From what we call our evening meal to the way we pronounce the word ‘scone’, we all have our own unique take on the English language. But how much does this vary around the country?
We surveyed 1,000 people from all over the UK, asking which words, phrases and pronunciations you’re most likely to hear where they’re from.
Explore the map below to see what we found
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What do you call your evening meal?
Our research confirmed the long-held belief that there is a clear regional divide between those of us who say ‘dinner’ and those of us who say ‘tea’.
7 out of the 17 cities we surveyed call their evening meal ‘tea’ - Edinburgh, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Leeds, Sheffield and, interestingly, Plymouth. Meanwhile, the rest of the UK refer to it as ‘dinner’.
What do you call a small, round piece of bread?
If you’re heading into a regional bakery, you’ll want to make sure you’re asking for the right thing! While there are a vast array of different terms for a small, round piece of bread, roll is the most common, with 39% of Brits opting for this.
Here are the top 10 most commonly used words for a small, round piece of bread:
How do you pronounce ‘scone’?
According to our survey, the correct way of pronouncing ‘scone’ is as if it rhymes with ‘cone’ with 48% of Brits using this pronunciation. Meanwhile, 41% think it rhymes with ‘gone’, with 11% saying they aren’t sure – maybe they’ve just never eaten one?
The question over how to pronounce ‘scone’ has long been linked with a north/south divide, and our results backed this belief up. Respondents in the North West, North East, Scotland and Northern Ireland all said they rhyme ‘scone’ with ‘gone’, with the rest of the country rhyming it with ‘cone’. Yorkshire was the only northern region which sided with the south.
What do you call it when you get a ride on the back of somebody else’s bike?
From backie to croggy, piggyback to pillion, there are a seemingly endless array of words people use to describe getting a ride on the back of somebody else’s bike. Backie was a clear favourite, with 20% of people around the country using this term, followed by piggyback with 18%.
Here are the top 10 most commonly used words used for getting a ride on the back of somebody else’s bike:
What do you call the popular playground game?
Finally, we’ve all played the popular playground game where you chase each other, trying to avoid being touched, but you probably called it something completely different depending on where you grew up. ‘Tag’ was the most popular result in our survey, with 39% of the UK using this term, followed by ‘Tig’ with 20%.
Here are the top 10 most commonly used words for the popular playground game:
Results based on nationally-representative survey of 1,000 UK residents aged 16 and above undertaken by Censuswide in April 2020.
