kilos, stones, pounds in UK

English translation: stones and pounds

17:09 Feb 17, 2016
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Marketing - Advertising / Public Relations / vitamins and minerals
English term or phrase: kilos, stones, pounds in UK
Am translating a weight-loss blurb in French claiming "you can lose 12 kilos in just 28 days" (yea, right...). There are several other mentions of body weights expressed in kilos as well.
The text is destined for the UK. Am I right in thinking that body weight is stilled measured in stones outre-Manche, or have kilos since been elevated to the throne?
It is pure PR malarky to appear in magazines, destined it would seem middle aged and elderly folk.
TIA for your help
Jonathan MacKerron
Selected answer:stones and pounds
Explanation:
You say you're writing for the middle-aged and elderly, so I would use stones and pounds.
The whole thing is a bit of a minefield. The country is officially metric, but some things are always imperial, e.g. miles per gallon, miles on road signs, etc. I shouldn't think you need put metric equivalents. Most younger people think in metric but many older ones (including me) mentally translate into imperial, cursing the EU as we do so (wish I could believe we'll vote out in the forthcoming referendum, but I doubt it). You're not concerned with US English here, but it's worth knowing that they don't use stones in US English, weight is in pounds only.
Selected response from:

Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:13
Grading comment
Thanks for all the useful input
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
3 +7stones and pounds
Jack Doughty


Discussion entries: 12





  

Answers


31 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +7
kilos, stones, pounds in uk
stones and pounds


Explanation:
You say you're writing for the middle-aged and elderly, so I would use stones and pounds.
The whole thing is a bit of a minefield. The country is officially metric, but some things are always imperial, e.g. miles per gallon, miles on road signs, etc. I shouldn't think you need put metric equivalents. Most younger people think in metric but many older ones (including me) mentally translate into imperial, cursing the EU as we do so (wish I could believe we'll vote out in the forthcoming referendum, but I doubt it). You're not concerned with US English here, but it's worth knowing that they don't use stones in US English, weight is in pounds only.

Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:13
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 19
Grading comment
Thanks for all the useful input
Notes to answerer
Asker: Thanks Jack, yours is more or less the answer I was expecting to hear, as most Brits I know personally are over 50 and have not made the transition, lo these many years gone by. US made a big push years ago under Pres. Carter. Today there are but a few highway signs in a few north eastern states that show both miles and kms. Otherwise it's still miles, gallons, pounds, furlongs, rods, bushels, pecks etc.


Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Charles Davis: Younger people may think in metric for some things but I don't think they talk about body weight in kilos; I think they still think in stones and pounds just like us oldies.
20 mins
  -> Thank you.

agree  Rachel Fell: I can do kilos for body weight, more or less, though not simply pounds - need stones and pounds, but am still a bit perplexed by e.g. supermarket chickens weighing 1.xxx kg ;-)
2 hrs
  -> Thank you. I can remember one or two simple ratios, like one kilo is 2.2 lb, one litre is one and three-quarter pints, one metre is 39 inches (3 ft. 3"), but that's about all.

agree  Yvonne Gallagher: everyone, young and old, still using stones and pounds (and lbs in US/Canada)
3 hrs
  -> Тhank you.

agree  Victoria Britten: Having spent half my life in France, I still have no intuitive feel for what kilos mean where body weight is concerned!
15 hrs
  -> Thank you.

agree  Cilian O'Tuama: stone, not stones where I grew up... And yes, a litre of WATER is a pint and three QUARTER, easy enough to remember...// Just the rhyme as mnemonic aid
21 hrs
  -> Thank you. Certainly stone when used in body weight, but stones when referred to in general. I don't agree about a pint and three quarter, I've never come across that. // Oh, I see. Yes, a useful mnemonic.

agree  acetran
1 day 20 hrs
  -> Thank you.

agree  Phong Le
2 days 20 hrs
  -> Тhank you.
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