And, indeed, "sod that for a game of soldiers" ...

well indeed.

The first time I visited the US (Christmas in Oregon, 1967) it took me a few days to realise why at certain times of the day people would ask me the time, then fall about laughing at my reply.

At twenty five minutes past the hour, I say -

"Five and twenty past ten" for example, or "Five and twenty to two".

It never failed to reduce them to giggles until I sussed it and changed the way I said it. Does it still amuse?

Frankly, it amuses most Brits too (except those from Somerset and Nottingham) ;)

Saying "quarter to three" rather than 2:45 seems to be not the done thing round here, but they know what I mean.

Bollock-all

=nothing

"I worked all night but I had bollock-all to show for it"

'Sweet Fanny Adams'. Is this a Brit phrase, or do Americans use it to? As in Sweet F.A.

Totally Brit. That old band Sweet had a song called that (Sweet F.A.) and I never understood why.

I do hereby humbly suggest that we move on to pronunciation...

to whit: Jaguar

two syllables or three?

Sweet F.(uck) A.(all). F.(anny) A.(dams).

Three Jag-ewe-er/ar

I never did understand the mangling of jaguar in Winnie-the-Pooh until St. Louis got a Jaguar dealership that had radio commercials.

Could you explain that last comment please Dar?

Here in the US we pronounce jaguar with two syllables jag-war. Somewhere in one of the WtP stories, they mention a jaguar as a jagular. Heffalumps and woozles made sense as mispronunciations, but jagular didn't - until I heard the British pronunciation.

OMG! You're messing with a classic car. It's pronounced Jag-U-ar! Get it right FFS!!!

okay.......and Iraq?....Iran?.....is there an eye in either of those?:P