British, American different turns of phrase

I certainly recognize “lend me your book” as normal (and the same in the US), but not “lend it me”. It could be a regional/age/culture/time difference between you and me.

Possibly “Lend it t’me”? I can see how in some accents that would sound like no “to”.

We use “defying the whip” or variants in the same way you do. Quitting a party and joining another doesn’t happen all that often here, so I don’t think there is an established phrase for it.

Nope, we just use variants on the dissolution of Parliament.

Well isn’t regional kind of the point of what we are discussing? :wink:

“Lend it me” sounds perfectly right for me, as a 36 year old Brit. “You’ve got the new Harry Potter? Oooh. Lend it me. Go on. You know you want to.”

Who is this young Harry Potter upstart? I’ve got 16 years on you and I suspect that is the main difference, not regional. Language evolves through massive misuse, of course. I think that “lend it me” is/was wrong (hence my original “uneducated” comment), but has perhaps become acceptable.

If you want to go really regional:

“Lend it us”.

I’ve definitely heard that - I’m from Yorkshire.

“Lend me it” sounds normal in the US, but not “lend it me,” which would seem to imply something unlikely.

Maybe that’s just a Yorkshirism. I know I heard in “Brassed Off” and “The Full Monty”.

I say it and I’m from Warwickshire.

I just saw someone write “addicting” in another thread. I’ve never seen a Brit write or say it.

Try north Wales: “borrow me a fiver”. “Can I lend a fiver off you?”

Or, for Americans, if you’re very rude or talking to a friend, you might just say “Gimme.”

For joining another party “crossing the floor” as has literally to be done to sit in a different part of parliament. Here being the UK.

A variation that I heard for the first time in the Southern US was “let me hold.” Like, “let me hold five dollars”

You’ll more often hear “Lemme see that”.

Fair enough. It was Americans on this board that led me to believe otherwise.

That reminds me of another that at one point would have gotten you raised eyebrows, though it’s now mostly fallen out of use besides in Westerns.

UK: Chippy - a fish and chips place
US: Chippy/Chippie - a whore

So, in the UK telling your wife you were going to a chippy on the way home from work meant the two of you didn’t have to cook. In the US telling your wife that was grounds for divorce.

Or you were visiting a carpenter.

while vacationing in ireland, i heard ‘taking the piss.’ *
since i crawled in and out of a great many pubs (very sensible of them to have one about every ten meters) where i generally heard the phrase, it took me a **long **time to figure out what it meant. :smiley:

US translation: *are you messing with me?