weird words

My British partner asked whether I was going to sit in the lounge, and that ordinary question gave me something to think about. I still called it the living room. Lounge was shorter and easy to say, but living room was the word that felt normal to me. After six years in the UK, there were still plenty of everyday things we named differently.

It wasn’t all one-way change, either. My voice and vocabulary had changed from being around British people, but my partner’s had changed from being around me. I thought that was fascinating. At home, we could use different words for the same room, clothes or chores, while I made more of an effort to use British equivalents when talking to someone I didn’t know.

A movie in the lounge

My partner might ask whether I wanted to watch a film. I would ask whether we wanted to watch a movie, or have a movie night. Film night didn’t sound quite the same to me. I still used movie, just as I still used living room, even though I understood exactly what my partner meant by film and lounge.

Cinema was one word I had started to use, though. The expression I was used to was movie theatre, which explained the place perfectly well but took two words. I thought cinema was a great word because it was short and clear. I could see why that one was creeping into my vocabulary, even while movie stayed put.

Pants at home, trousers in public

My partner called them trousers and I still called them pants. That difference needed a little more care. Pants could mean underwear to the British people I was speaking to, so saying something about my pants in public could make it sound as though I was discussing rather different clothing. If I knew other people could hear me, I tried hard to say trousers. At home, I was quite happy to call them pants.

There was a second difference in the same sentence. My partner might ask whether his trousers were “in the wash”, while I would say they were in the laundry. I would talk about doing the laundry; he would talk about putting the washing on. We were referring to the same chore, but the phrases that came naturally to us were different.

Washing up was another example. My partner said he was going to do the washing up, and I said I was going to do the dishes. In both cases, we meant washing the dishes. I found it interesting that each expression left out a different bit of that longer description. His version kept the washing, while mine kept the dishes.

Please give me a number

Time expressions still confused me. My partner used “half past”, sometimes with the hour and sometimes without it. Half past five meant 5:30, but I had to think about it more than I would if someone simply said five thirty. When the hour was left out, I could find myself wondering what time we were actually discussing. I would much rather hear a number such as 5:30 or 8:30.

Quarter past and quarter to had the same sort of effect on me. I wasn’t particularly keen on having to work through the phrasing when I already often didn’t know what time it was. “We’re meeting at 9:30” seemed much clearer to me than half past. That was my preference, and at that point I still hoped these expressions might become easier with more time.

Fortnight meant two weeks. I knew that, and I thought it was a cool word that sounded historical to me, but I still said two weeks. For some reason, that sounded more specific in my head even though the two expressions meant the same thing. My partner used fortnight; I would say we were going on holiday in two weeks. I didn’t know how many other people still used it, so this was about his wording rather than a claim about everyone in Britain.

Even my partner’s accent had shifted

Kitchen roll was another phrase that tripped me up because it was so different from paper towel, the expression I used. I thought paper towel sounded more neutral, since it could be used in other parts of the house or even outside. My partner might ask me to buy kitchen roll, while I would think of it as paper towel. Those words didn’t even look similar.

I thought an estate agent had once asked my partner where he was from because they couldn’t quite place his accent. He was from right there. Spending so much time listening to me had changed his accent and some of his word choices too, including a few Americanisms. I knew I had been changing, but I found it very cool that people around me could change as well.

If I was in a shop, on the phone or speaking to a British person I didn’t know, I tried to use the British word because I thought that was polite and what they would expect. At home in my pyjamas, comfortable and relaxing, I usually said whatever came to mind. Some words were British and quite a few were still the ones I had brought with me. Cinema had made it in. Pants were staying, at least at home.

Watch the words my partner and I use differently.