American English - British English

[jammy 0]

hi Everyone!

Just wondered how many words there are on either side of the atlantic that are pronounced or spelt differently, maybe a completely seperate word for the same objects????

I'll start off with a well known one...

Tap in British English   =      Forcet in American English

Thanks!

PS:       Sorry it's like soooooo random!!

LOL 

[Meg 368]

I know a few:

British English       American English
     trainers                       athletic shoes
     flannel                        washcloth
     carpark                       parking garage
     costume                     bathing suit
     plaster                        band-aid

several terms relating to cars:
      bonnet                       hood
      boot                            truck

I would add the term for "cup holder" but they don't seem to have them in cars over there

and I would say "sweet" and "candy" but all candy isn't sweet.  Although they seem to be over there.  My British friends were most surprised when I sent them Atomic Fireballs and Warheads.

[jammy 0]

thanks for the reply, in the UK we only say parking garage if the car park is undercover or multi storey car park!

PS:  I acctually say Swim Suit rather than 'Costume'

[M-SIL 2]

PS:       Sorry it's like soooooo random!!quote>

I like random threads, there sometimes the best ones. Anyway, I only know few words, terms or whatever that are spelt differently. Here is some I know:

American English                                    British English

Hood                                                                 Bonnet                   

Trunk                                                                 Boot 

Sedan                                                               Saloon

Highway                                                           Carriageway

Fish and French Fries                                   Fish and Chips

[jammy 0]

Thanks again!

I think Freeway in American English is Motorway In British English aswell

[Meg 368]

Oh!  In British English "jelly" is what Americans call "jello".  They tried to tell me that what we call "jelly", they call "jam".  I tried to explain that, over here, "jelly" and "jam" are actually two different things. ( very similar but different).   So I sent over some samples, those small packages you get in restaurants.  

That led to one of my friends making the comment that we have "strange flavours like grape".  I tried to explain that the average American child consumes a couple of gallons of grape jelly and jam before the age of 10.  It took a bit of doing to convince them it is as common as it is.

[Barbarossa 51]

How about:

American: truck, maybe rig

British: lorry

American: John

British: Lou

Of course, there are a lot of spelling differences, too. color vs colour, privatize vs privatise. I am not sure if you are including those.

Barbarossa

[hym 358]

Here's a few I've heard of:

British               American               Meaning

carburettor       carburetor              the car part

moustache      mustache              the facial hair

mum                 mom                       your mother

speciality         specialty                 an area of focus

annexe             annex                      (they both spell the verb form "annex" but "annexe" is used when referring to part of a building)

cheque             check                      bank check or paycheck

kerb                  curb                         the part on the road that acts as a retainer

sulphur            sulfur                       the compound

[SpecialEddie 3]

I have a question, that I think might be pretty interesting. People learn English all over the world (South America, Europe, Asia, Africa...), but what "English" are they actually learning? Americanish or British...ish?

[Goldfish4209 9]

I think Brits and Americans pronounce aluminium differently?

[hym 358]

Originally posted by: Goldfish4209 I think Brits and Americans pronounce aluminium differently?quote>

We do.  The Americanized version is "aluminum."

[Barbarossa 51]

I have a question, that I think might be pretty interesting. People learn English all over the world (South America, Europe, Asia, Africa...), but what "English" are they actually learning? Americanish or British...ish?quote>

It is usually English English, not American English. Especially in Europe and Asia. Latina and South America is likely American English.

Barbarossa

[Meg 368]

Originally posted by: hym

Originally posted by: Goldfish4209 I think Brits and Americans pronounce aluminium differently?quote>

We do.  The Americanized version is "aluminum."quote>

 

Americans say ah-lu-min-num

Brits say ah-lu-min-e-um

[coultharda 135]

We say football, you say soccer!

For your football we'll call it American Football.

Also on sports, while you generally call Ice Hockey, just hockey I think, we call it Ice Hockey as hockey here generally means field hockey.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: Barbarossa

I have a question, that I think might be pretty interesting. People learn English all over the world (South America, Europe, Asia, Africa...), but what "English" are they actually learning? Americanish or British...ish?quote>

It is usually English English, not American English. Especially in Europe and Asia. Latina and South America is likely American English.

Barbarossaquote>

Well, since terms like "lory" and "loo" are slang anyway, it's doubtful they'd teach you those... but as for the spelling, it can provide an interesting conundrum. The american spellings are usually simpler and more phonetically correct, making them easier to learn... but since in Europe one is more likely to need english for the UK than the US, the british spellings are useful to know... frankly I think the best solution is to teach both, specifically saying, "this is how the british spell it and this is how the americans spell it".

Most of the spelling differences between US and UK are a result of Ben Franklin deciding we should be spelling those words in a way that made more sense... also as part of giving america it's own seperate identity compared to britain. Differences in terminology and pronunciation stem from the fact that after the american revolution, US english and US english stopped being one in the same, not only because of Franklin's spelling changes but because the two had effectively been seperated from each other and left to develop on their own, each independent of the other's influence. The result is that 225 years later you effectively have two separate "dialects" of the language.

Now, if you want to be more pciky, you could easily split american english into several dialects of it's own. Ebonics, Redneck, Valley Girl, Texan, Midwestern, and New Englander all sound rather different. However, all of these "dialects" differ only in their use (and abuse) of slang and of accents. They all root to the same "grammatically correct" american english. Comparing "for sure" and "fo sho" is comparing proper english to slang. One is "correct", the other isn't.  Whereas comparing "color" to "colour", "mail" to "post", etc. is comparing to alternate "correct" forms, which one is correct depending on where you are.

...the trouble that arises with the internet, though, is that a website can't really be described as being in a real world place... which means you end up with people from both sides using their own "correct" spellings and usages in their posting, each at times pissing the other off because of it. I swear, when I see someone write "foetus" or "paedophile", I want to reach through the internet and strangle the person who typed it. And I imagine similar feelings exist at times for british people and certain american spellings and usages. But those differences aren't just going to disappear, so ultimately, we deal....

[Voar Tok 4]

I think England is the only place where saying that a person has a lot of pounds can mean that they are rich instead of fat.

[beebs 129]

Lieutenant is pronounced "Leftenant" in Britain.. I probably can think up a bunch of others too if I sat long enough.

[Micah 16]

I like British English more than American English. Anyone notice that in most American movies that the genius masterminds usually have British accents?

Anyway, this may sound completely stupid, but it's interesting to hear British meterologists. They make the weather sound so lively. It's hard to explain, but they certainly talk about the weather differently in England than America.

[belfastuniguy 18]

I could type loads, but I need to go to work in a few mins so here's a random one.

Buoy spelt the same but from what I know the British pronounce it **boy** and the Americans **boo ee* Is that wrong ??

[Constantina 5]

tomato is pronounced differently.

[A Nonny Moose 8,263]

18 wheeler (US) = pantechnicon (UK) I believe.  Not sure about spelling.

The English taught in most schools, except in the exited states is generally British English.  However, there are lots of local dialects.  In Canadian English, the interrogative particle eh? is often used to convert a statement into a question.  That's not cricket, eh?

A famous phrase in Newfoundlander English "Tell me where he's at and I'll go where he's to."

Then there's Iran "Yankee sailuh you die!"  Learned from somewhere further East.

[Eastwinn 6]

British English is so different from American English that I no longer refer to American English as English but as American. The best part about "American" is that you can take any form of speech and turn it into another form of speech. Like the noun bat used as a verb, bat. Instead of "typing" you could say "keyboarding" and it would still be valid "American".

N_O_Body: Isn't "right?" in American just like "eh?" in Canadian English? That's not cricket, right? In spanish,

[GingerBlokey 30]

Elevator -- lift

Toilet, Loo, Bog -- bathroom

Green, Garden -- Park

University -- College

Yob, Chav, Hooligan -- misbehaving youth

Zebra Crossing -- crosswalk

Quid - £1

Stash - large ammount of money

Rekke - go to look at something

Rat-Arsed, Pi**ed, Slashed, Slaughtered, Manic -- Very Drunk

Lolly - Popicle/Money

Lark - Fun

Eff & Blind -- Swear

Beeb, Aunite Beeb -- BBC

Cul De Sac - Dead End road

Year - School Grade

Dog End - Cigarette Butt

Hen/Stag Parties - Pre-Wedding Parties

Nosh, Grub - Food

On your Jack/Billy - By yourself

just  a few to keep you going

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: GingerBlokey

Cul De Sac - Dead End road

quote>

Actually, a cul de sac and a dead end are not the same thing. A cul de sac is when the road ends in one of those little loops (called a cul de sac) where you turn around. A dead end is where the road ends in absence of a cul de sac, it just comes to an end, square-like.

More trivia: "cul de sac" is French for "ass of the bag".

[GingerBlokey 30]

Equally a Cul-De-Sac is a road which goes round in a circle and comes out further along the road

________

/ _______\

like so

[SpecialEddie 3]

Originally posted by: Duke87 More trivia: "cul de sac" is French for "ass of the bag".quote>

 

I've always found that a cul-de-sac resembles a...well, you know.

[Duke87 1,070]

Originally posted by: GingerBlokey Equally a Cul-De-Sac is a road which goes round in a circle and comes out further along the road

________

/ _______\

like soquote>

Not in American English, it isn't. We don't have a specific word used to describe such streets... though they sometimes may be suffixed "Loop" or "Circle".... many short cul de sac streets are suffixed "Circle", too...

In case you don't understand, when I say "suffixed" I'm referring to normal street name endings. In English (American anyway), the name of a street usually ends in "Street", "Road", "Avenue", "Drive", "Lane", "Place", or "Way"... the suffixes "Highway", "Boulevard", "Parkway", "Turnpike", and, in some parts of the country, "Pike", usually refer to longer, more major roads only. "Circle" and "Loop" get the aforementioned usage, and the suffixes "Expressway" and "Freeway" are generally only used for limited access highways... what you'd call a "Motorway" in British usage.

"Circle" can also be used for traffic circles, rotaries, or roundabouts. "Square" gets applied to major intersections, and "Plaza" sees various urban usages.

These cover at least 99% of all cases, though sometimes no suffix is present  ("Broadway", or "Bowery"), and sometimes a more obscure suffix is used. There's a short street in Stamford, CT called "Pilgrim Walk". And the rotary in Parkchester (NYC), being ellipsoid rather than circular, is called "Metropolitan Oval".... those are the only to examples of alternate suffixes that come to mind at the moment, though I could find more if I wanted....

[The boy formerly known as Evil Muzz 27]

I think a lot of British spellings can also be localised within the UK, but that might also be because of completely different words. For example, "chav" is a slang word in most of the UK to describe a delinquent, but in Scotland they are called a "ned" (derived from the ungrammatically correct "non-educated delinquent").

Another few:

An on-ramp/off-ramp or exit is a junction in Britain.

Loafers are usually just reffered to as "slip-ons" in Britain.

Anesthesia is anaesthesia (I think...).

[confused04 14]

Having studied abroad in England for the past 5 months, I am well aware of the differences between American and British English. I stand out quite easily from the crowd the instant I open my mouth around here, gets me noticed. I have heard all the differences all ready and I've been so absorbed in the culture, its hard to even remember all the differences as its beginning to blur.

Words that are pronounced differently...

leisure (long e sound in AE, short in BE)

fillet (AE pronounced same as french, BE phonetical pronunciation)

Idiomatic phrases that just don't match.

I pulled her in the club last night.

AE Meaning. You physically took her by the hand and pulled her a measurable distance.

BE Meaning. Hooked up with her (not sure if the word Hooked up is used here)

Are you all right?

British tend to use this as another way to say "How's it going." where Americans would normally give you funny look and say... "Ya,... I'm... fine..."

Ta....

Thank you in British (generally more Yorkshire and Northern).

I'll add when I think of more, but I'm having a tough time remembering.

[Meg 368]

Another one is the word "corn".

In American English, corn is grown on a the cob and looks like this.  

One of British friends was over here and wanted to see a cornfield.  No problem, I said, since we were going to the beach and there are plenty of cornfields between here and the ocean.  She was quite disappointed in them.  

Turns out she wanted to see a wheat field.  Wheat is totally different and looks like this.  She wanted to see the "amber waves of grain".    I had to tell her that we don't have those in this part of the country.  Wheat grows quite well out on the plains, not on the east coast.