# Dead giveaways in a post that a person is from country X **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 30, 2007, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534 "2007-10-30T03:49:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![threnodyangelfire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@threnodyangelfire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/threnodyangelfire)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/101 "2007-11-01T02:40:56Z")
[QUOTE=Giles] Right: it might be South African. I don’t think it’s Australian, but I’ve been out of the country too long to be really sure. [/QUOTE] Yeah, to me “ripped off” means for example you paid $100 for something that was only worth $80. Then you were “Ripped orf!” ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/102 "2007-11-01T03:15:05Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] Well, if they give the slightest rat’s bum about George W. Bush and United Statesian politics, that’s a dead giveaway that they are residents of the United States. 😃 [/quote] I don’t give a rat’s ass about Bush, but if I gave a rat’s bum, I’d be veddy British. Bum’s not commonly used in The States, Mate. Although I can tell you a story that relates to this thread. I used to work for a Los Angeles electronics company that made a sequencer. It was programmed to display “Bummer, Dude – out of memory” when all RAM was used up. It fit right fine in L.A., but we once got an very angry letter from a Brit who, apparently, ran out of memory and saw that _disgusting_ message. To him, a “bummer” is a homosexual. He threatened to sue. Methinks he had more problems than just his RAM being too short. ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/103 "2007-11-01T06:16:30Z")
If I see: - verbs spelt “ize”; - the phrase “off of”; - discussion of “socialized medicine”; then I’ll pretty much conclude that the person is American. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/104 "2007-11-01T12:27:53Z")
[QUOTE=Sunspace] Isn’t that the actual term in Spanish: the equivalent of ‘Ünited Statesian’? [/QUOTE] I just thought it would be interesting to note that while I was taught the proper term _estadounidense_ in college, I have never, in the history of my life, had a native Spanish speaker ask me where I’m from using this term. It has always been _¿Eres americana?_ - Are you American? I also find it interesting to note that Mexico’s official name is _Estados Unidos Mexicanos_– United Mexican States, so it would seem that ‘‘United States’’ would even be a more confusing term when trying to distinguish between U.S./Mexican nationality… but apparently it’s not. So we have a situation where saying ‘‘I’m from the United States’’ could be potentially confusing, or ‘‘I’m American’’ could refer to, you know, anywhere on two entire continents, and yet there are certain phrases that are just associated with certain regions without any obvious explanation. (Well, at least not obvious to _me_.) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/105 "2007-11-01T13:08:12Z")
So, to clarify - if someone uses “rips off” to mean “insults”, they just might be South African 🙂 Hell, for all I know, it might be just a Capetonian thing. We have the “rip off” = “defrauds” connotation here too, BTW. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/106 "2007-11-01T13:35:21Z")
[QUOTE=Musicat] I don’t give a rat’s ass about Bush, but if I gave a rat’s bum, I’d be veddy British. Bum’s not commonly used in The States, Mate.\ [/QUOTE] Or you’d be Canadian, since we use bum all the time to refer to our arses. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/107 "2007-11-01T13:36:58Z")
Here (Canada), insulting is definitely ‘rips on’. A rip off is a scam. ‘Rips into’, on the other hand, implies a tongue-lashing, a verbal smack-down, which one side totally dominates, yelling at the other who has no chance to get a word in edgewise. Ie: “My dad really ripped into me when I totalled his Porsche.” ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/108 "2007-11-01T13:38:46Z")
[QUOTE=featherlou] Or you’d be Canadian, since we use bum all the time to refer to our arses. [/QUOTE] And our homeless. ---
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/109 "2007-11-01T13:39:00Z")
I’ve noticed that Germans (when speaking english) will often use “since” instead of “for” when referring to time, and mix up the present tenses. e.g. “I am working here since 4 yrs”. Rather than “I have been working here since 4 years ago” or “I have been working here for 4 yrs”. I guess it’s a straight transliteration of “seit 4 Jahren”, and it’s not obvious necessarily why the use of “I am” is incorrect. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/110 "2007-11-01T15:07:44Z")
[QUOTE=amarone] [QUOTE=Oni no Maggie] Heh. I had to have a talk with a young British friend who used “twat” the way we use “twit” over here. I explained to him that it was a _lot_ harsher insult on this side of the ocean… [/QUOTE] Not really. I’m English and I would happily have used “twit” in the presence of my mother as a kid but I still wouldn’t dream of sayiing “twat”. There again, maybe things have changed in the last 30 or 40 years. [/QUOTE] Well, you could use it in the sense of a nun’s headgear, a ground-breaking usage pioneered by [Robert Browning in _Pippa Passes_](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001812.html): > [@](#): > > 102 Day’s turn is over, now arrives the night’s. > 103 Oh lark, be day’s apostle > 104 To mavis, merle and throstle, > 105 Bid them their betters jostle > 106 From day and its delights! > 107 But at night, brother howlet, over the woods, > 108 Toll the world to thy chantry; > 109 Sing to the bats’ sleek sisterhoods > 110 Full complines with gallantry: > 111 Then, owls and bats, > 112 Cowls and **twats,** > 113 Monks and nuns, in a cloister’s moods, > 114 Adjourn to the oak-stump pantry! ---
**Author:** ![Giles](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/giles/32/60_2.png) [@Giles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Giles)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/111 "2007-11-01T15:11:42Z")
[QUOTE=Northern Piper] Well, you could use it in the sense of a nun’s headgear, a ground-breaking usage pioneered by [Robert Browning in _Pippa Passes_](http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/001812.html): [/QUOTE] Unfortunately, that’s just evidence that Mr Browning led a very sheltered life. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/112 "2007-11-01T15:16:56Z")
[QUOTE=Baffle] Here (Canada), insulting is definitely ‘rips on’. A rip off is a scam. ‘Rips into’, on the other hand, implies a tongue-lashing, a verbal smack-down, which one side totally dominates, yelling at the other who has no chance to get a word in edgewise. Ie: “My dad really ripped into me when I totalled his Porsche.” [/QUOTE] Whereas he’d ‘tear into’ you in Britain - what about elsewhere? ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/113 "2007-11-01T16:07:10Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] If I see: - verbs spelt “ize”; - the phrase “off of”; - discussion of “socialized medicine”; then I’ll pretty much conclude that the person is American. [/QUOTE] Or, in the first case, a very educated Englishman; an Inspector Morse episode hinged on someone failing to conform to his background by spelling the word “realize” as “realise” (doesn’t apply to every “ize/ise” dichotomy, by any means). Or, in the second case, a very uneducated Englishman; one or two magazine writers who know more about model aircraft than grammar have irritated me by saying that a model can be flown “off of” grass. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/114 "2007-11-01T16:30:55Z")
‘Off of’ crops up in some English regional dialects, and it’s a phrase I sometimes use. I find it rather insulting to be told that because I sometimes use vernacular grammar in informal speech, I am ‘very uneducated’. The same as I see no reason to ‘correct’ my pupils’ use of, for example, the transitive ‘learn’ in speech - why should I crap on my own culture and background? ---
**Author:** ![Sitnam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Sitnam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sitnam)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/115 "2007-11-01T20:52:07Z")
No American will ever go to Uni to study Maths, drink at a pub, or open the boot of his posh car to find his torch. I’m working hard to inject ‘that wasn’t cricket’ into daily American slang…as for right now I just have a few friends. ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [November 1, 2007, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/116 "2007-11-01T23:07:26Z")
[QUOTE=olivesmarch4th] I just thought it would be interesting to note that while I was taught the proper term _estadounidense_ in college, I have never, in the history of my life, had a native Spanish speaker ask me where I’m from using this term. It has always been _¿Eres americana?_ - Are you American? [/QUOTE] When I took Spanish in college (around the late 60’s), we were taught that the term for for USA residents was _norteamericanos_ meaning North Americans. I don’t think I ever heard the term estadounidense. I don’t know if this has been an “official” change in the language since that time, or if our instructor was using some regional colloquialism that he picked up while he was studying in Mexico. ---
**Author:** ![GorillaMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/50afbb/32.png) [@GorillaMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GorillaMan)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/117 "2007-11-02T01:13:17Z")
[QUOTE=FatBaldGuy] When I took Spanish in college (around the late 60’s), we were taught that the term for for USA residents was _norteamericanos_ meaning North Americans. I don’t think I ever heard the term estadounidense. [/QUOTE] ‘Estadounidense’ was what I was taught in my Spanish GCSE (which is oriented around Castilian Spanish). It does win a googlefight over ‘norteamericanos’ by three to one. ---
**Author:** ![iwakura43](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de0a6/32.png) [@iwakura43](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iwakura43)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/118 "2007-11-02T01:48:11Z")
If someone’s trying to persuade you to send money using CAPITAL LETTERS, they’re probably from Nigeria. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/119 "2007-11-02T02:47:12Z")
[QUOTE=Baffle] And our homeless. [/QUOTE] Well, yes. It’s all about context. “Our bums were freezing their bums off in that last cold snap, eh.” ---
**Author:** ![beanpod](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9adbd/32.png) [@beanpod](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beanpod)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2007, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534/120 "2007-11-02T03:29:31Z")
Thanks **jjimm** , for the correction–that’s what I was thinking of, but a good example just wouldn’t come to me. [QUOTE=GorillaMan] Whereas he’d ‘tear into’ you in Britain - what about elsewhere? [/QUOTE] Forms of “to tear into” are common for tongue-lashings in the midwest US, too. I’d probably understand “rip into” to mean the same thing without batting an eye, but I can’t think of a time I’ve really ever heard it in conversation. “Tear into” is far more common. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dead-giveaways-in-a-post-that-a-person-is-from-country-x/424534.md?page=7)