Spelling Question for Brits

I was listening to a comedy routine by Eddie Izzard the other day and he was talking about the differences in spelling and pronunciation between U.S. English and British English. He mentioned an alternative spelling for "fruit" in British English, however I haven't been able to find one. Was he just joking and the spellings are similar or is there a different spelling for fruit across the pond?

For those interested in other differences, I found a fun webpage highlighting many of the differences.

~Ulrika~

Drat! I meant for this to go in "Off Topic". How do you send Jeska a note to move it?

Different spelling of 'fruit'? I thnk he's pulling your leg.

I can abuse report this thread for being blatantly frooty.

I've never known one. Fruit the word or fruit in general? lol.. Is it one of his vids? I've got a few I'll take a look if u gimmie the name?

My favorite one is the "Al-loo-min-um" "Al-you-min-ee-um" difference. When Aluminum as discovered, the British decided to pronounce it that way to make it fit with other elements. Personally I think they just wanted to be contrary

Lianne,

We're not contrary. Just because we like to spell 'fruit' 'phroeut'.

PS:

I think some of the most confusing differences are not to do with spellings, but idioms. One which certainly affects second life is the way we describe storeys in a building. What you call the first floor, we call the ground floor. What you call the second floor, we call the first floor, and so on.

And clothing can be pretty confusing too.

What you call pants we call trousers.
What you call underpants we call pants.
What you call an undershirt we call a vest.
What you call a vest we call a waistcoat.
What you call suspenders we call braces.
What you call garters we call suspenders.

Speaking of differences...

I remember reading a while ago that Brits actually do drive on the right side of the road (because it's wrong to drive on the other side of the road! )

what do you call what we call braces?

(british dentistry joke omitted for the sake of international relations)

Zuzi,

<<what do you call what we call braces?>>

Braces.

It took me nearly a year to figure out that "jumpers" mean what we Americans call "sweaters". Honestly, I thought everyone in England went around wearing jumpsuits or overalls.

Also, thanks to the movie About a Boy, which has an "English to English" dictionary as a DVD extra, I've learned that:

slow coach = slow poke
barmy = crazy
wally = idiot

Most words I can figure out from voice intonations, but "jumper" really threw me while reading.

now if only us Aussies could understand any of u !

i love your guts guys

streuth SL is ripper bonza bewdy

and why does SL convo's go blank whenevr I mention I'm running to the dunny ?

This Brit understood you Davo, maybe cause you exported all those dodgy soaps to us ie Neighbours, Home and Away and my fav from when I was young, Sons and Daughters!!

everything i need to know about Australia i learned from Crocodile Dundee.

Heh, they played some Ausie Rules footage on a sports program here a while ago just to show that they really do say "oh, what a ripper". We thought they just did that on soaps for comedy value

The most dangerous differences between British and US 'english' are "fanny" and "fag". No need for an explanation I think.

even tho we use british english... thats not the point lol



home and away isnt dodgy

There is an alternative spelling of fruit. I can't remember it completely but I know it starts with gh (as in enough), I can't remember how you get the 'r' sound, 'ui' can be oo although I think there is a less obvious one than that too, and again for the 't' sound.

That said if you read it properly ghwroote says fruit, plain as day. I think that is what he was what he meant.

As a slight diversion -ough can be pronounced in 9 different ways in English. You can probably work out most of them, but one is -up as in hiccough which is the correct spelling for the word we pronounce as 'hiccup'

And then we wonder why people find it hard to learn English!

Zero,

<<cause you exported all those dodgy soaps to us ie Neighbours,>>

Ah, my favourite TV programme!

Eloise,

<<That said if you read it properly ghwroote says fruit, plain as day.>>

That seems to be based on Shaw's attempt to prove the illogicality of the spelling of English with the word 'ghoti' - pronounced 'fish'.

Gh as in enough. o as in women. ti as in station.

It is based on the misconception that the pronunciation of letter combinations stays the same despite their position in the word. For example, gh at the end of a word will quite logically be pronounced as 'f'. You could make up a word - Blough, for example, which could logically be pronounced 'bluff'. But the same combination of letters in English could *never* be pronounced the same way at the beginning of a word.

There are many languages where letters and letter combinations are pronounced differently according to where they occur in the word. For instance, the Welsh word 'mynydd', meaning mountain, where the first y is pronounced as an open 'u' and the second one as 'i' as in 'bit'.

Nevermind

I think 'bum' falls in there too, they couldn't understand why I thought a 'a bum begging for food' was funny...

Both being lovers of words and cultural oddities, Deevyde Maelstrom and I have discussed this very topic many times and come up with some interesting realizations.

Heeeere we go: An american can is not a can but a tin, except for soft drink cans, which ARE cans. What americans call a tin or a canister (i.e. a metal container used for holding tea or whatnot) would be a jar in brittania. Upon telling Deevyde that to americans jars are only ceramic or glass, he laughed.

What americans call a cookie is a biscuit in england... however the exact definition of biscuit is dodgey at best and seems to include thousands of variations.
"All cookies are biscuits but not all biscuits are cookies" -Dee
Deevyde has also informed me that coffee is only for low class simpletons and all the really 1337 haxX0rz in eng-land drink tea. I told him in america tea is usually reserved for the elderly and the ailing, and again he laughed heartily.

A special note should be made of Chips, fries, and crisps. Apparently the brits have all three. I had assumed only the standard chips, crisps transposition.
What an american would call a chip the brits call a crisp, what we would call fries they call chips. And what the brits call a fry is apparantly some type of enormous american fry consisting of a whole slice of potato. Upon asking about crisps made of corn, Dee seemed completely baffled as to how using corn to make a crisp was even possible.

In england a bog is NOT a swamp. It is a toilet. So dont be confused when a brit asks for what translates to 'swamp paper'.

I should make a small note for our american friends that the brits do not apparently use the words 'it' or 'them' or anyother follow up after 'in' example:
English: "A chocolate chip cookie is a cookie with chocolate chips in it"
British: "A chocolate chip cookie is a biscuit with chocolate chips in"
yes, they just stop at 'in' and this is considered normal. Do not be alarmed.

"Come traveller, sit by the fire and tell us of the ways of your people" -Deevyde

Tally ho,
Spider

When I was living in England, I often had to explain these oddities to my friends in America. Often, I would refer them to This Page ... it's an interesting read if you don't speak (British) English

Example:



As a side note, I still get funny looks when I say "cheers" (thank you) to a barman here in the States... they give me this half-smile and half-hearted semi-sarcastic "hooray"

Some very important words all Americans should learn:

bollocks
bloke
bugger
cheeky
pissed

Best used all together in a single sentence after England miss a glorius scoring opportunity (as they often do) ...

Another British oddity you didn't mention is the tendency to use a statement that sounds like a question but really is rhetorical.

"FFS, I meant to turn the iron off didn't I ya daft cow!"

Best used when house is burning to the ground.

--Jack Lambert

I sell a skirt with "fanny" on which presumably you could wear in a PG area...

Other similar text clothes include my "pissed" and "randy" tops. I also do a "wanker", and an "arse" skirt to match the "ass" one.

Apologies for the advert

Sounds like your randy tops should get together with your wanker ones