Measures/Units

[suzie0726]

Hi! Could you help me with measures/units? What are the English obverses of the following measures :
deciliter, milliliter,gramm,liter,dekagramm ... ? I mean how to say at the supermarket when I would like to buy something which is 0,5 liter(litres),etc.?
Or we have to use the original,old British measures in this case?
Thank you so much.

 

[Rover_KE]

Rather than 'English obverses' use 'Imperial/US equivalents'.

In UK and North American supermarkets everything is pre-packed or available for you to help yourself to, so you never need to ask for anything in any specific weight or volume or worry about their conversions.

Just choose the size of milk bottle you want or pick as many apples as you need.

If you still want to know how to convert from metric to US/Imperial units, click here.

Rover

 

[5jj]

If we do need to ask for 0.5 litres of something, we ask for half a litre.

 

[suzie0726]

Many thanks for your help, Rover! You are so helpful and your explanation is clear. I'm glad you understood my message as I'm not English. :-D Best regards!

 

[suzie0726]

Thanks,5jj!

 

[Barb_D]

We have a nice fish counter at my store. I could walk up and say "I'd like a piece of salmon that's about a pound and half." Or I could say "Can you find a piece that would feed three people?" So don't worry about not being able to think in our outdated measurements. I can't think in yours.

 

[SoothingDave]

We have a nice fish counter at my store. I could walk up and say "I'd like a piece of salmon that's about a pound and half." Or I could say "Can you find a piece that would feed three people?" So don't worry about not being able to think in our outdated measurements. I can't think in yours.

"A pound and a half" you mean.

It's only at the deli or meat counter where you would need to know about buying by the pound. If buying steaks or chops, you would just buy a number of them and not worry about the weight. If buying ground beef, you would ask for a pound or 2 and a half pounds or what you felt you need.

Buying lunchmeat or cheese is the same. "Give me a half pound of Swiss cheese and three quarter pound of the roast beef, please."

 

[Barb_D]

Oh, yes, I forgot the "a." A pound and a half.

 

[SoothingDave]

If you were to buy something like a soda pop, you would buy it based on a cup size and not on how many ounces. You would ask for a small Coke or a large Pepsi or a Jumbo iced tea. There might be signs that tell you how many ounces in each cup, but you would not order a 16 oz. beverage. You would ask for the regular or medium size.

 

[emsr2d2]

In supermarkets in the UK you just pick up as much as you want from the fruit and vegetable section, put the food in a plastic bag, then in your trolley and then it's weighed and priced at the till. Meat and fish are either pre-packed or you go to the counter and you can follow Barb's advice. The people who work on the counter won't expect you (or anyone else) necessarily to know the weight that you want. Be warned though, that even though many customers will still ask for foods in pounds and ounces, the European regulations now dictate that all food is priced per kilogram.

If you go to a traditional fruit and veg market in the UK, you will hear people asking for "a pound of apples" or "a kilo of oranges" but again, you don't have to do that. There's no reason why you can't just say "I'd like four apples please" or "Can you give me two large red peppers please?"

If you're buying the ingredients for a dish that follows a recipe from a book, you should be fine because most recipes give the weights in imperial (pounds and ounces), metric (grams, kilograms) and US (cups). Whichever you choose, stick to the same measurement throughout (ie don't do 1lb of flour plus 500g of sugar plus one 1 US cup of milk and expect the result to be correct) because the conversions are not exact.

 

[suzie0726]

To tell the truth UK measures are really complicated for me as I'm not English. I hope you won't find me stupid. Many thanks for your detailed explanation. You've written all possible situations. It helps so much because we can learn the most this way. Thanks for spending time with writing long explanation to help me. Best regards!

 

[suzie0726]

Thanks a lot, Dave!

 

[suzie0726]

Thanks for your help, Barb!

 

[emsr2d2]

I still have trouble converting my "stones and pounds" to just "pounds" unless it's a really simple calculation like "ten stone" (140 pounds). The weights mean nothing to me in pounds, inasmuch as I can't picture a person if I'm just given their weight. If you tell me that someone is about 12 stone, I have a pretty good idea of their size. If you tell me that they're 80 pounds or 180 pounds, I would have to divide them in my head to work out how many stone that is.

 

[5jj]

You are not alone, ems.