Do you write the way you tawk?
Today is Yom Kippur. I grew up saying YumKipper. No breath, sounds like delicious fish or an adorable children’s book character (my daughter loved those books). But when I moved away from Philadelphia even the most learned Jews would tilt their heads in a holy day quandary when I mentioned Rushashuna or Yumkipper.
No matter how you say it, it’s the same day of the Jewish year. Jews fast (if so inclined) and wear a solemn face of repentence all day in Temple services. It’s the Day of Atonement, the holiest day of the year. You can call it anything you want, doesn’t change what it is.
Because I’ve lived all over the country and listened to accents, colloquialisms and regional terminology for the past 19 years of my life, I’m hypersensitive to making sure that what I say is what I mean, to whomever I’m speaking.
Do you go to the supermarket or the grocery store?
Do you drink soda or pop?
Do you eat hoagies or subs?
Do you wear sneakers or tennis shoes?
Do you sit on a step or a stoop?
Do you ride in a cab or a taxi?
Do kids play in a park or a playground?
Do you go to a show or a movie?
And what about your characters?
Grocery store
Coke/cold drink/specific product name
Poboys
Tennis shoes
Step/porch
Cab/taxi are interchangeable here
Playground usually refers to school
Movie
The characters in my novel are all Southern, so there’s no problem there. And I do write like I tawk, but mostly in informal correspondence, ya know?
I now go to the grocery store, because no one where I live says supermarket.
I don’t believe in pop, it’s the one place I can’t give in.
Hoagie appeals to my East Coast sensibilities, but I will get no food unless I order a sub.
I also have never gone over to the dark side of Tennis Shoes. Maybe because my sneakers have nothing to do with tennis.
Step – but no one in the burbs sits outside on anything but a chair.
I say cab – not sure if that is right or wrong here.
When my kids were little people would invite us to the park – which I learned – is a playground.
I used to think a friend of mine saw a lot of theater, until I realized that a ‘show’ is a movie. I say movie. To me, a show involves something like Broadway.
….but PS on the athletic shoes…….are you Sneaky? LOL
Store
I don’t drink pop.
subs
tennis shoes
step
taxi
Depends on whether it’s a park or a playground. Some parks have playgrounds, some don’t, LOL.
A movie, but my parents go to a show.
grocery store
soda
subs
sneakers
step/stoop–steps to my house, stoop for an apartment building
cab
playground
movie
I write like the New Yawker I am. One reason I would never write as a Southerner, for instance, is an inability to get that stuff right. I have written “British” before, but I lived in Bermuda during some formative years, so I can fake it when writing. I can also “do” L.A.
E
grocery store
pop (soda is a Club Soda)
subs
running shoes (I have heard sneakers though)
step
taxi or cab – they’re interchangable
same as spyscribbler – depends on whether park has a playground or not
movie
I don’t think I write the way I talk – not formally – maybe in emails. But I was told by an American friend of mine that I sound British when I speak. I am Canadian.
I go to the grocery store to buy pop and subs. I sit on the step to put on my sneakers, I would call a taxi or a cab depending on my mood and would ask the driver to take me to the park and then I would catch a movie. I am Canadian and hubby tells me he loves reading my blog because I write differently then I speak…. do I really speak that bad or perhaps I speak so much that he just needs a break????
grocery store
pop
subs
sneakers or tennis shoes
step
taxi or cab
movie
a park may or may not have a playground, a playground may or may not be in a park–they aren’t the same thing
and fess up–you still say “market”
Considering I worked in one for thirteen years, I go to the grocery store.
I’m a Canadian therefore I drink pop; however, when I was living in the US I’ve noticed a change. Now it’s soda pop!
We eat subs over here. Sometimes sub sandwiches.
We wear runners or sneakers. I guess it depends who we are trying to evade.
We sit on the door step. although, we also say deck if we have one, which is quite likely because our houses for some inexplicable reason have the door situated not far under our roofs.
Cab. Sometimes we go whole hog and hail or call a tax cab.
We see movies now but during world war two, they used to see a show.
We go to the playground if we have kids and they are in dire need of swings, teeter totters ( although I’ve heard them called seesaws) and slides. If we want to have a picnic, it’s a park which is much larger and usually involves people with dogs and frisbies.
1. Grocery Store
2. Soda
3. Grinders!
4. Sneakers
5. Step
6. Taxi
7. Park
8. Movie
My characters have my terminology. I think you have to be real careful if you change it up, b/c people are very tuned in, and sensitive, to the slangs and jargon of their area. Interesting …