r/SipsTea • u/Quenki • 13h ago

Gasp! Just American things

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

2.6k Upvotes

79% Upvoted

1.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

9

u/Global-Discussion-41 10h ago

He lost me with his first example. pavement and sidewalk are not synonymous

1

u/salamandr 9h ago

Are you saying the American “pavement” is not synonymous with the American “sidewalk”? If so, he’s not commenting on that. He’s commenting on the UK “pavement” being basically equivalent to the US “sidewalk” or at least overlapping.

But to be honest he’s being willfully inaccurate with these to make the joke work. It works better with a UK audience who doesn’t really know what those words precisely mean than an American Reddit audience eager to pick it apart.

1

u/Global-Discussion-41 9h ago

I get that he's stretching to make a joke, but it's a poor attempt.

Do people in the UK call very paved surface "the pavement" with no distinction whatsoever?

1

u/salamandr 9h ago

No. The only thing we call a pavement in the UK is the thing you walk on by the side of the road.

3

u/Global-Discussion-41 9h ago

thats even more silly than i thought because there are many other paved surfaces that are not walking paths

1

u/salamandr 9h ago

That’s irrelevant. We use different words for those.

1

u/Snoot_Booper_101 7h ago

Yes, but if we wanted to talk about them in general we'd say "paved surfaces" like you just did. The only thing that's silly is not realising that UK English and American English don't always have to agree on the specific definitions of words.

Now, pass me a rubber would you, I need get rid of a mistake. After that I'll take a fag break.