# Would you call for the 'check' or the 'bill' in the US? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 30, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422 "2012-04-30T16:06:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/41 "2012-05-01T02:14:18Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > 😕 > > “Over_kin_,” surely? It’s spelled _[Ovechkin](http://discuss-hockey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/ovechkin1.jpg)_, and he’s Russian, not Thai. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/42 "2012-05-01T02:21:28Z")
If you and your companions are paying separately you’d ask for “separate checks”. I’ve never heard anyone in an American restaurant ask for “separate bills”, and I think it would sound really weird. You could “split the bill” or “split the check” pretty much interchangeably, though. And if you’re going over the list of charges to confirm everything’s been priced and added up correctly, you’re never “checking the check”, you’re “checking the bill”. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/43 "2012-05-01T02:34:27Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > 😕 > > “Over_kin_,” surely? Or “owerkin,” as there is no V sound in Thai. 😃 (It’s popular for Thais to spell their names in English with a V, but it’s always pronounced as W.) > [@Kimstu](#): > > And if you’re going over the list of charges to confirm everything’s been priced and added up correctly, you’re never “checking the check”, you’re “checking the bill”. Unless you’re in Prague, in which case you’re “billing the Czech.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/44 "2012-05-01T02:52:38Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Unless you’re in Prague, in which case you’re “billing the Czech.” 🙂 And if you order a nice German pale lager but it’s not sufficiently cold and you ask the waiter to bring an ice bucket so you can cool it down, you’re… oh, never mind. ---
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/45 "2012-05-01T13:23:14Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > or to pay the scott. Huh? ---
**Author:** ![shiftless](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9c0ed/32.png) [@shiftless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/shiftless)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/46 "2012-05-01T13:34:41Z")
I usually say check but sometimes I ask for the bill. Check seems slightly wrong to me, like I’m asking to be paid, right now, for eating there. ---
**Author:** ![jackdavinci](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackdavinci/32/3259_2.png) [@jackdavinci](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jackdavinci)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/47 "2012-05-01T14:53:00Z")
Check. Long Island New York. A bill is something that comes in the mail. ---
**Author:** ![Hal\_Briston](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a9a28c/32.png) [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/48 "2012-05-01T15:48:06Z")
“Blowjob, please. Wait, not blowjob…check. Yes, that’s it. Check, please. Whoops.” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/49 "2012-05-01T15:54:29Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > Huh? “To pay the scot” is an idiom meaning to pay your reckoning, your tab, your accumulated charges. Apparently originally derived from [a particular type of taxation](http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/constitu/parlrep.htm). ---
**Author:** ![Aeris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a183cd/32.png) [@Aeris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeris)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/50 "2012-05-01T16:00:56Z")
Check. Bill makes it sound like a phone bill or water bill. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/51 "2012-05-01T22:35:38Z")
> [@Kimstu](#): > > “To pay the scot” is an idiom meaning to pay your reckoning, your tab, your accumulated charges. Apparently originally derived from [a particular type of taxation](http://www.historyhome.co.uk/c-eight/constitu/parlrep.htm). Is that anything like “paying the piper”? ---
**Author:** ![Idle\_Thoughts](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/838e76/32.png) [@Idle\_Thoughts](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Idle_Thoughts)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/52 "2012-05-01T22:39:15Z")
Always heard “Check”. I’ve yet to hear “Bill” when referring to the restaurant tab. ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2012, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422/53 "2012-05-01T22:54:05Z")
A duck walks into a midwestern U.S. pharmacy: “Give me some chapstick and put it on my bill.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/would-you-call-for-the-check-or-the-bill-in-the-us/620422.md?page=2)