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Terminology - Two countries, separated by a common language

AndyT said:
I think it's a case of the old term persisting over there. I'm pretty sure that early planemakers' lists refer to "dado planes" which do, naturally, cut housings. A dado is a sticky-out rail along a wall, at the top of the frieze, isn't it?
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Yeah.
Also known as a chair rail.
 
Lintle denotes masonry. A header denotes wood framing over here.

Interesting dado vs housing difference. We still call it a housed stringer on a stair.

US = moulder, UK = planer moulder?

Double hung denotes both sash as movable vs single hung with a typical fixed top sash. In true common usage it's just a window if it's a box sash type. Only something like a casement or tilt and turn would be identified as xxx window vs just calling them windows.
 
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Steve Maskery said:
I'm shockified and dispurbulated that no-one has yet posted this link.

S
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(From memory) We are anaspeptic, frasmotic, even compunctuous to have caused you such pericombobulation.
Now, why I retain that, and not when the car’s MoT is due, is a mystery.

Is there a US/UK difference in table saw/sawbench?

I used to enjoy reminding a US friend of mine that there is more than one ‘Math’.
 
Steve Maskery said:
Tablesaw = American (although that is also what I call it). The traditional UK term is Circular Saw Table, but I don't think I've ever heard anyone actually use the term, only in (old) publications.

S
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I call it a table saw as well. A sawbench, to me, is a more crude, often PTO-driven job used for cutting up firewood.

I have thought we could make a mortice with a mortiser, as you’d get advice from an adviser, but the S doesn’t look right.
 
Guineafowl21 said:
I call it a table saw as well. A sawbench, to me, is a more crude, often PTO-driven job used for cutting up firewood.

I have thought we could make a mortice with a mortiser, as you’d get advice from an adviser, but the S doesn’t look right.
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Or licence/ license, noun versus verb, but not in America.
 
John Brown said:
Or licence/ license, noun versus verb, but not in America.
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Similarly practice/practise. I can see the logic in simplifying all that but I always found it surprising in the land of simplified spelling that they differentiate vice (sin) and vise (clamping thing) whereas we have the simpler common spelling in that case.
 
Accipiter said:
American football - American... UK: Rugby - Union and/or League... (still not quite sure of the difference between those two?)
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As an ex-rugby union player, I’d say it resembles neither, but if anything, it’d be like rugby league (start-stop, limited tackles, no rucking). If the players had to play in cycling shorts and crash helmets.

I did try to watch the recent superbowl, but wasn’t sure what was going on. It seemed to be a continuous advert show, interrupted by the odd minute of play. Even the commentators would look round, in some surprise, from their discussion and say ‘oh, they’re starting again!’.

Before I incur the anger of our American friends, I have a British mate who grew up partly in Ohio, who’s going to watch a game with me and explain everything.
 
From the extremely little I've seen of 'American' football the main difference (apart from the obvious thing of helmets) seemed to be that they can pass the ball forward... UK rugby being to the side and back... when passing it in play. You'll realise I'm not that into 'sports' 😎
 
Lurker said:
It’s a bit like touch rugby but you only play for 5 minutes at a time. Also you wear a batsman’s helmet and body armour.
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It’s more like 7-10 seconds from ‘go’ to ‘stop’. I was able to brew a batch of beer in the other side of the house, within the four-hour coverage, without missing any gameplay. Seemingly bizarre, but I’ll reserve judgement till my mate comes up from London to explain.
 
I've stopped worrying about the spelling thing.
My wife, who is American, thinks that it's weird that I pronounce "Anna" to rhyme with "spanner"(the so-called panda/pander merger). She, on the other hand, pronounces "Mary","merry" and "marry" exactly the same.
 
Americans generally can't pronounce any town ending ...burgh the way it's spoken in British English, or perhaps primarily Scottish English, e.g., Edinburgh is generally sounded as either Edinbruh or Edinburg.

Texans cannot enunciate squirrel; for Brits there's a slight rasp in the double r requiring the tongue to almost touch the roof of the mouth with an expiration of air as it's spoken. Texans always seem to say something like squirl, similar whirl. I recall when I ran The Children's Museum workshop in Houston at team meetings and the like for a few weeks, the locals working there frequently found excuses to get me to say squirrel just to hear it being said so very differently to them. In fact, the first time I said the word squirrel (it was related to a display we were making) the exhibitions manager (female) said, "Sorry Richard, what's a squirl?", to which I responded with something like, "Well, it's a tree rat with a bushy tail." Slainte.
 
You should listen to my missus saying “a loan, a lawn and alone”. She's french of course and speaks english without a hint of accent but still struggles. Makes the rest of us smile though.
 
One example that has always puzzled me is the American pronunciation of "Solder" ( when using a soldering iron)......I believe they pronounce it "Soder"......What's that all about..?🤔
 
Distinterior said:
One example that has always puzzled me is the American pronunciation of "Solder" ( when using a soldering iron)......I believe they pronounce it "Soder"......What's that all about..?🤔
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Yes, you’re right it grates every time I hear it, Sodder as in someone who sods, do they spell solder with an L ? I shall have to find out.
 
Cabinetman said:
Yes, you’re right it grates every time I hear it, Sodder as in someone who sods, do they spell solder with an L ? I shall have to find out.
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I think they spell it the same as we do, but the "L" is silent for some strange reason ???
 
Well, as I’ve got older, I’ve got odder…

As well as using the subjunctive more, US speakers are also more inclined to use the formal gerund, if you don’t mind my saying. English teaching over there seems better in many ways - look at those massive spelling bees, for example.

Something else that springs to mind is the US film, Synecdoche, New York, a pun on Schenectady, the place. Without looking it up, how many of our British forum members could tell me what a synecdoche is? I assume in the US, it’s a more widely known part of speech.
 
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Blimey! Subjunctive mood! That takes me back 60 years to French and German A Levels. Failed them both, but passed Woodwork A level. :)
 
Hmmm, you’d struggle to find a subjunctive noun. As above, the only reason I know this stuff is because I did Latin. I’m not quite sure what we did in English lessons, but we weren’t really taught the mechanics of the language.
 
Yes - I could have explained synecdoche by example. But I had a very academic eduction which included Latin and Greek. The example I would have given, from my boaty days, would have been "all hands on deck". expecting more than just their hands to be offered. Most English eduction back in O level days and now GCSE's (some of our staff are students) revolves around English literature primarily. It was interesting to me that one of our girls is studying Tess (Hardy), Far from the Madding Crowd (likewise), and Wuthering Heights, all of which I studied decades ago for my exams. Apparently nothing much changes. Spokeshave still widely taught and examined and he made a lot of words up.
 
I have found that people who have learnt English as a foreign language have a far better knowledge of the mechanics than most of us native speakers, perhaps of a certain age and education.
 
AndyP said:
I have found that people who have learnt English as a foreign language have a far better knowledge of the mechanics than most of us native speakers, perhaps of a certain age and education.
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Educational standards have declined in most state schools I fear - though not all. I learnt "three little words" rhyme to understand the parts of speech when I was about four and from 7 the whole school had to do latin and english language (learning sentence structure, punctuation etc) with a fair degree of rigour. We thought nothing of it. One of our lovely team is going to my alma mater (she hopes) to study law in September and at her girl's grammar school they drummed all this in for the entrance interviews and even though latin is no longer obligatory she did it anyway. She wants to be a barrister. And I have no doubt she will be.
 
AJB Temple said:
Educational standards have declined in most state schools I fear -
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Evidence please? You obviously have not paid attention to the everlasting debate on exam grades vs difficulty. It has only bern going on for five or more decades.

If you are not careful, you will start to sound like Michael Gove; by far the most deleterious influence on modern U.K. education practice for decades.

I would much rather, Adrian, that you rephrased this generalism (itself untrue) to read:

"Educational emphases on 'traditional' subjects have declined".

This is very true and marks our attempts to keep up with: Biotechnology, Computing, Astrophysics, C.A.D., DNA typing, Material Sciences.....yada, yada.

To neglect embracing steps forward in knowledge, clinging instead to narrow-use, elitist practices for their own sake and to further polarise individuals thereby, is morally wrong and dysfunctional.

N.B. I write as someone applauding Latin teaching as so much of scientific (and some Maths, Geology, Geography...) terminology is derived from it and Greek. A little goes a long way.

I spent 40 years 'at the chalk face' and can assure you, teaching has NOT "dumbed down" to match a perceived reduction in ability, rather it has adapted to try to give our children a chance in a rapidly changing, increasingly technological, and deeply competitive world.
Yes, the basics are necessary. I believe firmly in the three R's: readin', writin' and 'rithmatic. Equally, I believe in a second language in primary school. Our European colleagues are decades ahead in this respect.

I do NOT believe in a swingeing excoriation of education, with the justification for same being that, in ONE profession depending on a 'dead' language for its justification, requires all the others to kow-tow to it.
 
SamQ aka Ah! Q! said:
Evidence please? You obviously have not paid attention to the everlasting debate on exam grades vs difficulty. It has only bern going on for five or more decades.

If you are not careful, you will start to sound like Michael Gove; by far the most deleterious influence on modern U.K. education practice for decades.

I would much rather, Adrian, that you rephrased this generalism (itself untrue) to read:

"Educational emphases on 'traditional' subjects have declined".

This is very true and marks our attempts to keep up with: Biotechnology, Computing, Astrophysics, C.A.D., DNA typing, Material Sciences.....yada, yada.

To neglect embracing steps forward in knowledge, clinging instead to narrow-use, elitist practices for their own sake and to further polarise individuals thereby, is morally wrong and dysfunctional.

N.B. I write as someone applauding Latin teaching as so much of scientific (and some Maths, Geology, Geography...) terminology is derived from it and Greek. A little goes a long way.

I spent 40 years 'at the chalk face' and can assure you, teaching has NOT "dumbed down" to match a perceived reduction in ability, rather it has adapted to try to give our children a chance in a rapidly changing, increasingly technological, and deeply competitive world.
Yes, the basics are necessary. I believe firmly in the three R's: readin', writin' and 'rithmatic. Equally, I believe in a second language in primary school. Our European colleagues are decades ahead in this respect.

I do NOT believe in a swingeing excoriation of education, with the justification for same being that, in ONE profession depending on a 'dead' language for its justification, requires all the others to kow-tow to it.
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The three R's got drummed into me as well, but I also recollect as a nipper being taught English grammar and correct sentence composition. We were also taught how to write properly with a scratchy pen nib dipped in ink...much competition to be the 'ink pot monitor', but the incredible thing now, looking back over many decades is that we were formally taught Victorian Copperplate script. You read it right....Copperplate - Rob
 
Over the years Sam I have recruited scores of graduates (mainly for PWC, but also for banks). These days I frequently interview sixth form students. I look at it as an employer, not a teacher, and my view stands. Our perspectives differ.

I have known a maths graduate we employed with 1st class degree from a minor but well regarded university, who was remarkably slow. It transpired that he had missed a slice of his third year due to stress related issues, and was given credit for that period. This was not disclosed at interview. Lat week I watched an almost 18 year old male student from a local comprehensive, get his phone out to compute adding 12.5% to £100.

As an anecdote I teach a number of young students piano. Some of them are in for ABRSM exams next week. When I was a child learning piano, Mozart's Rondo A La Turka was grade 5 and regarded as straight forward. There was a significant gulf between grade 5 and 8 back then (after 8 the real work starts). The same piece is now on the Grade 8 syllabus. ABRSM have done away with the Performance Diploma as too difficult for most students.
 
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