If hot chips get cold they're simply called cold chips. If chips get hot it's called fuck this bullshit, I'm going down the pub where it's air-conditioned
We also have French fries but because they are called that by McDonald's when we think of French fries we think of thin cut chips, while thick cut chips are just chips.
Not here they don't. A homonym is where you have two *different* words with the same spelling and pronunciation. This is an example of *the same* word with two different meaning: a polyseme.
I've heard of Australians trying to clarify by saying *potato* chips, and then realizing their error. But apparently if you want to be truly unambiguous, it's "hot chips" and "cold chips".
Imagine my surprise when I ordered a hot dog and chips at Universal Studios in LA and they gave me my hot dog and a packet of Lays' potato chips. Yeah, what the actual fuck? Who eats potato chips in a packet as part of a MEAL??????
France: frites / chips. In France we don't call them "French fries", because they were not invented by the French, we just call them "frites", the shorter version of "pommes de terre frites" (fried potatoes). Americans tasted fries prepared by French people and decided to call them "French fries", completely oblivious that it is not a French specialty at all
Its a mistake, french fries were indeed created by french in Paris, and was imported to Belgium by a German. Today its true that Belgium is a making awesome french fries and its a part of their culinary identity, but it changes nothing of its origins, and its still made in France as a specialty too, mostly in the north.
There are other languages that use something other than ananas or something similar, Spanish uses Piña. English uses pineapple because it's rough like a pinecone and apple means fruit in English. Fruit is actually a word taken from French, the English uses to call every fruit descriptor+apple. Now we do both descriptor+apple and descriptor+fruit.
This of course isn't true for all English words because English has no standards. It does help with marketing. Telling someone you have Pitaya for sale won't interest a lot of people, call it Dragon fruit and more people will understand what it generally is(a fruit, not a dish or vegetable or a tool) and it does look like what a dragon egg would look like.
come to think of it, it doesn't even make much sense in german. in "pommes frites" we pronounce 'pommes' like the french, so just one syllable, but when we just say "pommes", it becomes a two syllable word: 'pom-mes', meaning we gain nothing. so much for german efficiency. xD
Other way around actually, as it was deemed generalized and part of the common language. It's in the dictionary and Maarud isn't even mentioned. https://naob.no/ordbok/potetgull
As a keen cook and esrtwhile private caterer I have a whole spreadsheet of US/UK cooking terms so I can translate recipes. Don't get me started on the whole grill/broil/barbecue confusion. And I still don't know what a lima bean is. The internet tells me they are what we call butterbeans But I know butterbeans as large and white. My friend from Virginia says lima beans are small and green....
Aaaaahhhhhh! Well we don't have the small green beans here, so when I made succotash as part of a Thanksgiving dinner for my friends from Virginia and New York State, they said it would be different beans in the US but they liked the food anyway. Probably because I also made a whole load of other stuff like stovetop stuffing and skillet biscuits and pecan pie!
Decades ago, I recall telling a British friend all about how much I love biscuits and gravy with runny egg on top as a hangover cure, and they looked utterly confounded and horrified and said many disparaging things about America and how we had a lot of cheek for mocking them for their food. We had a good laugh about it once we sorted it all out.
Love that, a British guy was at a mechanics shop I had my car at and when they told him your engine is shot they literally thought someone shot the engine and that's why it didn't run.
I grew up playing hockey, violent, fun, face paced. Went to Ireland to visit my cousins, “oooh….you like violent sports do ya?” Took me to a hurling match in Dublin. As a 13 year old, almost 14 I was fascinated, the amount of blood and the sheer violence enthralled me. They then took me for pints (i was a big boy and looked 16) so I could drink with my older cousins in the late 70s.
I'm living in the UK now, very few people outside central London or Liverpool know what hurling is. I try explain it to the people I work with but murder on a field disguised as a cross between hockey and lacrosse has been my most successful way so far
I'm currently living outside of London and I know because I have a Irish cousin that played https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Breen_(hurler) After they'd showed us round the local cemetry in Gorey there really wasn't much else left to do.
Yeah, a lot of Ireland is scenery, frequently lovely scenery but scenery none the less. Many things revolve around it with not much else to do down the country
As long as murder is included in the description is not far off :) Also, if you don't injure yourself playing it you're clearly not playing it right :P
Decades ago, I had a coworker who was in the US from the UK for college and told me a "we actually speak a different language" story about this one time they were taking a test. The pencil she brought didn't have an eraser, so they went up to the professor and asked for a rubber (which was what they called those large rectangular pencil erasers in the UK) and the professor was totally mortified until she explained that to him.
Same thing happened to a friend in school. He was a transfer from Jamaica and in like 9th grade he asked the teacher for a rubber. She was so confused at first.
my history of the english language professor had a similar experience his first time in england when he went to a drug store (I think in the 80s) and asked for rubbing alcohol. he said the woman working there thought he was a pervert and after a few frustrated attempts at ignoring him entirely, she asked him to leave and threatened to call for help. lol
Yeah, chips, or chips. One is a hot meal, the other is a snack. Pretty easy to figure out which one someone's talking about due to context and time of day - Chips also don't come in a bag, whereas chips do. You also don't have fish with chips, but you do have them with chips. Chips come in a bag, chips are wrapped in paper. Chips cost as much as chips now so price doesn't provide confirmation either way.
UK takeaways will often sell a paper bag of chips (fried potato, just so we're clear) as a side order for whatever. It works just as well as a cardboard container really, unless you like to douse them in vinegar like me.
French fries are called French fries because cutting things in little strips is a "French cut". We also have waffle fries and curly fries and criscut fries. They are all fries. French is just the most common cut. We have French cut green beans as well. We just can't be bothered to say "julienne".
I know someone from Belgium who is very chill nearly all of the time, but calling fries "French" is the one thing guaranteed to grind his gears. Apparently everyone from Belgium will insist that the fries are their thing, not France's.
I'm French, and yes, "French fries" are Belgian (and almost all French people agree with that). Belgians are proud of their fries and I can understand why they defend them.
No it's a myth. French fries are not from Belgium and as a French who lives to the Belgian border, the fact they like to make themselves angry about it doesn't make it true
Belgians just have their own category of fries, in netherlands referred to as flemish fries, rough cut thick fries (which i prefer). I dont think any belgian would ever claim that the french fry (the small and thin mcdonalds fries) are originally theirs
Tbf, belgian fries are generally much thicker cut, even much so, that it is its own category in netherlands (vlaamse patatten). Whereas if you say french fries over here, one would specifically mean the thinly cut ones (mcdonalds and the like). France can have those, the belgian ones are better anyway
That really depends on preparation, because its definitely possible to have soggy limp belgian fries, are they are quite thick. Badly prepared french fries (the thinly cut ones) usually are hard as fuck.
Both can be great, both can be ruined by inadequate cooks
Huhwhatcrazy
Jackie Chan actually grew up in Canberra. His dad was a chef at the US Embassy
wetsquirrel
Yum / Yum
spiritplumber
Australia: Actually it's spiders
NotTinyPancakes
hot chips potato chips
fartsandbacon
Wait till you hear about the sizes of beers from state to state.
ChloeRed
Also note: the defintion of a crisp in the UK is a slice of potato fried, so things like pringles aren't crisps, they are potato snacks, 1/
ChloeRed
and other things like them sometimes are also labeled... chips. 2/2
originfoomanchu1
In the UK French fries is a typ of chip not all chips are French fries.
What you get from McDonald's are French fries big chunky boys are chips.
xo66nt
Hot chips from the chippy, a bag of chips from woolworths.
KrondorMocker
ThatPug
Don't you mean freedom fries
borocanuck
Taco bell will soon be Freedom bell?
RooGryphon
out of busness. ice just deports anyone seen working there
TarynnosaurusRex
Liberty Bell
Type17
No, because that word does not mean what you think it means.gif
ThatSonOfaBitch
Not that hard to understand, honestly.
sometimesarobot
America needs to call something Crisps
astrangehop
We do. Pringles and other reconstituted potato paste products are crisps.
yourcouch01
As an Aussie, it’s hot chips / chips
AussieInsects
"ALL YOU DO IS LIE AND EAT HOT CHIP"
DumpsterKoala
Can confirm
lemmonjello
What if you get them delivered and they are cold when they arrive? Are the cold hot chips?
skibbyAU
Fuckin’ chips are cold again.
Awww, fuckssake
Just get me a three fried dimmies and go next door and get a fucken pack of samboys
Chrisbbbbbbb
Also chippies / chips
NotTinyPancakes
same for kiwis
Cyanide555
Chippies for crisps.
DarknessfillsmyheartwithpainTIMMAY
Chups and Chups
KleptoKea
Nah mate you Aussies just say cheeps and cheeps :P
NotTinyPancakes
i hate that I have this accent lol but the u sound is more south islander than north islander
DarknessfillsmyheartwithpainTIMMAY
I lived in the north island for 3 years. You ALL only have one vowel sound.
TankTrain
You just stick to your jandles and chully buns, mate.
MirvannaScythes
Although what maccas has is still fries.
Talori
Yeah, shoestring-cut chips are fries
watchthebbc
It’s chips and chippies, Gobbledock said so.
NZSheeps
What about if your hot chips get cold (or your chips get hot)?
ThongsAreFootwear
Correct
zimbler
Then we call them chuzwazzas
WhoHim
You are an unserious nation when it comes to language (of which I approve)
koops
If the hot chips get too cold then it’s called seagull food! Shit, I want some hot chips now!
BeachsideBarghest
Hot chips are also seagull food according to seagulls
RayneOfSalt
Y'know what I could really go for? A hot chip sanga with butter and tomato sauce. Fuck it. I'm going to Night Owl for supplies.
batcountry808
If hot chips get cold they're simply called cold chips. If chips get hot it's called fuck this bullshit, I'm going down the pub where it's air-conditioned
FinnTrollen
"Ranskalaiset perunat" and "Perunalastut" in Finland.
tangent
We also have French fries but because they are called that by McDonald's when we think of French fries we think of thin cut chips, while thick cut chips are just chips.
Narsuaq
Homonyms exist?? Who knew!?
NZSheeps
Nobody tell the Republicans, they'll deport them
Morlark
Not here they don't. A homonym is where you have two *different* words with the same spelling and pronunciation. This is an example of *the same* word with two different meaning: a polyseme.
houghten
A distinction without a difference
neilraconteur
doesn't hafta be the same spelling. Beet / beat
Narsuaq
That's a homophone
neilraconteur
I stand corrected
thegiantheapofturd
NZ: chups / chups
UNHchabo
I've heard of Australians trying to clarify by saying *potato* chips, and then realizing their error.
But apparently if you want to be truly unambiguous, it's "hot chips" and "cold chips".
phelge99
Nobody in Australia says "cold chips". They're just chips.
NotTinyPancakes
as a kiwi yeah we do this too but i mean kumara chips pea chips and kale chips are all a thing so it makes sense
OzRockabella
Hot chips is correct (am Aussie)
OzRockabella
Imagine my surprise when I ordered a hot dog and chips at Universal Studios in LA and they gave me my hot dog and a packet of Lays' potato chips. Yeah, what the actual fuck? Who eats potato chips in a packet as part of a MEAL??????
DrKonrad
France: frites / chips. In France we don't call them "French fries", because they were not invented by the French, we just call them "frites", the shorter version of "pommes de terre frites" (fried potatoes). Americans tasted fries prepared by French people and decided to call them "French fries", completely oblivious that it is not a French specialty at all
Nefastus001
Its a mistake, french fries were indeed created by french in Paris, and was imported to Belgium by a German. Today its true that Belgium is a making awesome french fries and its a part of their culinary identity, but it changes nothing of its origins, and its still made in France as a specialty too, mostly in the north.
LurkersAssemble
https://www.rtbf.be/article/cuisine-la-frite-vient-elle-de-france-ou-de-belgique-10137480
alibabtou
France : frites / chips
ElmyrDeHory
same in Poland: frytki / chipsy
TheChunguskaEvent
frech fries
Mediocreclient
fetch fice
liefdevol
camn333
Spanish:
Papas fritas / Papas fritas
hellohowmayibeofservice
Also Spanish: sour cream, whipping cream, moisturizing lotion, sunscreen, olive oil, speakers, and the nation of Paraguay- Crema
vanderzee
german: pommes frites / chips (in the past pommes chips)
pixelsnader
🙂↔️🖐️ Fried popes
☺️👉 Popetatoes
Neorago
Eh....in my dialect: papas fritas/papas tostadas
defensivebackhair
Fried potato/fried potato
elarcano
Papas a la francesa / papas fritas
SVcross
Lo mejor es el papapleto.
Raikupath
bigote de la cabra es cameron diaz! Yeah boi
eradan
French: Frites / Chips
GlowstickJedi
They're not papas, they're mine
TorSverre
Norwegian:
Chips / Potetgull (someplaces actually call them chips as well, but the pronounciation is slightly different)
jvnihilistik42
Alternative Spanish version:
Patatas fritas / papas
RazZziel
Alternative Spanish version:
Patatas fritas / patatillas
rhymeswithmars
Alternative Spanish version:
papas fritas / papitas
2015Chefj
Alternative Spanish Version:
Patatas fritas/patatas fritas en bolsa
BobbyVegana
alternative Spanish version:
papas fritas / sabritas (no matter the brand)
ThingsThatDontJustifyGenocide
I love me some daddy fries
Millwr1ght
pope fries
preventerfire
Daddy Fritos
Grimmrog
so both are fried potatoes, not too wrong tbh.
Canigetbannedagain2
You should look up banana in different languages, then look at English.
tachyx
You mean ananas
RevengeIsIceCream
No, that's just a german girl that's been out in the rain. (Anna nass;)
mineoc
anananananananas
UWAGAGABLAGABLAGABA
I think you mean pineapple
dohcohv
There are other languages that use something other than ananas or something similar, Spanish uses Piña. English uses pineapple because it's rough like a pinecone and apple means fruit in English. Fruit is actually a word taken from French, the English uses to call every fruit descriptor+apple. Now we do both descriptor+apple and descriptor+fruit.
dohcohv
This of course isn't true for all English words because English has no standards. It does help with marketing. Telling someone you have Pitaya for sale won't interest a lot of people, call it Dragon fruit and more people will understand what it generally is(a fruit, not a dish or vegetable or a tool) and it does look like what a dragon egg would look like.
henrikpetersson51
Swedish: pommes frites / chips
Porfirij
same in germany, though most call the former "pommes" for short.
henrikpetersson51
Same here.
Porfirij
come to think of it, it doesn't even make much sense in german. in "pommes frites" we pronounce 'pommes' like the french, so just one syllable, but when we just say "pommes", it becomes a two syllable word: 'pom-mes', meaning we gain nothing. so much for german efficiency. xD
henrikpetersson51
We do that too!
dnebdal
While Norway confusingly went for chips/potetgull. (Though the latter is a trademark and they won the "it's not generisized yet" court case)
JacobKreutzfeldt
Other way around actually, as it was deemed generalized and part of the common language. It's in the dictionary and Maarud isn't even mentioned. https://naob.no/ordbok/potetgull
dnebdal
Back in 2017, even. Huh. Then again it definitely _is_ generic in common use, so that does feel right.
JacobKreutzfeldt
https://www.nrk.no/norge/begge-disse-posene-inneholder-na-_potetgull_-1.12579897
Hengabecka
As a keen cook and esrtwhile private caterer I have a whole spreadsheet of US/UK cooking terms so I can translate recipes. Don't get me started on the whole grill/broil/barbecue confusion. And I still don't know what a lima bean is. The internet tells me they are what we call butterbeans But I know butterbeans as large and white. My friend from Virginia says lima beans are small and green....
astrangehop
Lima beans are small and green.
Hengabecka
So they are not butterbeans then, but what are they? What's the official name of the plant?
astrangehop
I was wrong. There are both large and small Lima beans. They're just different cultivars. Large Lima beans in the Carolina's are called butter beans
Hengabecka
Aaaaahhhhhh! Well we don't have the small green beans here, so when I made succotash as part of a Thanksgiving dinner for my friends from Virginia and New York State, they said it would be different beans in the US but they liked the food anyway. Probably because I also made a whole load of other stuff like stovetop stuffing and skillet biscuits and pecan pie!
naughtyrev
Decades ago, I recall telling a British friend all about how much I love biscuits and gravy with runny egg on top as a hangover cure, and they looked utterly confounded and horrified and said many disparaging things about America and how we had a lot of cheek for mocking them for their food. We had a good laugh about it once we sorted it all out.
DallasGuage
Love that, a British guy was at a mechanics shop I had my car at and when they told him your engine is shot they literally thought someone shot the engine and that's why it didn't run.
Type17
When I visited the US, there was some confusion when I was asked about popular sports in Ireland - apparently Hurling is not the same as hurling...
StephenDeadalus
I grew up playing hockey, violent, fun, face paced. Went to Ireland to visit my cousins, “oooh….you like violent sports do ya?” Took me to a hurling match in Dublin. As a 13 year old, almost 14 I was fascinated, the amount of blood and the sheer violence enthralled me. They then took me for pints (i was a big boy and looked 16) so I could drink with my older cousins in the late 70s.
davaloha
I'm living in the UK now, very few people outside central London or Liverpool know what hurling is. I try explain it to the people I work with but murder on a field disguised as a cross between hockey and lacrosse has been my most successful way so far
DaithiUK
I'm currently living outside of London and I know because I have a Irish cousin that played https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niall_Breen_(hurler) After they'd showed us round the local cemetry in Gorey there really wasn't much else left to do.
davaloha
Yeah, a lot of Ireland is scenery, frequently lovely scenery but scenery none the less. Many things revolve around it with not much else to do down the country
Type17
Yes, the version I heard was “a cross between hockey and murder.”
davaloha
As long as murder is included in the description is not far off :)
Also, if you don't injure yourself playing it you're clearly not playing it right :P
johndoejersey05
Decades ago, I had a coworker who was in the US from the UK for college and told me a "we actually speak a different language" story about this one time they were taking a test. The pencil she brought didn't have an eraser, so they went up to the professor and asked for a rubber (which was what they called those large rectangular pencil erasers in the UK) and the professor was totally mortified until she explained that to him.
NZSheeps
At least she didn't need tape
MechKelly
Same thing happened to a friend in school. He was a transfer from Jamaica and in like 9th grade he asked the teacher for a rubber. She was so confused at first.
RevolutionOnHerLips
my history of the english language professor had a similar experience his first time in england when he went to a drug store (I think in the 80s) and asked for rubbing alcohol. he said the woman working there thought he was a pervert and after a few frustrated attempts at ignoring him entirely, she asked him to leave and threatened to call for help. lol
LuxSubscribes
Yeah, chips, or chips. One is a hot meal, the other is a snack. Pretty easy to figure out which one someone's talking about due to context and time of day - Chips also don't come in a bag, whereas chips do. You also don't have fish with chips, but you do have them with chips. Chips come in a bag, chips are wrapped in paper. Chips cost as much as chips now so price doesn't provide confirmation either way.
LuxSubscribes
Whoops confused myself and did the bag twice 😂
phuzz00
You don't get chips in bags? (as well as bags of chips)
LuxSubscribes
Yeah but they're frozen - figured we were talking ready to eat 🤔
phuzz00
UK takeaways will often sell a paper bag of chips (fried potato, just so we're clear) as a side order for whatever. It works just as well as a cardboard container really, unless you like to douse them in vinegar like me.
afambelafonte
French fries are called French fries because cutting things in little strips is a "French cut". We also have waffle fries and curly fries and criscut fries. They are all fries. French is just the most common cut. We have French cut green beans as well. We just can't be bothered to say "julienne".
LunaAtlas
That's fair enough.
taggedcattle
TIL. Thanks!
TheWeebleWobler
Remember when some wanted to call them freedom fries? Thank god those days are over. Off to the Gulf of Mexico.
YouMayFindThisMildlyInteresting
You're correct about French cut, but that's not the etymology of french fries
KoRplussomeletters
Wait, so French fries are actually crisps?
ErniesWidow
Don't forget steak fries and cottage fries. Or is that a Philly thing?
TheBantamMenace
cottage fries? i’m a Californian (i know, i know sorry sorry sorry) and haven’t heard of that — but now i must have them.
ErniesWidow
Cottage fries are potato rounds fried or baked. Think thick potato chips
ministerm
I know someone from Belgium who is very chill nearly all of the time, but calling fries "French" is the one thing guaranteed to grind his gears. Apparently everyone from Belgium will insist that the fries are their thing, not France's.
vladob
I'm French, and yes, "French fries" are Belgian (and almost all French people agree with that). Belgians are proud of their fries and I can understand why they defend them.
LurkersAssemble
They would be wrong to agree : https://www.rtbf.be/article/cuisine-la-frite-vient-elle-de-france-ou-de-belgique-10137480
GordonFreeman59
No it's a myth. French fries are not from Belgium and as a French who lives to the Belgian border, the fact they like to make themselves angry about it doesn't make it true
vegivamp
They are and they aren't. They do, in fact, geographically originate in Belgium.
However, the country Belgium didn't exist yet. I can't be arsed to find out which particular bunch of cunts was invading us at the time.
However, even back in Roman times, the area was named Belgica.
Z0op
Belgians just have their own category of fries, in netherlands referred to as flemish fries, rough cut thick fries (which i prefer). I dont think any belgian would ever claim that the french fry (the small and thin mcdonalds fries) are originally theirs
Z0op
Tbf, belgian fries are generally much thicker cut, even much so, that it is its own category in netherlands (vlaamse patatten). Whereas if you say french fries over here, one would specifically mean the thinly cut ones (mcdonalds and the like).
France can have those, the belgian ones are better anyway
nullundefined
The first thing I will do in Belgium ist eating actual fries. Then waffles and beer.
French fries seem to be a historical mistake? Soggy, limp and already cold?
Z0op
That really depends on preparation, because its definitely possible to have soggy limp belgian fries, are they are quite thick. Badly prepared french fries (the thinly cut ones) usually are hard as fuck.
Both can be great, both can be ruined by inadequate cooks
nullundefined
Sorry France.
LurkersAssemble
"French fries" are parisian in origin, Belgians and northern France popularized the double frying with animal fat. cf source below
LurkersAssemble
https://www.rtbf.be/article/cuisine-la-frite-vient-elle-de-france-ou-de-belgique-10137480