vital questions: UK vs US language usage - anyone?

[deaka]

Okay. Google is not shedding a lot of light on this, so, dear flist: cupboard and living room. Are both of these commonly used in the US? Are they used in the UK? Is there another term that sounds more natural in everyday usage?

[For clarity, my definitions would roughly be - cupboard: item of furniture with shelves not found in the bedroom (

Comments

[gabri_jade]

You're making up that twopenneth thing, aren't you? *suspicious* Mary Poppins said "tuppence," and Mary Poppins is never wrong. ;P

[treenahasthaal]

Wow... Blank, I always thought you were American! lol....

Not only do we have tuppance, I also came across an old thrupence when I was cleaning out my cupboard!

[gabri_jade]

Ah! Interesting that the terminology changes between monetary and social usage. It doesn't here; it's "two cents" across the board. And yes, you are indeed polite. Intimidatingly so, sometimes. Casual British manners can make my best occasion manners feel quite barbarous. :P

I rather like that av myself. :D

Of course we do! Let's meet in the middle here and say it's a bit of both. Plenty o' strangeness to go around with Americans and Brits. ;P

[deaka]

Katherine, I somehow skipped over that extra clarification about cupboard in your original description, so I might as well add that for us, we'd still say cupboard in the bathroom; if we specifically mean the smaller, usually mirrored cupboard on the wall, we tend to say medicine cabinet. In the bedroom, it'd likely be the closet or wardrobe, but it could still be cupboard. Most people say "hall cupboard, "kitchen cupboard," etc to differentiate.

That's pretty much identical here! (Except medicine cabinet = bathroom cabinet, but maybe that's because the medications are kept elsewhere in my house.) So, interesting.

(I'm glad I'm not the only one who accidentally skips entire paragraphs. That, or the internet is trying to confuse us. Conspiracy, I say!)

[gabri_jade]

Heh, there's no medication in my medicine cabinet either, but it still gets called a medicine cabinet. Don't ask me why. :P

I miss entire paragraphs far too often. I like blaming the internet instead of myself for this phenomenon. I like it very much indeed. :D

[deaka]

Glad Gabri pointed you over! I knew the US would outweigh the UK in replies but I was hoping someone could shed some light on that side of the pond.

I suspected UK wouldn't too far off Australian usage (or vice versa, I suppose, to be more accurate) but that's interesting about living room vs. lounge, because it's the other way around here. And was wondering re front room also, which you've answered without my even asking, so kudos for mindreading...

But what are Friday nights without a bit of hide-tanning and tallow-making? Way to take the fun out of life, clause writers.