There was a widely circulated saying that teases British and American English. England and America are two countries divided by a common language. Although there is endless connection between the United Kingdom and the United States and speak the same language, this does not mean that they can understand what the other party is saying.
In addition to pronunciation issues, the usage of some words is also very different. From the different statements of football and soccer to the confusion that may be caused by pants and trousers. The following charts are the most authoritative inventory of some commonly used British and American nouns in life. Let’s take a look. Can you tell it apart?
Food
In the UK, biscuitTM5 is the general term for all cookies, while Americans call cookies cookie. How can the iconic tea and cookies be missing in the popular British drama " Detective Sherlock "? Right, use biscuit.
is more familiar to everyone and is easier to distinguish. The most stupid thing to tell the difference is probably the two potato-related foods: French fries and potato chips.
We all know that the UK is a potato country, and potatoes are basically indispensable on the dining table. The fries you like are called chips in the UK and fries in the US; if you say you want chips in the US, you won’t get the fries you want, but you will get a pack of potato chips. And what are the British calling potato chips? crisps.
Clothes
If you say that eating is mixed, it is okay, but if you don’t understand the different opinions of “pants” by British and Americans, you may make a big joke…
If a British man is told to wear pants and vest to attend the banquet-the final scene may be that he is wearing nothing, while his American friends are dressed very formally. This is because in the United States, pants are formal pants and vests are small vests, but in British usage, pants are underwear and vests are underwear. If you want the British to dress formally, you should use trousers and waistcoat.
Similarly, what if a British man is told that only one purse can be placed in a certain space, they may want to take other things with them. Because purse is a handbag in the United States, and in the United Kingdom it refers to a wallet, while the British call handbags handbag.
Transportation
If you travel to the United States and the United Kingdom, renting a car is of course excellent, but if the car breaks down, you have to repair it. You must be able to use words according to local customs. If an American is repairing a car in the UK and hears the mechanic say, "Open your hood (bonne, the hood in the British saying), this American is likely to be confused because in the United States, the hood is called hood.
It is very convenient to take the subway in London, but if you use American English subway to ask others where the subway is, don’t blame the British guy for not understanding it, because in the UK, the subway is called tube.
is both a bridge, but overpasses have different names in the UK and the United States, namely flyover (British) and overpass (American). They are all highways, called motorway in the UK, and highway in the US. Even gasoline is different. petrol is an English statement, and gasoline is an American statement.
Professional
When you watch American and British dramas, you will always find that when the characters in the drama say "lawyer" profession, they are not just expressed in the word lawyer. Most of the time, they use attorney, solicitor, barrister...attorney is an American statement, which sounds more formal; in the UK, the division of lawyers is more detailed. Compared to solicitor, barrister is a barrister. We often see lawyers who are verbal in court in TV series, all are barristers.
Other
Pacifiers are also used differently in the UK and the United States. The media once photographed Beckham using a pacifier for his 4-year-old daughter Xiaoqi, which caused a controversy.
Search the titles of British and American media to show the difference in style:
CNN : David Beckham defends daughter Harper's pacifier
BBC : David Beckham defends giving four-year-old daughter dummy
The word eraser generally we say in elementary school, eraser, but in fact this is an American statement. The rubber in British English is rubber. So, if you borrow rubber from an American friend to use rubber, don’t blame him for not understanding it. It is possible that he will still look at you strangely...
Although in daily life, as long as you can communicate and mix words, it is okay to keep it consistent in the formal language exam. If it is American spelling, try to be American from beginning to end, and British are all British.
In the future, you can pay attention to these words when watching American and British dramas. I hope you can use them authentically and truly follow the local customs.
This article is compiled by the WeChat public account "Zhouchenggang on the road" (zhouchenggang0311). The picture is from Grammar Check. Please indicate the source when reprinting.
