I just need some advice about how the English, etc., would express plugging and unplugging an electrical device. Same as we do in America? Any other words you might use?
In Aotearoa/New Zealand, aka etc* we say âplugâ and âunplugâ. Every Australian Iâve ever met also says that.
*
Depending on your map projection or globe design, it can sometimes be mashed weirdly into southeast Australia or even entirely missing.
Here in the UK Iâm used to PLUG IN X and UNPLUG X.
As someone brought up and living in the UK, Iâd use plug in / unplug. (âplug the kettleâ would be odd to me, though; it would be âplug in the kettleâ / âplug it inâ.) I canât think of any other common ways of saying it that are familiar to me. I mean thereâs phrasings like âdisconnectâ and âpull the plugâ, same as elsewhere (and it might be kind for a parser to accept these), but I wouldnât use them in the first instance.
Oh, I thought that was just a country they made up for Flight of the Conchords.
Thanks everyone. I donât know why those words in particular caused me to pause, but I could imagine someone in Manchester saying âBlimey no wonder itâs not working, the tellyâs not even inna the wall!â
Itâs just not been the same since the robotic uprisings of the mid 90s
You might well say, âNo wonder itâs not working, itâs not even switched on at the wall.â
(Most British plug sockets these days have on/off switches).
âItâs not even in at the wall,â is perfectly possible too⌠but no one in Manchester is going to say âblimeyâ.
Just confirming that we would use âplugâ and âunplugâ in Australia, e.g. âplug the kettle into the power pointâ.
Also confirming that the English language is stupid. It reminded me of the time my alien friend asked me how we boil water on planet Earth. I told him to fill the kettle and plug it into the power point. He came back later and said it didnât work. I asked him to show me. As I watched him, he tried to plug the kettle into the three little slots in the power point. âSee? Itâs too big.â
Just as an addendum, in my game with a plug, from transcripts, players also try :
plug in (thing)
plug (thing)
plug (thing) into/in socket
plug (thing) in
push plug in/into socket
put plug in/into socket
plug in the (thing)
insert plug
insert plug in/into socket
unplug is easier, but I also get:
unplug (thing)
pull plug
remove plug
pull plug out of/from socket
and so on.
Ade.
Later edit : Plugs are a pain. TBH, my suggestion would be, unless itâs an actual puzzle (i.e. youâve got to get the kettle to somewhere with a socket), to not bother: just have a kettle you can turn on and off.
I presume that the whole idea of a kettle that you plug in to an electric socket to boil water would bemuse a large percentage of US gamers anyway⌠Just as putting a kettle on a hob to boil water would be seen as very old fashioned in the UK.
âPower pointâ? And here I thought that was just a software product for putting people to sleep.
Maybe? I have an electric kettle, but maybe Iâm in the minority; I donât honestly know.
And what is a âhobâ?
Yeah Iâve lived in four state and visited many others, and electric kettles have never once been strange. Every office Iâve worked at has had one in the kitchen (many people are coffee drinkers so have coffee makers, but us tea drinkers arenât so rare). If anything itâs stovetop kettles that are a niche item.
I think of a hob as a shelf or hook in a fireplace, but I think the current UK usage is just a stovetop, I assume by analogy.
Donât you call it a power point? And hereâs me thinking that Microsoft named PowerPoint after something that you plug you electrical appliances into. I never could see the connection. [Pun not intended, but Iâll use it anyway.]
I think weâd all call it a socket. Or long form an electrical socket.
Or a wall socket.
Come to think of it, I know what an electric kettle is, but nowadays we tend to use electric jugs. I think the only difference is the shape. Kettles are sort of fat and squat, whereas jugs are taller and slimmer.
Correct me if Iâm wrong, but I think the poms would say âput the kettle onâ, whereas we would say âput the jug onâ.
Electrical outlet too, at least in the northeast and California. Never heard âpower pointâ either.
Apparently the name of the software doesnât really have a meaning - they wanted to call it Presenter but that was taken and one of the folks making it came up with PowerPoint in the shower:
Ah, now that is interesting because the impression weâve been given over here is that electric kettles were rare.
The gas (or electric) rings that you cook on. May, or may not, be attached to a stove or oven or cooker or range (or AGA). A âgas hobâ.
Regional English is so fun. I love even the huge range of variation in terms that we get just across the UK.