When is a packet a parcel

This is one of those areas of fairly large difference between BE and AE. She regularly sends care packages to her family in Ethiopia.

And when do I use the word "pack"? Here Wallmart calls this "A mix variety pack". Chips and crisps come in packets, not packages: This is not true in AE.

They are bags. If pushed, they might be packages. I would never call them packets. In BrE, almost anything that is ready-packaged to keep it together and separate from anything else is a pack. You might by a pack of butter, a pack of flour or a pack of cereal. Here is a pack of mushrooms. So would "a pack of crisps", with no adjecitve added, have any sense to your BE ears?

Would you perhaps imagine a pack with different kinds of crisps like the one in that Wallmart offer? And would "a pack of crisps" work in BE? So would "a pack of crisps", with no adjective added, have any sense to your BE ears? So we don't bamboozle you and ourselves with lots of different, and often conflicting words and usages from two different Englishes, it might be a good idea to decide which English you wish to concentrate on?

In BrE, the term 'pack of crisps' might suggest some form of 'multipack' or 'family pack'. This would be a large bag containing, say, twelve individual bags of crisps. The individual bags are packets , while the whole set of twelve is sold as a pack. Additional question for fellow English speakers in North America: If chips and peanuts and suchlike don't come in packets but in bags, what does come in packets?

How do you use the word 'packet' in AmE, if at all? EFL sucks a lot, to be honest. An articficial language that makes teachers and students think only one version works.

Myridon Senior Member Texas. Wordy McWordface said:. Myridon said:. Powdered gravy mixes and things like that. These are packets of chili powder.

About 10 cm tall and almost flat. Because it's a packet not a bag. In an American English, a sachet is a small item that smells nice that you your great-grandmother might hide in a drawer to make the drawer smell nice.

It doesn't have a defined shape. It might be a bag. This is a packet of ketchup. In BE that's a sachet. English is great, isn't it? By some piece of universal karma I happened to watch a movie the other day called Cut Bank. Cut Bank is the name of the small town in Montana the story takes place in. There is a bit of murder going on and exactly what is happening and who is doing what is mysterious at first. The murder involves a mailman delivering mail in his mail truck and the disappearance of that mail.

Anyway, one very, very eccentric, loner character in the movie is he a murderer? He spends most of the movie trying to find it. And part of what makes him strange, aside from his obviously unusual social mannerisms, is that he keeps asking people, "Do you know where my parcel is?

You can tell something is off with him. Who knew it was possible to make parcel a creepy word. Last edited: Feb 9, I would call this a packet of peanuts and that's how they advertise it. It's one ounce, which is approximately 28 grams.

Because it's an isolated picture it's hard to gauge the size. It looked like it would feed a whole family when I first added it but it's quite small. I think we're in danger of over-thinking this. It may not be true in the USA but I for one would have no qualms in calling that. Keith Bradford said:. But I do know that the collective bundle of 48 of them Forty-eight! Are you an addict or what!?!? Is it because the chili powder packaging is almost flat? Like a sachet?

Kentix said: I would call this a packet of peanuts and that's how they advertise it. View attachment So this is a 28g packet of peanuts? And would I be correct in thinking that it's the size that makes something a packet rather than a bag? Now, let's say that Planters sell an identical product containing g of peanuts - enough for the whole family.

Would that then be a bag of peanuts? Wow, looks like I can fully trust Longman Or can I? It says the smelly thing is BE too. I would think so. But at that size they normally come in jars or cans. Maybe if you can stick your hand in it, it's a bag. But I would call this a bag of rice or package. As the other commenters have noted, the usage of parcel vs package is slightly different.

Sign up to join this community. The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. Difference between "packet", "parcel" and "package" Ask Question. Asked 9 years, 4 months ago. Active 9 years, 3 months ago. Viewed 95k times. The definition on OALD is identical for parcel and packet. Improve this question. Community Bot 1.

Em1 Em1 4, 24 24 gold badges 62 62 silver badges bronze badges. Consider also that the British have packets of crisps, and the Americans have packets of information tangible and intangible. Perhaps that explains the increase of its use from the s?

Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Mostly conjecture and original research: A parcel has the modern connotation of being sent by mail, and you normally never hear of the noun used to describe anything else though you may sometimes hear it in verb form, meaning "to deliver in regular, divided amounts".

The word originally meant "bundle", but now typically has one of the following connotations: A small envelope containing spices, grain, seed, or similar material. A collection of papers or other information, often bound, as in the written material for a presentation.

A chunk of data sent over a network. Improve this answer. KeithS KeithS Pretty solid answer. It is whatever you define it to be. Henry Henry