A baffled traveler recently took to Reddit with a question that had them completely stumped. “French fries are chips, so what do Aussies call potato chips?” they asked in the ‘Ask An Australian’ thread.
Fair enough too because when you really think about it, it’s not the simplest naming system.
They went on to wonder, “If all are chips, don’t people often get confused about whether they want fries or potato chips?”
For the record, the terminology is already a global minefield.
In the UK, what Aussies call a packet of chips are called “crisps,” while hot chips from a fish and chip shop are simply “chips.” and thin-cut chips are “fries.”
In the US, the rules shift again. Thick-cut hot chips are “fries,” thin-cut ones are “French fries,” and the bagged variety are just “chips.”
But in Australia, we simplify or arguably, complicate it all by just calling everything chips. How hard could that be right?
Aussies call hot chips, French fries, and crisps all the same thing chips. Naturally, this left the traveler scratching their head, so they turned to locals for clarification.
The answers, though, didn’t exactly clear things up.
“We call fries chips, chips we call chips, and crisps we call chips too,” one Aussie explained. “Sometimes, we’ll call chips chippys, but usually, just chips.”
Another user tried to help by adding “we don’t get confused because depending on where you are, there’s usually only one option. Fish and chip shops don’t sell bagged chips, and supermarkets don’t have hot chips. Calling them ‘hot chips’ is just something we do to avoid confusion but honestly, we don’t even need to.”
A third chimed in with “they’re all chips, and we just know what someone means when they ask for chips.”
Despite their best efforts, the original poster still found Aussies genuinely confusing and really, they’re not wrong.
So how would you try to explain this chip chaos to someone from overseas?
