When you ask an American how much they weigh, they'll just tell you how much they charge! "I was ยฃ600 but now I'm only ยฃ400". I don't care pal, I'm not paying you a damn thing.
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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okmatewanker
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Do Brits use "pal"? It sounds wrong with a British accent in my head.
Yes, but its meaning depends on where exactly in the country you are.
The phrase "You alright, pal?" Might mean "Are you okay there, friend?" or it might mean "If you take one step further, me and me mates are going to absolutely smash your wee bastard face in".
Normally you can hear the threat in the tone, so you won't often get them confused.
Sounds Canadian to me, buddy.
sounds more like australian to me, friend.
Id say it's more kiwi, guy.
What's wrong with pal, mate?
Yes we do. Not everyone speaks 'Estuary English'
For those like me who never heard the term:
Estuary English is an English accent, continuum of accents, or continuum of accent features[4] associated with the area along the River Thames and its estuary, including London, since the late 20th century. In 2000, the phonetician John C. Wells proposed a definition of Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England".[5] He views Estuary English as an emerging standard accent of England, while also acknowledging that it is a social construct rather than a technically well-defined linguistic phenomenon.[5] He describes it as "intermediate" between the 20th-century higher-class non-regional standard accent, Received Pronunciation (RP), and the 20th-century lower-class local London accent, Cockney. There is much debate among linguists as to where Cockney and RP end and where Estuary English begins, or whether Estuary English is even a single cohesive accent.[5][6][7][8]
Which British accent do you have in your head?
British accents vary wildly. You'd definitely hear pal more in the Midlands and the North, and maybe even in Scotland.
It probably still doesn't sound like you think it sounds, though.
We like to use metric when Americans ask. Itโs still the only thing they understand.
I get paid seventeen and nineteen twelve quart cups.
I get paid 50kg
Youโre working on the continent
Moved from US to UK as a kid, first month there, watching an advert (US: ad) for a domestic appliance on TV and I genuinely asked: "Mom, why are the washing machines here so heavy?"
Washing machines are heavy. I recently had to take one apart and there were 2 concrete blocks in there, I assume to keep it stable while the motor flings your clothes around.
ยฃ350-400-heavy? I mean, 350-400 lbs heavy?
Haha maybe not that heavy, it depends when you were seeing those ads and what inflation was like. I reckon in the 90s it would have had ยฃ-lb washing machine parity at some point.
This was 1978, back in the days when many people in the UK would rent appliances!
Oh yeah, so less inflation but a much more expensive appliance with less built-in obsolescence! I bet they were heavy AF back then.
Then when you ask how much something weighs they just tell you how many rocks they are made of.
Must be paid his weight in gold.
sometimes you would hear the term pound sterling and im wondering if a pound was at one time worth a pound of silver. would make more sense the things set in olden times were the common folk are like. a whole shilling. wow.
That's exactly it. The main currency of medieval England was the silver penny (aka sterling) which weighed 1/240th of a tower pound. So 240 pence was a "pound of sterlings".