meal paper?

[sky753]

Hello Everyone,

During meal, esp out here in China, soft papers are used to wipe month. What the proper name for the paper?

Regards

Sky

 

[Anglika]

Paper napkins OR paper serviettes

 

[sky753]

Paper napkins OR paper serviettes

Are they commonly used in daily English? Can I say " pass me two paper napkins, please."

 

[bhaisahab]

Are they commonly used in daily English? Can I say " pass me two paper napkins, please."

Yes, and yes.

 

[rlfwood]

A couple of asides:

I used to work with a teacher who was raised in Israel. He stoutly maintained that the cloth or paper item used at mealtimes was a "serviette", and that the word "napkin" only applied to sanitary pads.

In everyday American usage, I have never heard "serviette" (except from the colleague mentioned above) -- it's always been "napkin".

 

[bhaisahab]

"Serviette" is French and is used by some English speakers to try to appear "educated", when in fact it makes them appear to be the opposite of that.

 

[Barb_D]

A related question about "napkin" versus "nappies." The latter is diaper in BrE, right? Would you ever use the former?

 

[bhaisahab]

A related question about "napkin" versus "nappies." The latter is diaper in BrE, right? Would you ever use the former?

It's a while since my children were that sort of age, but then it was always "nappies", I have never heard "napkin" in that context.

 

[Barb_D]

I'm sorry - my question was poorly phrased. I mean to confirm that in BrE, "nappies" are what I would call "a diaper" in American English. I didn't mean to say "diapers in BrE."

 

[Anglika]

Correct -our babies have nappies, US babies have diapers [how smart they must be since diaper is an expensive form of weaving :-D ]

 

[Barb_D]

Oh, this gets more and more interesting. A type of weaving?

And you would never use "napkin" for "nappie" right? If for some reason you needed to be very formal and tell someone that the baby needed changing, what word is the fancy-pants word for nappie?

Thanks again.

 

[Anglika]

AskOxford: diaper [definitions 2 and 3]


We would just say "nappie" - no side to us in these matters!;-)

 

[Barb_D]

Thank you for these replies. You never know when you read things in a book if what the characters are saying are what real people would say in the same situation.