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> Hereabouts, we use "chips" for what Americans would call "chips" and Brits would call "crisps". But that's not all! We also use "chips" for what Americans would call "fries" and Brits would call "chips". Also, we use "chips" for what both Americans <em>and</em> Brits would call "chips" (like computer chips or wood chips). Lastly, the long very thin ones you get from McDonalds are called "fries"—I don't think I've ever said or heard an Australian say "french fries" before (in the context of ordering the things or discussing the items, rather than discussing the words).
Interestingly enough exactly the same is found in South Africa as Australia. What are referred to as crisps in the UK are chips in South Africa, as are what are known as chips in the UK. If context is insufficient to distinguish between the two, the Afrikaans word 'slap' meaning 'soft' or 'limp' is often added before 'chips' to mean the sort that is served at a fish and chip shop.
In Britain the word fries is only normally used to mean the very thin reconstituted things served at fast food eateries.
Any area outside a house is called a garden here as long as it is not small and paved when it can be called a yard. Yard tends to imply much enclosure too (for example the small area behind a terraced house in a city). Garden implies planting but a garden may consist only of grass. A typical British garden has plantings of flowers, shrubs and grass.
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Conversely, in America a "garden" can never consist of just plain grass -- that would be a lawn. An American garden must contain flowers or vegetables.
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In Britain a garden can consist entirely of a lawn, though it would more typically contain lawn(s) and flower beds.
The word has a stronger link with where the piece of land is (typically around a house) than with its use. For example the garden could be completely uncultivated and overgrown and still be a garden.
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Fries are really Chips, you foreign fool.
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"In Britain the word fries is only normally used to mean the very thin reconstituted things served at fast food eateries"
And the thinner the chips, the more fat they have in them and the more unhealthy they are.
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<<The word has a stronger link with where the piece of land is (typically around a house) than with its use. For example the garden could be completely uncultivated and overgrown and still be a garden.>>
Ah. Our equivalent to that would be a yard -- always around a house, can be in any state of beauty or neglect. A garden would generally be a smaller plot within the yard that is under specific cultivation.
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O.K.,
Time to stop the nonsense,
here in New York (I know this because I've been a manager for 3 different restaurants) the term french fries is constantly used by my customers, although maybe not as much as "fries" ,also, a lot of them simply ask for frie, usually young people
For Example, "Let me get a coke and a frie"
but I can assure that any native-born american who resides in a city knows what french fries are (coudn't tell ya 'bout remote areas).
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>>And the thinner the chips, the more fat they have in them and the more unhealthy they are.<<
Less surface area, less fat absorption.
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>>O.K.,
Time to stop the nonsense,
here in New York (I know this because I've been a manager for 3 different restaurants)...<<
How would someone from England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa etc go if he asked for chips?
Would he get a blank stare, a packet of cold wafer-thin crisps, some bits of wood or a handful of CPUs?
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Well, since this is New York I'm used to dealing with British customers, It's always fun to serve them, most time people from the UK ask for fries, I've never had a british customer ask for chips, maybe because they already know that we wouldn't undertstand what the hill they'd be talking about,
Once, I had a customer whose name was John, I think he was Irish. We needed a name in order to process the transaction and oh my God!!!, he repeated his name about seven times before we understood what he was trying to say.
Customers say: What put on the receipts:
Mark Mock
Carla Colla
Mike Moik
James Jimes
Zack Zok
Carl Call
***you all get the point ; a lot of times the accent is so difficult to understand for us that we just ask them to spell their names, and sometimes we can't even understand the spelling***
*Oh and by the way, don't anybody try to be a smart-ass and act like the same thing wouldn't happen to them*
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french fries means frenched fries . a way to cut them .
it has nothing to do with france .
the french eat their potatos cut in big pieces fried in a pan.
The mac donalds french fries are a belgian invention . thin potatostraws cooked in hot oil .
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