Edit: by “chips” I mean the UK use of the word, which is what they call fries but are thicker and therefore different than “American fries”, they say. Not Lays potato chips or anything like that.
To me it’s a silly distinction (Sorry UK, Aus, etc). “Oh the skinny one are fries but these ones are slightly thicker so they’re chips”. Yes the typical American fast food fries are skinny but fries come in all shapes and sizes. Plus, don’t they come from “frites”, meaning “fried”?
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They are all fried (Friturestegte).
The sliced thin ones are chips (Kartoffel chips).
And the square long ones are french fries (pomfritter)
For me the standard name for any shape would be “Pommes” which is derived from the French word pommes frites but it’s pronounced in the German way (meaning every single letter is pronounced, including the e and the s). And it’s basically regardless of the shape.
Another name that could be used is “Fritten” also derived from pommes frites. But personally I wouldn’t use that term.
In recent years, burger restaurants that want to seem American have become somewhat fashionable. They often call them fries to sound as American as possible, but to me it always sounds a bit as if they’re trying too hard.
By the way, I could imagine that the naming differes depending on the region in Germany. That’s often the case with food items.
Chips in German are what Brits call crisps.
Portuguese doesn’t even distinguish between those two and crisps. They’re all just “fried potatoes”.
In the Dutch speaking part all is “frieten”, thick, thin, wide or short. It refers to the preparation method: “frituren” which mean deep-frying.
Not really.
To give you an example, if you were to go to the grocery shop to buy frozen fries, you’d probably have 2 or 3 choices:
1) frytki proste – standard fries, literally translating to straight fries
2) frytki karbowane – literally translating to corrugated fries
3) steak house fries – we don’t have any Polish translation, just steak house, I don’t think I have to explain this
But generally speaking, fries are fries, you can only add some adjective to that word. Most restaurants have only one type of “standard” fries without specifying what type it is + sweet potato fries.
Aside the general friet vs patat debate (people in the north of the country call fries patat, in the south they call it friet, shops seem to mostly go for friet) not really. Just friet on its own usually refers to square cut fries that are around 1x1cm in size. Then there’s the thick and flat cut which is called Vlaamse (Flemish) friet and thin cut which is Franse (French) friet.
Chips are the thin slices you eat from a bag as a snack.
For me “chips” are those thin slices of fried potatoes you buy in bags from the supermarket (what the Brits call “crisps”). All others are “fries”, “frites” in french, “pommes frites” if you want or “batata frita” in portuguese (“chips” in the UK) whether they’re thin (“allumettes” = “matchsticks”) or thick sticks.
The first time I had home-made crisps, it was in Portugal at my godmother’s wedding. But we still called them “batata frita”.
The typical mcdonalds fries are called pomfri, which probably comes from pommes frites. Very similair pronounciation.
If you don’t drown the potatoes in oil while frying, but just bake them in a pan or oven, with a drizzle of oil, that is just baked potatoes, or pečeni krompir. It looks more home made and less processed than pomfri, and these are usually thicker.
Chips or čips (same pronounciation) is what comes out of the bag, those paper thin potatoes, commonly flavored with paprika, sour cream, plain salt, etc. Chio Chips, Crunchips, Pata, are some of the common brands. I think in UK these are called crisps, but not sure.
In the UK they are all chips but the skinny ones are sometimes called fries as well. I think it just comes from American fast food places which call them fries on the menu which made people start calling the skinny ones fries.
It’s confusing. I asked for chips in Amsterdam and they served me crisps. America is the same. We here in England call chips chips. Fries are for McDonald’s
In Spanish, both are *Patatas fritas*, if we want specify they are chips we say *de bolsa* (lit. from bag)
In Spanish, both are *Patatas fritas*, if we want specify they are chips we say *de bolsa* (lit. from bag)
I guess technically, the thicker ones are called pommes frites, and the thinner ones are called pommes strips. At least, that is what the packages say when you buy them at the store. Colloquially though, almost everyone refers to both the thick and the thin ones as pommes frites – or perhaps even more commonly as just pommes. Pommes frites is pronounced like in French, but when we call them only pommes, we use a Swedish pronunciation, “pomm-ess”.
I think people here are somewhat aware of the name differences, but it’s all the same thing. There is no special distinction in German, unless some kind of adjective is used. I can’t recall the name “fries” being used in any German-language context at a restaurant or whatever. It’s not impossible, since Germany loves using English words just to seem cool, and even makes up fake English words…
I’m from Canada, and we generally call them fries, though the word chips is also well known. Chips typically implies a thicker cut, perhaps freshly cut. You will also find some older people who call them chips by default. There may be regional variation, including obviously in French-speaking areas.
In Norway it’s all just “pommes frites” (French loan word).
There is a debate here on how to pronounce “pommes frites” though. For some reason, most of us have ‘overcompensated’ the French pronunciation and dropped the final t-sound, pronouncing it “pom free”, but there are also people who say “pom fritt”.
Also, I think I’ve heard some dialects call it “chips” (although that word is mostly used for crisps/Am. Eng. chips), but I don’t think it’s used to differentiate between different types of “pommes fritt”.
In Finland general name for fries is ranskalaiset perunat (french fries). Very thin ones can be called tikkuperunat (stick potatoes) and thick ones (often with peel on them) are called lankkuperunat (plank potatoes) or maalaisranskalaiset (“countryside frenchies”). But they all fall under umbrella of ranskalaiset perunat.
Thin crunchy potatoslices sold in bags (ones that english call crisps) are called perunalastu (potato chip) or just “sipsi”. Often bags have also english word “chips” on them. Here if someone talks about chips we assosiate it to those, never to fries.
Fries are generally called “patatine fritte” (fried small potatoes) while chips just “patatine” (small potatoes) despite the fact that they are obviously fried. To be honest, these terms are actually interchangeable and one could use either one, but I feel this is the most common way of referring to them.
No, we call all deep-fried potatoes that aren’t crunchy “kartofelj-fri”. Well, maybe not wedges, which some clever McD marketeer named “kartofelj po-derevenski”, or “rustic potatoes”, and the name stuck.
No, for me, in English, they’re all chips. If you ask for “fries” somewhere outside of maybe some busier touristy areas, you’d probably get some funny looks.
Same in Irish as well, they’re all “sceallóga”
It’s a pretty important distinction in British food culture. They are genuinely different types of food products, it makes about as much sense as calling a Crisp (or Chip in US English) a Fry just because they’re both a type of potato product.
Fries are thin, crispy and as the name states: fried.
Chips are fluffier, better at absorbing garnishes and often over-cooked, not always fried.
They’re a midway point between a Fry and a Wedge. If you ask for Chips and get given slightly larger Fries, the customer is going to be confused.
I call them all chips. If I want the skinny ones I’d called them skinny chips
Yes.
Sipsit = Chips in Lay’s potato chips
and
Ranskanperunat, ranskalaiset = French fries
Fries aka pomfritter in Danish. Both slim and fat ones.
Fries are Franskar which basically means Frenchies and chips are Flögur so sorta yeah.
Yes, we call them čips and pomfri.
I think I don’t need to translate.
They’re both called “patates fregides” (fried potatoes) in catalan. We differentiate them by adding “de bossa” ((out) of bag) when talking about the ones that come, you know, from a bag.
Pommes, Fritten, Chips… Just give me all the fried goodness!
We eat potatoes 400 different ways. Why is it silly to distinguish based on the size, shape and preparation? In your language do you use the same word when potatoes are cut into wedge shapes or cubes, skin on or off, before frying?
If you put chips/fries in the oven do you still call them fries?
In Belgium we call all fries fries. Be it from you local frituur, be it homemade or be it from an inferior place like mcdonald’s.
As long as it is potato cut in a long cuboid shape and deepfried, it’s a fry.
However if you’re going to do special stuff with it, the distinction will be made (curly; angel hair; spiralized etc)
Chips is uniquely reserved for what you call crisps.
>To me it’s a silly distinction (Sorry UK, Aus, etc). “Oh the skinny one are fries but these ones are slightly thicker so they’re chips”.
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Woah! Not a surprise given that I’m British, but I’m going to strongly disagree with this. Fries and chips are definitely different things.
It’s more than the shape (although that would be enough to justify a different name; look at how we do that for pasta), they have different flavours and textures.
Proper chips will be fried for a lot longer, and so will take on flavour from the oil. They’ll be crispier on the outside, and fluffier on the inside. They’ll also be far more likely to be made from chips of potato rather than re-constituted powdered potato.
That difference in flavour and texture changes what you might eat them with. The crispiness of chips means that you can put vinegar on them without them going soggy, and the sharpness of the vinegar compliments the fattiness of the coating perfectly. Put that much vinegar on fries and you just get a soggy mess.
Similarly the strong vinegar flavour of tomato sauce makes it more suited to chips than it does to fries.
On the opposite side, mayonnaise goes really well with the blander flavour of fries, but I’d be less likely to dip proper chips in it.
Comparing fries to chips is a bit like comparing potato wedges to roast potatoes. Despite them being roughly the same shape, if you’re cooking it right then they are definitely not the same thing.
If I was to order “burger and fries” in a British pub or restaurant and get chips then I’d be (pleasantly) surprised. If I was to order “fish and chips” and get fries then I’d probably ask for my money back.
Yes. Cips for “Chips” and Kızartma(any) for “fries(any)”.
Chips are chips in Ireland (same meaning as the UK). You’d see ‘fries’ on many menus, but that’s an Americanisation that’s crept into tourist spots. Everyone knows what chips are and that they’re served hot, not from a bag.
Irish for chips is ‘sceallóga’. Just one word for it.
We call both variants franskar kartöflur (e. french potatoes) or franskar for short (e. french ones). Potato chips we call kartöflu flögur (e. potato chips/potato flakes) though most people just call it “snakk” which is interchangeable with any kind of fried potato based snack such as chips, shoestring potatoes, etc.
They’re both called “patatas fritas”. If any more clarification is needed, we usually call chips “patats de bolsa”
Chips are potatos chopped up and cooked.
Fries are the reprocessed shit masquerading as chips served in US chain stores (McDonalds, BK, Etc)
Chips are the thin slices of potatoes, although they can also be made of for example lentils. You know, Pringles and such. Aka, sipsit or even perunalastut.
Fries, also known as french fries, are the side dish you get with various foods. They are never called chips, except in the combo dish “fish and chips”. Ranskalaiset, ranskikset.
Yes, there is a difference.