What word should we use?

[MDeen]

But I was just wondering : What’s the best word?

To get this discussion even wider: is ATM the proper Britsh English abbreviation for the machine that gives the money out? What does it mean exactly? I thought it is Automatic Teller Machine. Is that correct?

Do other countries use 'funny' terms for ATM? In the Netherlands we say 'flappentap', which could be translated as leafdispenser (I can't really translate 'flap', a 'tap' is a machine you get beer from )

Maarten

[emmem]

But I was just wondering : What’s the best word?

To get this discussion even wider: is ATM the proper Britsh English abbreviation for the machine that gives the money out? What does it mean exactly? I thought it is Automatic Teller Machine. Is that correct?

Do other countries use 'funny' terms for ATM? In the Netherlands we say 'flappentap', which could be translated as leafdispenser (I can't really translate 'flap', a 'tap' is a machine you get beer from )

Maarten

Funny thing. Flap is the same word in Dutch and English (when it’s a part of a book).
But another translation of flap is banknote.
And the translation of tap in Dutch is tap in English too.

So I guess when you want to translate flappentap, you should translate it as flaptap, flapstap or tap of the flaps.

[smh]

<<<she's british?>>>

No

<<<you speak english at home?>>>

No

Okay, guess thats a bit of a short answer. At home i speak Dutch, to my girlfriend English.

Where she's from? Think i left some clues on this forum already

I'll look for it.

Well

[wouter]

I normally use note(s)
and I juse pinautomaat voor the ATM.
Pinnen has become an often used word (preverb = werkwoord dacht ik) in the Netherlands after intensive campaings.
like:
ik pin
hij pind
wij pinnen
wij hebben gepind

[matt.berlin]

As the resident expert on this matter .. we usually say "note" in this country. "Banknote" is more of a technical term, .

A bill is something you get from an evil company through the post expecting you to actually pay for things .. how evil of them! Or something you get at a restaurant. It is not a form of money. It just isn't! I am very glad that the majority of you are showing solidarity with European English. Well done!

ATM can be used here .. but it is seen as an Americanism. We say "cash machine".

[MDeen]

I normally use note(s)
and I juse pinautomaat voor the ATM.
Pinnen has become an often used word (preverb = werkwoord dacht ik) in the Netherlands after intensive campaings.
like:
ik pin
hij pind
wij pinnen
wij hebben gepind

ik tap flappen
hij tapt flappen
wij flappen tap
wij hebben getappenflapt

[MDeen]

But I was just wondering : What’s the best word?

To get this discussion even wider: is ATM the proper Britsh English abbreviation for the machine that gives the money out? What does it mean exactly? I thought it is Automatic Teller Machine. Is that correct?

Do other countries use 'funny' terms for ATM? In the Netherlands we say 'flappentap', which could be translated as leafdispenser (I can't really translate 'flap', a 'tap' is a machine you get beer from )

Maarten

Funny thing. Flap is the same word in Dutch and English (when it’s a part of a book).
But another translation of flap is banknote.
And the translation of tap in Dutch is tap in English too.

Oh yes, of course it is, and I was looking for the translation... Hmm...

Sometimes it's just staring you in the face when you look in all the wrong places.

[smh]

I normally use note(s)
and I juse pinautomaat voor the ATM.
Pinnen has become an often used word (preverb = werkwoord dacht ik) in the Netherlands after intensive campaings.
like:
ik pin
hij pind
wij pinnen
wij hebben gepind

Yes it did become a new verb, but hij pind I guess you mean hij pint

[Olivier]

<<<she's british?>>>

No

<<<you speak english at home?>>>

No

Okay, guess thats a bit of a short answer. At home i speak Dutch, to my girlfriend English.

Where she's from? Think i left some clues on this forum already

I'll look for it.

Well

Well, I didn't find it again.

[francky]

ATM can be used here .. but it is seen as an Americanism. We say "cash machine".

In France, we say DAB... for "Distributeur Automatique de Billet"

[bhoeyb]

ATM can be used here .. but it is seen as an Americanism. We say "cash machine".

In France, we say DAB... for "Distributeur Automatique de Billet"

In Belgium (Dutch) it's "bankautomaat" or "mistercash"

[Olivier]

ATM can be used here .. but it is seen as an Americanism. We say "cash machine".

In France, we say DAB... for "Distributeur Automatique de Billet"

People often just say "distributeur", and other "tirette" because you pull notes (tirer=pull)

[madj]

Hi, why bother?
As far as I'm concerned, you may vary in using "notes"or "bills".
I think everyone understands what you mean when you use either one of them. :)

When I lived in London I asked the cashier at a Post Office to split £200 into "five pound bills". He just looked at me and did not now what i mean. I repeated and he asked if I ment traveller's cheques or some other kind of mean of payment. I couldn't understand why he didn't know what i meant. At last I said "Paper-money. Like this £10 bill (holding it up) - but half the value."

-"Aaah", he said, "you mean into £5 notes, papermoney are called notes in English."

And my landlord didn't know what a stove was..(cooker) Damn american influence on my language.

Banknote is the correct word in both AE and BE. American people just tend to call 'em bills.

[matt.berlin]

Yeah, I agree that is a problem. Personally, I would make it compulsory for all EU children to be taught the European version of the English language. Education in various other forms of spelling, uses of vocabulary, etc could be covered .. but I think it should be insisted upon that in all written and spoken work, British English should be used. In England I know they teach Spanish as spoken in Spain, they cover Latin American Spanish, but this is not the preferred "dialect".

It's true that people here with "bills" .. lots of people know that the Americans call notes, bills, but it doesn't naturally occur to us. Some says bill and we conjure up the image of something nasty that the postman delivers. And stove has now become antiquated .. we talk of ovens, and hobs, sometimes cookers .. but a stove brings to mind something that you need to build a fire in, and stoke every so often.