"Can you all please complete this form by putting a tick in the boxes"
'Tick' = Check
In other words the mark made when something is correct or selected.
So an American should not be alarmed if a Brit' says to them "I put a tick in the box". They are not infested with 'ticks' and generously presenting you with one!
Equally if you're a Brit' and an American suggests you need to "check them all", they are not asking you to look anything over closely.
9 comments:
I love your BWOTD concept. For 21 years I worked for a company headquartered in Chicago and spoke daily to many US colleagues. I quickly learnt to speak American to avoid misunderstandings.
I already knew this one! Yay for me!!
Yes, I gave up on ticking a long time ago. How about the use of the word ticked to mean annoyed? I have never picked that one up.
This is one of those words that I think we can usually figure out in context. Well, some of us can usually figure out!
That's what we say in Canada! I never would have thought anything about it if instructed to "Put a tick in the box."
Fun .. and amazingly I knew this!
:-Daryl
I knew this one too!
Ironically this came up for me literally today! One of my Brit students was in my office complaining how she couldn't find a "tick" in the Microsoft Office clip art. I warned her, well, Microsoft is an American company and so try "check"... she looked puzzled at me but found what she needed!
hahaha I like tick. That's cool!
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