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

[archaeologist_d]

USA here - I use cupboard but we don't tend to have them any more - however they are built-in, not furniture, like a closet with a full set of shelves. Old fashioned houses would have that. A cupboard in the kitchen is a pantry sometimes (although a pantry is a walk-in cupboard). A piece of furniture for holding glassware and dishes would be a hutch and it would be found in a dining room.

Living room is fine. Sometimes we have a family room, too, but that's in addition to the living room which would be then more formal usage.

[deaka]

Ah, thanks, that's helpful, particular the built-in/not built-in distinction - nothing like that in Australian English usage. This is much more complicated than I expected! Curses, English language.

Ah, fair enough, family rooms seem to be more and more common over here too.

[blood_sorbet]

I'm in the US, and...I think both depend on the area of the US you're in, or who raised you and taught you to speak, and where they came from? Because no one I know really differentiates between built-in and not built-in like the commenter above was saying. I live in Ohio (so, I'm Midwestern) and cupboard can generally be any type of furniture with shelves found in the kitchen. No one's very picky about it. I think a lot of people in my area also call shelved kitchen furniture "cabinets" too. Cabinets and cupboards seem to be pretty interchangeable around here.

Now that I think about it, I personally use cabinet more than cupboard, but I'm just weird and prefer the sound of the word cabinet more than the word cupboard lmao.

Living room is the same, though some call it the family room, or the den, even. Again, I think it depends on how/who brought you up and where they came from. A regional thing, I guess?

[deaka]

That makes sense! I'd be really surprised if there wasn't a bit of regional/personal difference, which is why the more responses, the better. I kind of love that cupboard is one of those invisible words you don't think about until... you do. (Cupboard is a weird word when you think about it. Very few of the cupboards in my house actually hold cups. Madness!)

[gabri_jade]

US West Coaster (which you already knew :P ) here. Everyone I know uses cupboard and living room regularly. Your definitions for both are exactly how I'd describe them. Sometimes people use "living room" to identify the more formal room if they have more than one, and the less formal would be the family room or the den, but I rarely hear anyone bother to make that distinction unless they're in real estate. "Living room" is a pretty catch-all term around here.

I do suspect that despite any regional differences in the terms' usage, pretty much anyone in the US would immediately know what you were talking about with both.

[deaka]

I kind of love "den", because the only time I ever hear it is on US sitcoms and it just sounds so cosy and evocative, like everyone's bundled up for the winter. (I don't know, I really don't.)

Ah, see I was wondering if it was one of those odd little language things where you use a word you think is reasonable and non-Australians have no idea what you mean, so this is good.

[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!

[treenahasthaal]

UK Scots here -

A cupboard to me is a "closet" to the US. A space for storage - my cupboard in my house is under the stairs! (like Harry Potter)

A living room is what I'm in just now - with my sofa's, tv, bookcases, kids, dog and general clutter! : ) It can also be called a lounge - if you want to be posher!

[deaka]

I was hoping you'd reply! Knew I had at least one UK resident on my flist. Didn't realise you were Scots-based, though! My family are all Orkney-Shetland in origin, which is... probably not interesting, but anyway. :P

Ah, that's helpful. Sounds like Australian usage and UK usage are pretty close. Except for switching the lounge-living room hierarchy, but I suspect that's because we refer to a sofa as a lounge.

I assume there are no bespectacled boy wizards in your cupboard under the stairs...