am learning so much about culture and language in other countries from watching Lost, it's amazing.

Chalets - I always think of chalets (though not many ppl use that word here) as some kind of fancy cottage-type place. Fancy sounding word, so must be fancy type building! ;)

Fancy Dress - when I read that, I literally thought of a woman wearing a fine, fancy dress. If I was a kid dressed up in a clown costume that showed up for the contest, it seems funny to think that you would refer to him in "fancy dress." But anything that's not-how-you've-always-heard-it is funny to you, you know?

Tell me more! I want to know all about the English-words-that-mean-one-thing-in-the-US-and-another-in-the-UK.

Buttlins ???

Its just a fancy word for hemhroids.:)

Interesting. Not *quite* as interesting as the Jelly/Jam/Jello discussion last time, but interesting none the less. :) I am learning so much about culture and language in other countries from watching Lost, it's amazing.

Chalets - I always think of chalets (though not many ppl use that word here) as some kind of fancy cottage-type place. Fancy sounding word, so must be fancy type building! ;)

Fancy Dress - when I read that, I literally thought of a woman wearing a fine, fancy dress. If I was a kid dressed up in a clown costume that showed up for the contest, it seems funny to think that you would refer to him in "fancy dress." But anything that's not-how-you've-always-heard-it is funny to you, you know?

Tell me more! I want to know all about the English-words-that-mean-one-thing-in-the-US-and-another-in-the-UK.


Butlins is, of course, a trade name as it is named after its founder, Billy Butlin.

Most British people are bi-lingual when it comes to American vs British words. We know most of yours and you are clueless about ours. There are some that we don't even realise have different meanings, simply because it never comes up.

One example I found in America, I was jogging and I always tend to jog on the road if it's quiet as it's more level than the "sidewalk". My friend asked if I always ran on the "pavement"??? I was baffled since we call the "sidewalk" the "pavement". I made a point of remembering not to tell American children "to walk on the pavement!"

Jaspar Carrot tells a good story of how he went into a stationery shop in the US and asked for a "rubber". He was told to try a pharmacy. So he went to a pharmacy and asked for a rubber.
"Just the one?" enquired the assistant.
"Well I don't make that many mistakes!" He replied indignantly.
NB We call an "eraser" a "rubber".

Similarly Australians call sticky tape (Sellotape here) "Durex". In Britain that is a well known brand of "rubber" (condom)!

Oh and one that flummoxed me years ago. I was working for Avis in London and an American lady customer asked me if we had a "rest room". Puzzled I asked her, "Why, are you tired?"
We would say "Ladies" or "loo".

But there are so many
US----------------------------Brit
shopping cart ------------trolly
car trunk -------------------boot
car hood -------------------bonnet
cookie ----------------------biscuit
biscuit ----------------------strange scone thing that you eat with odd gravy!
English muffin -----------muffin
Muffin -----------------------American muffin (or fairy cake)
chips ------------------------crisps
fries --------------------------chips
f.a.g --------------------------gay
cigarette --------------------f.a.g
(the board won't let me write this word!! and in the UK it's quite harmless)
butt ---------------------------bum
bum --------------------------tramp
fannypack -----------------bumbag (the Brit meaning of "fannypack" is too rude to put here!)
sexual intercourse -----shag

and on and on.... ad infinitum (or ad nauseum!)

Also, we put a conjunction between two verbs - which Americans don't seem to. As in "Go get it." We would say "Go and get it."

In conclusion The Scots Guards DO NOT spell "HONOUR", "Honor" as was seen in Flashes Before the Eyes. Even the producers have put their hands up to that as a glaring mistake now.

If I may just quote from the Oxford Dictionary of English:-

"USAGE The standard pronunciation of the word "nuclear" in British and US English rhymes with "clear".

A variant pronunciation exists in US English, famously used by Presidents Eisenhower and Carter, which pronounces the second part of the word like "-ular" in "circular" or "particular". This pronunciation is not acceptable in standard British or US English, although it is still widely heard."

My point about accents is, that whilst British English has many regional variations, as does American English, (a New Yorker sounds rather different from a Southern Belle) the English that we speak is closer to the original language that was developed on the island of it's birth - i.e. England! Therefore any deviation from that, is the "accent".

Just because people in other countries don't pronounce words in the same way that you personally do, does not mean THEY have an accent and YOU do not!

We all have some kind of an accent but to say everyone who does not speak like you do "has a weird accent" is rather daft.

I hope that you huys know that when I spoke of my love for the Brits...I was not kidding!

...but i was kidding about the accent thing...I think you Brits sound smashing!

Um, I didn't start this thread. I think my hubby did. He forgot to sign in under his name. Sheesh.

Butlins is, of course, a trade name as it is named after its founder, Billy Butlin.

Most British people are bi-lingual when it comes to American vs British words. We know most of yours and you are clueless about ours. There are some that we don't even realise have different meanings, simply because it never comes up.

One example I found in America, I was jogging and I always tend to jog on the road if it's quiet as it's more level than the "sidewalk". My friend asked if I always ran on the "pavement"??? I was baffled since we call the "sidewalk" the "pavement". I made a point of remembering not to tell American children "to walk on the pavement!"

Jaspar Carrot tells a good story of how he went into a stationery shop in the US and asked for a "rubber". He was told to try a pharmacy. So he went to a pharmacy and asked for a rubber.
"Just the one?" enquired the assistant.
"Well I don't make that many mistakes!" He replied indignantly.
NB We call an "eraser" a "rubber".

Similarly Australians call sticky tape (Sellotape here) "Durex". In Britain that is a well known brand of "rubber" (condom)!

Oh and one that flummoxed me years ago. I was working for Avis in London and an American lady customer asked me if we had a "rest room". Puzzled I asked her, "Why, are you tired?"
We would say "Ladies" or "loo".

But there are so many
US----------------------------Brit
shopping cart ------------trolly
car trunk -------------------boot
car hood -------------------bonnet
cookie ----------------------biscuit
biscuit ----------------------strange scone thing that you eat with odd gravy!
English muffin -----------muffin
Muffin -----------------------American muffin (or fairy cake)
chips ------------------------crisps
fries --------------------------chips
f.a.g --------------------------gay
cigarette --------------------f.a.g
(the board won't let me write this word!! and in the UK it's quite harmless)
butt ---------------------------bum
bum --------------------------tramp
fannypack -----------------bumbag (the Brit meaning of "fannypack" is too rude to put here!)
sexual intercourse -----shag

and on and on.... ad infinitum (or ad nauseum!)

Also, we put a conjunction between two verbs - which Americans don't seem to. As in "Go get it." We would say "Go and get it."

In conclusion The Scots Guards DO NOT spell "HONOUR", "Honor" as was seen in Flashes Before the Eyes. Even the producers have put their hands up to that as a glaring mistake now.
In the US "bum" could also mean borrow, example: Can I bum a cigarette?
So would it be bad to say to a Brit, Can I bum a f.a.g?

In the US "bum" could also mean borrow, example: Can I bum a cigarette?
So would it be bad to say to a Brit, Can I bum a f.a.g?

No, because we're pretty bi-lingual in that respect.

People do often say exactly that in fact!

Understanding it to mean "Could I have a cigarette."

:cool:

No, because we're pretty bi-lingual in that respect.

People do often say exactly that in fact!

Understanding it to mean "Could I have a cigarette."

:cool:
It was a joke.:rolleyes:

It was a joke.:rolleyes:

Possibly, but if you come to the UK you will hear people say that without a hint of mirth! Afterall, smoking is a serious matter!
;)

Butlins is a little like the place seen in Dirty Dancing...only for the poorer people.

Butlin's is a nice little caravan place, fun for all the family, if you ignore the very bad nighttime entertainment and get a pretty good apartment thingy(there's a French word for it, but I can't spell it), you got a fun holiday.

The butlins I went to never had a pool like that though. ><

Butlins :D so many memories.

I was going to go to Butlins once as a child. I was going to go with my friend for his birthday and our parents were going to let us have the day off school and everything, all the other kids were really jealous. Then during the night before there was a big hurricane (the only one in england in like forever) and they had to shut Butlins. Everyone got the day off school and we never got to go to Butlins.
After all these years it still hurts.
Damn you Charlie for bringing back these memories.

HAHAHHAHAHAAHHAHA, sorry to laugh at your misfortune but i think you deliberately made that sound funny. Oh god that's hilarious.

I remember going to Butlins in Minehead as a child of about 6, it was decent, good swimming parks, fun rides, ferris wheel, THE REDCOATS! Oh man i hated the redcoats lmao! Bunch of idiots with painted on smiles, but yeh cool stuff.

I then went back to there when i was about 11 (i'm 18 now), not pretty...what a load of tripe seriously, the entertainment was terrible, the swimming parks were deserted, all the rides were broken, and the rides that did work looked like death traps, i feared for my life. My dad drove 200 miles down the motorway for that crap, ugh what a waste of time...still not half as bad as Weymouth, imagine going there 5 years in a row, oh wait that's what i did!

*Shudders

For anyone old enough to remember (or film buffs generally) there were two 1970's films that used Butlins or equivalent:-

That'll Be The Day with David Essex and Ringo Starr
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070788/usercomments

Tommy with The Who
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073812/

About different words being used in different areas not just countries.Im curious can anyone tell me were the term spendy came from?

We just moved across the US & are used to the term expensive & had never heard the term spendy before.

My point about accents is, that whilst British English has many regional variations, as does American English, (a New Yorker sounds rather different from a Southern Belle) the English that we speak is closer to the original language that was developed on the island of it's birth - i.e. England! Therefore any deviation from that, is the "accent".

Just because people in other countries don't pronounce words in the same way that you personally do, does not mean THEY have an accent and YOU do not!

We all have some kind of an accent but to say everyone who does not speak like you do "has a weird accent" is rather daft.

First of all, accent is relative. In any particular locality, someone with the local accent is said to have "no accent" and someone with a different accent is said to have "an accent". (Well, at least that's how the word "accent" is used in America! :biggrin:)

Obviously, the common ancestor to all English accent was originally spoken in England, but the linguistic theories I've heard are that the American southern accent is the closest accent group to that common source from which the rest have derived. Specifically there are certain very isolated island communities in North Carolina that are thought to be the oldest, least changed English accent, being very similar to what is believed Early Modern English sounded like.
100%
Tell me more! I want to know all about the English-words-that-mean-one-thing-in-the-US-and-another-in-the-UK.

This has always fascinated me, and made me want to form a grand unified theory of the psychological forces driving specific divergences in our language. (umm, the development of this theory has been on a back burner for... a while.)

I had a Scottish friend in college I used to play cards with, who was an avid bicyclist. He recounted how he had recently gone into a bicycle shop, and about lost his mind demanding of the clerk that they must certainly have a "spanner" as it is the most basic and fundamental of tools, and inconceivable that they wouldn't carry them! (He could get a little worked up.) We call them wrenches.

Once at McDonalds a Brit ahead of me asked if there was "a queue" for quarter pounders. The lady at the counter stood there blankly, and finally shouted back "is there a queue for quarter pounders?" She had no idea what it meant. "Queue" is mostly only used for technical purposes in America, although I feel like it's slowly getting more common. (I'm a programmer, so I use it constantly.) Your average McDonalds cashier won't typically know what it means. We would just say "is there a wait for quarter pounders." A physical queue of people is called "a line" and to "queue up" is to "line up". In this case I freely admit that the British usage is superior.

Oh, and from what I understand you might be embarrassed if you ask for a "napkin" at dinner in Britain, as that's something else entirely. I believe they use "serviette".

the clerk that they must certainly have a "spanner" as it is the most basic and fundamental of tools, and inconceivable that they wouldn't carry them! (He could get a little worked up.) We call them wrenches.LOL Around my part of the US a spanner is a certain type of wrench and any knowledgeable mechanic would know what one is, but clerks at bigger shops may not work on bicycles.

Calling a cigarette a f.a.g was also common here at one time but is now outdated and seldom used with that as its intended meaning.

First of all, accent is relative. In any particular locality, someone with the local accent is said to have "no accent" and someone with a different accent is said to have "an accent". (Well, at least that's how the word "accent" is used in America! )that's the way I would view it too.

First of all, accent is relative. In any particular locality, someone with the local accent is said to have "no accent" and someone with a different accent is said to have "an accent". (Well, at least that's how the word "accent" is used in America! :biggrin:)

Yes, that is obviously the meaning in the UK and that is exactly what I said! :rolleyes:


Obviously, the common ancestor to all English accent was originally spoken in England, but the linguistic theories I've heard are that the American southern accent is the closest accent group to that common source from which the rest have derived. Specifically there are certain very isolated island communities in North Carolina that are thought to be the oldest, least changed English accent, being very similar to what is believed Early Modern English sounded like.
100%

That's not what I've heard. In fact I've never heard such a thing taught in this country. Perhaps this is just slightly Americo-centric feel-good teaching, rather than a worldwide accepted academic conclusion.

It is generally understood that the closest one can come to "original" English (if there be such a thing) would be Received Pronunciation, as spoken by H.M.The Queen and, in the past, by the BBC. This is apparently how Shakespeare's players would have spoken. I really can't be bothered to look further back for the sake of this thread.

Suffice it to say, IMHO I do not think that any Americans speak with an English accent that is closer to the original than British Received Pronunciation.


This has always fascinated me, and made me want to form a grand unified theory of the psychological forces driving specific divergences in our language.

Well you had better hurry as English is quickly becoming homogeneous thanks to the ubiquitous levelling effect of TV and the internet.


Oh, and from what I understand you might be embarrassed if you ask for a "napkin" at dinner in Britain, as that's something else entirely. I believe they use "serviette".

No, we say "napkin". Serviette is considered somewhat naff! If you are thinking of "diaper", we say "nappy", which I know derives from "napkin" but is never used in that context now.

This is probably wandering too far off topic, but if you would like to continue the discussion elsewhere - I'm game!

If you want to read more on how badly the British butcher the English language,
go here (http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml).

Note to all my British friends on this forum, I'm just kidding, I know that Americans can be just as bad in their liguistic skills at times too.

If you want to read more on how badly the British butcher the English language,
go here (http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml).

Note to all my British friends on this forum, I'm just kidding, I know that Americans can be just as bad in their liguistic skills at times too.

There is nothing wrong with most of those words! They are not bad words, just words that you don't understand or use. Most of them are idiomatic. A language without idioms is poor indeed!

They are not an example of us butchering our language - just because you don't understand it!

It never ceases to amaze me how parochial some Americans can be! :rolleyes:

Oh and some of the definitions are way off the mark.

And I don't understand this, quoting from the site you cite:

"-ly - These are two letters that seem to be left off words in America. I never heard anyone say something was "really nice" or "really cool", they would say real nice and real cool. We would be sent to the back of the class for grammar like that!"

"really" is an adverb - i.e. it is a word that gives information about a verb, adjective, another adverb or a sentence.

"real" is an adjective - i.e. a word that describes a noun or pronoun.

"cool" is an adjective - see above.

"nice" is an adjective - see above.

Therefore, when describing these two adjectives, it is correct to use the abverb "really" and not the adjective "real".

In other words, it is incorrect to use an adjective to describe or emphasise another adjective!

Paid a bod yn gas!
Heddwch!

There is nothing wrong with most of those words! They are not bad words, just words that you don't understand or use. Most of them are idiomatic. A language without idioms is poor indeed!

They are not an example of us butchering our language - just because you don't understand it!

It never ceases to amaze me how parochial some Americans can be! :rolleyes:

Oh and some of the definitions are way off the mark.

And I don't understand this, quoting from the site you cite:

"-ly - These are two letters that seem to be left off words in America. I never heard anyone say something was "really nice" or "really cool", they would say real nice and real cool. We would be sent to the back of the class for grammar like that!"

"really" is an adverb - i.e. it is a word that gives information about a verb, adjective, another adverb or a sentence.

"real" is an adjective - i.e. a word that describes a noun or pronoun.

"cool" is an adjective - see above.

"nice" is an adjective - see above.

Therefore, when describing these two adjectives, it is correct to use the abverb "really" and not the adjective "real".

In other words, it is incorrect to use an adjective to describe or emphasise another adjective!

Paid a bod yn gas!
Heddwch!
I'm sorry did you not see that I said I'm kidding
That means, "not being serious"

I'm sorry did you not see that I said
That means, "not being serious"

If I called someone "a stupid jerk" or "an illiterate idiot" (NB those are just examples!) Then said "just kidding", I would not be gobsmacked to discover they had not just ignored me, but had answered back in their own defence!

"Just kidding" is not an immunity "I can say what I like and get away with it because it's only a joke" card!:rolleyes:

I just want to say that I love you Brits!!!!!

Always standing by our side in crisis (unlike France!)

Except for that revolution thing.

If I called someone "a stupid jerk" or "an illiterate idiot" (NB those are just examples!) Then said "just kidding", I would not be gobsmacked to discover they had not just ignored me, but had answered back in their own defence!

"Just kidding" is not an immunity "I can say what I like and get away with it because it's only a joke" card!:rolleyes:
Dude....maybe someone should "smack" you with a "gob", (whatever the hell that is)
Don't be so "daft", to use use a bit of your own vernacular.

Butlins :D so many memories.

I've never been to Butlins....went to Pontins in Prestatyn a lot though, hehe! :biggrin: That was fun. Can't imagine going back any time soon though

I thought Charlie's reference to Butlins was a nice touch. I bet Dom threw that in there to make up for all the horrifyingly bad attempts at English accents.