I spent my long Easter weekend in the Brazilian countryside with a group of Brits (and a Mexican but she is married to a Brit and thus guilty by association).
It was an extremely fun weekend but also educational. I had heard, while growing up, that they speak English in England but I am here to tell you that they don’t.
It seems that they speak a sister language. Think of it as pig-latin but without the rhyme and reason. It really was mind blowing. I had moments where I wished I had brought a handy English to British English dictionary. Lucky for me, these Brits could translate into an English that I understood. Phew, crisis adverted!
It’s amazing these lovely people manage to communicate with the rest of the world in this “English.” I for one was quite embarrassed by my lack of knowledge of it. I mean I do speak ghetto Portuguese and horribly bad Spangish. I thought I was one of those gifted in the art of communication.
Just to clear some things up, I would like to show what my wonderful British friends consider English. Here is a small list with English followed by the British version of English.
- Line: Queue
- Eggplant: Aubergine
- 2 week stay: A fortnight (I’d like to know the history of this bad boy)
- Cupcake: Fairy cake (??)
- Busy: Engaged (don’t know why anyone would ever find a British person pretentious)
- Pacifier: Dummy
- Trash: Bin
- License plate: Number plate
- Strainer: colander (Pronounced: Call Un Der)
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number plate makers
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