My fab phrases

I noticed the other day that I have picked up a number of phrases from here that I regularly use. I only noticed because of the new Americans that have arrived...you tend to be more aware of what is English and what is American when you are around other Americans.

So here's a few that I've noticed:

• sort out -- as in 'I need to get dinner sorted out' or 'I'll get our plans with her sorted out tomorrow'
• chuck it in the bin -- rather than 'throw it in the trash'
• phone -- as in 'I'll phone her tomorrow'
• meant to -- rather than 'supposed to' -- as in 'You're meant to be at Daniel's house in 5 minutes'

Plus then there are just the regular words that we've all changed -- trousers (not pants), pants (not underwear), garden (not yard), lounge (not living room), bin (not trash or garbage), trolley (not shopping cart), and trainers (not tennis shoes).

My all time favorite is one that Elam has picked up. He uses 'apart from' rather then 'except' -- as in 'All my friends apart from Christopher were at the birthday party'.