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I think it's regional differences...

(142 Posts)
lizzypopbottle Wed 06-Mar-24 12:31:15

I've been meaning to broach this for a while and another thread prompted me at last...

So, in conversation, somebody said 'pardon' and I came out with, "Pardon Mrs Arden, there's a chicken in your garden!" To which my lovely mum-in-law said, " No Liz, it's 'Pardon Mrs Harden, there's a kitten in your garden!'" I'm originally from the North West and M-i-L North East.

So which do you say?

Also, I hum and hah but others um and ah. Posh people hem and haw.

What do you do when you're hesitating?

There was another one but it's slipped my mind.... it might come back...oh!

Egg and chips or chips and egg? I say chips and egg....

I'm sure there are more.

GrannyGravy13 Wed 06-Mar-24 12:33:05

I am in the S E, one of my Granny’s always said pardon Mrs Arden, there’s a pussy cat in your garden

This has been passed down the generations and our young GC find it hilarious.

lizzypopbottle Wed 06-Mar-24 12:35:07

Jam and bread (NE) or bread and jam?

Vito Wed 06-Mar-24 12:36:42

I say, the same as you, Arden and Chicken, but always egg and chips. I'm from East Anglia, my family Suffolk/Norfolk .
Shirley Valentine said chips and egg,first time I'd ever heard it, drove me mad 😀

Oldnproud Wed 06-Mar-24 12:43:39

It is kitten in the version that I know, but that's because that's what it said in a nursery rhyme book that my son had when he was little. I didn't know that particular rhyme before that, so it has nothing to do with the fact that I am from Yorkshire.

Egg and chips

lizzypopbottle,
I say 'bread and jam' but jam ^on bread'.

Marydoll Wed 06-Mar-24 12:44:18

Vito

I say, the same as you, Arden and Chicken, but always egg and chips. I'm from East Anglia, my family Suffolk/Norfolk .
Shirley Valentine said chips and egg,first time I'd ever heard it, drove me mad 😀

I have never heard this expression! grin

Beechnut Wed 06-Mar-24 12:45:00

I only knew the first bit of Pardon Mrs Arden. Nothing about the chicken or kittens.

Egg and chips
Bread and jam
Peanut butter and jam
Sausage and mash

Juggernaut Wed 06-Mar-24 12:45:02

Mrs Arden & Chicken
Egg & Chips
Bread & Jam
Hum & Hah
I'm from Chester.

Beechnut Wed 06-Mar-24 12:46:35

I’m west.

lizzypopbottle Wed 06-Mar-24 12:47:05

Vito! Ha! Liverpool! My mother's family all from there and Shirley Valentine too! Chips and egg!

Dee1012 Wed 06-Mar-24 12:47:22

On moving to the North East and asking for a couple of Barm Cakes....I needed to ask for Stotties!confused

lizzypopbottle Wed 06-Mar-24 12:52:45

Bread cakes in Sheffield, I think, Dee1012

Esmay Wed 06-Mar-24 12:53:55

Fish and chips
Bread and butter
Bread and jam
Sausages or bangers and mash
Pie and mash

Don't know the Mrs Arden kitten and chicken one .
I'm from London originally .

SORES Wed 06-Mar-24 12:58:10

Vito ! we are from the NW originally, I well remember Shirley Valentine saying chips and egg, thinking, what? its egg and chips, who wrote this? of course it was Willy Russell, NW born and bred, also wrote the screenplay.
I never heard ‘chips and egg’ before or since, it just doesn’t scan, drove us mad too.

The standout regional differences Ive noticed are bread and cakes, as in barmcakes/baps, breakfast rolls/cobs, oven bottoms/muffins (of course now my brain has seized so that I cannot think of any others, help!)
On visiting friends in Yorkshire, into the chippy, friend ordered a ‘breadcake’ I thought, that is a bap!

Labradora Wed 06-Mar-24 12:59:19

Egg and Chips
Bread and jam
I'm North West
Never heard the chicken thingy but must say its enormously good fun.!!!!
It's not a rhyme obv but one of my favourite sayings of my late mother ( who was actually a very sweet lovely woman )was that someone was
"neither use nor ornament " which , when you think about it, is pretty thoroughly damning......
Re chickens my OH sings a little ditty
"chick, chick, chick, chick, chicken...... lay a little egg for me"
don't know where he got that.
Scunthorpe.....
my friend's mum had a lovely saying about her daughter(my friend)
" she's a rum lass.......I don't know where she gets it........"

MissAdventure Wed 06-Mar-24 13:01:15

Pardon Mrs. Arden, there's a piggy in my garden. (When someone burps)

I didn't hear this until I was in my 30s, though.

Dee1012 Wed 06-Mar-24 13:03:38

lizzypopbottle

Bread cakes in Sheffield, I think, Dee1012

Sacrilege lizzypopbottle

A Liverpudlian here and it is chips and egg!

And don't even get me started on "scraps"shock haha

Callistemon21 Wed 06-Mar-24 13:04:09

Esmay

Fish and chips
Bread and butter
Bread and jam
Sausages or bangers and mash
Pie and mash

Don't know the Mrs Arden kitten and chicken one .
I'm from London originally .

Ditto, Esmay
And I'm not from London.

I've never heard of that phrase until this thread.

fancythat Wed 06-Mar-24 13:15:05

Egg and chips.
Um and ah.

Not heard of the rest

Wheniwasyourage Wed 06-Mar-24 13:20:08

Chook chook chook chook chooken, lay a little egg for me
Chook chook chook chook chooken. I want one for my tea
I haven't had an egg since Easter, and now it's half past three
So - chook chook chook chook chooken, lay a little egg for me.

Don't know whose song it is, but my mother used to sing it.

I've never heard of Mrs Arden, but I love it!

Egg and chips
Bread and butter
Knife and fork (DH from NE Scotland says fork and knife)

I'm from central Scotland originally but my DM was from NE England.

MissAdventure Wed 06-Mar-24 13:22:37

Chook?
It's chicken here.

Granmarderby10 Wed 06-Mar-24 13:23:54

I ever say pardon, I say “what was that?” …if I didn’t hear 👂
Excuse me …if I sneeze/hiccup (burp 🫢)

Aveline Wed 06-Mar-24 13:24:51

We were never allowed to say, 'pardon'. Only, 'I beg your pardon' or if necessary, 'Sorry?'

Witzend Wed 06-Mar-24 13:26:27

Never heard the Mrs Arden thing.
Egg and chips here. (Outer London childhood)

One difference I used to notice, a friend from Sheffield used to refer to what I would call fairy cakes, as buns. To me buns would be made from a yeast mix, not a sponge cake mix.

Callistemon21 Wed 06-Mar-24 13:26:45

MissAdventure

Chook?
It's chicken here.

Chooks live in Australia.

My mother used to sing Chick chick chick chick chicken etc

Actually, hens lay eggs .....