Like why do you have to say French?
I remember people were “boycotting” the term after France refused to join the “war on terror” aka illegal invasion of Iraq. Maybe people didn’t boycott, it was just a lightbulb moment, “why do we say French?”
We should be calling them “Belgian Fries” if we want to be accurate.
shareI just call 'em fries.
shareAt McDonald's I call them fries because that's their style. But if they are "chunky" (as Americans say) we call them chips.
In Australia, when I was younger, McDonald's had "french fries" on the menu. Now it's just "fries."
I'm not sure what American McDonald's calls them.
I call them pommes frites. LOL
shareYah, I can imagine a McDonald's employee saying, "You want French Fries with that?"
shareI just checked the US McDonalds Webpage and they call them 'world famous fries'.
That's another thing they don't do in Australia, put the word 'famous' in front of things. I noticed a lot of pizza places in New York have 'famous' in front of it.
It's true. Famous Ray's in particular. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray%27s_Pizza
Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies
Another one is "America's Favorite [fill in the blank]"
Oreo - America's Favorite cookie
Australia does that too "Australia's favourite News Service", "Australia's favourite breakfast cereal"... etc.
I'm guessing that's a global thing.
"I remember people were “boycotting” the term after France refused to join the “war on terror”"
That never actually happened, at least not to any significant degree. There may have been some moronic restaurant owner in Bumbleville who crossed out "French" on his menu and replaced it with "Freedom" or something, and that's what the mass media outlets ran with.
I haven't noticed any change in the terminology in my lifetime. "Fries" is a common abbreviation, but it's always been a common abbreviation. Watch McDonald's commercials from the '80s for example (which is the decade I grew up in); they usually just call them "fries."
I knew of one restaurant that changed French dressing to Freedom Dressing on their menu. That was all I ever saw in real life. I agree, the media tried to blow it way out of proportion.
shareI imagine there are instances when using the term French Fries instead of "fries" is more natural.
Not that I can think of any ....