Prawn Or Shrimp?

I was having my supper(Hokkien Mee) last night.While enjoying it i came across few prawns,then dont know why suddenly this question just pop up in my mind.Why some people call prawn while other call shrimp?Well i saw some menu in restaurant put it either prawn or shrimp.Although i did ate prawn( or whathever it is call shrimp)all my life but i dont really dont know how to differentiate a prawn and a shrimp.So i try to ask my family member.Hahahaha....all also dumb like me and could not gave me any answer.So i try to call few of my damned smart buddies who are real professional and damn good in english(well they could speak english sound like Englishman cos years of living and studied oversea....not like me only studied locally)I try to ask them if they could show me how to differentiate the prawn to a shrimp.Some gave me answer like shrimp is a small prawn ("Heh Kia"...like Cencaluk)Some said well some country use the term as shrimp while other call it prawn.One buddy lagi celaka,he said well when people call shrimp we also follow lor,and when people call prawn we also do lor....really "Gai Lor"professional summore.....hehehehe.I think his certificate he bought one from oversea.



Think of it no matter what it call there is often confusion regarding the difference between a shrimp and a prawn.Physically when we look at them they look very similar.I bet there is sure a way to tell them apart..right?Since there not much help although i did call up to my "so call professional buddies but gave me some unprofessional answer.The only option left is by searching the answer through net(I should have done that in the first place).Well after for sometime go through the search engine with just two keywords...that is prawn and shrimp.I browsed page by page until i came to this site (Lucky me:-))who really explain in very detail about the Prawn and Shrimp.It written that there is a way to tell them a part.



In prawn (or Penaeidae in sci-fi term)have all the abdominal side plates overlapping tile-like from front .While shrimp(or caridean in sci-fi term)the side plate of the second segment of the abdomen overlaps the segments in front and behind.Its also stated that the easy way to identify them is that prawn are more curvy then shrimp in shape.Last but not least the site also said that most American refer to prawn as "shrimp".While Australian do seperately call "prawn and "shrimp" by their kind.Anyway if anyone do have more info on these kindly share with me ya?