.svg.png)
American - British
closet - wardrobe
dish soap - washing up liquid
hair pin - hair grip
passed (died) - passed away
take out - take away
British - American
hair grip - hair pin
passed away - passed
wardrobe - closet
washing up liquid - dish soap
Useful Websites
BBC
Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English
Please share links to your favourite posts
American English - British English
double down - as it suggests, more, reiterate, insist, repeat, make a strong bid (the phrase comes from a card game where you make a strong bid with a card)
bonnet - hood
gas - petrol
gas station - garage
gear box - transmission
make a left - turn left
sidewalk - pavement
trunk - boot
tyre - tire
windshield - windscreen
.svg.png)
British English - American English
boot - trunk
car - automobile
glove box
hood - bonnet
motorway
pavement - sidewalk
petrol - gas
turn left - make a left
tyre - tire
windscreen - windshield
Useful Websites
translate google does not translate American English into British English
Please share links to your favourite blog posts.
An American asked, what is an HGV. Here goes:
UK - USA
1 HGV = heavy goods vehicle / large lorry - truck
2 HGV - truck and trailer/semi/ articulated truck/18 wheeler/big rig
3 lorry - truck
4 lorry driver - truck driver
While we're at it, a few more handy words:
UK - USA
1 car - automobile
2 (car) bonnet - hood
3 (car) boot - trunk
4 car boot sale (usually in a field or car park) - garage sale (usually in a garage)
5 car park - parking lot
6 high street - main street
8 pavement - sidewalk
7 road - pavement
8 turn right - make a right
9 petrol - gas
10 garage - gas station
English - American
coach - (inter-city) bus, usually single-decker
Economy class - coach class
first floor - second floor
fortnight - two weeks
ground floor - first floor
jelly - Jello (brand name)
tissues/paper hankies - Kleenex
twice - two times
with ice cream - a la mode
American - British English
a la mode - (French for in the fashion) with ice cream
bus (as in Greyhound bus) - (long-distance) coach
coach class - economy class
coach - railway carriage
first floor - ground floor
Jello (brand name) - jelly
Kleenex - tissues/paper hankies
second floor - third floor
two weeks - fortnight (short for fourteen nights)
two times - twice
Useful Websites
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2022/10/americanisms.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English
Please share links to your favourite posts
When travelling, pack a list of Americanisms and British English. I was distressed in Disney, Florida, on hearing that our monorail would be stopping momentarily. I thought they meant briefly, and rushed my family with, our suitcases, to the door. Later I tried to check out of a hotel on the other side of the USA, the west coast, and asked for a porter. I was anxious to check out before the deadline so as not to risk being charged for another half day or day. The porter never arrived. The reciptionist told me to ring housekeeping. They thought I wanted some kind of drink and were in no hurry. Eventually, after ringing recption frantically for the missing porter, I discovered that my hotel receptionist understood only the word bellhop. The word porter is used in the USA, but only at railway stations.
USA - UK
automobile - car
autoroute - motorway
backpack - rucksack
baggage - luggage
bellhop - porter (in a hotel)
crib - cot
diaper - nappy
dummy - (depending on context) dimwit/pacifier/mannekin or clothes model
Fall - autumn
faucet - tap
gas station - garage/petrol station
hood (automobile) - bonnet (car)
make a right - turn right
Main street - high street
momentarily - in a moment, shortly, soon
pants - trousers
pharmacy - chemist
truck - lorry trunk (of a car) - boot (of a car
underpants - pants
Take out - take away (food)
windshield - windscreen
UK - USA
autumn - Fall
bonnet (car) - hood (automobile)
boot - trunk
car - automobile
chemist - pharmacy
cot - crib
garage - gas station
high street - main street
lorry - truck
luggage - baggage
momentarily - briefly
motorway - autoroute
nappy - diaper
pants - underpants
porter (in a hotel) - bellhop
rucksack - backpack
Take away - take out (food)
tap - faucet
trousers - pants
turn right - make a right
windscreen - windshield
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English
Read more posts by Angela Lansbury, travel writer, English teacher, tutor and trainer, fashionista. Everything you wanted to know and need to know for your fun trips. Read posts on destinations, travel clothes, packing, preparing to learn languages, famous authors' statues, travellers' homes, trails, museums, historical houses - plus fun food, and bargain shopping.
Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts with your favourite friends.
American and British English are understandable except for a handful of words. For example.
USA - UK
candies - sweets
check - bill
cookies - biscuits
diapers - nappies
Fall - autumn
faucet - tap
parking lot - car park
pharmacy - chemist
real estate - property
realtor - estate agent
semester - term
take out - take away
windshield - windscreen
UK - USA
autumn - Fall
bill - check
biscuits - cookies
car park - parking lot
chemist - pharmacy
estate agent - realtor
nappies - diapers
property - real estate
sweets - candies
tap - faucet
term - semester
take away - take out
windscreen - wind shield
Many other languages have similarities.
How to learn languages on holiday (alphabetical list of languages)
C
Chinese
Traditional in China. variations in Taiwan and Singapore.
D
Dutch
Learn Dutch in the Netherland and if you speak French watch the bilingual French-Dutch signs in Belgium, as well as Sint Maarten on the south side of the island shared with St Martin in the Caribbean.
F
French
Learn French in bilingual places such as Canada's capital. Also France, Belgium, Switzerland. And St Martin in the Caribbean.
German
Learn German in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
J
Japanese
Japanese used the same signs as Chinese for most words with the same meaning. (Think of washing symbols and no smoking signs.)
Portuguese
Learn Portuguese in Portugal and pick up some Portuguese in Madeira.
Spanish and Portuguese are so similar that I could read road signs and tourist signs in Madeira. For example, the word Jardim in Portuguese sounds and looks like Jardin in French and garden in English. Can you guess banco, and botanico? Remove the o and the ico.
Spanish
Spanish is spoken in Spain, Spanish islands, and most of central America, except Belize, and South America except Brazil.
Multi-Language Cities and Countries
Canada, Ottawa
The capital is bilingual.
Singapore
The four official languages are English, Chinese (Mandarin), Malay and Tamil.
Switzerland
Learn French or German or Italian if you speak any of these three languages in Switzerland.
Travel
Go on a language course in the destination country.
Stay Home and Host
Can't travel? Invite somebody from the other country to stay with you.
Currently Ukrainians are looking for homes overseas and the UK government is giving you a payment if you commit to providing a home for a Ukrainian for 6 months.
Ukrainian is similar to Russian.
Bulgarian and Russian use similar alphabets.
Japanese and Chinese use the same signs for their language of symbols, although the spoken words are different. Visit China, Taiwan, Hong Kong or Japan, Singapore, or Chinatown in your nearby city.
Wikipedia and Duolingo will tell you all the countries where you can learn and practise and keep up your languages.
Useful Websites on Where to get help
quora
thesaurus
wikipedia
American - British
bangs - fringe
bellhop - (hotel) porter
broil - grill
diaper - nappy
eraser - rubber
fall - autumn
fanny pack - bum bag
frosting (on cake) - icing
gas - petrol
gas station - garage
math - maths
night stand - bedside table
outlet - power point/socket
pants - trousers
parking lot - car park
realtor - estate agent
row house - terraced house
sidewalk - footpath
truck - lorry
underpants - pants
vacation - holiday
.svg.png)
Australian - British
barbie - barbecue/BBQ
doona - duvet
foyer (French) - lobby
g'day - good day/good morning/good afternoon/good evening
outback - back of beyond/remote area/in the wilds
Sheila - female
thongs - flipflops
Angela Lansbury wearing a Union Jack cap. Selfie photo.
British - American
duvet - comforter
garage - gas station
petrol - gas
Power point/socket - outlet
rubber - eraser
turn right - make a right
British - Australian
barbecue - barbie
drawing pin - thumb tack
clothes - togs
duvet - doona https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English_vocabulary
flip-flops - thongs
Mac/Mackintosh - raincoat
pavement - footpath
pushchair/pram - stroller/pram
lobby - foyer
sandwich - sarnie
sleeping policeman - speed bump
village - station/town
Wellington boots - gumboots
British - New Zealand
sheep farm - station/sheep station
New Zealand - British
station / sheep station - farm / sheep farm
Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_English_vocabulary
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-10698283/American-expat-Sophia-living-Sydney-reveals-slang-terms-refuses-use.html
For months I have been ignoring the message on the Daily Mail news pages 'Send us the goss'. I did not know what goss meant. Today I looked it up. The answer is below.
I still find that in Singapore, people think they are speaking British English, but talk about going out in the rain and having wet pants.
This makes me raise my eyebrowns, frown, wince. To the British, pants are what Americans call underpants. Make sure that you are understood by all the audience members, including judges in an international speech contest.
You have plenty of opportunity to create a humorous speech from words you have misunderstood at home, online, or when travelling. Just make sure that you do not unintentionally create a humorous speech.
Americanism - British English
billboard - poster / poster site
elementary school - primary school
Check - bill
goss - gossip
high school - secondary school
Pants - trousers
private school - public school
public school / state school - council school
some time back - some time ago
start over - begin again
underpants - pants
yard - garden
British English - Americanisms
begin again - start over
bill - check
garden - yard
gossip - goss
secondary school - high school
pants - underpants
public school - private school
secondary school - high school
some time ago - some time back
trousers - pants
Useful Websites
BBC on Americanisms
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14201796
Wiki Americanisms
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_New_International_Encyclop%C3%A6dia/Americanisms
Angela Lansbury's posts
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/11/americanisms-and-british-english.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2016/05/todays-americanism-candy-and-cookie-in.html
About the Author of this blog, Author Angela Lansbury
BIOGRAPHY
Angela Lansbury B A Hons ACG ALB PM5 EH5 DL5 VC5
The Author of several books, including: Etiquette For Every Occasion. Wedding Speeches & Toasts. How to be the Best Man. Quick Quotations. Who Said What When.
Blogs travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com
dressofthedayangela.blogspot.com
Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters Speakers Club Vice President Public Relations (VPPR), Previous President
Join BHA 1st Wednesday 7pm and 3rd Saturday 2 pm Singapore time
Vice President Public Relations (VP PR) of Tampines Changkat Advanced;
Secretary of weekly online Singapore International Dynamic Toastmasters Speakers’ Club;
Member and past president of Harrovians toastmasters club, UK; Past member of HOD Toastmasters, London. Past member in Singapore of: Toastmasters Club of Singapore (TCS); Tiarel; and Senja Cashew.
More details from Toastmasters International find a club.
Regular attendee at annual Swanwick Writers’ School, England.
Regular attendee at annual Writers’ Holiday, Wales.
Contributor to poetry readings, and after tea courses on: Speaking On Radio To Promote Books; and Plots And Character.
Winner of many club and area speaking contests in the UK and Singapore.
Language advisor to Empire Toastmasters club in Indonesia.
Language and speech workshops in Singapore.
Speaker on radio and TV in England, Scotland, the USA, and Australia.
Compiler of a school course on public speaking for teachers to prepare pupils for school open days with attending ceremonies before government ministers, Singapore.
Former member of Harrow Writers’ Circle, London, and two writing groups in Singapore.
Angela is on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter. She would be delighted to link up with new friends.
I also have a blog on comic poems.
Please share links to your favourite posts.
I replied, "A man with a trolley, to move our suitcases. Luggage. Baggage. Carry bags?"
"Ah, ma-am, I believe you are seeking a bell-hop?"
My husband emerged from the bathroom and demanded, "What's taking so long?"
I replied, "Lost in translation. Sounds like they thought a porter was some king of cocktail. What we want is a bellhop or bellboy."
American - English
argue - row (rhyming with how)
bangs - fringe (hairstyle)
bell hop, bell boy - porter (in a hotel)
drug store - chemist
drunk - pissed (slang)
fanny pack - bum bag / waist pouch
good / I am good - well / I am well
good to go - (ready to go)
goose bumps - goose pimples
lawyer - solicitor (in an office doing paperwork, not in court)
math - maths
momentarily - soon, shortly, in a moment
oftentimes - often
period - full stop
pleased with yourself/proud/delighted - chuffed (slang)
raise (a child) - bring up
real estate - property
real estate agent - estate agent
regular - medium size
shopping cart - (shopping) trolley
take out - take away
zee - zed
English - American
bring up (a child) - raise
bum bag / waist pouch - fanny pack
chemist's - drug store
chuffed - pleased with yourself
estate agent - real estate agent
fringe - bangs
full stop - period
goose pimples - goose bumps
maths - math
medium size - regular
momentarily - briefly, only for a moment
my mistake, my fault - my bad
often - oftentimes
row (rhyming with now) - argue
pissed (slang) - drunk
shopping trolley - shopping cart
solicitor (in an office doing legal paperwork, not speaking in court) - lawyer
take away - take out
well (I am well) - good (I am good)
zed - zee
Useful Websites
Americanisms
https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-14201796
General Language
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portal:Language
About The Author
Angela Lansbury was born in london, England and is British. She has lived in the USA. She teaches English and runs workshops.
About the Author
Angela Lansbury is Vice President Public Relations of Braddell Heights Advanced, and Tampines Changkat Advanced, speakers training club which are part of Toastmasters International. The USA has several Spanish speaking as well as the English speaking clubs. You can pick up Spanish from buying or reading online their Spanish clubs welcome pages and manuals.
In The USA, UK, Singapore and worldwide, there are many clubs which are English speaking, as well as Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese, French, Tamil, Malay.
The inauguration of Tampines Changkat Advanced was Tuesday 29 2021, online on zoom. Their meetings are on the fourth Tuesday evening of the month. They hope to hold meetings with a few people meeting physically, the others online, as soon as the Covid-19 conditions allow.
You can find the club through their facebook page as well as through Toastmasters International find a club.
https://www.facebook.com/tampineschangkatadvTMC
The meetings are free for visitors. Visitors can watch, and join in speaking by introducing themselves and volunteering to do a 2 minutes impromptu speech in table topics.
If you wish to join for a year, it costs about 190 US dollars, to have monthly meetings online, a mentor, a magazine, and one of the 11 Pathways, consisting of 14 projects. Each project starts with 3 speeches of your choice of subject, lasting 4 to 6 minutes, then 5 to 7 minutes. The Pathways include the most popular Presentation Mastery. I chose humorous speaking as my second Pathway, costing 20 dollars. Then my third was a leadership course. Come and see for free.
The club also has meetings in person in Singapore
You can also contact my other club, smaller Braddell Heights Advanced, which is a cosy little club with more chances to speak.
Login through bha.learncool.sg/meet/bha
That will link you through to Zoom or googlemeet. 2 pm to 5 pm.
BHA meets the first Wednesday evening each month, starting at 7 pm Singapore time.
Then an extra meeting on the 3rd Saturday afternoon, starting at 2 pm Singapore time.
To check your time zone,
https://24timezones.com/difference/singapore/
Meetings will be on Wed July 7th and Saturday July 17th.
Contact either of these or other clubs through Toastmasters International Find a Club.
I was born in Britain but like all babies I was born not knowing a single word of the local languages. I learned the essentials of grammar at primary school, a simple sentence, the cat sat on the mat, teaching me that you put the word the before the important subject of the sentence when talking about something else.
An Office and The Office
Nowadays in Asia, I hear Indians say, 'I go to office,' which should be, 'I go to the office'. As a language evaluator at clubs online, and an English language tutor to individuals, I point out the importance of A and the. The technical name for a and the is determiners.
A President and The President
You can address somebody or refer to somebody as Mr President, President, or President Obama. However, otherwise you must specify and distinguish between a president and the president. There's a distinction between a president and the president. A is short for any or one. The means the important one or the only one. You might ask, is there a president who can open the meeting? This would mean the president of your organization or another organization, one of several. But if you are asking for THE president, the important one, he is the president of this club or this organization.
British sentences go subject, verb, object.
Years later I learned that the Germans and Japanese in WW2, Word War 2, put the verb at the end of the sentence, which is why the British and Americans interrupt. But the polite Japanese listen like nodding dolls. The scientific Germans are observing and checking every word of your sentence. Like Einstein, whose name means one stone, waiting to hear the end of your sentence to find out what you are doing to do.
Euphemisms
As a child I had to learn euphemisms, polite words to hide facts from children, such as death. When I was under ten years old, at granny's, I heard somebody say, "She lost her husband". I replied, helpfully, "My mummy lost me in Woolworths. She could go and look in Woolworths." I was upset when everybody laughed at me. Nobody would explain why.
At school my mother paid for me to have elocution lessons. She wanted me to bilingual, to learn French and go to the Lycee Francais but they admitted children who had one French speaking parents so I did not qualify. However, I learned French O level and A level at school. After I left school and married and our son was born, I employed au pair girls to help in the house, choosing French speaking girls to keep up my French.
Language wise, all went well, until we visited our au pair girl's family in France. They offered me a cup of coffee and I said, merci, which is French for thank you. I never got my coffee. The reason was that the French say merci as short for, 'no, thank you,' and please is short for 'yes, please'.
From Europe I went to the USA.
Some Americaniiiisms we already knew were fall, for autumn, diaper for nappy. What I didn't know was that rubber is not sttionery. What the British call rubber, they call eraser. When I asked for a rubber in a shop in Washington DC, the assistant thought I wanted a condom. In the UK for a comdom I would have asked for a brand name, Durex.
You might think that in Australia, language problems would be fewer. So long as you know that good day is shortened to gdday, that a Sheila is any female, not necessarily named Sheila, a babie is a BBQ.
However in Australia I was told I could not enter a beach bar wearing thongs. Since I was pretty covered up in a beach robe, not wearing a swimsuit which looked like a g-sting,ght my outfit was acceptable. However, Austrlians saying thongs mean what the British would call flip flops.
About the Author
Angela Lansbury B A Hons is the author of ten books by regular publishers plus another ten self-published books.
About Angela The Speaker & Trainer
Angela Lansbury is a teacher of English and other languages to Toastmasters clubs and businesses.
Angela has several blogs on speeches, comedy and song writing and organizing, writing intermittently, but writes almost daily on these three:
Please share links to your favourite posts.
