Do words have different meanings for Americans than....

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Some USA vs UK languagisms that I know of:

USA -- UK
'Sidewalk' -- 'Pavement'
(Big-rig highway truck), 'semi', '18 wheeler', etc -- 'Lorry'
(roadway on each side of a highway median) -- 'Carriageway'
'Freeway' -- 'Motorway'
'Soccer' -- 'Football'
(Sports playing field) -- 'Pitch'
(Line of people whom are waiting for something) -- 'Queue'
'Apartment' -- 'Flat'
'Engineer' (railroad locomotive) -- 'Driver'

Mike

Roadway on each side of a highway median = Parkway

Queue is used in the USA but normally in the technological sense.

Always loved the Semi - Lorry one hehe

Virginia is a fun place for accents. I have to hide my drawl in Northern Virginia Y'all git what I'm sayin' now?

Miss Marple says she's "just a gay old p****." I forget which one of Agatha Christie's books that's in - I think it's more than one.

I don't know whether these have been posted already.

New Zealand language is on the right.

Sidewalk - footpath
cigarette - fag
fanny - bum
p**** - fanny
drunk - Pissed
pissed - pissed off
patio - porch
diaper - nappy
car trunk - boot
car hood - bonnet
sweat pants - track pants
rain boots - gumboots

Wisguy,

Pavement is ALSO used in the US to indicate a cement floor for walking or driving.

I thought Lorry simply meant TRUCK.

Motorway may also be used in the US.

Wasn't Flat adopted into US english?

Hale,

Porch IS used in the US also! I think a porch is always in the front at the front door, and relatively small. A patio could be anywhere else, and larger.

And I already mentioned what a napkin is in the US.

Steve

Australian English is DEFINITELY closer to UK than American dialect. I was born and raised in Australia (Now living in New Zealand) and my mum always told me NOT to speak like Americans.

Another is that Americans "root for" a team, but here, to root is to have sex.

Also, pants are underwear. (Pants go under your trousers)

There is a distinct Australian dialect but hardly anyone uses it anymore, because it sounds stupid. (But I would still not speak American.)

In New Zealand, a shag is a cormorant.

Also: (NZ) Jandals = Flip flops, thongs or very thin sandals.
Stubbies = Extremely tight shorts.

Also, I have NEVER heard an Australian say, "Throw another shrimp on the barbie." -- Shrimp are too small!

A LOT o things are too small, but they have foil, etc.....

What I mean about australian was that they have added slang and aborigine words.
If I am wrong, sorry. My basic point was the differences aren't as big as some "dictionaries" indicate. By THEIR standards, you might as well have a british british dictionary, etc.... And some just look WRONG! There is okie and creole here, for example, that were created here, but not "American" per say. creole was created almost like yiddish, but you wouldn't call yiddish hebrew.

Steve

"Sweater" is a fluffy, warm top for cold weather in the US. I don't know what' it's called in the UK. We also tend to call all sports shoes either "gym shoes" or "tennis shoes." In my region of the US, we call soda "pop." There is fighting within the US as to what to call drinks such as Pepsi. Some call it "soda."

When I visited the south, I couldn't understand anyone from the far south. I can always tell a New Yorker or Bostonian. I'm always puzzled when people from there tell me I have an accent--it's THEM, not me

The first time I watched "About a Boy" (a movie I loved), I had to turn up the sound to try to understand the words. And when the Hugh Grant character said "I'll shag her when she's eighteen," I wondered what that meant. To me, I thought of him dragging her all over the place. I eventually figured out what that meant

Piss in the US can also mean something you do in the bathroom, in slang term.

Where I am, there's no set term for athletic shoes. What we call tennis shoes are another word for sneakers, but that doesn't encompass things like cleats.


Some people here in the South where I'm currently living call all soft drinks "Coke." I don't get this. I've always called it soda, which is a habit I picked up when I lived in Virginia.


This can either be "to piss" or "to take a piss." "Whiz" may be substituted for "piss" in polite conversation. In either case the latter form is generally the preferred one, at least where I am.

The usual name in the UK for a wool top like that would be a 'jumper'. Although you might hear 'sweater' used sometimes too - certainly everyone would know what it meant. Sports shoes in general would be 'trainers' (as in short for 'training shoes').

I believe the "Coke" in part of the south is because Coke orginated in Georgia, and they do call all soft drinks "Coke" in some places. Somebody told me, so this isn't my firsthand knowledge.

It's POP, not SODA

Also, Co-Cola.

There is SOME use of 'flat' (meaning 'apartment') in the USA, but it mainly refers to certain types of apartments and is used only in very localized places. Ie, a 'multi-flat' is a smaller apartment building usually in the City of Chicago. Also commonly used in Chicago are terms like 'three-flat' and 'four-flat' referring to three and four story streetfront buildings (usually older) with smaller sized average workday apartments and 'flats' referring to the apartments in such buildings. Again, this is a very localized use and is seldom heard outside of Chicagoland and a very limited number of other bigger cities. I never hear the term used here in northeast Wisconsin, only 3.5 hours' drive time from downtown Chicago.

I've never heard the term 'motorway' used to refer to freeways, tollways and expressways here in the USA.

Yes, 'pavement' in the USA is the surface of a road, parking lot ('car park' in the UK), sidewalk, etc. 'To pave', 'paving', etc, are used to refer to the process of laying down that surface.

Mike

I read the Spanish/Mexican people introduced the patio here in the U.S. It's the open, central courtyard surrounded by the house on all four sides. This was originally constructed for ventilation in the desert southwest.

Today it's that slab of concrete outside the back door where you put your lawn chairs and grill.

As I read through this, I think the strangest thing I saw was in Louisiana when I was looking for a laundromat during our vacation. I could not find a single laundromat but these washeterias were all over the place! Laundromat/washeteria would be a public place for washing clothes with coin-operated machines.

My oldest son currently has an apartment in a 3-flat building. I've seen the word flat used to describe the type of building, but the residents still call their section an apartment.

Freeways are not typically used in the midwest - it's the tollway (when there's a toll) or the interstate.

It's not pop or soda, it's fizzy drink