From Oxford Dictionaries, a quiz: American phrases to confuse Brits. For example (and note the single quotation marks):
If something ‘jumped the shark’, then it:There’s also an Oxford quiz with British phrases to confuse Americans. That quiz is more difficult, objectively speaking.
○ Escaped from a dangerous situation
○ Began a period of inexorable decline in
quality or popularity
○ Avoided payment of overdue loans
○ Went down to Florida for the winter
Fun!
ReplyDeleteI got 9/10 right in the Americanisms (missed "horse of another color"), but only 7/10 in the Britishisms.
A mere 40% on the American phrase quiz from this Brit. But on the plus side I got 100% of the Brit phrases, which is something of a relief...
ReplyDeleteI had 10/10 with the Americans, 5/10 with the British.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I would just like to add, in my sort-of defense, that I do know "horse of another color"--it's in the Wizard of Oz! ;)
ReplyDeleteNot if you have a black-and-white set (my early years). :)
ReplyDeleteHey, I got 100% on the American quiz and 50% on the British quiz too... at least one kind of lucky guess contributed to that 50%.
ReplyDelete90% (100% if I didn't second-guess myself) for each--benefit of being Canadian.
ReplyDeleteI got 95% on the American (was too unsure of putting on the dog) and 60% on the British (and totally blew Bob's your uncle). Dang.
ReplyDeleteI missed “Bob” too. I first encountered that expression looking at (not reading) a free magazine in Chinese (a giveaway at the Asian grocery). Columns of Chinese characters, and then in the Roman alphabet, “Bob’s your uncle!” I looked up the expression and promptly forgot it. I’m sure I will be looking it up again.
ReplyDelete