British English V American English.

Pearl

Pearl

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Staff member
I came across this on Facebook, I thought you may find it as interesting has I did. 11021493_10153291436956840_1188640309401790849_o.jpg
 
Well I am not going to go thru all of these, but being
from New England I just gotta say that Autumn is what
we called it as well, as in Autumn Leaves, Autumn colors,
Autumnal equinox. Maybe we are not as different as some
would have us believe??
 
cciaffone said:
... being from New England I just gotta say that Autumn is what we called it as well, as in Autumn Leaves, Autumn colors, Autumnal equinox. Maybe we are not as different as some would have us believe??
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My experience of New England speech is that it's closer to British than the rest of the US is. Here in New York State, the term is Fall, except for the equinox. The same for everyone I know from Pennsylvania and from the upper mid-west. Which is it in the southeastern states?

Marianna
 
One thing that they missed is that the metal plate on the car in the UK is called the registration. In the US, it's called the license plate or tag. If you ask for the registration in the US, they'll hand you the pink slip usually kept in the glove compartment.
 
There seem to be so many differences associated with road transport:
Car (UK): Automobile (US)
Bonnet: Hood
Wing:Fender
In UK in fact, fender has no connection with vehicles but is either a fireplace implement or a boating bumper.
Pavement: Sidewalk
Road: Pavement
Accelerator: Throttle
 
Big Unc said:
There seem to be so many differences associated with road transport:
Car (UK): Automobile (US)
Road: Pavement
Accelerator: Throttle
Click to expand...

I must be getting lost here. I must be confusing left and right and
US and UK.

We also call an automobile a car. In fact we rarely if ever
call it an automobile!

We call them roads too, don't y'all???

And we do call it an accelerator (pedal) rather than a throttle.

I must be missing something.

chuck
 
Big Unc said:
There seem to be so many differences associated with road transport:
Car (UK): Automobile (US)
Bonnet: Hood
Wing:Fender
In UK in fact, fender has no connection with vehicles but is either a fireplace implement or a boating bumper.
Pavement: Sidewalk
Road: Pavement
Accelerator: Throttle
Click to expand...

I've never heard a car called anything except a car here in the States, although the industry that builds them is usually called the auto industry and the people who maintain and repair them are usually called auto mechanics. A road can be either paved, usually with blacktop, or it can be dirt, but it's still a road or a street, never a pavement. The term throttle isn't generally used in my region; it's 'the gas' unless I'm talking to a mechanic, then it's 'the accelerator'.

There's a term missing from the quoted list: boot (UK) = trunk (US)

Marianna
 
Hello Folks,

I have just a brief moment to pop in. Normally, I am on Spring Break right now and I would be able to catch Summer Wine, however, this year I am stuck taking an all day course from Monday through Friday. I expect to make a comeback this summer but until then I will be over my head in work.

Anyway Pearl, your page is in alphabetical order but stops at M. I wonder what would be on the second half.

Here is a good one relating to the Blamire years.

Redundant American word - unempolyed or underemployed

Here, redundant means the same thing repeatred over and over again.

If you all don't here from me soon, I will be back in the summer.

Codfanglers

Oh yes, and in Eastern Pennsylvania and the Washington DC region, autumn is as common as fall.
 
Sometimes first floors in the level of a building when you first walk in and "ground floor" is the (sometimes underground) level below.
 
Here are a few more words that, in my estimation, are not strictly British.

Drapes - Very formal curtains. Also a drape can be an artfully arranged piece of material often used for formal photography.

Film - Used in addition to movie.

Handbag - A very old fashioned term for purse. A purse can be any style. But a handbag is more like something the Queen carries.

Holiday - Not so much used as in "Are you going on a holiday?" but used as in "Is Martin Luther King's birthday celebrated as a holiday?"
 
Adanor said:
... Drapes - Very formal curtains. ... Film - Used in addition to movie.
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These days, most people use the term 'drapes', but it's a bastardization of 'draperies'. Regardless of the term used, you're right that they're formal window treatments, as contrasted with curtains, which you might hang in a kitchen or a child's room. Horror of horrors, 'drapes' has wormed its way into the language to the point that Merriam-Webster lists it as a synonym for draperies. But what do they know!? They list curtains as a synonym for draperies, too, and they're not at all the same thing.

To my mind, a movie is intended for entertainment; a film is quite a lot heavier, either in terms of art or of information.

Marianna
 
index4u said:
I've never heard a car called anything except a car here in the States, although the industry that builds them is usually called the auto industry and the people who maintain and repair them are usually called auto mechanics. A road can be either paved, usually with blacktop, or it can be dirt, but it's still a road or a street, never a pavement. The term throttle isn't generally used in my region; it's 'the gas' unless I'm talking to a mechanic, then it's 'the accelerator'.

There's a term missing from the quoted list: boot (UK) = trunk (US)

Marianna
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Come on guys. I thought I was the pedantic one!

I omitted the boot (UK) = trunk (US) one because that was on the original Pearl list.
Car (UK) = Automobile (US) - their use in such as car (UK) or auto (US) mechanic et al was precisely the context in which I included the difference. To us it is the car industry, not the auto-mobile (or auto) industry.
Pavement - yes the whole thing is a road (or whatever) but I was always given to understand that the bit between the two sidewalks on which traffic moves is the pavement. I always recall being amused by warning signs on I-80 stating something along the lines 'Beware, bridge freezes before pavement'.

Accelerator/Throttle - all I can say is I heard the term throttle used far more frequently in US than in UK. Someone mentioned 'gas' which leads me to another difference: Petrol (UK)/Gas (US).

Back to I-80, (for the uninitiated in UK, Interstate 80 which runs across the North of the US from around New York to San Francisco), UK has motorways whereas US has Interstates, Expressways, Turnpikes, or in the case of Long Island, New York, major highways from which heavy commercial vehicles are banned called Parkways.

Am I right in thinking that UK has dual carriageways where US has Divided Highways?

Turning to railways, is it still the case that UK has train or engine drivers where US has engineers?

And coming to a wee internal UK difference, I recall being puzzled when I first came to Scotland by the use of the term 'villa' for even the most humble dwelling.

A bit puzzled by references to:

Handbag - in UK that is appliance in which the distaff side carry all their accoutrements including their purse in which they put their money. There is no real male equivalent. There was a move to introduce male pouches but it came to nothing. About the nearest equivalent might be the sporran worn with highland dress.

Film - straight difference - UK Film = US Movie
Associated somewhat - UK Cinema = US Theatre but that might be dated.

Holiday - UK Holiday = US Vacation

Let's see what that stirs up.
 
I have found a few sports related word differences. I started following the English Premier League a few years ago and am finally getting the idea on certain word meanings:

Football (UK) / Soccer (US)
Pitch / Field
Fixtures / Schedule
Table / Standings
Floor / Ground (a player falls and is lying on the floor)
Results / Scores
Transfers / Trades
Grounds / Stadium

A few others:
waistcoat / vest
solicitor / lawyer, attorney
garden / yard
dustbin / garbage can
 
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Big Unc said:
Pavement - yes the whole thing is a road (or whatever) but I was always given to understand that the bit between the two sidewalks on which traffic moves is the pavement. I always recall being amused by warning signs on I-80 stating something along the lines 'Beware, bridge freezes before pavement'.
Click to expand...

Pavement is the hard surface that workers lay on top of some roadways, including the sections that form the roadway across bridges. The signs that I'm used to here in New York State say, 'Bridge freezes before road surface.' No mention of pavement.

Big Unc said:
Accelerator/Throttle - all I can say is I heard the term throttle used far more frequently in US than in UK.
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Where in the US were you? I've lived in south central upstate New York all of my life, and I've never heard throttle for accelerator, not even in the context of racing and other auto sports. There's another auto/car anomaly. Cars and their drivers compete in auto sports.

It's impossible to generalize about US vocabulary or accent. When I'm in my home territory, my very upstate New York vocabulary is spiced with bits of the Yiddish that surrounded me at college (BA in history) and at University (MLS — library science), as well as the ubiquitous Central and South American Spanish. One of my grad school friends grew up on eastern Long Island speaking Yiddish at home, English elsewhere, and then taught Spanish in Harlem.

When I travel downstate, I standardize my vocabulary to the point of blandness in order to avoid conspicuousness. When I've traveled in the southern states, it takes several days to begin understanding the accent, and the natives can't understand mine unless I slow down to a speed that feels uncomfortable. But I'm darned if I'll include multiple vowel sounds for nearly every vowel in nearly every word. Anyway, that might sound as though I was mocking the southern accent.

Big Unc said:
Am I right in thinking that UK has dual carriageways where US has Divided Highways?
Turning to railways, is it still the case that UK has train or engine drivers where US has engineers?
Click to expand...

Yes to both.

Big Unc said:
A bit puzzled by references to:

Handbag - in UK that is appliance in which the distaff side carry all their accoutrements including their purse in which they put their money. There is no real male equivalent. There was a move to introduce male pouches but it came to nothing. About the nearest equivalent might be the sporran worn with highland dress.
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Money is kept in a wallet and/or a change purse. They can be carried in one's pockets, purse, manbag or briefcase.

Big Unc said:
Associated somewhat - UK Cinema = US Theatre but that might be dated.
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Yes, it's dated, at least in this area. Movies are shown in a movie theater. Live performances take place in a theater (large performance space) or in an auditorium (not so large).

BTW — You don't have a lock on pedantry. I have to curb my tendency to academic correctness or I lose all contact with practicality and common sense.

Marianna
 
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Dennisbn514 said:
garden / yard
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Garden here usually has grass and flowers and stuff where as a yard is a concrete space at the back of a house where the garden should/would be if it was bigger with grass and flowers and stuff. Hope that helps.
 
British English V American English

Hello Marianna

In the UK Drapes were also coined as a name for the long vividly coloured velvet collared long jackets work by Teddy Boys in the fifties and by revivalists for the Rock n Roll movement who still exist in great numbers today . A more flippant response [apologies in advance] is that Drapes are those oval purple/green fruits used to produce wine as the word would be pronounced by someone leaving the Dentists before the Anaesthetic [UK]/ Novocaine [US] has worn off.
 
Pearl said:
Garden here usually has grass and flowers and stuff where as a yard is a concrete space at the back of a house where the garden should/would be if it was bigger with grass and flowers and stuff. Hope that helps.
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Just to add to the confusion, in towns the yard consists of the entire property minus the areas covered by buildings, driveway and uncovered parking areas. Within the yard, there's the front yard, called the door-yard in some parts of my region, which is for show so it's dressed up with very controlled-looking shrubs and/or flower borders, and there's the back yard which can contain vegetable and/or flower gardens dug out of the lawn. There also would be garbage and recycling cans, and there might be a children's play set, sand box, trampoline and/or paddling pool; for adult play, a swimming pool and a barbecue; for dog play, a fenced dog yard.

On farms, there's the yard around the house, with front and back functions the same is in town. The back yard usually segues into another yard near the farm buildings for utilitarian use such as parking machinery, distinct from the mucky barnyard still further from the house and contiguous with the barn, where the cows are let out in winter for fresh air while the farmer cleans the barn.

Marianna
 
In defense of Big Unc - The word Pavement may not be used in place of road or street, but it does refer to the street - not to the sidewalk, as it does in the UK.

I don't hear the word Throttle used much today, but I remember the word from my younger years. Maybe someone can help me out here, but it seems like there was a knob on the dash board panel that could be pulled to make the gasoline mixture richer or flow faster/slower or something. This all changed before I started driving in 1958 but I have vague memories of it in older cars.
 
me2 said:
I don't hear the word Throttle used much today, but I remember the word from my younger years. Maybe someone can help me out here, but it seems like there was a knob on the dash board panel that could be pulled to make the gasoline mixture richer or flow faster/slower or something. This all changed before I started driving in 1958 but I have vague memories of it in older cars.
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I knew that knob as the manual choke. My last car but one, purchased in 1980, had one. The next car, in 1989, was much more 'advanced'. The effect of pulling the choke out was accomplished by flooring the gas pedal and quickly releasing it. Doing the same sequence again had the same effect as pushing the choke in. My current car, a 1999 purchased in 2001, has a fuel injection system instead of a carburetor (so I'm told, not that I understand it), so I had to erase the habit of setting the choke.

Marianna
 
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