separated by a common language

Observations on British and American English by an American linguist in the UK

2006, May

- but for me as an American, a shop sounds smaller than a store

2006, June

- reckon (chiefly BrE) x figure (chiefly AmE)

- an herb (AmE) x a herb (BrE) A common response to an American

pronunciation of herb is: "Are you a Cockney, then?" Dropping aitches is a

definite marker of lower social class--and these days it's fairly rare. In fact,

aitches get inserted sometimes in the name of the letter, i.e. haitch

- reckon (chiefly BrE) x figure (chiefly AmE)

- careful with money: cheap (AmE) x tight (BrE)

- The American past participle of get, gotten, is one of those American things

that the British often express real distaste for. I get the feeling that some Brits

think it sounds ignorant. Better Half is now shouting from the other room that

it sounds uneducated and hillbillyish.

- Essentially, with the 'possession', rather than 'acquisition', sense of get, we

say have got, not have gotten. This means that the following two sentences

mean different things.

I've got a new hat. (= 'I have a new hat.')

I've gotten a new hat. (= 'I obtained a new hat.')

- Americans also have an irregular past/past participle for fit, but this one isn't so

old.

US: Before he lost weight, the jacket (had) fit him.

UK: Before he lost weight, the jacket (had) fitted him.

- if a tailor makes you a suit in the UK, it's said to be a bespoke suit. In the US

we'd say tailored or made-to-measure, which is perfectly sayable in the UK too.

- In the US, a geezer is an old man--preferably one who looks something like the

picture on the left. In informal British English, however, geezer means

something more like dude means in AmE. (But unlike dude, people don't go

around addressing each other as geezer.)

- When I first started marking (AmE prefers grading) essays (AmE would

say papers, which is more likely to mean 'exams' in BrE university-speak) in the

UK, I would correct students who used the word whilst instead of while, as

in Whilst the students could write 'while', they tend to write 'whilst'. My

comment would be the teacherly version of (AmE) take that stick out of your

ass. I quickly learned, however, that whilst is not a punishable offense in British

English.

Paul Brian's Common Errors in English Usage says: 'Although “whilst” is a

perfectly good traditional synonym of “while,” in American usage it is

considered pretentious and old-fashioned.' Indeed, it is.

- The things with doors above and below the counter/worktop are what I would

call kitchen cabinets. Better Half calls them kitchen cupboards, which also

works in American English. In BrE, it seems, a cabinet is free-standing.

- Bin on its own in BrE is usually short for rubbish bin--i.e. AmE trash/garbage

canor waste basket. In these you put a bin liner, which in AmE is garbage/trash

bag(or in some parts of the US: garbage sack).

- But a few words on money. Americans (and Canadians!) have particular words

for their coins: penny(1¢), nickel (5¢), dime (10¢), quarter (25¢), and in

Canada loony for the $1 coin.

- I had a similar problem a few weeks before with BH. I told him I wanted to buy

some caulk and re-caulk the shower. Now, half the problem here is that people

don't talk about caulk in BrE. They buysealant and re-seal the shower. But the

other half of the problem was the vowel. BH thought it was odd that I'd want to

put cork around the leaky bits of the shower.

- This is an illustration of Sod's law, which is the same law that Americans

call Murphy's law ('anything that can go wrong will', etc.).

2006, July

- My friend is going on holiday (BrE; AmE = vacation), she tells me, "after my

children break up."

This phrase always catches me unawares and I imagine the children falling to

pieces, but what it really means is that their school term is coming to an end

- Another thing to note in my friend's quotation above is that she refers to her

children as my children, which sounds a little stuffy in American English,

where kids has all but taken over informal speech and is not seen as degrading

in any way. I have been 'corrected' here by a school teacher who was

uncomfortable with me calling her pupils (AmE: students) kids and when I

teach language acquisition I sometimes become hyperaware that I'm

saying kids, while my students are saying children. As can be seen from

the Guardian quotation above, kids is used here, but comfort levels with the

term vary.

- While British people can watch football games, they're more likely to watch

football matches(unless they write for BBC News Online, in which case they're

oddly out of step). American English would refer to matches for tennis, but

generally not for team sports. If you look up baseball match on Google, you find

the source is generally Australian, European or US-immigrant.

- In AmE, a nervy person has 'got a lot of nerve'. They're bold and fearless. In BrE

a nervy person is 'a bundle of nerves'. They're nervous, anxious.

- Words that are their own opposites are sometimes called Janus

words (or contronyms orautoantonyms or lots of other things). A classic

example is to temper, which can mean 'to harden' (e.g. metal) or 'to soften'

(e.g. comments).

- Another Janus-like cross-dialectal word is homely. In AmE means 'ugly' and is

typically applied to people--i.e. having a face that really should not go out

much. In BrE it means the same as AmE adjective homey--i.e. 'co{z/s}y,

comfortable in a home-like way'. The first time someone told me my house

was homely I assumed he was making a joke, as it seemed such a rotten thing

to say.

- One of my most curious encounters has been with the word momentarily. To

Americans, this words means 'in a moment' (my husband will be here

to pick me up momentarily). To me as a Briton, this word means 'for a

moment'.

- to table a motion in the US is to put it aside, whereas in the UK it means to put

it on the agenda

if you tell an American cook that his or her meal was "quite good," it's a

compliment, although indicating a bit of surprise at the fact; the British cook

would be hurt that it was only "quite" good instead of "rather" good

-a play that is a "bomb" is a failure in the US and a success in the UK.

- People outside the US often get American university names wrong in this way,

since elsewhere University of X and X University are synonyms.Example:

University of California is in California; California University is in Pennsylvania.

- Furore/furor are often treated in lists of British/American spelling differences,

but this hides the fact that the two words are pronounced differently, the BrE

version with an 'ay' sound at the end. The OED and some purists claim

that furor and furore have different meanings--with the former meaning

'mania' and the latter 'a craze' or 'an uproar'. But the 'mania' meaning is not in

active use, so there's not much point in making the distinction.

- BrE is also less likely to plurali{z/s}e sport and tax than AmE is.

- (BrE) tap x AmE faucet and BrE bath vs AmE tub. ; (AmE) sink trap (BrE) U-bend;

sink (AmE) x basin (BrE) caulk (AmE) x sealant (BrE); (toilet) tank (AmE) x cistern

(BrE), hot-water heater (AmE) x geyser (BrE)

- (BrE) polystyrene (AmE=styrofoam).

- Another relevant example is brilliant (informally, brill), which in recent years

was the overstater of choice among young people

- Let's end with a fairly unrelated anecdote from my days in South Africa. I

phoned to order a pizza, and spoke with a speaker of (white) South African

English. Me: I'd like to order a small marguerita (AmE: cheese pizza)

to collect (AmE: pick up).

- Better Half is mad for (AmE=crazy about) gooseberries, a fruit I'd never

experienced in the US, though I did know that the kiwi (fruit; BrE) used to be

called the Chinese gooseberry

- Cream is a more serious business in the UK because it is so central a part

of pudding (AmE =dessert).

August, 2006

- In AmE, clever is not as often used to refer to people. You might make a clever

chess move or write a clever limerick, but that would prove that you

were smart. In the UK these days, smart is more often used to refer to how

someone dresses, rather than their intelligence.

- BrE chat-up line = AmE pick-up line.

time AmE BrE10:15 quarter after 10 quarter past 109:45 quarter of 10 quarter to 10

10.30 ten-thirty half-ten-

In either dialect, one could say half past 10, but Americans generally call it ten-

thirty. The Br Ehalf-ten is informal, but common in speech.

- The other main time-telling difference between the UK and the US is the

relative prevalence of the 24-hour clock. In the US, 24-hour time-telling is

associated with the military, and with spoken expressions like 'oh-four-hundred

hours' or 'twenty-three hundred hours'. Since everyone else only counts up to

12 in telling time, we have to append a.m. and p.m. on everything.

Until recently, Britain did the same, but increasingly the British are following

the Continent in using the twenty-four hour clock in writing, for example on

invitations, bus and train timetables(AmE=schedules) and digital clocks. In

speech, twenty-four-hour time-telling is still a bit artificial.

- 18:42, 19:00. It'd be fairly natural to say that the next train is at eighteen-forty-

two (or six-forty-two), but for the one after, one would be more likely to

say seven o'clock than nineteen hundred. Saying*nineteen o'clock is definitely

out.

September, 2006

- In BrE, when Asian is used to refer to a person, culture or cuisine, it is most

usually referring to someone or something South Asian (i.e. India, Pakistan,

Bangladesh, Sri Lanka). In the US and, it turns out, Australia, Asian typically

refers to people/things from East Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand,

etc.).

- his, of course, raises the question of what BrE speakers call people from East

Asia and what AmE speakers call people from South Asia. For East Asian people

in Britain, most people attempt to specify a nationality--Chinese, Japanese and

so forth. In AmE, people from South Asia are usually labelled by nationality,

which probably results in the mistaken assignment of Indian to some Pakistanis

and Bangladeshis.

- Die is certainly the preferred singular in AmE, but in BrE one is likely to

see dice as both the singular and the plural, even in edited texts like

newspapers.

- Most Americans call it Rock, Paper, Scissors, but some call it Rock, Scissors,

Paper. The most common BrE name for this game is Paper, Scissors, Stone.

- In AmE, one takes exams rather than sitting exams, as they do in BrE.

Since sit in this instance is transitive, with exam as its direct object, it's perfectly

grammatical in the passive in BrE.

- Outside the US, I also had to learn to invigilate exams. The first time I heard

this term, I said to my South African colleague "Oooh, that sound painful." He

said, "Well what do you call it then?" "Proctoring", I said. You can imagine his

response.

- my colleague the Syntactician queried my use of the verb acclimate (stress on

the first syllable), since she'd say acclimatise in the same situation. And so

would most BrE speakers. Either is acceptable in AmE, but to

me,acclimati{s/z}e sounds better with physical rather than figurative climates.

- In BrE,pants refers to underpants, which sometimes leads to sub-hilarity when

an American says something like I look good in pants. The BrE word for the

bottom half of a suit is trousers--indeed British women wear trouser suits,

while their American counterparts wear pantsuits. Trousers is understood, but

not much used, in AmE. I'd certainly never apply the word to womenswear in

AmE, but do so easily in my approximation of BrE. In AmE, trousers is an old-

fashioned, kind of funny word.

- And by the second wearing, each of them was covered with

(AmE) PILLS/(BrE) BOBBLES.

October, 2006

- because sales clerk (the clerks of the title work in a convenience store) is an

Americanism--thus the AmE pronunciation is more fitting. (I can't hear the

'clarks' pronunciation without thinking of someone who looks like the man to

the right.) In BrE the people who ring up your purchases at the

(BrE) till/(AmE) cash register are calledshop assistants. (The words till and cash

register are used in both countries, but in AmE till refers only to the drawer

with the money in it [or the removable tray in that drawer], not to a location in

the shop/store where you pay for things.)

there's some dispute/lack of clarity about which bases stand for which activities. The (probably most) standard progression is:

first base

kissing

second base

touching above the waist

third base

touching below the waist

home run

sexual intercourse

November, 2006

- in BrE a moot point is one that can/should be debated, while in AmE it's one

that isn't worth debating because the issue is already decided or out of our

control.

- In BrE, kit is used to refer to any collection of related things, particularly

equipment or clothing. ]

- Americans eat mashed potatoes and veggies (both plural), while the British eat

mashed potato and veg (both mass nouns)

- British supermarkets typically have a section called Fruit and

Vegetables or Fruit and Veg, but in the US, it's generally called

the produce section. One is more likely to come across a greengrocer's shop in

the UK than in the US.

- there is a bollard that makes traffic going downhill give way (AmE yield) to

traffic that's coming up the hill.

- Speed bumps (or speed hump (or speed ramp), speed cushion, and speed

table.) Speed bumps are also known as a sleeping policeman in British English.

- traffic pylons = traffic cones

- Southern BrE speakers frequently comment upon AmE speakers' lack of the /j/

or 'y' sound in words like Tuesday and tune: BrE /tjun/ versus AmE /tun/

(= toon). The difference is found in many words with a coronal

consonant followed by an /u/, including assume, new, duke, sue, due. The two

dialects don't usually differ when it comes to the /ju/ sound in other phonetic

contexts, as in use,huge and cute.

December, 2006

- First off, we have à la mode. When LL lived in the US, she thought it hilarious

(and still does) that a French phrase meaning 'in the current fashion' could

come to mean 'with ice cream', as it does in AmE in pie à la mode or pancakes à

la mode.

- LL e-mailed me (BrE) in/(AmE) during the week to ask whether

prevaricate really means 'to hesitate' in English.

- Freshman comp (i.e. a first-year university course on how to write--particularly,

how to write an academic essay)

- The ambiguity created by my virgule (slash) undid all that teaching

- When AmE speakers say "I went to school there," they often mean 'I went to

(BrE) university/(AmE) college there'. (SUNY Purchase = State University of

New York at Purchase.) In BrE, school denotes primary or secondary school, but

not university.

USA: Generally speaking, up to 5th or 6th grade (11 or 12 years old) is elementary school, 7th and 8th grade plus-or-minus a grade on either end is junior high school or middle school, and 9th grade up is generallyhigh school (though some schools start at 10th grade) At the high school level, the grades (and the people in them) also have names:

freshman year = 9th grade

sophomore year = 10th grade

junior year = 11th grade

senior year = 12th grade- at the end of high school, American students do not take all-encompassing

subject examinations like A-level. (They'll take final examination for their senior

year courses, but that's no different from other years.) Instead, those heading

for colleges and universities take tests in their junior year--generally the SAT or

the ACT, which aim to measure general educational aptitude, rather than

subject knowledge.

- In AmE, a university (as opposed to a college) offers (BrE) post-graduate /

(AmE) graduate degrees as well as undergraduate degrees. However, one still

doesn't go to university in AmE (as one does in BrE), even if one goes to a

university. After one goes to college in AmE, one might go to grad(uate) school.

- Happy holidays is an American seasonal greeting--one that I find very useful,

because (1) I don't like to say (AmE-preferred) Merry Christmas or (BrE) Happy

Christmas to people unless I know for sure that they celebrate Christmas, and

(2) it saves having to say Happy New Year as well.

- This was the first time I'd been to New York City during the (AmE-

preferred)holiday/(BrE-preferred) festive season, and I was excited to watch

the ice skaters in the rink below the tree

- names that don't work in AmE, such as mince (= AmE ground beef), macaroni

cheese (= AmEmacaroni and cheese), orange lollies (=AmE popsicles), non-

biological (= a type of laundry detergent)

- Take the number 8853, for example. Americans typically say that as eight-

eight-five-three, whereas a BrE speaker would be much more likely to

say double eight-five-three.

January, 2007

- Finally, as Nancy notes, range (chiefly AmE) can mean a

(AmE) stove/(BrE) cooker, though like ap’parel it's a word that I associate with

marketing rather than everyday use.

- BrE Ludo from the Latin for 'I play', is the game that Americans call Parcheesi

- Once you know about Ludo, it makes more sense that the game that is

called Clue in AmE is calledCluedo in BrE

- BA dissertation (AmE thesis)

February, 2007

- in my (AmE) gym class (=PE [physical education])

- The advancing-up-the-board game that one does find in Britain isSnakes and

Ladders (picture left from here), which was marketed in the US as Chutes and

Ladders

- In AmE, one must connect the dots, while in BrE one joins the dots--and thus

the puzzles are sometimes called connect-the-dots or join-the-dots, depending

on where you are.

- Never mind. (As pop culture informs us, this is spelt with a space in BrE--as in

the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, but sometimes without one in AmE, as

in Nirvana's Nevermind.

- (AmE) bangs and (BrE) fringe, the words for hair cut shorter on the forehead

- If hair is divided into three locks then woven together to make a 'rope', the

result is called a plait in BrE and a braid in AmE--though both words are known

in both countries. BrE plait is pronounced to rhyme with flat, whereas in AmE

most speakers pronounce it like plate.

First on our list is the thing to the left. The AmE word for it isbarrette, whereas

in BrE it is typically called a hair-slide.

- A BrE hair band, on the other hand, is an elastic band (possibly decorated) for

making a ponytail or pigtails/bunches. This little item (like rubber bands more

generally) is a dialectal jamboree (orig. and predominantly AmE) in the US. I call

this an elastic (and consider hair band to be another word for head band/Alice

band)

A scrunchie, however, is a scrunchie--and an abomination--in any dialect.

- Yes, me either is American, and there are plenty of pedants who will tell you it's

wrong.

- But BrE doesn't like me (n)either. (AmE) Go figure.

- The "something-do I" pattern sounds more formal to my AmE ears, but

"formal" isn't always "better".

- As for pronunciation, me (n)either is pronounced with an 'ee' (IPA: /i/) sound at

the start of the(n)either. Even if one uses the diphthong that sounds

like eye (IPA: /aj/) at the beginning of(n)either in other phrasal contexts, in this

phrase it must have the 'ee' (/i/)

- Different meanings can get you into trouble. Tiger Woods discovered this when

he called himself a spaz on live UK radio/television after playing badly at the

Masters last April. (See Language Log's discussion from back then.) To an

American ear, that's a word for a (AmE) klutz. To a British ear, it's one of

the most taboo insults, on a par with retard as one of the worst playground

taunts. The difference is that BrE speakers see the connection

between spaz and a specific disability, cerebral palsy.

- As Liz Ditz points out, learning disabled is another disability-related term that

could cause transatlantic offen{c/s}e. It's a term that I used often as a (AmE)

professor* at an American university, since it's the term that's used to

collectively refer to things like dyslexia, dyspraxia, and attentional deficits. In

other words, it's used for people with normal IQs who have specific problems

with some aspect of learning. But in the UK, learning disability is equivalent to

what is now in the US called developmental disability--and what has been

called mental retardation (though this is found by many--especially in the UK--

to be offensive now). Dyslexia and other normal-IQ conditions come under the

umbrella of specific learning difficulty.

March, 2007

- In British culture; it marks things that are correct = the tick: ✓.- Now, this took some getting used to when I first started teaching in South

Africa, where they use the same system. Why? Because when/where I was a child, a checkmark (AmE for ✓) on your work meant that you got it wrong. This is actually fairly counterintuitive, because a ✓ can mean 'good' in various other contexts. For instance, if I wrote an essay in school and it was just OK, it would get a✓ at the top of the page. If it were (usual BrE = was) very good, it would receive a ✓+ or ✓++. And a ✓ in an advertisement or on a grocery list means 'we've got it' or 'mission accomplished' or similarly positive things.

- Over on the Guardian's Notes and Queries page, it's noted that the Swedes also use ✓ to mean 'incorrect' (adding to the multitude of reasons that I feel a kinship with Swedish culture)

- So, it's not just the tick/checkmark that can sometimes mean 'wrong' and sometimes mean 'right'--the cross/X can too.But (BrE) drink-driving does take a lot of getting used to for those accustomed

to (AmE) drunk driving

- Incidentally, the crime of drink/drunk driving is known in different ways in

different parts of the US: either DWI 'Driving While Intoxicated' or DUI'Driving

Under the Influence'--though these days most people in most places know

both terms.

- a (AmE) drinking problem (particple+noun), rather than a (BrE) drink

problem (noun+noun).

- But drug problem in that headline is interesting too, as in BrE one often

sees/hears drugs problem, which sounds strange in AmE.

- Better Half has been unwell (which sounds fairly BrE--I'd usually say sick in

AmE)

- The doctor says he has a chest infection, but an American doctor might've

preferred to say bronchitis. It's not that bronchitis is an AmE word--just that

people talk about being diagnosed with bronchitis in the US, and people in the

UK tend to talk about chest infections.

- Whereas Americans talk about getting urinary tract infections (people who get

them a lot tend to call them UTIs), the British are more apt to say cystitis--a

term I hadn't come across until I moved here.

- BrE uses the word tablet much more often where AmE would tend to use pill--

but that's another tangent.

- Paracetamol is what Americans generically callacetaminohen --though it's

more commonly known in AmE by the brand name Tylenol.

- C to F: Multiply the temperature by 2 and then add 30 (approximation)

- bathroom scale (AmE), scaleS (BrE)

- Maths/Math (Maths is also singular)

- BM (AmE), you see, stands for bowel movement. In other words, it's a way to

avoid saying shit.

- One hears a lot more thank yous in Britain during a typical exchange at a

(AmE) store check-out counter/(BrE) shop till.

- Perhaps because they say thank you more, the British have more ways to give

their thanks. One informal means of giving thanks is to say ta, which the OED

says is "An infantile form of ‘thank-you’, now also commonly in colloq. adult

use." Another is cheers

- Cheers is interesting because it is so flexible. In AmE, it is simply used as a

salutation in drinking (or sometimes with a mimed glass in hand, as a means of

congratulations). In BrE it has this use, but is also used to mean 'thank you',

'goodbye' or 'thanks and goodbye'.

- Another place where the English say thank you more often is when

travel(l)ing by bus or coach (inAmE, they're both bus--we don't differentiate

lexically between the cross-town and more comfy long-distance types)

April, 2007

- A BrE equivalent of watch your mouth is mind your language

- BrE: And you [have a good afternoon].

AmE: You [have a good afternoon] too.

- Indeed, outside North America, diary is the typical way to refer to what I used

to call a (AmE)datebook. Diary can also in BrE (as in AmE) mean the kind of

blank book in which one records the events, thoughts and feelings of one's day,

as does journal.

- (BrE) the menopause. The AmE version: menopause (without the).

- On the other hand, AmE tends to say the flu and BrE tends to do it without

the the (and often with an apostrophe: 'flu)

- As is well known (so well known that I'm not supposed to be mentioning it), in

BrE one ends up in hospital and in AmE one ends up in the hospital when (the)

flu gets too bad

- getting under the (AmE) comforter /(BrE) duvet and dreaming of determiners.

BrE AmE

the Congo (referring to the river or the country)

(the) Congo (referring to the country--aka Congo-Brazzaville)

the Gambia Gambia

(the) Ukraine(the) Ukraine [less common, considered offensive]

(the Lebanon Lebanon

Argentina Argentina

Sudan Sudan

- BrE expression I'd never heard used before, touting. Which in AmE is scalping,

buying tickets, then selling them right before the event for a very high price.

People: (ticket) tout x scalper

- the BrE word busker, meaning a street musician/performer--the type who puts

a hat or violin case out for coins. AmE doesn't seem to have a word for this

concept--I think one has to say street musician.

- (BrE) garden/(AmE) yard.

-

This type of housing is called (BrE) terraced

housing or a terrace (and thus terrace is a frequent element in UK street

names. In pre-Better Half days, I lived on/in Denmark Terrace). In AmE, these

are townhouses or row houses, but they're not nearly as common in the US as

in the UK. The ones here may be single-family dwellings or they may be divided

into (AmE) apartments/(BrE) flats.

- Better Half and I got lucky in buying our current flat/apartment, as it's end-of-

terrace, meaning that we have windows on three sides, not just the front and

back.

- The next step into privacy is the semi-detached house, known in AmE as

a duplex--that is, a building that is divided into two houses, so that each shares

a wall with the other.

- Going one further (privacy-wise) than semi-detached, are detached houses,

which are what Americans would simply call houses.

- At least part of the reason that BrE and AmE/CanE differ in their interpretations

of 's as is orhas is that BrE likes contracting the verb have more than AmE (and

presumably CanE) does.

- When have occurs between a subject pronoun and a not, the speaker has a

choice--to contract thehave with the pronoun (I've not gargled, she's not

gargled) or to contract the not (I haven't gargled, she hasn't gargled). In both

BrE and AmE, it is more common to contract the not.

- BrE: I haven't VERB ed is 2.5 times more frequent than I've not VERB ed

AmE: I haven't VERB ed is 26 times more common than I've not VERB ed

- BrE: I don't have any NOUN is 10 times more frequent than I haven't

any NOUN.

AmE: I don't have any NOUN is 60 times more frequent than I haven't

any NOUN.

BrE: I don't have a NOUN is 6 times more frequent than I haven't a NOUN.

AmE: I don't have a NOUN is 55 times more frequent than I haven't a NOUN.

May, 2007

- It must be school dance season, because two people have written to me about

(AmE) proms. This is usually translated into BrE as school dance

- Prom is more usually found in the plural in BrE, as (the) Proms,which the OED records as: 2. = promenade concert (s.v. PROMENADE n. 4b); the Proms, the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts, now given annually at the Royal Albert Hall, London (also in sing.). Follow that cross-reference and you get to: promenade concert, a concert at which the audience walk about instead of being seated or at which a proportion of the audience stands.

- An ex-sweetheart used to say when leaving the house, I'm off like a prom

dress! I say this in the UK every once in a while, and only I chuckle.

- Dishpan hands. The student was imagining someone with hands shaped like

dishpans. Oh no! Dishpan hands are hands that have spent too much time in

the dishwater--i.e. they've suffered the drying effects of soap and water.

- Where? I'd probably say dishwashing basin (as do some others on-line) and

others also say dishwashing tub. In BrE, it is called a washing up bowl.

- (AmE) dish detergent/(BrE) washing-up liquid

- Compare this to American brands, where Woman often means 'extra large'. For

instanceAmazon.com lists 'Woman Sizes' as (US) 14-24. (American 14 = UK

16/18.) The Women's department in an American department store, such

as Macy's, will carry precisely those larger sizes. Of course, this is confusing,

since there are plenty of women who don't wear these sizes. But it works in the

US because there are two other types of departments for smaller women.

The Misses department carries the even-numbered sizes 14 and down, and

the Juniors department carries odd-numbered sizes (up to 13) that are cut for

younger women--or teenagers (smaller bust and hips).

- The less-confusing name for women's sizes is (orig. AmE) plus sizes

- (AmE) pull up stakes. The the phrase originated in the practice of putting stakes

down to mark the boundaries of one's property. So, when you moved, you

pulled up your stakes and took them to the next place.

In AmE, I'd never use pull up stakes for anything but a permanent move,

though, so I find (BrE) up sticks strange for temporary moves. However, locals

don't.

- (BrE) football club / (AmE) soccer team

- Terraces in this sense means steps or tiers where people stand to watch the

(BrE) match/(AmE) game. They're kind of like (AmE)bleachers, except that

they're for standing, rather than sitting. Terraces are becoming a thing of the

past

- Every time I finish a dissertation(which in AmE would be called a thesis, since

it's an undergraduate piece; thesis and dissertation are used in reverse ways in

BrE and AmE), I reward myself by going on-line.

- Quite who Fatah al-Islam are, or where they came from, is a matter of dispute.

Quite who is no doubt less common than Just who or Exactly who, but it may

be more common in speech than in writing.

What's striking here (or should that be quite what's striking here?) is how much

more sentence-initial quite we see in BrE. But then, almost all of the

percentages are greater for BrE than AmE.

- Second, there's the fact that quite is often (but not always) used to weaken the

force of an adjective in BrE, while it strengthens the force in AmE. So, a

sentence like that book was quite interesting is probably enthusiastic praise in

AmE, but probably a damp squib of praise in BrE.

- Adverbial and prepositional round is far more common in BrE than in AmE.

June, 2007

- The type of usually round, plastic-coated thing-with-a-pin at the

right (from the 'button collection' at the International Institute of Social History)

is called a button in AmE and a badge in BrE.

- the Britishness of the phrase move house/home. Americans simply move (and the British can too). So: AmE or BrE: We're moving this weekend. [intransitive] BrE: We're moving house this weekend. [transitive]

- Americans often comment on the (AmE: real) estate agents'signs in the UK that indicate properties in search of tenants. In the US, such signs say FOR RENT. In the UK, they say TO LET.

- flannel (in its longer form, face flannel), which is the BrE translation for

AmEwashcloth. Face flannels are so-called because they were once made from

flannel fabric, but these days they're (AmE) terrycloth/(BrE) terry.

- In the UK, the entry-level position for an academic is Lecturer, and Professor is

the highest rank. But whoever takes the teaching role for a course is the

course's tutor. Another role one can take is that of personal tutor, a term

which is being replaced at my university by academic advisor, and which at my

US undergraduate university was simply called advisor: the role in which one

gives guidance (and pastoral care) to a student with respect to their overall

academic development, rather than just for a particular course/class/module

(whatever you want to call it).

- In most American universities, the entry level for academics is Assistant

Professor, then there'sAssociate Professor, then full Professor. All of these

people are called Professor. So, in the US, I was Professor Lynneguist, but in the

UK, I'm just Doctor Lynneguist. In the US, a student might ask another Who's

your biology professor? But in the UK, one would ask Who's your tutor for

biology?

- In AmE, a tutor is generally understood to provide private tuition. (That sounds

ambiguous in AmE, since tuition in America usually refers to

(BrE) school/university fees. Tutors provide tutoring or tutelage--not fees!)

When I was a (BrE) postgrad/(AmE) grad student, I was a logic tutor for student

athletes--meaning I helped them understand the lectures that had gone over

their heads.

- That reminds me of another thing... Lesson in AmE most often refers to the

kind of thing that a private tutor might do. One has piano lessons and flying

lessons, etc. School teachers make lesson plans, and may refer to the

mathematical part of the day as the math(s) lesson, but once

the (AmE)students/(BrE) pupils are old enough to have different teachers for

different lessons, the lessons tend not to be referred to as lessons in AmE, but

instead are called classes. I thus find it strange when my BrE-speaking students

refer to my lectures or seminars as lessons (as in: Could you send me the notes

from yesterday's lesson? I had to miss it because my housemate was having her

poodle dyed and the bath flooded and ruined my bus ticket so I had to stay at

home and watch Countdowninstead.). It sounds oddly childish to my ear.

July, 2007

- When I lecture, the two things I try to be careful about are: (a) pronouncing

my /t/s, and (b) sayingcannot instead of can't (I cannot say that I always

succeed), since I discovered quickly that these were the American

pronunciations that most impeded my communication to BrE speakers.

- A tip for travel(l)ers: modify your water. If you want the free stuff, say tap

water in Britain andiced water in America.

- BrE prefers semantic agreement (when the collective refers to animate beings,

at least), and AmE prefers grammatical agreement--most of the time.

- And in BrE, when it's very clear that the collective is to be thought of as a unit, not as individuals, then a singular verb is perfectly acceptable. Thus BrE allows a distinction between (a) and (b) below, while (b) would sound more awkward inAmE:(a) My family is big. [i.e. there are 10 of us](b) My family are big. [i.e. the individuals are super-size]Thus, AmE speakers tend to avoid sentences like (b) and to rephrase them as

something like The members of my family are all big.

It's definitely a more AmE trait to express four-digit numbers in hundreds:

2300 = two thousand, three hundred (BrE or AmE)or twenty-three hundred (chiefly AmE)

- There's the fact that British streets sometimes, like in America, have odd house

numbers on one side of the street and even numbers on the opposite side. But

other times --like on my current street-- they start at 1, continue 2, 3, 4, up one

side of the road, then when it gets to the end, the numbers continue down the

other side of the road, so that a road with 50 houses would have number 50

directly across from number 1, and on the other end 25 across from 26. But I'm

getting away from language, am I not?)

- But the use of directly to mean 'shortly' or 'very soon', is mostly AmE (“I’ll be

with you directly”)

- Protests that none of my stories are cute should be written up in triplicate and

submitted to your local authority figure.

- Rather than saying that the 'condescend' sense of patroni{s/z}e is less common

in AmE, I'd venture that the 'give financial support to' sense is more common

in AmE than in BrE. “Please patronize our advertisers”.

August, 2007

- Which led Dad and BN2 to expatiate on the AmE difference between streets

and roads. They agreed that they could cross the street in town, but would

cross the road in the country. In general, the term road is found much more

often for street names in towns in the UK than it is in the US, where it tends to

be reserved for either country roads or sometimes biggish thoroughfares in

cities.

- One can also in BrE and AmE call such a person a left-hander. AmE speakers

wouldn't think of the diminutive lefty as derogative; in fact, they may consider

it to be affectionate. While lefty/righty as handedness labels are found in BrE as

well as AmE, they are not used so freely in that way.

- Originally from AmE in reference to baseball, we get the slang term southpaw,

which has beenpopulari{s/z}ed world-wide through boxing.

- As BrE political terms, lefty (also leftie) and the less-common righty (or rightie)

are not particularly derogatory either--though, like any epithet, they could be

used with belittling intent. Better Half asked me how an American would refer

to a socialist, if not by lefty. An awful lot of Americans would probably

answer pinko, which is rarely used without derogatory intent and is frequently

used in phrases like pinko-commie bastard. The most neutral terms are

probably left-winger and right-winger

September, 2007

- (AmE)

In other words, the sign is saying that the land is privately owned (or at least

not open to the public) and that you are not allowed to be on the land without

the owner's permission, and that because signs have been 'posted' you have

been warned of this fact.

- AmE speakers tend to talk about mailmen--or the less gendered letter

carriers--while BrE speakers tend to talk about postmen--but I note that

the Royal Mail jobs website uses postpersonwhere space is at a premium,

and postman/postwoman elsewhere. Postal worker is used more generically

to include people who work in the post office or sorting office, as well as

deliverers, and of course some high-profile cases of postal workers (orig. BrE, I

think) going mental and shooting people resulted in the AmE colloquialism to

go postal.

- Bits of fairly dry nasal mucus (you know what I mean) are colloquially

called bogies (or bogeys) in BrE and boogers in AmE.

- And then there's the bogeyman. American Heritage lists four alternative

spellings for this:bogeyman, boogeyman, boogyman, boogieman. OED has

only bogyman (listed under bog(e)y) plus an example with the e: Bogey man.

- 0054

- his was the second time in the past month or so that I've read unbeknown to

[someone]. The first time, I thought it was an error, because as an AmE native,

I'm used to the phrase beingunbeknownst to [someone]

- I've seen/heard if needs be before, and Better Half confirms it's what he'd say, but I'd say if need be. If need be is the usual form in both British and American, with 7.6 and 7.1 [instances per ten million words], respectively. However, if needs be has 1.8 British and no American tokens [per ten million].

- So which of the following would you say?(1) I ate all the chocolate, even though I shouldn't have done.(2) I ate all the chocolate, even though I shouldn't have.

If you answered "(1)", then I'd be willing to bet that you're not American. - (…) especially when (AmE) coffee cake is involved. That's another one that

puzzles BH. He thinks (as do all the cafés (a)round here) that coffee cake means

'cake flavo(u)red with coffee', whereas in AmE it's a type of cake that goes well

with a cup of coffee.

October, 2007

- (AmE) specialty versus (BrE) speciality. There's not much more to say about

that, except that in BrE specialty is used in the field of medicine.

- a dog-pile (full of baseball players)

- AmE speakers generally make decisions and BrE speakers can also take

decisions.

- In AmE generally, if a motion has been made and is up for discussion, it is on the floor. If you want to remove the motion from the floor--that is, to postpone discussion of it until a later time, you can put it on the table, or table the motion. In BrE a motion that is being discussed is on the table. So, you table a motion when you want to bring it up for debate. You can also table questions (bring them up for discussion).

- because of the BrE tendency to put hyphens between the prefix and the base verb, especially in cases in which not to do so would involve the same letter repeated twice at the end of the prefix and the beginning of the base word. So, BrE prefers re-elect, which is happy without a hyphen in AmE: reelect. The same thing happens with the prefix co-, especially before another o, so that BrE tends to prefer co-ordinate and co-operate, whereas AmE prefers coordinate and cooperate. Using this hierarchy, I'd suppose that BrE writing tends toward(s) non-integration--that is to say, keeping words separate,

or at least hyphenated, whereas AmE is happier to have more fully integrated compounds. It's just a hypothesis, though, and you're welcome to test it.- smack is the normal BrE way to refer to striking a child as a disciplinary measure. Smack is generally not used in this way in AmE. “The parents’ right to smack” In AmE, I might misunderstand it as 'parents' right to kiss noisily' or 'parents' right to heroin.' (Smack = 'heroin' is originally AmE slang.) In AmE, one speaks more naturally of spanking children, but of course spank≠smack, since spank (at least in AmE) specifies that it is the bottom that is hit (typically with an open hand, but possibly with a paddle or other instrument), whereas smacking doesn't (although it may be the case that most--or at least the most prototypical--child-smacking is on bottoms). I asked Better Half whether he'd usually refer to bottom-smacking as spanking or smacking, and he felt that he'd tend to use smack to talk about hitting children because spank (to his BrE ear) has sexual overtones.

November, 2007

- Anyhow, BH's exclamations about things on the floor almost always knock me for a loop, because to me the floor is something inside a building. Of course, in AmE I can also talk about the forest floor, but I think of that as being a very speciali{s/z}ed usage. (AmE) on the ground

- Am I right in thinking that American newspapers routinely say "rising to 112 from 111" whereas the British usage is likelier to be "rising from 111 to 112"?

-

So--well spotted, Bill! Can any journalists out there tell us whether or not to...from/from...toordering is something that is taught to journalists (as part of a paper's style guide, etc.)? Or is it something that one picks up without reali{s/z}ing it?

December, 2007

- In the UK, medical training begins at the undergraduate level--which is to say, people can be 'medical students' from their first year (BrE) at university. In the US, medical school is for (AmE)graduate/(BrE) post-graduate students, and the

undergraduate students do pre-med degrees, which cover a lot of science, but also, like other US undergraduate degrees, a liberal arts curriculum. (Law training differs in a similar way in the two countries.) Pre-Law is not a specific course. In 2001, the five most common majors of students entering law school were political science, history, English, psychology, and criminal justice.[2]The five majors with the highest acceptance rates were physics, philosophy, biology, chemistry, and government service.[2]

- Perhaps because it's the season of giving, I've been noticing more often the BrE use of constructions like She gave it me where in my native AmE dialect I'd have to say She gave it to me or She gave me it.

- (orig. AmE) babysitting/(BrE) child-minding services

January, 2008

- For example, AmE tends to prefer prenatal (as in prenatal care, etc.) and BrE, antenatal. A popular informal term for premature babies in AmE is preemie (rhymes with see me), whereas in BrE it's prem (rhymes with stem).

-

- American cloth diapers/nappies are used for--e.g. to put on your shoulder while (AmE) burping/(BrE) winding (that's pronounced with a short 'i', not like winding a clock!) a baby, to clean up baby-related messes, etc.

- (baby) bump

- In UK television listings, the name of the program(me) is often followed by a fraction, for example: 8:30 Jam & Jerusalem2/6; series two. [Radio Times, 22 Dec 2007-4 Jan 2008] The fraction tells us that this is episode 2 of 6 in the current (BrE) series/(AmE) season.

- Have you figured out what (BrE) posset means? It means 'to regurgitate small

amounts of milk', i.e. (mostly AmE) spit up (which can be used as a noun or

verb--depending on where you put the stress).

- When zips/zippers are at the front of a pair of (BrE) trousers/(AmE) pants, they

mysteriously differ in their number: in BrE you must take care to do up

your flies, while in AmE, you do up your fly.

February, 2008

- In BrE, however, Bible basher is the equivalent of AmE Bible

banger--i.e. a fundamentalist an evangelical Christian (giving the

image of a person who thumps their Bible while preaching).

March, 2008

- Back to high tea: I've never heard a British person use the term. They

say things like I have to get home and make the children's tea, by

which they mean their evening meal. In my experience, tea,when

referring to a meal, is used by my friends mostly to refer to simple

meals they make for their children or themselves in the early

evening; a dinner party, for example, would not be referred to as tea.

-  But walking stick is what BrE speakers call what AmE speakers call

a cane--a stick, like the one to the right, with a (usually curved)

handle and often with a rubber anti-slip bit at the end, used by people

with (BrE) dodgyfeet/legs/knees/hips/ankles. Very often, walking

stick is abbreviated to stick, as in Could you pass me my stick?

April, 2008

- In the US, I'd have a toasted cheese or a toasted bacon and cheese,

whereas in the UK, I'd be more likely to have a cheese and bacon.

In both countries, it would be cheese and tomato (though, of

course, the pronunciation of tomatowould differ). 

- Milk with the fat removed is called skimmed milk in BrE, while in

AmE it tends to be called skim milk. On the other end of the scale (3-

4% fat) is what Americans call whole milk and the British call full

fat milk, which is a nice dieting ploy, since I'm too embarrassed to

buy it. In between, Americans have options, known as 1%

milk and 2% milk, while the British have semi-skimmed milk,

which is 1.5-1.8% fat, according to Delia (old-school British TV chef).

May, 2008

- The AmE bowl in Physics Bowl is the same as the more

general College Bowl--a contest between (usually) students in which

they answer (usually) academic questions. The UK equivalent to the

College Bowl is University Challenge, a television program(me) in

which students from different universities (or colleges within the

Oxbridge/London universities) compete on television.

- The kind of bowl(ing) that Better Half was imagining is generally

called bowling in AmE, but ten-pin bowling in BrE.

- Going further afield, another bowl that differs is found in

the (AmE) bathroom/(BrE informal) loo. While AmE speakers clean

the toilet bowl, BrE speakers stick their brushes into the toilet's pan.

I'm not absolutely sure that BrE speakers don't also use bowl in this

sense (do you?), but it jars whenever I hear people speak about the

toilet pan, as it makes me imagine something very shallow.

- The funny thing about our comments was that each of us had accommodated the other's dialect. That is to say, BH used an AmE term and I used BrE:

- BH: Nice use of your (AmE) blinkers! (=BrE indicators)

Me: Nice (BrE) indicating! (=AmE signal(l)ing)In AmE, the more formal term for blinkers is turn signals.

Needless to say (since I've posted a photo of it), this is not a sign you'd see

in America. There, such a sign would probably have an

unmodified slow or go slow. In this context, dead is an adverb

modifying slow. It makes me chuckle involuntarily for two reasons: (a) dead

slow is not as idiomatic in AmE as in BrE and therefore the literal meaning

occurs to me when I read it, and (b) in BrE adverbial dead is frequently a

colloquialism, and therefore it seems a bit funny to see on a sign. If one

hears a lot of colloquial BrE, one knows that dead can go with just about any

adjective in certain informal registers. The OED, however, classes dead slow as a non-colloquial usage (going with dead calm and dead tired) rather than this all-purpose colloquial intensifier. At any rate, it all sounds dead British.

- (AmE) coolers/(BrE) cool boxes 

June, 2008

So while Grover sleeps on Better Half's chest, I'll fill you in on the outcome of my --ahem-- L'sresearch. The (British) OED sides with BH, giving the verb to eyeball as AmE slang for 'to look or stare (at)'. But one shouldn't trust the 1989 edition of the OED to be up to snuff on American colloquialisms. The American Heritage Dictionary (4th edn),

on the other hand, gives two senses, both marked as 'informal':

1. To look over carefully; scrutinize.

2. (slang) To measure or estimate roughly by sight: eyeballed the area of the wall that needed paint.

-  a (BrE) dustcart (which is staffed bydustmen) is what Americans

would call a garbage truck 

- So, it left me thinking of other kinds of carts. Like (AmE) shopping

carts, which in BrE are shopping trolleys. 

July, 2008

- instead, it's just a lexical oddity, like vitamin (first i as in bit in BrE,

but like in bite in AmE) or tomato (you know the song)

- (BrE, sometimes) con-TROV-er-sy with a different stress; CON –

troversy (AmE)

- "Oh look, that car is (AmE) backing up (= BrE-preferred reversing).

- Where I grew up, we called the black stuff that's used on

roads tar or blacktop (one could also, more dialect-neutrally, call

it asphalt) but in BrE, it is more likely to be called tarmacadam--a

word I'd never heard in America--or its abbreviation tarmac. In

AmE, tarmac (originally Tarmac, a trade name) is reserved for the

surfaces that (AmE) airplanes/(BrE) aeroplanes drive on at

airports--as in "I once had to sit on the tarmac for five hours at JFK."

- The verb brown-bag is primarily used with a rather empty object, it,

as in this newspaper headlineSave a buck [AmE slang: 'dollar'],

brown-bag it or in the common phrase "I'll be brown-bagging it". The

'it' in the first example does not refer to the buck. It could arguably

refer to the lunch, but I think it's the kind of near-meaningless it that

one finds in expressions like to wing it. The it there could refer to

something, but when we put that something in place of the it, the

meaning seems to lose something. I'll be brown-bagging my

lunch sounds like it refers to the wrapping of a brown bag around the

food for a lunch. But I'll be brown-bagging it sounds like it refers to

coming to a lunch event with a meal in a brown bag.

- In the United States, an informal meeting at work, over lunch, where everyone

brings a packed lunch, is a brown-bag lunch or colloquially a "brown bag", and

the practice known as brownbagging. There are also white and other color bags

for seasonal use.

- How concerned are you about the proposed NHS changes and their effects on the Royal Sussex County Hospital?

Very [] Quite [] Not at all []- So there we have it. An illustration of how BrE quite differs from

AmE quite. In BrE it means 'not so much', in AmE it means 'very much'. So while it's the middle ground in this BrE survey, for an AmE speaker, the first two choices are way on one side of the scale, so no moderate choice seems to have been offered.

August, 2008

September, 2008

- British expressions that American folk might find pleonastic

in N days' time  10:1

.edu sites

.ac.uk sites

is nothing to do with 4340 1140

has nothing to do with

232,000 2030

ratio 1:53 1:2

- In the U.S., when someone refers to his or her "partner," it usually

means the other person is the same gender. I am going to come out

of the closet and tell you that I LOVE partner! In the UK, it is

the unmarked--which is to say normal, usual-- way to refer to the

person you share your life with (but usually aren't married to). It's

gender-free, works as well for gay and straight relationships, doesn't

infantali{s/z}e either party. 

- Why don't Americans use it so generally? Probably because gay and

lesbian folk started using it, and no one wanted to be mistaken for

gay/lesbian, so they avoid it--though the official story is that it

'sounds too business-y'. What do Americans use instead? All sorts of

things--there just isn't an unproblematic and widely accepted

equivalent. They use boyfriend/girlfriend, significant other, lover

- BrE: I said "It's gone five" (meaning "it's after five o'clock" )

- BrE speakers can also use gone for peoples' ages (with mostly the

same connotations as Robert gave for the time-telling gone), i.e. He's

gone 60 ('he's over sixty already').- Another use that I believe is mostly BrE (having a hard time

confirming its dialect, but I'm pretty sure I'm right about this) is post-nominal gone to mean 'pregnant', as in this travel(l)ing-while-pregnant story from The Times:“Four months gone, over the sickness and constantly hungry, I was delighted to find that they had one restaurant serving European and Egyptian specialities and another specialising in modern Indian which satisfied my cravings for spicy food and yoghurt.”

October, 2008

- I was watching “Supernanny” the other day (it’s voyeurism, I know) and she made reference to removing the “stabilizers” from a child’s bicycle, meaning the “training wheels”. Is this a common BrE term or just a one-off? It's not a one-off--one often hears stabilizers (and often reads stabilisers) for these things in BrE. 

November, 2008

- Yes, cars in the UK hoot (among other sounds) and in the US

they honk (among other sounds).

November, 2008- Cooties (imaginary disease) x the dreaded lurgi

January, 2009- AmE I should have never done it = BrE I should never have done it

February, 2009

- I'm not sure if this is what you call them, but I'm looking for what I would call a (AmE)china marker. These things are also called grease

pencils in AmE. BrE chinagraph (pencil).

March, 2009

The British parent will say Well done!

The American parent will say Good job!

April 2009

- whoa (AmE) x woah (BrE)

- (BrE) The kids are creating. (~misbehaving, making a fuss etc)

May 2009

- take the piss (out of)

1. (Australia, New

Zealand, UK, vulgar, slang, idiomatic, transitive) To tease, ridicule or mock (someo

ne). 

June, 2009

. He'd noted that BrE speakers are more likely to say I feel shit whereas

AmE speakers would have to say I feel like shit. More examples:

sound: He sounded a complete mess. [Jeremy Clarke in The Independent]

look: Joey Barton has made me look a fool. [Oliver Holt on Mirror.co.uk]

appear: I was trying to appear a total gentleman! [on ducatisti.co.uk]

- peanut butter and (AmE) jelly/(BrE) jam. 

- (AmE) drugstore/(BrE) chemist’s (shop)/(AmE & BrE) pharmacy.

-

- But what struck me, because Better Half strikes me with it all the

time, is the use of stroke for where AmE speakers would use the

(originally Scottish English) verb pet. So, when I say to Grover Are

you petting the kitty cat? Better Half is not far behind with Stroking!

Stroking the cat! 

She is usually at work before 9. (BrE or AmE)She usually is at work before 9. (more likely in AmE)

- Now, it's more likely in AmE than BrE, but usually is not more likely in AmE than is usually. As Algeo says, AmE just has a 'higher tolerance' for it.

August, 2009

-

- In my AmE dialect, this is called a pinwheel, but in BrE it's called

a windmill (because it looks like a 'real' windmill).

In BrE, this is a bucket and spade. Now, whenever my in-laws

discuss these, they put them in that order (bucket and spade), and so

I was going to say that this phrase is an irreversible binomial

(something we've discussed before) but via Google, I actually find

more spade and buckets [see the first comment for vindication of my

intuition/experience]. The AmE equivalent (in my dialect, at least)

is shovel and pail, which I would put in that order, but for which

there are many times more examples of the other order, pail and

shovel, online.

-  Special thanks to Better Half, for letting me (AmE) sleep

in/(BrE) have a lie-ina few times during the past couple of weeks, so

that I could work/blog into the wee hours.

October, 2009

- (AmE) hew to:to uphold, follow closely, or conform (usually fol. by to): to hew to the tenets of one's political party.

- I've had several requests for discussion of the difference between

(AmE) entrée (= BrE/AmE main course) and French entrée (=

AmE appetizer and BrE starter). 

- I've yet to come across a burger (BrE) pedlar/(AmE) peddler who

asks you if you want your Big Macà la carte.

- Ordering à la carte, then, is ordering from the (individual courses)

menu rather than ordering (AmE)the whole shebang/(BrE) the full

monty.

November, 2009

- he's six weeks short of being two, and (orig. AmE) talking up a

storm.  [talking A LOT]

December, 2009

- But back to our party: Better Half asked whether anyone would like

a top-up (of mulled wine) and the Brooklynite commented

(something like): "Now there's a linguistic difference.  We'd

say refill."  

And I thought, "Oh yeah, we would, wouldn't we?" 

Americans refill drinks, the British top them up.  In the UK, the

common American experience of (orig. and chiefly AmE) bottomless

coffee (i.e. free refills) is not common at all, but in the US, the (AmE,

often jocular) waitron will flit from table to table, coffee pot in hand,

asking "Can I get you a refill?" or "Can I warm that up for you"? 

If this were to happen in the UK, it would be most natural to ask if the

customer would like a top-up.  

- About an American "prepay" phone service:” As always, Verizon Wireless prepay service allows customers to refill their minutes over the phone”(versus top up)

January, 2010

- "Centenary" isn't the word we would use in the US; we would say

"centennial".  And we would pronounce the second syllable with a

short 'e', while they pronounce it with a long 'e'.

- Cen’tennial (/é/) celebrations (adj)the museum’s centennial (noun)

- ‘Plenary (AmE: /e/; BrE: /i:/)-

- A Brighton and Hove City Council spokesman said all the authority's refuse and recycling staff were being diverted to gritting roads and pavements today.

- Now, I don't believe that this use of grit is solely BrE, but in the snowy

Northeastern US, one talks about salting the roads--which may

include some sand--or less frequently of sanding the roads--which

usually includes some salt or other de-icing agent.

snow plow

- in BrE (swimming/bathing) costume is is often used to mean

(AmE) swimsuit or bathing suit.

- Fancy dress party (BrE) x costume party (AmE)

- (BrE) After the watershed: the watershed is the time limit after which

more controversial subjects, bad language, etc, can be shown on TV

in some countries, so if it's after the watershed, then discussions can

be freer, franker and more controversial.

- Prime time (AmE) x peak time (BrE)

- This goes along with my experience that both named

after and named for are fine in AmE, but that named for is not used

much in BrE. 

“July is named for Julius Caesar who is responsible for the calender year as

we know it. “

- Call in senses meaning 'come to, visit' is also less often used in AmE

(where it sounds rather old-fashioned to me) than in BrE. 

- Meanwhile, BrE doesn't use call as much with reference to

telephones.  Americans call their mothers (on the phone), the

British ring their mothers.  I'm sure neither do it as often as the

mothers would like.

- (BrE) Tidying.  That verb is not absent from AmE, but it somehow

sounds too fussy.  So, we pick up or clean, but we almost never tidy.

Let's pick this room up in a hurry | I want you to pick up the entire

house.

- other (BrE) titbits/(AmE) tidbits of possible dialectal and cross-

cultural interest

- AmE take-out (noun) and to-go(adj/adv) vs. BrE take-away.

- BrE:

A noun for the food that's been taken away:  We had a Chinese take-

away.

A noun for a place that only sells prepared food to eat off-site: We

went to the Chinese take-away.

An adjective for such food or place: a take-away pizza

A phrasal verb: Is that to eat here (or eat in) or take away?

- On to the American: take-out does not have quite the range

that take-away does, since it shares the work with to-go

- (AmE) toothpick/(BrE) cocktail stick 

- a prize (BrE) draw/(AmE) drawing.

March, 2010

- garden leave (also gardening leave) is, to quote the OED:

"Brit. (euphem.) suspension from work on full pay for the duration of a

notice period, typically to prevent an employee from having any

further influence on the organization or from acting to benefit a

competitor before leaving."

- AmE speakers are more likely to say go out the window/door than

BrE speakers, who more typically go out of the window. 

- BrE says out of hours to mean 'outside normal business hours', while AmE would use after hours in most similar contexts.

- BrE kicks people out of the team 96% of the time in Algeo's data (versus off the team) AmE always kicks people off the team.

- BrE sometimes (28% of the time in A's data--the Cambridge Intertnational Corpus) has things being out of all recognition instead of beyond all recognition.  AmE always uses the latter.

- so I'm going to shut up already [final positioning ofalready is AmE,

influenced by Yiddish].

- There was such a department, but this (BrE) government /

(AmE) administration turned it into a department for 'children,

schools and families' and reclassified universities as part of the

business world.)

- BBC: Hundreds of staff from the University of Sussex staged a strike in protest at job cuts, as students occupied a lecture theatre for an eighth day.

- In British English, one generally strikes in protest at something but,

in American English, one strikes in protest against/of sth

- And when we say put the kettle on in AmE, we almost certainly mean

putting it on the (AmE)stove/(BrE) hob. 

- (BrE) fork buffet supper x (AmE) hors d'oeuvres will be served'

or  'finger foods will be served', or some such thing. [~standing

buffet]

April, 2010

- on the stump   (mainly American)

a politician who is on the stump is travelling to different places in order to make 

speeches and get support, especially before an election On the

stump in North Dakota, Anderson took time out to give this interview.

- Snog (BrE) = make out (BrE) kissing + others things - [Bathroom] stall (AmE) x [bathroom] cubicle (BrE)

- The difference for trip is that Americans use it more often than the

British do, and more often than journey.  BrE, on the other hand,

uses journey as much as it uses trip.

- In AmE one would make a stopover rather than break a journey.

- Journey (n) is used more in British English than American English. It

means the 'piece' of travel between 2 or more points. The word

journey is very rarely used as a verb.

July, 2010

-  (AmE) #1, which is read as 'number one'.

- * While cursive is not marked as AmE in the OED (it certainly wasn't coined in America), it's rarely heard in the UK, where people instead tend to say (BrE) joined-up writing.

-  Let's say you were (BrE/AmE) burgled/(AmE) burglarizedand the

insurance company agreed to cover your losses.  Of course, they

never cover the full amount that you claim for; there will be, say $100

or £50 (or some such number) that is not paid, as per the insurance

contract.  In BrE that's the excess, whereas in AmE it's

the deductible.

- On another insurance note, in BrE, you're more likely to see some

insurance products or companies with assurance in their names,

rather than insurance.  One particularly sees it in the context life

assurance (vs AmE life insurance)--but this is rarer and rarer.

Let's let's get straight what we are talking about then . 

October, 2010

- In AmE, you'd probably shout dibs.  In BrE, at least down here in the

South, bagsy would do, though it might just be bags.  To put this in

the verbal form, you can bags or bagsy something. [Mark Sutherland

baggsys a window seat] A verbal form of dibs is also widely reported

(I dibsed it!), but I'd be much more likely to say I've got dibs on

it or I called dibs on that. 

- One calls shotgun. And once one gets the seat, one rides shotgun,

which originally meant (and still can mean) 'To travel as a (usually

armed) guard next to the driver of a vehicle; (in extended use) to act

as a protector' (OED). 

- (AmE) driver's license/(BrE) driving licence

- a (AmE) station wagon/(BrE) estate car;

- The interjection of disgust is, to me, yuck, as in: Yuck! Who put

Brussels sprouts in the stir fry?!  The slang, onomatopoetic term for

laughter is yuk, as in: We had some yuks at the Prime Minister's

expense.  (It can also be a verb, but I wouldn't tend to use it that

way.) The American Heritage Dictionary allows that the spellings

could be reversed, but agrees with me that the default is for the

laughter one to be c-less and the interjection to be c-ful. BrE has the

disgust interjection--but often spells it yuk, as illustrated by these

two British-authored children's books.  The OED lists the laughter

meaning, marking it as chiefly N. Amer., but spells it yuck.

-   (BrE)

- So, even if both uses of yu(c)k are known in both countries, there's

still potential for miscommunication because of reverses in spelling.

- American has a couple of other yuck/disgust

synonyms: ick and ew (often ewwwwww!)  Ick also gives us the

adjective icky (just as yuck gives yucky).  Ick(y) and yuck(y) are often

interchangeable, but have slightly different connotations.  I'd

prefer ick(y) for something that was disgusting in some sweet or

sticky way. Or something that gave me the (orig. AmE) heebie-

jeebies [A state of nervous fear or anxiety:], whereas yuck(y) is more likely for

something that's just plain disgusting, such as poo(p).

- I use tummy (or the anatomically-incorrect stomach).  To

me, belly particularly signals a round tummy--hence (orig.

AmE) beer belly.  Babies have bellies, Buddha statues have bellies,

~paunch

- So, in BrE, belly is used for the 'rounded abdomen' meaning, just as in

AmE, and AmE uses tummy in that context too.

- What about bellybutton and tummy-button? OED has the former

dated to the 19th century, but the latter only in the mid-20th

century.  COCA has zero instances of tummy-button, tummybutton,

ortummy button.  BNC has just one.  Belly(-)button seems to be the

default colloquialism for 'navel' in either dialect

-

- Referring to a young child as it is far more common in British English

than American. But. But but but.  But the practice is dying out.

- And Monica, you're not the only American to have this reaction. After

Grover was born, an English friend (who's in his early 60s) came to

pay his regards.  He knew her sex, but he repeatedly referred to her

as it. And each time, I corrected him with a her ('my child is not a

thing!') 

- one of the commenters who seemed to think it was a (BrE) storm in

a teacup/(AmE) tempest in a teapot:

- “At the end of the première, the audience calls for a sung encore, so

Reynolds stands behind a curtain and sings 'Singin' in the Rain' while

Hagen ______.”

How do you fill in that blank?  Better Half (and now Grover) always

says mimes, while I would say lip-syncs.

January, 2011

- Using these corpora and searching with regard(s) to and in regard(s) to I found the plural 'regards' outnumbering singular in BrE, but not in AmE (singular).

BrE

AmE

with regard to:with regards to

3:78:1

in regard to:in regards to 1:24:1

- stutter took over in AmE as the usual term. In BrE, stammer has

always been the more common word, but we can see possible

Americani{s/z}ation in recent years

February, 2011

- To play up is informal BrE for behaving irritatingly or erratically.

One's lumbago can play up, the computer might play up, and

certainly one's children can play up.  (Late addition: BZ has pointed

out the AmE equivalent: act up.)

April, 2011

- "Correction: we accidentally published an incorrect set of figures for the percentage change on one week ago. This was corrected on January 22nd 2010." Another example is a headline from the Guardian:  "University applications up a fifth on last year"

- Ah, on. As John Algeo writes, "This preposition is one that has many differences in use between British and American English". So, let's try to get through a few of those here.  

The on that Emmet's observed here is indeed a BrEism meaning 'in

comparison to'. The OED definition goes like this:

Indicating comparison with a standard, originally a favourable one; (Finance) compared with, in relation to (a previous financial situation, figure, etc.), esp. in up or down on. -I can't do those all here--they'll come up (BrE) as and when/(AmE) if

and when.

- In sport(s), on to express the relationship between opposing players

(e.g. one-on-one) is described as 'chiefly N. Amer.'.

- The use of on with closed means of transport (e.g. I went there on

the train) is originally AmE, but generally accepted as common

English now. 

- In AmE you can blow off a person by not showing up to an arranged

meeting. In BrE you would blow [them] out. I've been told by UKers

that blow off sounds obscene, but to my AmE ears blow out sounds

violent--like a (AmE) tire/(BrE) tyre bursting. 

- twigs, twigging, twigged

British informal Understand or realize something: This is before he twigs

that his German friend is gay.

-

-

In BrE, this is bunting. In AmE, I'd call it a string of pennants

May, 2011

- Het up about sth (angry)

June, 2011

- The difference is in how we more informally say 'it is your (or her or

his or my) responsibility'. It may seem strange, but BrE and AmE look

like they're complete opposites on this one. In BrE, one can sayIt's

down to you to mean 'it's your responsibility to do that', whereas

AmE would say it's up to you.

- But all the ones that are straight responsibility meanings are it's down to you in the BNC (10 hits):

But if they get arrested it's down to you. [conversation]

Unless you're a tenant, it's down to you to make sure gas appliances receive the

regular expert servicing they need. [advert]

Between now and Sunday it's down to you to decide that you definitely want to go

ahead [speech]

July, 2011

- Americans tend to call them baby teeth, and the more common

term for them in BrE is milk teeth. 

- A milk/baby tooth isn't forever, of course, and before it goes it is

a loose tooth, but in BrE one also hears wobbly tooth a lot. 

- Leverage (AmE: /lé/; BrE: /li:/)

- The pronunciation difference, with BrE preferring 'ee' where AmE

prefers the "short vowel" is found in a range of words,

including evolution. 

August, 2011

nousSee definition in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Syllabification: nous

Pronunciation:   /n os/o͞  

 /nous/ 

Definition of nous in English:

noun

1Philosophy The mind or intellect.

EXAMPLE SENTENCES

2informal , chiefly British Common sense; practical intelligence:if he had any nous at

all, he’d sell the movie rights

gumptionSee definition in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

Syllabification: gump·tion

Pronunciation:   / mpSH( )n/ˈɡə ə  

Definition of gumption in English:noun

informal

Shrewd or spirited initiative and resourcefulness:she had the gumption to put her

foot down and head Dan off from those crazy schemes

- to buy a (AmE & BrE) greeting/(BrE) greetings card

September, 2011

- football boots. In AmE these are cleatsor soccer shoes.

irst slide, please:

[from UK shoe retailer Office] This, in BrE is a court shoe.  In AmE it would be a pump.  (Or call them high heels wherever you are.)  Next slide, please!

[also from Office] In AmE this is a flat, more specifically a ballet flat.  In BrE this is a pump. More specifically, a ballet pump.  Very confusing. (And don't forget that ballet   is pronounced differently in AmE & BrE .) What BrE & AmE pumps have in common is that they are low-cut--baring the top of the foot--but I think that the AmE definition is now so closely associated with heels that you can probably find AmE 'pumps' that aren't low-cut. (In fact, you can.)  Next slide, please!

[Office] This is a trainer in BrE. (Yes, people who train people are also called trainers in BrE.) In AmE, it's a bit more complicated:

- This map from Bert Vaux's Dialect Survey shows the distribution of

words for that kind of shoe in the continental US. Red = sneakers,

light blue = tennis shoes, green = gym shoes. (Click on the link for

the other colo(u)rs.)

- The two of _______ x The both of ___________

the both of occurs more in speech than in writing, it looks as though it's

considered to be somewhat informal in both dialects, but more so in BrE

Instances per 10 million words

dialectthe two  of us

     we two +       us two

   the two     of you

  you two

AmE (COCA)      34            8.9          37.3     81.6

BrE (BNC)     15.1

           10.8

         12.6     61.8

Moving on to Jeremy's second

tem, [pronoun] and

pronoun] both is much more

common in AmE (40 per million

words) than BrE (0.26 pmw)

“It will be good for him and me both.”

December, 2011

- (orig. BrE) kittling x (AmE) corralling

gather together and confine (a group of people or things):

- Ham radio = amateur radio

January, 2012

- No, you've hit two members of the majority, Robert.  More haste,

less speed (and less frequent variants, like less haste, more

speed and more haste, worse speed) is mainly a BrE expression

Americans, on the other hand, say haste makes waste, which is not

unknown in the UK, but it's not in the British National Corpus and only

9 times on the guardian.co.uk site 

February, 2012

- The headline is about an American basketball player, Jeremy Lin, who

is all the rage these days. The problem is that the headline would be

rather upsetting reading for a BrE-speaking Lin fan.  In BrE to top

oneself is a colloquial way of saying 'to kill oneself'.  But it was the

AmE meaning 'to surpass oneself/one's previous achievements' that

was clearly intended by the New York Times.  

It's not necessarily the case that the "AmE" meaning is entirely AmE

here--the 'surpass' meaning oftop is general English. But with the

reflexive pronoun, it's not the first meaning to come to mind in BrE.

The 'suicide' meaning comes from a more general use of top meaning

'to kill'--which originally referred to killing by hanging, but which is

used more generally now for execution/killing in BrE, but not AmE. 

March, 2012

- Catch a break" is defined as "A moment of luck in difficult times" such as the

following."A caught a break when the police officer decided not to write me a ticket"

June, 2012

Disc-ID: disclose identity

November, 2012

- AmE hump day. Wednesday

December, 2012

wonkNorth American informal, derogatory

1A studious or hardworking person:any kid with an interest in science was a wonk

MORE EXAMPLE SENTENCES

1.1A person who takes an excessive interest in minor details of political policy:he is

a policy wonk in tune with a younger generation of voters

March, 2013

- I am often being told that Americans don't write catalogue, they

write catalog. The same for dialogue/dialog. But, the thing is, I've always

(or at least since I was a grown-up) used the -ue in all of them. Because the

shorter forms are only American, from the British perspective, the shorter

forms are "the American spelling". But from the American perspective, most

wouldn't consider the longer forms to be "the British spelling" in the same

way that we'd consider colour or centre as British spellings. They're just

alternative spellings

July, 2013

- Hot dog (BrE x US) The same kind of thing happens with (orig.

AmE) burgers. The British focus on the bread: a burger is a cooked thing

served in a round bun (but they'd be more likely to call it a roll--see the

old baked goods post). So, order a chicken burger at Nando's or Gourmet

Burger Kitchen, and you'll get what Americans would call a chicken breast

sandwich. For Americans, a burger is a (chiefly AmE) pattymade of

(AmE) ground/(BrE) minced meat, so we can be heard to express surprise

when the chicken burgers we order in the UK are chicken breasts.

- The patty itself can also be called a burger, whether or not it is served in a sandwich,

especially in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where the term "patty" is rarely used.

January, 2014