YOU ARE HERE: flamewarrior's fanfic resources --> Britspeak reference notes (last updated 2nd January, 2008)
I list here the most common errors I see perpetrated in HP slash that I have read, along with loads more info about British life than you could ever want, for your edification. This page is regularly updated - you might want to bookmark it. I've moved this list here from my LiveJournal in anticipation of the day when the post gets too big for LJ's character count.
Updates
January 2008: Muggle education, electricity and wiring, more on tea, health, word usage, a bit of reorganisation and some pictures.
December 2007: Radio, note on safer sex.
March 2007: Civil partnerships.
Thank you so much to everyone for your comments with additional information, corrections, regional/class variations, etc. I started off crediting everyone, but I just couldn't keep up in the end - this thank you is to all of you. To see all those lovely people, view the comments on this post
Really useful Britpicking sites include:
Britticus Totallus
Auntee Mame's Writing Resources
Live Journal communities: hp_britglish and britpickery
Wikipedia pages: British words not widely used in the States and Words which mean different things in Britain and the States
- Treating the word 'nutters' as an adjective to describe an individual. Nutters is a noun. (nutters (noun, plural) - people who are behaving in an insane manner, e.g. "What a pair of nutters.") Correct words would be "bonkers" or "nuts", as in "You're nuts, Hermione!" or "Have you seen Malfoy? He's gone stark raving bonkers!".
- "I could care less if/about..." This implies that the person speaking does care, when the intention is to indicate that they do not. Correct usage is "I couldn't / could not care less". (This isn't a Britpick per se, just something I've noticed a lot that really grates on my nerves.)
- Using the word 'mad' (to mean angry) when an English person, particularly an upper class English person like a Malfoy, would say 'angry' or 'annoyed' or 'pissed off' or 'livid'.
- British people are more likely to use the word 'telly' than the words 'TV' or 'television'
- Using the word 'mates' as a greeting (e.g. "How's it going, mates?", "I'll be seeing you, mates."). While the word "mates" is indeed the plural of "mate" (e.g. "me and my mates" is correct) using the plural in a greeting is just not done by any English person, to my knowledge. People often say, "Alright, mate?", or sometimes "maties" if talking to a group, but not "mates". The Americanism 'guys' might be used, or 'fellas'.
- No-one says "Gee" unless they're taking the piss and pretending to be American; nor does anyone say, "Listen up".
- No-one says "sure" - as in "sure it is" or "I sure hope so" - unless they're Irish, and even then they'd be more likely to say, "Sure and didn't I tell you so?" than either of the former. "Sure" is generally only used in phrases such as "Are you sure?".
- No-one uses "some" in the way Americans use it. British people say, "I'll get you some of that" but not "That hurt some" - we would say, "That hurt a bit"
(These next two from lusiology) - Only some people say "Fine" at the start of sentences when they're being huffy. We'd usually say 'Okay', 'Alright', or even 'Right then' in the same context.
- Starting sentences part way through drives me bananas, missing out the 'Do you', 'Are you' type beginnings, e.g. "Way to go." It's almost as if the subject of the sentence is missing at times.
- Using the word 'Asian' to refer to someone of Chinese or Japanese descent. The word 'Asian' in the UK refers to people of Indian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent.
- British cities do not have a "downtown", they have a city centre / shopping centre.
- The thing you walk on beside the street is a pavement, not a sidewalk.
- A cot is strictly a bed for babies, with side bars, not something an adult would sleep in, at least in general usage.
- Someone who is doing things slowly, or for whom one is waiting to catch up is called a slow coach, not a 'slow poke'. A slow poke would be something altogether different! ROFL!! (poke = slang for fucking)
- Clothes. We don't have sneakers, we have trainers. What are called 'pumps' in the US are court shoes here, or possibly stilettoes. Pumps in the UK are slip-on, canvas, rubber-soled shoes that children wear in gym/PE (Physical Education) classes.
- We don't "wait in line", we queue, queue up or wait in a queue.
- We don't shop at stores, we shop at shops. The only exceptions to this are convenience stores and department stores, but these are likely to be referred to by brand name (e.g.s "Costcutter" for the former, "House of Fraser" for the latter).
- In a restaurant, we don't "get the check", we get the bill. And we pay with a cheque, not a check. (But more usually a credit or debit card these days.)
- The season that comes after summer is autumn, not fall.
- Pants are the things that men wear over their genitals (knickers for girls/women). (Hence the insult (to a thing, not a person), "It's pants!") The things you wear over your legs are called trousers (or jeans if made of denim). But apparently this isn't the case in Manchester, where trousers are called pants. "Keks" is a northern English term which may mean either trousers or pants, depending on precise location in the North.
- The thing water comes out of at a sink, basin or bath is a tap. Only plumbers and unbearably pretentious people call them faucets.
- The big box that moves you between different floors in a building is a lift, not an elevator.
- We don't have drug stores, we have chemists. (See under 'Muggle Health Care' for how they work.)
- British people do not add unnecessary syllables - e.g. one is obliged to someone, or to do something, not obligated. Nor do British people verb nouns, generally speaking. (Unless they're in management. Then they can get away with using words like 'leveraging'. Or they're JKR, of course.)
- British people use prepositions differently than (or to, or from ;-) ) Americans - we don't write people, we write to them (although apparently the former was correct usage in the 1940s and 50s), but we only visit them - we don't visit with them. We often drop articles - we spend time in hospital/prison etc., not in the hospital, although we might either take someone to the hospital, or just to hospital - no hard and fast rule on that one.
- The word 'quite' generally means 'a bit' in British English. Saying something is 'quite good' is damning with faint praise. Saying something is 'very good' is real praise. (Although a lot depends on context and tone of voice.)
- Brand names. Please be careful if you want to use brand names in a fic. The brand may not exist in the UK, or may be a different product, or the most well-known brand product may be something you've never heard of. Please do some research (you have access to the Internet, otherwise you wouldn't be reading this!). The same goes for other cultural signifiers, like types of house, clothes, class, etc.
Swearing and insults
(or "Arseholes, bastards, fucking cunts and pricks" - Ian Dury)
Usual swear words: shit, bugger, bollocks, fuck, e.g. "fucking shitting hell", "shit, bugger, bollocks", "oh bollocks". It is also possible to bollocks, bugger or fuck something up (but not to shit it up, although apparently in Newcastle the phrase 'shit up' or 'shite up' is used). The word 'shite' is used occasionally, as in the phrase "That's utter shite", but the only groups of people who use it regularly instead of 'shit' are people from Ireland ("Shite!"), Newcastle ("Away and shite!") or Liverpool ("You little gobshite!").
"Bugger all" means the same as "fuck all", i.e. "almost none/nothing" (e.g. "That was bugger all use.") Its use by writers as an expletive is faintly ridiculous and rather annoying. "Bugger it", "Bugger it all" or simply "Bugger" would give the desired effect.
Hardly anyone says "bloody" anything, unless they're playing a comic Cockney in a BBC play. When "bloody" is used, it is an adjective, never an adverb; "Where the bloody hell have you been?", "That bloody Malfoy," or "Get those bloody Mudbloods off my lawn!" would be correct, whereas "What the bloody fuck?" most certainly would not be.
Usual insults to things or statements that are rubbish: "It's crap", It's shit", "It's pants", "You're talking bollocks", "You're talking out of your arse".
Common terms of abuse include (IMO running from the least to the most 'serious' or insulting): plonker (= slang for cock), arse, wanker, prick, bastard, fucker, arsehole (not 'asshole'), tosser (like 'wanker' but can be delivered with greater venom due to the plosive at the beginning), cunt. Any of these words can become less or more insulting simply by dint of the tone of voice used and the pre-existing relationship between the speaker and the target. Adding 'fucking' before any of these words is a popular way of emphasising them.
Muggle ages of consent/majority in the UK
from alicambs, direct from the horsepolice's mouth:
"there is no age at which it is 'legal' to leave a child unattended. Parents are responsible for a child's behaviour and safety up to the age of 16, therefore, if you deem your 12 year old responsible and leave him/her alone for a couple of hours that is your choice, but should something happen to your child during your absence you are highly likely to be prosecuted for neglect".
At 14 Muggles may enter a pub or bar which does not serve food if accompanied by their parents or other responsible adult/s, unless the particular pub or bar has its own age policy which prevents it. They may also work part-time in non-risky occupations and may be left alone with responsibility for younger children for short periods (although see alicambs' note above).
At 16 Muggles of both sexes can have sex with others of either sex (although this goes up to 18 if one party is in a position of trust, as of 2000), can join the armed forces and can enter a pub or bar which does not serve food on their own (but see caveat above). They can also marry with their parents' consent in England and Wales, or without their parents' consent in Scotland only, leave school and work full-time.
At 17 Muggles can learn to drive.
At 18 Muggles can vote, legally buy alcohol and cigarettes (it used to be 16 for cigarettes until the early 2000s), get a tattoo and marry without their parents' consent in England and Wales. Same-sex couples can enter into a civil partnership (civil marriage in all but name - although see below for the full list of differences).
Muggle education
Muggle education is compulsory, although going to school is not. Very few people, however, choose to home educate unless they have political/religious reasons for doing so. (Another common reason for home education is bullying; see here for more information on home education.)
Other than home education, a child may be educated at a state school or at an independent school, of which two varieties are 'public' and 'private'. These terms refer to times (as far back as the 16th century in some cases, e.g. King Edward VI Foundation) when all schooling had to be paid for directly. A private school was one where you had to be invited to attend; a public school was open to anyone who had the requisite cash.
Most state schools follow the secondary model of education, with primary schools from age 4-11 and secondary schools from age 11-16 and sixth forms (in schools or in Further Education colleges) from 16-19. Primary schools are further divided into infants (4-7) and juniors (7-11). There is also nursery provision (3-5), but this isn't always available through the state system. Other 'Early Years' options include visiting a playgroup, taking your child to a childminder or simply keeping them at home. (With the new 'Every Child Matters' directives, all state schools are required to be open and offer services from 8am to 6pm, so pre-school education may fall more and more under their remit.)
In state schools the National Curriculum (NC) must be followed. This differs between England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, but is broadly similar. In England, the NC is split into Key Stages (KS): Early Years (3-5), KS1 (5-7), KS2 (7-11), KS3 (11-14) and KS4 (14-16). In Scotland, there is an overall 5-14 curriculum. Compulsory classes include Mathematics, or Maths (not 'Math') and Literacy.
After that, in England the more academic students will stay on at school (if the school has a sixth form) or go to the local FE college to study for AS and A levels, with more practically focused students going to FE college to study BTECs, NVQs/SVQs and HNCs/HNDs, sometimes combined with one or two AS/A levels. In Scotland there are no AS/A levels - students instead take 'Highers', and all secondary schools extend to age 17.
After school and/or college, students may go on to Higher Education at university - English students do this at 18, Scottish students at 17. Up until the late 1980s, Tertiary / Higher Education in the UK was split into universities and polytechnics, with universities granting academic degrees and polytechnics focusing on vocational education. However, now all tertiary / higher education is conducted in universities, the polytechnics having become universities in the late 80s. (Personally, I think this was a huge mistake, but I'll leave that rant for another time and place.)
The only time the word 'school' is used in reference to university is in 'School of', e.g. 'School of Medical Science', 'School of Oriental Studies'. We don't have frat houses or sororities or 'preppiness'. The nearest we get are students who've been to public school (i.e. one of the older and more traditional independent schools) who are almost invariably upper middle class or aristocrats, unless they're very bright and got into public school on a scholarship (and by the time they leave school they're usually indistinguishable from those they went to school with). At Durham University in the early 2000s they were referred to as the 'Pashmina Brigade'. In the 1980s all over the UK they were known as 'Sloane Rangers' and 'Hooray Henry's.
We don't have 'semesters' at school, we have 'terms' - autumn term (Sept - Dec, beginning of the school year), spring term (Jan to Easter) and summer term (Easter to July). However, British universities now operate a combination of terms and semesters.
We don't graduate from school, only from university. We simply leave school; a graduate is someone who has completed a degree course at a university.
Muggle health care
We (just about) have a National Health Service (NHS) in the UK which is still, in principle, free at the point of delivery, paid for through direct taxation on income and National Insurance contributions (now nothing more than an additional income tax, except in relation to state pensions).
If you go to an NHS hospital, you will not be charged for treatment, including dental treatment, and if medicine is prescribed it will be administered free of charge.
If you visit your NHS general practitioner (doctor - GP) or practice nurse, you will not be charged for consultation.
If you get a prescription from said GP or nurse, you will be charged for dispensing by the pharmacist at the dispensing chemists (�6.50 per prescription) unless you live in Wales or have an exemption (you are in receipt of certain state benefits/tax credits or are over 60 or under 16 (or 19 if you're in full-time education), are pregnant or have a baby under a year old, have epilepsy or diabetes or certain other conditions). Contraception is prescribed free of charge for everyone, and can be accessed by 16-25 year olds through Brook Centres (a bit more friendly than a GP surgery, and good if you don't feel comfortable discussing your sex life with your family doctor who's known you since you were born).
If you visit an optician, in England and Wales you will be charged for both examination (about �25) and prescription (anywhere from �39 to �500+, depending on your taste in frames, the type of lenses you require, whether you go for contact lenses, etc.), unless you have an exemption (as for prescriptions for the most part) in which case the NHS gives you a �39 voucher to use against the option of your choice. Most opticians have glasses that cost �39 including frames and lenses, to meet this need. Some opticians will waive the examination fee if you buy your glasses or contact lenses from them, but by no means all. It probably depends on the level of competition - i.e. more common in big cities than in small towns and rural areas. In Scotland, eye examinations are free, as of 2007.
If you visit a dentist, in England and Wales you will be charged for both examination and treatment; in Scotland examination is free, as of 2007. (nightpig says, "Dentists that I know of charge around �50 for an emergency appointment (say, if you chip a tooth and need it fixed right away) and around �30 for a filling. If you require any complicated treatment and aren't insured it will likely run into hundreds of pounds." laura_the_auror adds that a check-up costs about �15) unless you are lucky enough to find an NHS dentist, and you are eligible for an exemption. Otherwise, your dentist will charge you private rates and may strongly encourage you to sign up for a dental health insurance package.
Complementary therapies are, in principle, available on prescription via your GP and apparently they do actually prescribe them as well as exercise and diet change rather than drug treatment. There are GPs who are also homoeopaths and acupuncturists, but they tend to use such techniques for symptomatic relief rather than treatment of cause (they've usually only done a weekend course rather than the standard 2-3 years for acupuncture and 7 years for homeopathy). Health insurance packages are available that will pay for complementary therapies when needed, at a quite reasonable cost.
Driving in the UK
Learning to drive is is a laborious process involving a theory test (multiple choice on a touch-screen computer terminal) and an increasingly difficult practical test. It is illegal to drive without insurance against accident, theft and fire (third party required, comprehensive recommended). Driving lessons are now compulsory, and the minimum number of hours pre-test are set to rise, apparently, to 100.
The car itself must pass an annual safety check after it's three years old (called an MOT) and road tax must be paid to keep the car on the road (currently about �95 for engines under 1900cc and �165 for engines over 1900cc). Also, the owner of a car is responsible for what happens to it/involving it regardless of who is driving it. Wearing seatbelts is compulsory in both front and back seats, where they are fitted, with a fine applied to the driver of the vehicle in all cases.
It is very rare for cars in the UK to have automatic transmission, unless they are modern luxury cars (e.g. Mercedes, Jaguar) - the fuel consumption is appalling. (Fuel in the UK currently costs around �1.03 per litre (Jan 07), most of which is tax. The price of fuel is constantly going up due to oil price rises.) Most cars have a gear stick (and it's definitely a gear stick not a 'gear shift' or, heavens forfend, 'stick shift'. Some people maintain 'gear lever' is more common; maybe it's a regional or class thing). Automatics have been rare, so there is no particular term in common usage for a car with a proper gear stick, it's just a car. A car with automatic transmission is 'an automatic', although as automatics become more popular with younger drivers, cars with gear sticks are becoming commonly known as 'manuals'.
If you pass your driving test in an automatic, you're not allowed to drive a car with manual transmission unless you take your test again in one of those.
Speed limits:
Residential areas - 30 miles per hour
Residential areas near a school or where the streets get used as rat-runs - 20 miles per hour
Not quite sure what this one's for but you see it a lot - 40 miles per hour
Ditto - 50 miles per hour
National speed limit for single carriageway - 60 miles per hour
National speed limit for dual carriageway and motorways - 70 miles per hour
An entrance is not a 'foyer' in a home, it's a 'hall'; it's a 'foyer' in a public building. ias adds: "We do not have porches which you would sleep on/have chairs and tables on whether front or back of the house, we do have conservatories and patios which serve a similar function regarding socialising. British porches are small areas, sometimes incorporated into the house, sometimes not, at the front or back door where you can shelter to take off your wet shoes etc. In many cases the porch is nothing more than a small roof projecting over the area in front of the door. We do not have stoops: we have front steps or back steps and rarely do we have large number of steps up to a front door anyway."
Most British sinks have separate taps; the US-style mixer tap is still fairly unusual, though you do come across them, particularly in the kitchen. A sink in a bathroom is generally called a basin or washbasin.
British homes often have the washing machine in the kitchen, under a worktop. The only person I know who has a twin-tub is my gran, and she's had one since the early 1950s. Most homes have a fridge-freezer, a washing maching and tumble drier (or washer-drier). Some also have a deep freeze or chest freezer, but not many - it depends on class and local/ethnic culture.
Typical fridge-freezer........................................Typical washer / washer-drier
Electricity and wiring
Because of differences in how earthing works between the UK and the US, what is and isn't a good idea to plug into the wall is different between the two countries.
In Britain we have three-pin plugs, i.e. with an earth wire incorporated, except in the bathroom, where only two-pin plugs are legally allowed, and even then only for electric shavers or toothbrushes; lights in the bathroom must be on a pull-switch not a wall switch.
Plug-in, jug type electric kettles are very common here in the kitchen; in fact it's generally only when someone has a range cooker (which is usually either upper-middle class people anywhere, or anyone of any class who lives in the countryside) or wants to save money on their electricity that you'll see a 'traditional' kettle in use on the hob.
Suburbia
The epitome of suburbia is not a white picket fence. Houses in Britain don't have white picket fences. Suburban Britain is epitomised by semi-detached houses, each with their own garden front and back, with privet hedges or high, solid wooden fences. And a shed. Every upper lower class / lower middle class British Muggle man has a shed at the bottom of his garden. Or in his allotment. Or both.
Typical row of modern, semi-detached houses, built, I would think, c. 1946.
Gay Life
There are significant populations of lesbian/gay/bisexual people in London, Brighton, Norwich, Manchester, Glasgow and Edinburgh, as well as all large cities. There are also significant numbers of lesbians in Hebden Bridge in Yorkshire, in rural Wales and the 'artsy' bit of south-west Scotland (Stewarty, mainly).
There are LGBT drop-in centres in London, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dumfries. I don't know if there's one in Manchester, but I'd be very surprised if there wasn't. Manchester has a 'gay village' which is two streets that cross each other - Canal St. and Chorlton St. You are almost as likely to see hen parties and straight 'tourists' there on a Friday and Saturday night as you are gay people. The gay quarter of London is in Soho, around Old Compton St. and in Birmingham is around the Hurst St./Arcadian Centre area.
Personally, I have never, ever in my entire life met a gay man who refers to a man being fucked as a 'bottom' or the man doing the fucking as a 'top', unless the fucking was in the context of a D/s or SM scene. However, I've been told that some do. I've also heard that the top/bottom thing is much more common - as a part of the language, as an assumption about a relationship and as a reality - in the USA. Lesbians, IME, tend to use the terms top/bottom and dom/sub interchangeably, but these are absolutely not to be confused with butch and femme styles/roles.
Civil Partnerships
As of December 2005, two men or two women can enter into a Civil Partnership in the UK, which gives similar, but not identical, legal rights and responsibilities to marriage. The main differences are:
- same-sex partners may not have a marriage ceremony; other-sex partners may not have a civil partnership ceremony
- non-consummation of a civil partnership is not legal grounds for its dissolution
- the part that makes the civil partnership legal is the signing of a legal document, not the speaking of particular words before a registrar and witnesses as is the case for marriage, therefore no ceremony is necessary
- the law on civil partnerships is (afaik) identical in all parts of the UK, whereas marriage law differs in some significant respects between England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland
- religious ceremonies of any kind for same-sex couples are not recognised at all by law, it is purely a civil, legal document signing process, despite there being some religions/spiritual traditions/faith groups which do recognise same-sex relationships.
Some local registration services are not offering ceremonies to accompany the signing of the legal document, many are. Some, particularly in the north-west of Scotland, were allowing registrars to refuse to register civil partnerships. This effectively meant that it was impossible to get one in many parts of Scotland. However, with the new law in force (2007) regarding equal access to services, I'm not sure this is the case any more.
Food and drink
Confectionery
We don't have 'candy', we have sweets (or sweeties) and chocolate. In some parts of the north of England, all kinds of sweets other than chocolate are referred to as 'toffees'. somnia_lustre adds:
"As for the sweets, from at least the 70s onwards, there was and still is a trend in sweet shops/ newsagents selling 'penny sweets' and 'penny mixes'. A bit like pic and mix, but far cheaper. A child could go and buy what seems like vast ammounts of small sweets and confections for a penny each,and either get the shoopkeeper to mix them their own, or buy pre-prepared bags, with 20p and 50p mixes being common. Common sweets in these mixes are gummi bears, chocolate mice, midget gems, gum balls, dolly mixtures etc.
"Similarly, there's a trend of [flame's note: moving back to] buying little paper bags of sweets dispensed from a jar, in fractions of a pound (as in mass, as opposed to currency). For example, a school girl might get a quarter of cola cubes on her way [flame's note: although due to EU law, everything is supposed to be sold in grammes!]. Most loose sweets are still sold in this way, from pensioner's favourites chocolate eclairs (toffee with chocolate in the middle) to bon bons."
Chips, crisps and other snacks
Chips are thick oblongs of potato, deep-fried, often served with battered, deep-fried fish - similar to what Americans call 'french fries', but fatter and less evenly cut. What Americans call 'chips' are called crisps - popular brands include Walkers and Golden Wonder. Doritos (tortilla chips) are also now commonly available in small packets like crisps at corner shops and newsagents as well as convenience stores (one of the few times people in the UK are likely to use the word 'store' to mean a shop) and supermarkets. Most other snacks involve chocolate. Common chocolate bar names include Mars, Snickers (which was called Marathon until about 10-15 years ago), Crunchie, Lion...
Soft drinks In Britain, 'soda' refers to soda water, of the kind served with whisky. Fizzy soft drinks are called 'fizzy pop' by people over the age of 40, and are referred to by their brand or generic name by everyone else (e.g. lemonade, Fanta, Coke, 7-up, ginger beer, etc.).
Tea
In much of Britain tea is not a drink, it is a religion. A little history may be in order (as taught to me by one of my social anthropology lecturers *cough*mumble*cough* years ago - scholarship on the subject may have moved on since then).
Up until the eighteenth century and the advent of the industrial revolution, most people in Britain, including children - certainly among the rural working classes - drank beer as their main source of fluids. It was the only safe way of drinking water for most people. The beer drunk wasn't strong and was called 'small beer'. Once the industrial revolution got under way, however, people needed to be much more alert as they were using dangerous machinery in wool and cotton mills, iron works, etc. At the same time, water was no safer to drink and the British East India Company (and other colonial institutions of global capitalism) needed a market for their products, one of which was tea and another of which was sugar.
The answer? Boil the water (rendering it safe) and make a nice cup of tea, served with a spoon or two (or three) of sugar. (I'm not sure at what point milk gets added to the picture). It also had the advantage of being able to be made, served and drunk anywhere there is a source of heat and a kettle, rather than a specialised process (brewing) requiring skill and months of work. This fitted in very well with the needs of the new, mechanised industries which wanted people to be rather more regimented in their work than they had been out in the fields. Thus the tea break was born.
Back to the last hundred years. Up until recently, you could (usually) tell someone's class in Britain by how they poured their tea. Working class and upper class people tended to pour the tea first and add milk afterwards; middle class people tended to add milk to the cup first, then pour the tea. However, now that loose tea has all but vanished from the market and one-cup tea bags are the norm, most people don't even own a teapot anymore, so the question is moot. However, working class tea (the sort you'd find served on a building site) does still tend to be very strong with lots of sugar - the joke is that your spoon will stick up in it - and is served in a big mug rather than in a teacup and saucer.
N.B. The very idea of tea served with cream is an utter abomination. If a British person were to go all traditional and serve tea in a pot (as you still find in nicer cafés) the pot would come with a milk jug alongside, not a 'creamer'. (Oh, and a sugar bowl.)
Baking
First off, we measure things in pounds and ounces or kilos and grammes using a set of kitchen scales, rather than measuring things by volume using cups (although I do have a cup set for all the US recipes I have). We don't use the term 'shortening', we would specify butter or margarine (or, on occasion, lard - e.g. lardie cakes, eccles cakes, etc.).
There is a lot of room for confusion when describing baked foods, as a lot of terms are used differently on the two sides of the northern Atlantic. What are called 'biscuits' in America are in fact scones, what are called 'scones' in America are in fact soda breads and what are called 'popovers' in America wouldn't be recognised in Britain, except perhaps as oddly flavoured Yorkshire puddings.
Biscuits in the UK tend to be sweet and go well with a nice cup of tea (see above, this link and image below).
There are also, of course, water biscuits and savoury biscuits which go well with cheese; these are sometimes called crackers. Graham crackers (and therefore things like "S'mores") don't exist in Britain. I think they nearest we have is digestive biscuits.
Graham Crackers...............................................................Digestive Biscuits
Vegetables and pulses
Listed here with US --> UK words.
calabrese --> broccoli (we don't tend to differentiate between calabrese, purple sprouting or any other kinds - they're all just broccoli to your average punter)
zucchini --> courgette
bell peppers --> peppers
garbanzo beans --> chick peas
cilantro --> coriander
snow peas --> mange touts
I'm sure there are more.
Seasonal Foods
Christmas and New Year
I see 'egg nog' mentioned a lot in HP fanfic set around Christmas but I've never seen or heard of it anywhere in Britain. I don't even know what it is. According to Woman's Hour, Egg Nog originates in the southern States of the USA (link). I understand something similar, called an 'egg flip', was very popular in the 1960s and 70s and that most people who were children then hated it. The nearest I think I've had is advocaat, which is generally served with lemonade and a splash of lime juice. Drinks I personally associate with Christmas are: punch, mulled wine, mulled cider, ginger wine, sherry - it tends to be a matter of family rather than national tradition in my experience.
The 'traditional' (i.e. largely Victorian) English Christmas dinner includes: roast turkey, roast potatoes, boiled potatoes, brussels sprouts and carrots, stuffing (sometimes several kinds), bread sauce, apple sauce and gravy, followed by Christmas pudding - alight with blue flame if you're lucky, and containing sixpences if you're really lucky - with brandy butter or brandy custard or just plain old custard followed by a slice of Christmas cake (rich fruit cake covered with marzipan and royal icing (not 'frosting'). There's been a trend over recent years for the aspirant middle classes to revert to the Victorian tradition of a goose rather than a turkey. (This year (2007) Waitrose has one of those over the top turkey stuffed with a goose stuffed with a chicken stuffed with a duck etc. monstrosities) Other foods associated with Christmas are mince pies (which are only eaten at Christmas), oranges, clementines, nuts (whole nuts - it's often the only time of year people use a nutcracker!) and dates. Oh, and chocolate, of course.
More on Christmas traditions in general and differences between US and UK traditions can be found here at cavalorn's LiveJournal (the comments are worth reading).
New Year traditions, food-wise, don't seem to happen in England, but in Scotland a traditional Hogmanay breakfast of scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and tattie scones (flat soda bread made with potatoes) can be found at some hotels and possibly even in some homes. ('Black Bunnets' are apparently also traditional in some parts of Scotland, but I've been able to find neither a recipe nor a picture.) It's worth noting here that it's only in recent decades that Christmas has been celebrated as a public holiday in Scotland at all. All the midwinter jollity was saved up for Hogmanay, which runs from the end of 31st December to 2nd January.
Pancake Day, Lent and Easter
People still make pancakes on pancake day, but more because it's fun than to use up any food they're not going to be eating over Lent. These pancakes are large and thin, but not so much so as creêpes, and usually served with lemon juice and sugar. Hot cross buns are now available all year, and Simnel cake is a rarity, but chocolate Easter eggs start showing up in the shops in February ::sighs::
Sex n Drugs n Rock n Roll
"...is all my brain and body needs." ::misses Ian Dury:: Where was I? Ah yes, these notes from ajhalluk:
"The equalisation of the gay and straight age of consent is a very recent development ; gay sex was legalised in 1967 [ed's correction], for consenting men in private. As the age of majority at that date was 21, the age of consent for m/m gay sex remained 21 until the early nineties, when after a fervent campaign (which included a friend of mine actually buttonholing John Major about it at a cocktail party) it was lowered to 18. The full equalisation only occurred in about 2001, so if you're going with the Lexicon dating for HP m/m is illegal for Muggle purposes below 18 despite wizards being of age for wizarding purposes at 17. F/F had not been illegal (though I think the same act which equalised ages of consent may have brought it in for lesbian sex under 16) at any point, apocryphally because no-one could face explaining to Queen Victoria what lesbians were (given that her grandson Eddie used to visit transvestite brothels under the name "Victoria" I suspect she probably knew more than this story gives her credit for, but still).
"Drug use is pretty common; I've no idea what the current popular drugs of choice are, but among mid-nineties teenagers they were dope, ecstasy and speed. "Sorted for Es and whizz" was a catchphrase used to denote being fully equipped for an evening's clubbing.
"Under age drinking is de rigeur, as are lockins [when the owner of the pub or bar locks the door to the establishment at closing time, but allows the regulars to stay indoors (i.e. locked in) and continue drinking (and paying) all night], as is a general heavy drinking culture especially among students, the professional classes, the working classes, sports fans, holiday-makers and those celebrating significant life events such as the passing of exam results. Euan Blair was found in a gutter in Leicester Square following his O levels, and the general public reaction was that he must have some lousy mates to have left him, coupled with appreciation that he'd had the nous, at least, to attempt to give a false name to the cop who was trying to redeliver him to his sorrowing friends and relations. His father, also, reacted in the traditional English manner to this; amused tolerance coupled with a threat ("His mother gets back from Italy tomorrow and I've told him she'll be having a word with him"). Nothing shrieks "Americanism" to me more than characters making jokes abotu 12 step programs, suggesting that anyone would regard teenage drinking as a sign of instability and incipient alcoholism, or the belief that alcoholism is hereditary (it may well be, but Brits have never allowed the fact that Granddad is a barmy old soak to put them off getting wellied themselves)."
Note on safer sex Condoms and oil-based lubricants DO NOT MIX. Condoms should only ever be used with water-based lubricants or they are liable to break.
Further on alcohol
Alcoholic drinks are not called liquor. We don't go to a 'liquor store' to buy alcohol, we go to an 'off licence' ('offie' or 'offy' for short), so called because the proprietor is licensed to sell alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises. Drinks like vodka, whisky, gin, etc. are called 'spirits' or 'shorts' (abbreviation for 'short measure') or 'shots'. A relatively common (and occasionally fatal) way of celebrating the completion of one's final exams at university - especially for medical students, who really ought to know better - is to 'drink your way along the optics', which means to drink a measure of every single short available in a pub or bar, one after the other (the 'optics' being the little bubble underneat the upside-down bottle which meaures the shot). Many bars have a "happy hour" when drinks are half price, or there are special deals.
All types of alcohol are also available in supermarkets, although their licensing hours are somewhat restricted.
Please remember that the legal age for purchase of alcohol in the UK is 18, and no 16 year old would be shocked to see their friends drinking alcohol, unless they had had a very religious and/or sheltered childhood.
Common alcoholic drinks:
Beer: Beer refers to any alcoholic beverage brewed from grains and hops, commonly between 3% and 6% alcohol, and covers a wide range, everything from lagers to bitters, stouts and ales, weissbiers, fruit beers and a lot more. Most people drink generic brands of lager or bitter, often of very low quality, despite the proud British and European traditions of beer brewing. (There is an organisation in Britain called the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA). I'm not a member, but I have a lot of friends who are - or really ought to be!) I've never had a beer that wasn't fizzy.
Cider: Cider is an alcoholic beverage brewed from apples, commonly between 3% and 12% alcohol, and fizzy. (N.B. Non-alcoholic apple drinks are called apple juice.) The vast majority of cider available in Britain is dry. (For good sweet ciders go to France.) Most people who drink cider in Britain drink generic brands that, quite frankly, taste of stomach acid. Good ciders are available, but you have to seek them out. Street drunks (and teenagers who want to get drunk quickly) tend to drink generic brand strong ciders such as Merrydown. (When I was growing up it was Thunderbird, a brand of cheap, strong perry - like cider but made from pear juice, not apple juice.) Scrumpy is very strong cider made in the south-west and west of England - not as fizzy with a good flavour - but is a bit hard to come by now.
Wine: Wine used to be a middle and upper class drink, but as all British people are now middle class, unless they fall into the lumpenproletariat, wine is commonly available in supermarkets, ranging from �2.99 to �18 a bottle. There are specialist off licences that sell only/mostly wine (most notably Oddbins, but also small local shops). The price range in these is even wider, with very expensive wines also available, but the staff have good knowledge and can guide the novice wine buyer.
Spirits and liqueurs: All the usuals (vodka, gin, whisky (Scotch), whiskey (Irish), schnapps, etc.) and some truly foul flavoured liqueurs like Kahlua, Malibu, etc., often favoured by giggly, girly women in their late teens and twenties, who maraud about town in packs on a Friday and Saturday night, getting pissed, fighting and getting off with boys/men. Ladettes (young women who behave 'laddishly' or 'blokeishly') also do this, but they tend to drink beer and ordinary spirits - in very large quantities - although the line between ladettes and packs of girly girls is a fine one, sometimes.
Alcopops: 'Alcopops' were something of a phenomenon in the late 1990s and early 2000s. They were strong alcoholic drinks, usually fizzy, with enough sugar added that they didn't taste that much like alcohol. Drinks manufacturers came in for a lot of stick over it, as they were seen as encouraging under-aged drinking. (Not that it needs much encouragement.)
Other entertainments
Sport
Sport (N.B. not 'sports') is incredibly popular, especially but not exclusively amongst males, regardless of class. Football (what Americans call soccer) probably comes top of the list. Also popular are rugby (both Rugby Union and Rugby League rules), cricket, snooker, formula one racing, golf and tennis (in summer, particularly Wimbledon). Occasionally other sports hit the headlines, but only when an English or British person is unexpectedly successful. (N.B. When an English sporting team wins in an international competition, the press refer to them as English. When a Scottish team wins in an international competition, the press refer to them as British (viz. Scottish women's curling team at the 2002 Winter Olympics).)
Cricket
I'm making an extra note on cricket, because it is not only a quintessentially English sport (the two British sports are football and Rugby Union), but it is also a passion shared by peoples of many of the ex-colonies - many islands in the Caribbean, Australia, India and Pakistan. The rules of cricket are somewhat arcane. See http://www.therulesofcricket.co.uk/, http://vt.essortment.com/cricketrule_redn.htm or http://www.icc-cricket.com/rules/.
Cinema
Going to see films is a popular Muggle activity across Britain. For the most part, we "go to the cinema" or "go to see a film"; we don't "go to the movies" (although young people who have been overexposed to north American cultural product may well say it all the same). Most cinemas are now of the multiplex variety, although there are still some that only have a couple of screens and provide a more personal service and atmosphere. These tend to be either family run, or arts cinemas. Occasionally a cinema will ask you to pick a seat when you buy your ticket, but usually you just walk in and take the best seat you can find.
Large cinemas and multiplex cinemas tend to be exactly the same everywhere in the country, even down to the refreshments on offer; usually popcorn (sweet or salted), nachos with salsa, jalapenos and disgusting melted cheese, hot dogs, ice cream, pic 'n mix sweets, chocolate bars, crisps, etc., all horrendously overpriced, plus soft drinks, often from brand-name concessions (Baskin Donuts, Haagen Dazs, etc.).
At small family or arts cinemas, the refreshments are often more interesting, with home-made cakes, flapjacks and other bakes sometimes available as well as chocolate, crisps and ice cream, and often a wider range of drinks. Some arts cinemas have cafe bars attached.
N.B. A cinema is never called a 'theatre'; that's a building where plays are performed.
Television
I don't have a telly, so I can't really say much about this, except that last time I looked it was pretty dire, with 'reality' shows hogging the schedules.
BBC radio has expanded in recent times, with ten stations now available nationally, in addition to BBC local radio and the World Service. Radio is also now available through digital TV receivers and over the Internet.
Radio 1: Chart music with DJs and occasional documentaries, phone-in competitions, etc.
Radio 2: Mostly DJs with easy listening, MOR - pop, rock, classical, jazz, even organ music, of all eras - but also the occasional very good documentary on Punk or New Wave or 1930s pop or...
Radio 3: Serious music - classical, world, verging into folk on occasion. The place to hear experimental music, but not as often as it used to be.
Radio 4: News and considered comment, politics, current affairs, drama, documentaries, intelligent comedy. No DJs, no music (apart from 'Desert Island Discs').
Radio 5 live: Live news and sport, no music.
Also 1Xtra ('Black' music), 6 Music, BBC 7 (new and repeated comedy), Asian Network and 5 live Sports Extra.
Independent Radio
Lots of this locally, more in bigger cities. Tends to be a mix of DJ-ed music and local news.
Nationally, there's Virgin Radio, Jazz FM, Classic FM.
Religion, Racism and Social Attitudes
Religion does not play a large part in most white people's lives in Britain - most are either indifferent to religion or downright hostile to it. Black, Indian and Pakistani Britons (amongst others) do tend to have a stronger religious life, though - generally Christian for the former and Hindu, Muslim or Sikh for the latter two. Even those white people who are religious are as likely to be socially liberal as conservative, in my experience, and pronouncements by fundamentalist Christians are generally met with embarrassment by Christians at large, at least in England - Protestant Christianity in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland tends to be a bit more on the socially conservative side. 'Black' churches, Muslim teachers and Hindu elders tend to be very socially conservative, IME, but individual Muslims, Hindus and Black Christians can be socially liberal.
The upshot of all this is that attitudes to lesbian, gay and bisexual people are not unduly influenced by 'strict biblical teaching' (ahem) and even if a lot of straight people aren't exactly comfortable with non-heterosexuality (LJ user stephenboothuk uses the phrase "suspicious tolerance", which I think is pretty accurate), they tend to take a 'live and let live' attitude. Homophobia tends to be more rooted in (particularly male) insecurity about a person's own gender construct and sexuality rather than any religious teachings.
Racism is ever-present in British society, but tends to go untriggered, unless there are majority white and majority Black/Asian neighbourhoods, both poor, living side by side (e.g. Bradford, Leicester). Then anxieties about distribution of what public funds there are get tied to perceptions of ethnicity and entitlement. Where the British National Party or other racist/nationalist politicos get involved in 'supporting' the majority white community we get some very nasty happenings indeed. However, 'mixed race' relationships are very, very common in cities and no-one bats an eyelid, and in a lot of cities - particularly London, Bristol and Birmingham (also Manchester? Liverpool?) - you don't tend to get 'white' areas and 'black' areas so much. Racism in rural areas, however, is very, very bad - Cumbria and Norfolk are two of the counties with the lowest numbers of people from minority ethnic communities, but have some of the highest percentages of racist incidents per head of population.
UK Geography and Meteorology
Hogwarts school is supposedly in north-east Scotland (it's north of Peebles anyway - see HP canon). This means that in the summer, it barely gets dark at night, and in the winter the sun rises about 9am (or later) and sets about 3pm (or earlier). Midges are often a hellish problem from June to August anywhere in rural Scotland. Midges are tiny, tiny little biting insects. If you look closely at them, you see that the thorax of the midge is striped black and white - but you're usually too busy trying the kill the buggers to look too closely. They descend in large clouds and attack all bare skin, have been known to fly up the legs of loose trousers and have a particular penchant for the outer corners of eyes.
The weather in the east of Scotland is drier and less cloudy than in many parts of the UK, but also windy and cold a lot of the time. Maps of average annual rainfall, sunshine, etc. for the UK are available from the Meteorological Office website here.
I don't know if wizarding Britain keeps the same conventions as Muggle Britain regarding daylight saving time. If it does, British Summer Time starts on the last Sunday in March, when the clocks go forward one hour, and ends on the last Sunday in October, when the clocks go back one hour, back to Greenwich Mean Time. It wouldn't surprise me if wizarding Britain kept to GMT all year round, or even had local time, following the sun, as used to the be the case until train timetables meant the whole country had to be on the same time.
There is a high likelihood of the Aurora Borealis (Northern Lights) being visible from Hogwarts in the autumn, winter or spring - the best time to view being midnight, when the lights are visible direct due north. They can be sheets of light (red and green and white) shifting and changing, or a burst of 'flame' overhead (I once saw what looked like an angel or a phoenix directly over our house! In this case, the lights started directly over head and trailed out southwards, because of how the radiation from the sun was hitting the ionosphere). Very, very rarely, they appear as if a whole load of spotlights were shining from directly overhead to all points north, from east to west.
North-east Scotland is a bloody long way away from anywhere else. Just look at a map of the UK, then visit www.rac.co.uk and use their journey planner to get reasonably accurate distances and car journey times between different places. Most journeys, especially from rural Scotland, take longer than you might think. However, local flights are common, with regular flights to London too.