Americanisms and British...isms?

[El Poncho]

British fanny = vagina
American fanny = arse.

That one can lead to some horrible misunderstandings.

Yes, it made me think of fairly odd parents in a different way.

 

[Hobo Joe]

Americans: 'Soda'

British: 'Fizzy Drinks' though some regions in England say 'Pop' like Canadians.

 

[Woodsey]

Cookies = Biscuits
Apartment = Flat
Trunk = Boot
Hood = Bonnet
Faucet = Tap
Friends = Mates
Can = Tin
Make out = Snog

Actually "make out" is "get off", friends/mates are used interchangeably, and you drink from a can and keep food in a tin.

I must admit the chips = crisps thing throws me off a little, as well as the jam = jelly.

Also, the Z's instead of S's in American spellings really annoys me for some reason, as well as spelling colour "color".

 

[CoolieMcCool]

whoops *

 

[Camembert]

British = I couldn't care less (right context - you really could not care less)
American = I could care less (wrong context - you could care less, so you care to some degree)

This nonsense really pisses me off. I have never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER heard ANYONE say "I could care less."

People say it all the time. I don't think it's an American/British division, though - I think it's just that some people say it wrong, regardless of where they're from.

It's like the 'you've got another think coming' (correct)/'you've got another thing coming' (incorrect) debate, but let's not get into that.

Edit: Oh, and I'm British and when I was about 10 I used to go mad for those Point Horror books. The phrases 'work out' and 'make out' (words that strangely featured quite frequently in those books) used to really confuse me, and I thought they were interchangeable. Whenever someone started making out or working out I had to be careful not to assume they were doing one thing or the other because I usually turned out to be wrong.

I can grasp the difference now, however.

 

[Fraught]

Yeah they aren't called Walkers in the USA, they're called Lays.

I wonder where they ARE called Walkers, England excluded.
I live in middle Europe, and we also have Lays.

 

[Flutterbrave]

Yeah they aren't called Walkers in the USA, they're called Lays.

They're only called Walkers in the UK for some reason. Like Opel cars are Vauxhall. And German Shepherd dogs are Alsatians, though that comes from the anti-German policy of the World Wars, like our royal family going from Sax-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor.

The strange thing is, officially the company is called Walkers, not Laysand GM who make Vauxhall, call them Vauxhall and not Opel. Also, the dogs name was changed to Alsations because people were abandoning and killing them because they believed they were associated with Germans

I believe the original company was Walkers (British) which was then bought out by Lays (American). Kinda like Cadbury's and Kraft.

An american friend told me off a few days ago for spelling "realise" with an "s" instead of a "Z"

 

[Meggiepants]

I believe that Jelly is something different in America then it is here in the UK, I think what we know as Jelly they know as Gelatin, or something. Their Jelly is more like our Jam. I think...

Jelly is closer to a liquid, as it's a spread made from the extracted juices of the fruit, whereas jam is more solid, because it uses the fruit itself smashed up and spreadable. Or maybe that's just 'cause I'm a Canadian...

Nope, sounds about right to me. At least from my memory of what my Gran did when she made the different types.

Except for grape jelly. I think that comes from space.

Grape jelly is far too delicious to be made by mankind. I'm pretty sure they get it by drilling into the core of the moon, and siphoning it out.

Must be. Either that or it's made from space grapes. I've never seen grapes from earth that come in that exact purple color.

Either way, grape jelly is definately extra terrestrial.

 

[Lepre-Khan]

(US)Military (pronounced:Mill-A-Terry)=(UK)Military (Mill-A-Tree)

 

[Mr Snuffles]

Well if it works the way that it's the same word but with different meanings then ass means donkey in the UK and... ass in the US

 

[Lepre-Khan]

I was lying in my bed thinking "I really want some chips". Then I got thinking about how if I said that to American, they'd assume I meant these:

Spoiler: crisps!

Because they're known as chips in America, if I'm not mistaken?

& what I know as chips, are fries in America, I believe, though perhaps not quite the fries they're used to.

I can't think of any more examples of words like this though, and I'm quite curious to see how many different words there are that are used by Brits and taken to mean something else by Americans & vice-versa.

One of my friends from Canada has highlighted that you don't have to "skip across the pond" to find significant differences.

Case in point: In canada, to tweak means to annoy someone so much that the person wants to rip your head off.

Example: When those girls wouldn't shut up, it really tweaked me.

I think an American equivalent would be "torqued". And a universal equivalent would be pist off.

Still, I can't think of any examples right now, but I know everyday, conotative speech is VASTLY different. I've hung out with someone from Scotland once, and it was like I could make out everything they were saying, but almost every word was different than American.

I think in many ways American and English are like Spanish and Italian - when we speak to eachother we can understand one another, but the subtle differences in spelling, accent, expression, and structure/words means they're different languages.

Oh, fun fact: who has the most "pure form" of English: America or England?

The answer: America. The reason is because America's english is more strictly based off of older 1600-1700 english. It hasn't changed much accept for minor spelling changes and the addition of the letter J (or I, I don't remember). In England, during the early 1800's, there was a very strong movement to look "proper"; birthed from a desire to have a strong culture. Where did England get their cultural inspiration from? Why France of course! the English began dressing like the french, talking with a more french accent, and even spelling like the french. As an example, this is why America and England spell certain words like "color" (vs. colour) differently. America has what you might call the "Standard English" version, while England has the "Franco-English" version.

Interesting, huh?

Quite. And consiering the stereotype for Anglo-Franco relations, rather Ironic to.

 

[Jack and Calumon]

Soccer is called Football here in good old England, and football in America is basically Rugby over here, but with alot more padding, and you can actually pass forward.

Calumon: I like soccer, I'm really good at it ^^

 

[Camembert]

Oh, another one... in the US, lieutenant is pronounced 'lootenant', whereas in the UK the correct pronunciation is 'leftenant'.

 

[Camembert]

Great, double post.

I think in many ways American and English are like Spanish and Italian - when we speak to eachother we can understand one another, but the subtle differences in spelling, accent, expression, and structure/words means they're different languages.

While I'm at it, though, I might as well take the opportunity to say that I think a comparison like this is flawed. Spanish and Italian are two different languages (an Italian with no knowledge of Spanish would be unable to understand a conversation in Spanish), whereas American English and British/Canadian/Australian/whatever English are the same language, and easily mutually intelligible, with some very slight variations. The line between dialect and language can sometimes be very fine, but in this instance that is not the case.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

Oh, another one... in the US, lieutenant is pronounced 'lootenant', whereas in the UK the correct pronunciation is 'leftenant'.

This one really bugs me. Where the hell did we get the "lef" from? Lieu is pronounced "loo", not "lef"!

Having no experience with the American military and if they regularly use the term "Sarge", I'm not sure if this one counts. But we don't use the word "Sarge", it's the full Sergeant. I believe the phrase goes "There are only three types of sarge; sau-sarge, mas-sarge, and pa-sarge. Now, if you call me sarge again, I'll mas-sarge my sau-sarge in your rear pa-sarge!"

 

[Flames66]

I know that what we call a cigarette you would call a term I can not type because it is considered a slur.

Edit: Imagine my surprise when I was asked if I wanted one while stationed overseas.

Yep. Someone I know went to America some time ago and had a bit of a shock when she asked someone in a bar where she could "roll a fag".