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

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Other differences:

Bathroom = something with a bath (or shower) in it.

Loo / Bog = toilet. (Dunny in Australian)

I think that to piss is not just an American term, per se.

Chips = Either what Americans call "fries" or what British call "crisps".

Here's an older one. "Good screw" = a good deal.

And many indigenous words have indeed been incorporated into regional dialects.

In my area sorry can have a different meaning, if you call someone sorry(depends on the context) it can mean lazy/bad.

Over yonder means over there.

I've heard pop and Co-cola as words for soft drinks, but i always say Soda.

It's 'freeways' all over Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. The only place in the midwestern USA that I know of where 'Freeway' is not in real common usage is Chicagoland. There what are known as 'freeways' elsewhere are called 'expressways' with the one exception being I-94 between I-57 and I-80/294, called the 'Bishop Ford Freeway' (previously known as the 'Calumet Expressway').

I seldom hear of the term 'Freeway' in the northeastern USA outside of Washington, DC and New Jersey.

Mike

We call french fries chips only when preceded by "fish and"

As I understand it, A jumper is something a young girl would wear, sort of a dress.

I don't like the term tennis shoes except unless you wear them to play tennis.

If I'm picturing correctly the kind of dress you mean, I think it's what we would call a pinafore in Britain.

Jutty, where are you from?

I've always called them chips. Never fries.

In my area, that alternate meaning is closer to "pathetic" than "lazy."

Nobody really uses napkin here either <_<


Yeh thats the only context ive ever heard it used in. Well, that or a litteral screw lol. Or just a general insult like "f*ck you" or "p*ss off". Or a betrayal of some sort. But not a pay rise.


ROFL it does??? XD


Uh... no it doesnt. Not in Manchester anyway, here it means to get someone pregnant lmao


Uh, CR, I think uve been watchin a bit too much Austin Powers


not necessarily stupid/childish, just a general insult, although its not really a separate meaning cos it mainly comes from the rampant homophobia we had here (and everywhere else too ) up till about 20 years ago.


lol


We dont say trousers here either, pants is used for both lol


Nope, a we dont call watches clocks here either. The closest thing to a watch we WOULD call a clock would be, say, a clock function on a phone or sumat.


Actually ur talkin about the hard shoulder if Im understandin u right


Oh we use soccer too, just much more rarely


Or court, or even course, depending on the sport.


lmao no in manchester at least it means support, like the american version


Uh... fleece? jumper? jacket, sometimes if it has a zipper all the way down?


Same in England


Hai, or soft drink if ur a menu or sumat lmao


The problem I have with that is that almost all Brits will know what an American means by fries, but almost no Americans will know what a Brit means by crisps - LEARN TO SPEAK ENGLISH GODDAMMIT lol


A wha? I dont even know what that is, and I LIVE here lmao

In Australia, what we call "biscuits" or "bikkies", they call "cookies" in the USA.

We also have a saying "big bikkies" which means "big deal" or "so what".

In Australia, what we call a "cookie" is a large biscuit.

In Australia, what we call "scones", in the USA they call "biscuits".

What we call a jumper here is a knitted or fleece pullover, usually with a crew or V-neck.

A "skivvy" is a roll neck pullover.

We call underwear "undies", "smalls", "underdaks" or "underdangers".

To "get pissed" usually means to get drunk but it can also mean to get annoyed.

"Piss" either means to do a wee or refers to alcoholic drinks.

"Piss Off" means go away, leave or to annoy.

We have "barbies" or "barbecues" but in the USA, they have "cook-outs".

Flats are rental properties here and are usually either houses divided into 2 or 4 sections or blocks.

Units are similar but if there is just two, it is a duplex. Units are usually owned by the person rather than rented and they have to pay body corporate fees to cover the cost of looking after the place.

Sometimes units are sub-let though.

Housing Commission flats are cheap public housing. Some of the older ones are real dives but the newer ones tend to be a bit better.

In Australia, "root" means to have sexual intercourse but in the USA it means to "cheer" eg. "root for one's favourite sports team."

"Screw" here can also mean sexual intercourse but also means to wreck something.

We have many words for toilets including "S'house", "Dunny", "The Smallest Room", "The La La", "House Of Parliament" (ie. you go to the house of parliament for a long sitting or a short sitting and maybe pass some legislation)

You'd be walking on a concrete floor, not a cement one. Cement is one component of concrete. In the UK pavement is also used in an engineering context to refer to a hard-surface constructed in order to be trafficked by vehicles. It could be made of concrete, asphalt or other materials. Although colloquially many people refer to the pedestrian area at the side of the road as the pavement, it's rarely referred to as such by people who design and construct this kind of thing, as far as I'm aware. It's usually called something like a footpath, which again goes against the colloquial use of a word in everyday speech as footpath in that context usually refers to a public pedestrian right of way across open countryside.

Going back to my first sentence, I concede that most people in the UK also incorrectly call concrete "cement". I find it rather irritating.



In contractors' circles the word wagon is used over here. I think that may be the same in the US.



Where the two directions of traffic are separated (the area separating them often being referred to as a central reservation over here, and what the person you replied to means by "median") then the two paved surfaces, that the vehicles run on, either side are often called carriageways. On a motorway the lane most distant from the central reservation is called the hard shoulder.

Of course, if you can answer the question:

What's a Marracock?

Your knowledge of colloquial English is complete.

You best enlighten us, though I feel rather self-conscious in asking. I fear this maybe some gem of information that I really should know, yet my sheltered upbringing in the wilds of this far-flung corner of the Kingdom has left me in ignorance of.

You sure u dont mean colloquial Lutonish? <_<

It's a bit like what Yogi Bear might have asked
'What's a Mattabooboo ? !

i speak yooper talk

There's the spelling differences, too.
In Canada, we learn to spell in British English - colour, flavour, programme, centre, etc.
Brain stopped there, but I know there's other words and terminology that Canadians use that are different from other English dialects.
I'll try to think of some more.....