The toilet isn’t necessarily in the bathroom; it can be a separate room with, well, just a toilet. In which case the room is also called the ‘toilet’.
In Australian houses of the 1940’s era and thereabouts, the toilet is almost invariably an offshoot room of the laundry. The house I used to live in followed that layout, and all hand-washing was done at the laundry taps instead of wandering all the way around to the actual bathroom. (Which would have necessitated travelling through the kitchen.)
Even in my current home (which is only about 15 years old) the toilet is 2 rooms separated from the bathroom, due to the weird shape of the block the house is built on. You’re spoiled for choice here, though, 'cos the bathroom and laundry are almost equidistant from our loo, so you can wash your hands wherever you fancy.
So, are we posh or crazy? We have both toilet rooms AND bathrooms.
Of course, real estate agents on both sides of the pond use confusing terms for these rooms. In the UK they call it a cloakroom, whether or not you hang your coats and cloaks there, and in the US it is a half bathroom, even though it contains zero baths.
As someone from the US, I agree with you entirely, and FWIW, I never had a problem with “wanker.” I don’t understand how anyone can not “get it,” swearing isn’t exactly a difficult concept to grasp in your own language, I could understand if you were having trouble grasping the intricacies of calling someone a “garden gnome” or telling them they “have a bird [implied: brain]” in German, but it’s not too hard to grasp new and exciting ways to insult people. Look how fast “douchebag” caught on, didn’t take fast for people to pick up on the hot new insult. (Also, “square” made even LESS sense than “wanker”).
I get chastised by my friend to no end due to my pronunciation of “plague” though, I’ll be damned if I can’t tell HOW I’m pronouncing it badly, however.
Exactly like it’s spelt, but unless you want to sound like someone out of a War Picture Library comic I wouldn’t go looking for opportunities to use the word in the first place.
The American pronounciation that really annoys the smeg out of me is “Carbeen” in reference to a Carbine rifle (Pronounced something like “Carbyne” in the UK, NZ, and Australia). It’s up there with “Jagwar” instead of Jag-you-ahr, on the “That’s just wrong, dammit!” scale, IMHO.
I would use “Carbyne”, personally - I’m not sure which American accent would say “Carbeen”. In the South, perhaps.
You’re just plain wrong about jaguar, though, except when referring to the car company. The word comes from a native South American language, and we kept approximately the same pronunciation, while you guys threw a random syllable into the middle of it.
My bugbear (and I’m surprised it hasn’t been mentioned yet) is “mass-oos” for masseuse. Merkins seem to have great difficulty with French (although they do manage it all right in placenames like Arkansas and Michigan).
Regarding the Brit pronunciation of “schedule” - they’ve been saying it “shed-yule” for almost 1,000 years; it arrived with the Normans as “cédule”.
We certainly do, it seems to be a case-by-case basis. There’s a town near here called North Versailles. That’s VER-sails. ver-SIGH would get you punched in the head.
I had a girl decribing a house to me talk about the FWA-ya. My response: “This is America, sweetie. For people in our income bracket that’s a FOY-er.”
Er, start off saying “masseur” but replace the final R with a zed (yes, a zed). Unless you pronounce “masseur” as “mass-oo”, which I would think doubtful.
Your doubt is misplaced. Americans who say “muhsooze” for masseuse are also likely to say “muhsoor” for masseur.
In either case, thought, the more common term is “massage therapist.” Because the assumption is that a masseuse is a prostitute. Most people probably don’t even know what a masseur is, other than, possibly, another way of pronouncing “monsieur.” (And please don’t explain to me the correct pronunciation of “monsieur.” I know what it is. I’m just conveying to you facts on the ground.)
So has “sleeping over your house,” but that’s no reason to tolerate it unless you give your overnight guests lawn chairs fitted with helium balloons. I think “on line” is confusing now that “online” is in the language, and I hope it goes to oblivion, by way of Toity-Toid 'n Toid.
How would you like a New Yorker to pick out all the logical inconsistencies in your dialect? Human language is not unambiguous. I’m surprised you aren’t used to that by now.
