English words and their American equivalents.

[Mark One]

You say tomato, I...erm...say the other one  

From Anticlockwise/Counterclockwise to Zebra crossing/Pedestrian crossing here are 100 words that we all use.

http://whenonearth.net/100-frequently-used-british-english-words-american-equivalents/

[Mark One]

We also call number 22; sausages as well and in some regions - doppelgängers.

[bubblykiss]

9. Maths: Math    ..............I had always assumed math was a mass noun and could not be inflected, until I started reading British NPs

11. Pants: Underwear   ............... The Japanese word Pantsu means undies as well

16. Loo/Bog: Toilet   ................a bog.....really?

28. Nappy: Diaper    ..........'merican miniature wargaming nerds (guys who paint and play with toy soldiers) often call Napoleonic troops Nappies

42. Taxi: Cab           ......................not so true in Phoenix they are almost always called Taxi Cabs 

54. Dustbin: Garbage can  .................I first read dustbin around 20 years back and thought, how dusty can an Island covered in rain, bogs and fog really be?

73. Hooker: Middle front in the sport rugby  ...................... not sure how many people know anything about rugby here...............

97. Zebra crossing: Pedestrian crossing    ..............it's a damned cross walk, nobody uses pedestrian unless they are attempting to sound ultra cultured

 

 

here are some more

lager; porter; ale; mead, stout, bitter: Beer

Steak and Kidney Pie : Food poisoning

 

[Mark One]

Loo/bog - toilet - bog as in the smell.

Dustbin - back in the old days we had a man with a dust cart that collected rubbish.

...

burger/beef burger = hamburger

Im also pretty sure that slang for a cigarette over here - fag - isnt a nice word over on your side of the pond.

 

 

[bubblykiss]

No the first time I read "I need to go burn a fag" I was a little more than tremendously shocked.....it is a word that is really avoided and just absolutely vile over here

And burgers are mostly just burger here as well. I found a recipe for Japanese Hamburger Steaks (with mushroom gravy and a fried egg on top), it was then that I even noticed they could be called Hamburgers

as for toilets, I mostly say head (as in hit the head), but they are always housed in the Bathroom or Restroom, it never sounded odd to me to here somebody ask where the bathroom is in a restaurant, even though there never was a tube in it

And I thought Water Closets were the tiny rooms that housed the water heater....true story...I thought that the UK was so cold that you guys were always checking up on or were adjusting your water heaters

Burritos tend to be called Burros all over AZ (a Mexican word for donkeys) seeing people who speak Spanish hear it for the first time is always fun, "2 bean burros", pale faces everywhere

 

Here are some American words/phares that I wonder if they exist in the UK

Flurry (snow flurry..a rapid appearance of a lot of snow)

catty/caddy corner (across from at an angle)

chesterdroors/dresser (a chest of doors)

buck wild (crazy/angry)

coon's age (a very long time, a smart racoon lives a Very Long Time, because it was switch trees when being hunted, leading dogs to "bark up the wrong tree")

bury the hatchet (make peace)

on the rag (very vulgar for a woman's "cycle")

rag on (hen peck somebody constantly)

a ten (coffee break lasting 10 to 15 minutes)

butte (pronounced beeyout) a lonely rock structure that seems to be sticking out all by itself

mesa (Spanish for table) a flat mountain top

top you off (fill up a coffee cup/mug just a bit more leaving room for cream and sugar though) 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2016 by bubblykiss

[LV-426]

54 minutes ago, bubblykiss said:

9. Maths: Math    ..............I had always assumed math was a mass noun and could not be inflected, until I started reading British NPs

11. Pants: Underwear   ............... The Japanese word Pantsu means undies as well

16. Loo/Bog: Toilet   ................a bog.....really?

28. Nappy: Diaper    ..........'merican miniature wargaming nerds (guys who paint and play with toy soldiers) often call Napoleonic troops Nappies

42. Taxi: Cab           ......................not so true in Phoenix they are almost always called Taxi Cabs 

54. Dustbin: Garbage can  .................I first read dustbin around 20 years back and thought, how dusty can an Island covered in rain, bogs and fog really be?

73. Hooker: Middle front in the sport rugby  ...................... not sure how many people know anything about rugby here...............

97. Zebra crossing: Pedestrian crossing    ..............it's a damned cross walk, nobody uses pedestrian unless they are attempting to sound ultra cultured

 

Just to give a bit more context for some of these, as to how commonly they are used in Britain...

Maths - common. The only time I hear math is in phrases such as "do the math." I never did understand the American shortening, as it's an abbreviation of mathematics, not mathematic

Pants - fairly common, though it's used as a shortening of underpants. Pants more often than not refers to trousers.

Loo/Bog - common/uncommon. Both informal. I'd say most people use toilet. Loo is common and probably considered "polite." Bog is less commonly used slang, and you're more likely to hear it in a 'Carry On' film than regular conversation

Nappy - common. I guess diaper is seeing more use over here these days, but it's mainly as we get so much American film and TV over here.

Taxi - 50/50 with cab. Interchangeable in Britain I'd say.

Dustbin - common. Rubbish bin is also pretty common, garbage can less so, though as above 'Americanisms' have been sneaking in with culture... sneakily!

Hooker... Hey, you guys gave us T.J. Hooker! What's with that!? You don't see us exporting shows named J.R. Prostitute now do you!

Zebra crossing - common-ish. Pedestrian crossing is also common over here though, but most people just say crossing. I've never heard cross walk used over here.

 

A couple of other interesting ones...

Homely - Seems to be used in the U.S. to mean plain or unattractive. In the U.K. it means sort of "warm" and "domestic."

Wash up - In Britain it usually means "wash the dishes", e.g. after a meal. In the U.S. I believe it relates more to personal grooming.

Could make for an interesting scenario, if a British guy visits his American friend and describes his wife as homely, then offers to help her wash up

[bubblykiss]

13 minutes ago, LV-426 said:

 

Just to give a bit more context for some of these, as to how commonly they are used in Britain...

Maths - common. The only time I hear math is in phrases such as "do the math." I never did understand the American shortening, as it's an abbreviation of mathematics, not mathematic

Pants - fairly common, though it's used as a shortening of underpants. Pants more often than not refers to trousers.

Loo/Bog - common/uncommon. Both informal. I'd say most people use toilet. Loo is common and probably considered "polite." Bog is less commonly used slang, and you're more likely to hear it in a 'Carry On' film than regular conversation

Nappy - common. I guess diaper is seeing more use over here these days, but it's mainly as we get so much American film and TV over here.

Taxi - 50/50 with cab. Interchangeable in Britain I'd say.

Dustbin - common. Rubbish bin is also pretty common, garbage can less so, though as above 'Americanisms' have been sneaking in with culture... sneakily!

Hooker... Hey, you guys gave us T.J. Hooker! What's with that!? You don't see us exporting shows named J.R. Prostitute now do you!

Zebra crossing - common-ish. Pedestrian crossing is also common over here though, but most people just say crossing. I've never heard cross walk used over here.

 

A couple of other interesting ones...

Homely - Seems to be used in the U.S. to mean plain or unattractive. In the U.K. it means sort of "warm" and "domestic."

Wash up - In Britain it usually means "wash the dishes", e.g. after a meal. In the U.S. I believe it relates more to personal grooming.

Could make for an interesting scenario, if a British guy visits his American friend and describes his wife as homely, then offers to help her wash up

Now that is a prefect harvest of information with a whole lotta insights sown into it

We do mathematics here as well, but never maths, however you can always have a singular solution which is a "mathematical" answer or "it is all  mathematics"....

trousers implies "work pants" i.e. not denim black/blue/khaki colored pants and/or slacks

and denim is just "jeans" or "Levis".........always plural and never slacks or trousers but they are also pants as in "going to buy a pair of pants" which is always one set of jeans

Hooker has a very clear meaning in 'merican,  referring to Hooker's Brigade in the ACW and the ladies who were always around that unit......while "tranny" is often used colloquially to refer to a transmission  in a car it can also be (EXTREMELY VULGARLY AND NEVER TO BE SAID, EVER UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES!!!!!!) about a person transitioning to another gender

Wash up does imply cleaning one's self whereas "doing the dishes" is just that, you gotta do them, every day otherwise, well, we all know what happens if you don't

you hit homely on the head, but is always said in the absence of the person. It is like hearing "she has a great personality" means the same thing.

Whereas women will sometimes tell a girlfriend that they "should date black guys" to inform her that she is overweight (not trying to be racist, this is actual, honest American English)

Full Stop implies coming up to a stop sign and sitting there for 3s (as mandated by several state's laws while checking to see if any cops are around to ticket you) where as a "California stop" is hitting the breaks for less than a second to make sure nobody is going to T-bone you as you speed through the intersection

 

But here is my favorite easy to be p***'d off British term "knock you up" as in "phone you with a wake up call" ...... knock you up means not just to boink a lady, but to actually impregnate her

[Skulduggery]

I use a lot of chiefly British words because I find them awesome to say. Although, I'm not British. In fact, this is a new phenomenon with me and I don't know how it started. Sometimes, I'll intentionally use both American and International English spelling variants of words in the same paragraph or sentence.

 

My fave would have to be saying lorry or articulated lorry as opposed to truck/tractor-trailor/semi, etc. It sounds soooo.. Stewie Griffin-y or something.

 

Plus I have a lot of friends in the United Kingdom and other parts of Europe so I think it rubs off on me more than it should. Pure hilarity.

[Luca-RoseElsie-Raemom1921]

A lot of the English words are used in Australia to, but that's likely due to us being "founded" by England. A pickup truck = ute. Toilet = loo, dunny (rarely used). Bogan= redneck. Subway/tube= train station (most of ours are above ground). French fries= chips unless from Mac Donald's then they're fries. Crisps=chips. Burger King= Hungry Jacks aka HJ's. Mac Donald's=Maccas. flip flop =Thongs (US thong is a g string). Sweatpants=trackie pants (aka trackie dacks). Walmart like store= Big W (but our Target, Kmart and Big W don't sell proper food only chips, lollies and soft drinks). Lollies=sweets/candy. Mince= ground meat. Snag=sausage. There's many more

[Space Commander Travis]

12 hours ago, LV-426 said:

 

Could make for an interesting scenario, if a British guy visits his American friend and describes his wife as homely, then offers to help her wash up

My favo(u)rite, on this note of potential misunderstanding, is the word "f*nny" (and it's not 'funny'). In the US it usually refers to a posterior or as it's commonly called, butt, but in the UK it means something, er, in the neighbo(u)rhood but different, at any rate when referring to a Lady. Bill Bryson came up with a great anecdote about that; he was discussing Ladies they knew with a bunch of his English mates (U.S.. "buddies"), and mentioned about someone "She has a great f*nny". You could, he said, have heard a pin drop. 

Edited June 5, 2016 by Otto von Pickelhaube

[HandsomeGorilla]

17 hours ago, Otto von Pickelhaube said:

My favo(u)rite, on this note of potential misunderstanding, is the word "f*nny" (and it's not 'funny'). In the US it usually refers to a posterior or as it's commonly called, butt, but in the UK it means something, er, in the neighbo(u)rhood but different, at any rate when referring to a Lady. Bill Bryson came up with a great anecdote about that; he was discussing Ladies they knew with a bunch of his English mates (U.S.. "buddies"), and mentioned about someone "She has a great f*nny". You could, he said, have heard a pin drop. 

And we've yet another version  of that here in the states. 

The phrase, "get some *three letter word for posterior*" really means that there thing in the front.

Another four letter word starting with "C" seemed to be a Brit only thing up until several years ago. Used to be that you'd get slapped by a woman for saying it; now it's just any everyday euphemism. 

[Michelle]

47 minutes ago, Not Your Huckleberry said:

Another four letter word starting with "C" seemed to be a Brit only thing up until several years ago. Used to be that you'd get slapped by a woman for saying it; now it's just any everyday euphemism.

Not in my neck of the woods. Almost every lady I know will reject you as quickly as they would anyone using the "N" word. Anyone who uses either of those terms has no class.

[HandsomeGorilla]

19 hours ago, Otto von Pickelhaube said:

Delete, please. It seems to give me right to post under someone else's name?!

Edited June 6, 2016 by Not Your Huckleberry
read!

[Space Commander Travis]

4 hours ago, Not Your Huckleberry said:

Delete, please. It seems to give me right to post under someone else's name?!

Ah, you've got stuck in the Unremoveable Quote Box Loop. You need to CTRL - right-click with the cursor in the quote box and then se;ect "remove Quote". Yes it is very intuitive and user-friendly. 

[Podo]

Most of the British sayings are used in Canada, as well. Though I was not aware that americans had another name for a tap.

[Mark One]

I think that Im correct in saying that cattle are often referred to as `steer` in the US?

Should I also mention cockney rhyming slang as well?  I doubt guys in the US would understand what mince-pies or boat race means (eyes & face)

[Podo]

Another difference I've encountered is that americans call pencil crayons "coloured pencils." This one may be a Canadian thing, though, since I'm not sure what the British call pencil crayons.

[LV-426]

38 minutes ago, Podo said:

Another difference I've encountered is that americans call pencil crayons "coloured pencils." This one may be a Canadian thing, though, since I'm not sure what the British call pencil crayons.

 

Coloured Pencils - with the 'u' in coloured of course - for these guys:

 

And Coloured Crayons or just Crayons for these guys:

Edited June 9, 2016 by LV-426

[Michelle]

1 hour ago, Mark One said:

I think that Im correct in saying that cattle are often referred to as `steer` in the US?

Not as far as I know and I'm in cattle country. It may be something yankees say.

[Podo]

11 minutes ago, LV-426 said:

 

Coloured Pencils - with the 'u' in coloured of course - for these guys:

 

And Coloured Crayons or just Crayons for these guys:

Savages!

The top image would be called Pencil Crayons, while the second one would be called Wax Crayons or just Crayons.

[rashore]

31 minutes ago, Michelle said:

Not as far as I know and I'm in cattle country. It may be something yankees say.

Lol, that is a north vs south thing.. Or maybe more usage thing. Dairy cows up north and kind of west are cows. Eating cows down south and west are cattle. 

To my dairy area origins... Steer are males that have been castrated, in the practice of raising cattle. Dairy cow herds don't have steer. However, many dairy cow areas have folks that raise a steer or few to slaughter in the fall to stock up a freezer. Like a person would raise a calf steer to kill off at the end of a year. 

And off cow herds is a lot of veal. Those boys are culled out young and killed off before castration is even a thing a lot in dairy areas. 

[bubblykiss]

8 hours ago, Mark One said:

I think that Im correct in saying that cattle are often referred to as `steer` in the US?

Should I also mention cockney rhyming slang as well?  I doubt guys in the US would understand what mince-pies or boat race means (eyes & face)

Steer is cowboy slang, mostly cows are cows, except when cooked then they are beef, head or side of beef can both living or dead in my eyes. A herd of cattle can be made of cows or beefs though. But I have never had roasted cattle for Sunday's meal

And beef is seen as the stereotypical meat among 'mericans, but I eat a lot more pork and a bit of chicken...but I live in a boarder state that has a lot of Tex-Mex food (the stuff that most Americans think of as Real Mexican Food, but is really a hybrid designed to appeal to the people of both nations).

[Mark One]

Cob / sandwich / bread cake / butty / bread / loaf

Gray / Grey

Aluminium / (pronounced) alume-minom

SEGA Megadrive  / SEGA Genesis

Car / Auto-mobile

running shoes / trainers / pumps / sneakers

 

 

 

[bubblykiss]

6 hours ago, Mark One said:

Cob / sandwich / bread cake / butty / bread / loaf

Gray / Grey

Aluminium / (pronounced) alume-minom

SEGA Megadrive  / SEGA Genesis

Car / Auto-mobile

running shoes / trainers / pumps / sneakers

 

 

 

 

A sandwich  is just a sandwich.

But a sub(marine) is a sub, hoagie, foot-long, blimp, grinder or po' boy (shrimp....which are small prawns, but prawns are usually associated with East Asian foods....crawdads or crayfish, lettuce and mayonnaise on a loaf of french bread). Now I have eaten dozens of po'boys made with any combination of shrimp, fish, crawdads but I have never had a Prawn Sandwich which I assume is made from fried jumbo shrimp and something else, no idea what, just something else.

And mayonnaise is almost always mayo or Miracle Whip.....they are often used interchangeably although they are Very Different things

Coffee is a cup of Joe, Java, brew or life's blood (to me at least)

Shoes are associated with Nikes (which are all sports shoes unless the person is a real ass pointing out that they are Pumas or something else) or Converse but most often they are just Sneakers.........no idea what pumps or trainers are, know the words, no context for what type of shoes

Slippers and flip-flops are different....well not really, unless they are worn at night, then they are always slippers.

And here is where we get into the really strange stuff...........taco sauce is hot sauce, but never called hot sauce around Mexicans (no idea why, it just is not), Tabasco is vinegar'd hot sauce and all vinegary hot sauces can be called Tabasco or just hot sauce to make them stand out from taco sauce.........and the Pima Indians run several Fry Bread shops and have some of the best taco sauce I have ever tasted, but it is only call hot sauce (my theoretical recipe for it is Tomato, red chilies, sugar and salt).

Now then Chilies can be green (fresh, frozen or canned) but green chili can only be a can, frozen or a dish made from them but never fresh. Whereas white chili is green chili just made in the south east of 'merica. And red chilies and red pepper powder is/are dried peppers (anyone of a few dozen varieties) but red peppers typically refers to flaked pepper with the seeds still in it, but also the whole dried chilies as well. It is very common to ask for " red peppers" with a pizza and nobody will hand you a string of dried peppers accompanied by a smile.

See, it is all very logical and easy to follow, it is "easy as pie" or just a "cake walk" but never "easy as cake" because cake is hard to make but easy to eat.

And remember, if you make a mistake and get embarrassed, well then, "you already put mayonnaise on the steak" so just plow forward as if you know what you are doing.

Edited June 10, 2016 by bubblykiss

[Zalmoxis]

UK: chips
US: french fries
Actually, I'm from a western coastal town in the US and we call them chips.

Edited June 30, 2016 by Zalmoxis
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