Submitted by geometricsalmonfart t3_105nji7 in tifu
So my fiancé and I are watching Slow Horses. A nice British spy/crime series, easy to watch on a night in with some wine.
I love a good British crime/drama series. Grew up on them. For years i’ve been watching these shows and for years I’ve been thinking that the female superiors in these shows are referred to as “mum”… always thought it was a bit strange but hey, I’m not British so what do I know.
Tonight I’d had a few wines and the thought came up - maybe it is a bit strange they refer to these senior female officers as “mum” why is that? So I decided it vocalise these thoughts out loud… “babe, why do you think the senior female officers are referred to as ‘mom’?”
To which I received a raised eyebrow followed by her chortling… “wait.. you though they were saying MOM??”
This has been years I’ve thought this.. I even googled it. They say “mam” it just sounds like “mom”
My fiancé has been laughing at me for the last 20 minutes.
Damn British accent.
TL;DR: thought people in British crime shows were calling their female superiors “mom” instead of “mam” - I’ve thought this for years. It’s so hard to tell the difference with the accent.
EDIT: Posted this before bed and now reading this in the AM I’m learning that my TIFU is quite a few peoples TIL. Glad to know I’m not the only one.
A lot of people have also pointed out it’s spelt “ma’am” not “Mam” if I thought it was said “mom” then you can understand how the spelling was going to turn out.
Also, TIL there are two different ways of spelling Fiancée… if you’re engaged to a woman it’s Fiancée if you’re engaged to a man you drop the ‘e’ at the end…I’ve been spelling that wrong as well of course.