poll on traffic light colours

This entry was originally posted at http://deird1.dreamwidth.org/28937.html. Feel free to comment there using OpenID. (
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Poll terminology

(This question brought to you by reading a discussion on a webforum.)

Realised there's something about Other Englishs that I don't know:

If I'm walking down the street, and suddenly need to attract the attention of a random stranger, then I call out

"Hey, mate..."

"Mate", of course, is rather Australian.

So I was wondering: what do other people call total strangers when they need to start a conversation?

Because I get wildly curious about unimportant matters such as punctuation.

Poll

Questions? Comments?

Okay. I’m officially intrigued.

( a poll of cupboard names )

I’ve been corrected in the comments to my last post for pluralising “Mary-Sue” incorrectly ( Read more... )

From my editing textbook, in a brief explanation of metric units:

"One millipicture is a quantity of art equivalent in value to one word."

It confused me - and then it made me laugh.

Whenever I see you guys talk about "rooting for someone", I start snickering - much in the fashion of a teenage boy.

"Rooting"? Over here, it's the crudest way you could possibly discuss having sex.

Feel free to keep saying it (after all, it's a perfectly legitimate word for you guys) but please be aware of the effect it's having on Aussies...

My book on Latin has a section on Latin names. Which sounds very serious and sensible in Latin, but much more weird and wacky when you think about how it would work in English.

Latin Names in English

So, there's a man called John Smith. Or, actually, SmithHis family and friends call him "John", but to the rest of the world he is simply Smith. ( Read more... )

I recently realised something about writing different dialects.

You see, I’m an Aussie. My English is (sort of) a mixture of British English and American English - with a lot of Australian slang thrown in. It makes me a pretty reasonable Britpicker for American writers, and also a pretty good Ameripicker for British writers. But there’s one area I ( Read more... )