(Hot) chips are fat, fries are thin.
this post was submitted on 11 Oct 2025
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Yes but you would never order fries, you would say chips still. We have some very confusing rules on this apparently.
I don't think it's very confusing when you remember that we don't get (non-hot) chips (crisps) as a side dish to any meal.
Like in the U.S. you can get either as a side. In Australia if it says (or you ask for) chips, you get hot chips (fries).
Chips (crisps) are just a standalone snack here.
Would you order chips at maccas? I wouldn’t.
Yes
Hot chips and lie
What do yanks call thick cut chips? It seems "burger and fries" is burned into their national psyche (leading to memes such as these) but surely they have a word for the non shoestring fry version. Wedges? 🤔
Anyway, the Brits have probably got it right on this occasion, but context definitely helps with the dual usage in Aus. I'm not going to have fish and chips with crisps, and a packet of chips isn't going to be of the hot variety.
Either potato wedges if they're actually wedge shaped or steak fries if they're more rectangular.
Steak fries
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UK person here, and I'll say this:
No.
Small, slim, squished from what was once a potato but is now full of basically fuck all=fries/french fries. (I've called them this for around 40 years)
Very thin, usually round-ish, and crispy=crisps
Chunky cuts of proper potato=chips.
Correct. Chips are fatter and cut from actual potatoes. Cross section is about a centimetre.
The US does have "potato wedges" which might be closer to what you're calling "chips" here.
Though we also have "steak fries" which are thicker fries
Potato wedges are also a thing in the UK. They're distinct from chips in their shape; chips tend to be thick and rectangular, without skin. I tried googling steak fries, but it just kept coming back with pictures of wedges, and briefly considered we might actually be referring to different things when we each say wedges, so I promptly shut that can of worms, as we don't need more transatlantic dissension over potato based snacks.
Lol.... The main archetype I think of when I say "potato wedges" would be the ones you get at KFC.
So that might help if you're curious to see what I'm actually referring to.
Also from the UK always called them skinny chips, used to be mostly called that when I was small as well.
It's all about context!
Fries are the frozen shoestring things imo.
Shoestring chips are far inferior to thick cut chips
I'll gladly exchange my share of the worlds fattys for your share of the worlds thinnies
Done 👍
New Zealand "chips"
"Chups"
As in:
"Wanna chup bro?"
"I can't eat your ghost chups!"
"I'm beached az"
"D'wanna chup bro?"
"As in a chup?"
"Yeah a chup"
Nah, I only eat plunktun.
In the UK we call the thin ones fries, probably because of the McDonalds ones. The thicker ones we call chips and yes we call the potato snacks that come in a bag crisps.
Except for Tortilla Chips.
Indeed
I just call them tortillas.
Meanwhile the Dutch fighting themselves over 'friet' or 'patat'.
Everyone is correct imo, wood from wood chipper would have some bits would resemble both, If you have a wooden furniture and it chips due to some damage, the part that chipped off can resemble either one. Theyre both crispened, so crisps works for both too. And theyre both "fried" or baked with oil.
The real question is why the heck do us americans calll them "french" fries, or for that matter, what is up with french toast, french braid, french kiss, and french maid. None of this shit is of french origin.
Perhaps they're just American things that Lafayette liked.
I’m with OP here. I don’t care what they’re called as long as I can get them with salt and vinegar.
I don’t know if ketchup is different outside of the US, but keep that nasty shit the fuck away from my potatoes.
In my house because of the way kiwis say fush and chups we have chips (the crisps) and chups (the thick arse delicious potato)
All stemmed from a joke of getting fush and chups so my younger brother thought it was chips and chups and it stuck
They're all the same thing, might as well call them the same things. I prefer my fries in a whole form, piped hot from the oven after an hour at 450F and covered with some salt and butter. If you want to get decadent, you can split the fry in half and put the butter inside. Some people even put sour cream, onion, chives, or bacon bits on the split fry.
Same in South Africa, it's all just chips.
AUSTRALIANS EAT MICE?!?!?!
Taters.
Fry 'em, chip 'em, throw 'em in a stew.
Po-tay-toes!
Canada does the same.
Why would you shorten crispened potato snacks to anything other than crisps?
Why would you’se elongate chip to crispened potato snack?
It's not a chip off of a potato, though, is it? It's a sliver of potato. That's been crispened.
Why would shorten potato chip snacks to anything other than chips?
It's fries and cold fries
The French: fried apples
Bavaria: apples (in French for some reason)
fries are only chips when served with fried fish
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