British Translations

[Mortartube]

Seeing the post by firefly headed American Translations, perhaps we can reverse the process and translate some Americanisms into English. Things like 'A Tram named Desire', or 'the pound stops here' etc.

[Quizmonster]

An aggressive person might be accuused of "putting the trunk in". (Yeah, I know it's not the same sort of boot!)

[KEJ2000]

A McDonald's hamburger and french chips

[Buffy]

In the popular American children's TV programme Sesame Street, the furry blue puppet would be named Biscuit Monster.

[Buffy]

Movie title: Fast Times at Ridgemont Secondary

[Buffy]

According to Benjamin Franklin, "A pence saved is a pence earned."

[KEJ2000]

If we jokingly refer to money as "dead presidents" in the US, do you refer to your money as "dead prime ministers" in the UK? :-)

[Hippy]

Oh dear, KEJ2000, missing the point again? You colonials might put pictures of fleeting nobodies on your beer tokens and luncheon vouchers, real money is for Kings and Queens.

On topic: "Armageddon" = "A Little Local Difficulty"

[Buffy]

Jennifer Lopez starring in the movie Cleaner in Manhattan!

[KEJ2000]

No missed point - I was being facetious!!

[Hippy]

Me too!

[rja211077]

the Aerosmith album would be 'Permanent Holiday'. The film would be 'Stop or my Mum will shoot' (see also 'stepmum' and 'throw mummy from the train')

[Jaybee]

Buffy, there's no such thing as 'A pence'. 'Pence' is plural. The singular is 'penny'. As the Americans I know also call a cent a 'penny' the saying doesn't need to be translated!

[maxi29]

Sorry to be a pedant, but the translation of "the buck stops here" is wrong. Buck doesn't mean dollar, it's the name given to the marker that indicates who the dealer in a hand of poker is ie who the person in charge is.

[Buffy]

Another movie title: Jim Carrey starring in The Cable Bloke.

Sorry to have offended you, Jaybee, my apologies. I'm over in the colonies - I didn't know any better! Did I get it right that Brits say "cleaners" instead of "maids"?

[KEJ2000]

'Buck' DOES mean dollar!!! And if you go to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, in Washington, D.C., where paper currency is printed for the USA, you can buy souvenir t-shirts that say "The buck starts here!" Come to America and tell people that buck doesn't mean dollar, they will look at you like you just flew in from Jupiter.

[Buffy]

When insulting someone by calling them a "ninety-pound weakling", you might instead call them a "6.4 stone weakling"!

[Buffy]

Instead of "Give it the old college try!", "Give it the old university try!"

[KEJ2000]

Instead of "The Old Apartment," the well-known song by the Barenaked Ladies would be titled "The Old Flat". (Doesn't have the same ring to it, does it?! ...And I know the band is actually Canadian, but the song is also popular stateside.)

[darth vader]

agree with maxi29, the phrase "passing the buck" and "the buck stops here" is card-originating. After you have finished dealing you would pass the buck to the next person, which is synonymous with passing the responsibility hence the phrase being coined. "The buck stops here" was an americanism i believe, to mean "I'm taking responsibility" and neither phrase has anything to do with money. I think actually the naming of US money as bucks is derived from the fact they were nicknamed "greenbacks" and eventually just "backs" but i'll leave it for Quizmonster to concur or disagree

[KEJ2000]

We all agree that "buck" is card-originating. What was in dispute (I thought) was whether "buck" is a synonym for an American dollar now, and it most definitely is a synonym now. (...How do Brits spell "synonym"? Differently??) I can't believe we are nit-picking this, don't we have anything more important that we could be doing?!? Do any of us have full-time jobs?