• Holiday vs Vacation
  
• Chips vs Fries
  
• Crisps vs Chips
  
• Garden vs Backyard
  
• Lorry vs Truck
  
• Trolly vs Cart (as in a shopping cart)
  
• Knickers/Pants vs Underwear
  
• Loo/Toilet vs Bathroom/Restroom
  
• Let vs Rent
  
• Biscuit vs Cookie
  
• Torch vs Flashlight
  
• Vitamin (pronounced with a soft "i" as in "big") vs Vitamin (pronounced with a hard "i", as in "bike")
  
• Drink Driving vs Drunk Driving
  
• Boot vs Trunk
  
• Nappy vs Diaper
  
• Swimming Costume vs Swimsuit
  
• Boots vs Shoes (specifically athletic)
  
• Cling Film vs Saran Wrap/Plastic Wrap
  
• Sun Cream vs Sunblock/Sunscreen
  
• Pupil vs Student
  
• Vest vs Undershirt (specifically the one with no sleeves, ala the "wifebeater" style)
  
• Queue (how many vowels can we put in succession in a word?) vs Line
  
• Fillet (ignore the French pronunciation and say it just like it is spelled: Fill-et) vs Filet (pronounce it like the French intended: Fil-lay)
  
• Jalapeño (ignore the Spanish pronunciation and say it just like it is spelled: Jal-a-pee-no) vs Jalapeño (pronounce it like the Spanish intended: Hal-a-pen-yo)
  

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Swimming Costume vs Swimsuit

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Boots vs Shoes (specifically athletic)

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That's a 'well good' list there- you should be 'right chuffed'!

I think you've watched too much simpsons!

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Drink Driving vs Drunk Driving

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Drink Driving vs Drunk Driving

This is the only one that actually bothers me. Why is it said that way in the UK? "Drunk driving" makes sense: you're driving while drunk. "Drink driving" sounds like you make your living driving a beverage truck...or lorry.

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Because you're driving after you've had a drink.

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There's a lot of food ones, often where US English has borrowed the Italian word:
Coriander leaf / cilantro

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Because you're driving after you've had a drink.

Yup, more more sensible and truthful than the other way.

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University - College

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University - College

I've never quite got my head round the way US English uses "school" to refer to university education -- after all, high schools have "school" in the name, but universities all have "university" in the name. When a US parent says to me, "My son is thinking of going to school in England", is there a way of telling that the son means to attend a university, or is it actually ambiguous?

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Because you're driving after you've had a drink.

Yup, more more sensible and truthful than the other way.

As long as you're willing to ignore the fact that "drink" is not an adjective.

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Because you're driving after you've had a drink.

Yup, more more sensible and truthful than the other way.

As long as you're willing to ignore the fact that "drink" is not an adjective.

That's what bugs me about it. sn00p, if it were "drink-driving" as you wrote it, I think it would be a little better.

Besides, I'm not sure I agree with that reasoning. Aren't both terms used to describe when you are legally over the limit to drive? We're talking about an official level of "drunk," not how many drinks you tell people it takes to get you wasted.

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Because you're driving after you've had a drink.

Yup, more more sensible and truthful than the other way.

As long as you're willing to ignore the fact that "drink" is not an adjective.

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And yes, it's drink-driving, but you didn't write that in your orginal post, I copied what you wrote verbatim.

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Speaking of words that start with H... What about the practice of treating H as if it were silent at the start of a word? Even extending to the choice of using "a" or "an" when placing the article before the word:

UK: "The dolphin will jump through an 'oop" US: "The dolphin will jump through a hoop"

I've never heard anyone ever do that over here. H's get pronounced just fine (in that example anyway). Edit: Unless its on Eastenders

Of course you're supposed to put an 'an' before a word beginning with H. e.g. 'An hotel' as if it begins with a vowel - but nobody ever does that.

The hospital one I'm unsure of - we've had that discussion on this bbs before though! I would say 'in hospital'.

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That's a 'well good' list there- you should be 'right chuffed'!

I think you've watched too much simpsons!

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Dinner = Lunch
Tea = Dinner (lower class)
(High) Tea = ?? Afternoon cakes? (upper class)

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That's a 'well good' list there- you should be 'right chuffed'!

I think you've watched too much simpsons!

Eh? Simpsons?
I've been stuck in West Yorkshire for 5 weeks!
I'm 'nackered' and flying home tomorrow- "Chocks away, Ginger!"

It's the way you wrote it, I always read things like that in the style of the simpsons doing an english voice! They crack me up, I'm sure there are plenty of americans (and other people around the world) who think we actually talk like that! Anyway, tally-ho old chap, I'm off up the apples and pears!

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What about the practice of dropping certain articles? I've always wondered about this:

UK: "He's in hospital" US: "He's in the hospital"

Isn't the latter actually correct English, even in England? When would you use one and not the other?

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Speaking of words that start with H... What about the practice of treating H as if it were silent at the start of a word? Even extending to the choice of using "a" or "an" when placing the article before the word:

UK: "The dolphin will jump through an 'oop" US: "The dolphin will jump through a hoop"

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No worries! I understand what you're saying. I guess we'll disagree then

But one last point:

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And yes, it's drink-driving, but you didn't write that in your orginal post, I copied what you wrote verbatim.

I've never seen your version with the hyphen until I read your post. I've read a number of British news reports that have used the term often but never put a hyphen in it. So that's the official way to write it? In the US it's "drunk driving," without a hyphen.

I wrote that subconsciously, my grammar isn't that great! Although looking it up on the web, "drink-driving" does seem to be the correct way to apply it (as opposed to "drink driving").

My problem with drunk driving is that its use with the word alcohol generally means 2 things:

John drunk some beers. (may or may not be feeling the effects)
John was drunk. (definately feeling the effects!)

When used in the term "drunk driver", I agree that it could mean that either "John drunk some beers and then drove" or "john was drunk while driving", but if you were to ask the average person on the street, I'd hazard a guess that they'd go for the second meaning of the word.

Each to their own though!

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John drunk some beers.

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John drunk some beers.

John drank some beers? Is 'drunk' correct usage?

No idea! Maybe, "john has drunk some beers" would have been a better example.

I'm sure the grammar police will be along to sort this out!

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missing prepositions in US English: I've mainly seen this in cnn.com headlines

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Braces = Suspenders

Which makes me wonder what you yanks call those things that girlies use to keep their tights up

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Courgette / zucchini

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Dinner = Lunch
Tea = Dinner (lower class)

This also varies depending where in the UK you are, and how old you are!

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I get mixed up between the US terms Junior High, High School, School, College and University. Someone explain!

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Marrow / Melon

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No difference: drunk [EDIT]was originally not an adjective.

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I don't count it when they do it in headlines.

That should be, I don't count it as such when they do it in headlines.

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Also Marrow / Melon

Foxed me when I saw "Wallace & Gromit" in NY, they recorded two versions, one where his Gromit's marrow was referred to as a melon for US audiences (and others presumably), but the UK version called it a marrow.

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Many Brits tend to eliminate the t's in certain words. I've also noticed a lot of vowels added to the ends of words ending in vowels (Angeler instead of Angela, Christiner instead of Christina).

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Many Brits tend to eliminate the t's in certain words.

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A marrow is a type of squash (in fact I think it might actually be just a large Zucchini/courgette). It isn't very popular nowadays, but from my childhood I remember it being stringy, slimey and just plain nasty. Could just have been the way it was cooked though...

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they're usually divided up as K-5, 6-8, 9-12. K-5 is usually called "elementary school", 6-8 is usually called "middle school", but used to be called "junior high school", or just "junior high" for short, and 9-12 is usually called "high school". Some places divide it up differently, usually for private schools and very small school districts, just because it doesn't make sense to have three divisions for the small numbers of students that they have.

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Handbag = Purse

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... pronounced it the American way with a "d" in place of the "t" (as in Wa-der)...

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Jam / jelly

I always thought the difference between these was that Jam had chunks of fruit in it, but jelly didn't -- it was just made from the juice of the fruit. But then, I'm neither British, nor American.

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Trousers = Pants

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When in NY my wife asked for a bottle of waTer in a deli and the guy didn't have a clue what she wanted despite her saying it very clearly a number of times.

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I can't understand how he couldn't understand someone saying it like it is spelt though.

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In American, the word Brilliant refers to 2 things: the brightness of an object or the extreme genius of one's intellect.

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...And the pizza hut adverts that are currently being shown in the UK ...

I had to laugh when my Brit work-mates told me about the local "Peetzer 'ut"
It sounded for all the world like Pizza Rut, which tickles my funny bone like 'Dead Lobster' (Red Lobster) and 'Craplebee's' (Applebee's) (US restaurant chains).

Speaking of work mates:
mate= friend
partner= mate

On the food front:
I got blank stares from the hotel proprietor one morning when I asked if it might be possible for the kitchen to make some 'French Toast' for me.
Eggy Bread = French Toast
The seasoning is quite different, too. Most Americans expect the dish to be neutral, served with butter and then sweetened with powdered sugar and/or maple syrup.
In general, I was horrified at the amount of salt in the food I was eating in the UK.

Oh yeah-
porridge = oatmeal (a salty affair in Scottish tradition)

'Nowt' (nothing) and 'Sommat' (something) were common colloquialisms in the area I was working.

It took me a while to get used to being greeted with 'Are you alright?'
Americans usually reserve that one for accident victims.

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In general, I was horrified at the amount of salt in the food I was eating in the UK.

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Whilst vs. while

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I was always under the impression that "waDur" was not American, but a New Jersey thing...

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With the right weather, watering, and feeding, marrows can become truly gigantic; competitive marrow-growing is very much a part of Wallace's Yorkshire culture.Peter

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Haven't read the whole thread, but how about:

al-U-min-ium vs. al-oo-mi-num

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al-U-min-ium vs. al-oo-mi-num

Oh, sorry, that's another one that bothers me. Why is there an extra syllable in there? Is the word actually spelled differently in the UK?

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Haven't read the whole thread, but how about:

al-U-min-ium vs. al-oo-mi-num

Aren't there some other creative chemical name differences?

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con-Trawversy (all run together) vs. con-Tro-vers-y

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The people in the UK who slag off US food

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I am always shocked by how salty the fast food and food in some diners is in the US.

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Coach: Yeah, I saw them smooching in the parking lot. I was putting up a notice there on the bulletin board.
Diane: With probing tongues?
Coach: No Diane, with a thumb tack and my thumb.

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Coach: Yeah, I saw them smooching in the parking lot. I was putting up a notice there on the bulletin board.
Diane: With probing tongues?
Coach: No Diane, with a thumb tack and my thumb.

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cheerio = ???

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I'm sure there are about as many English people who say "cheerio" as there are Americans who say "tootle-pip"

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British employee: Well, this was supposed to be completed by now. It looks like it's gone all cock-up.
American #1: What?

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I'd guess the nearest US equivalent to "cheerio" is "ciao".

Peter

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Another shibboleth to do with missing words is missing prepositions in US English: I've mainly seen this in cnn.com headlines, but people do it in speech too: "Let's do this Tuesday" rather than "Let's do this on Tuesday".

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I only really brought it up because I heard it while watching BBC America last night. On "As Time Goes By", which seems less than farcical about that sort of thing.

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I believe that toodle-pip is related to toodle-oo which I was once told resulted from British Soldiers in the First World War being unable to say "Tout a l'heure, alors".

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The English "fillet" is such an old word (although originally from Latin via Old French according to wikipaedia) that I suspect that the French pronunciation in American restaurants was for effect and it stuck.

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I'd been to the US several times before I realised that the restaurant chain "Chick-Fil-A" was intended to refer to chicken fillets, and not to chickenfilla, which had always sounded unpleasantly close to Polyfilla.

Peter

For some odd reason my brain has always inserted another A into Chick-Fil-A making it Chick-A-Fil-A. Caught some grief off that a few weeks ago.

Anyway...

to be 'pissed' = to be drunk (which has many euphemisms in the US, but not that one)

to be angry = to be 'pissed' (aka 'pissed off' or P.O.'ed)

On a side note, I've always thought it's better to be pissed off than pissed on, but maybe that's a chicken-and-egg sort of thing.
(insert tongue-in-cheek smiley here)

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On this one OED says that the spelling "fillet" supplanted "filet" (except as a French affectation, as which it never went away) during the 1600s, which of course is roughly when US English was forked. It's possible that US English always spelt it "filet", but originally pronounced it fillet, with the French pronunciation filtering down from pretentious restaurants to supplant the phonetic reading.

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So, how does an American say filleting or filleted? Is it fill-utt-ing (like it is in the UK) or fill-ay-ting?

Mike.

We say 'fillay-ing' or 'fillay-ed'.
'fillay-ting' is something quite different. No knives, please!

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'fillay-ting' is something quite different. No knives, please!

Lol! I'm going to be thinking of that Rowan Atkinson bit all day now

After watching Inside the Actors Studio with Hugh Laurie:

???? = demolition derby

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I'd guess the nearest US equivalent to "cheerio" is "ciao".

Peter

Which of course is really Italian for "See-Ya Later".

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banger race = demolition derby

or at least it is close, I think

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Whilst vs. while

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Another shibboleth to do with missing words is missing prepositions in US English: I've mainly seen this in cnn.com headlines, but people do it in speech too: "Let's do this Tuesday" rather than "Let's do this on Tuesday".

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How would you say "Let's do that this afternoon."? I can't think of any other way to say it that isn't terribly awkward, and surely both "this afternoon" and "Tuesday" are noun-phrases.

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And no one would ever say "We'll do it September". You definitely need an "in" there.

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I'm sure I've heard people say "We'll release this January", or "We'll release this first quarter", but I guess they might be unintentionally adopting headline-speak.

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Another shibboleth to do with missing words is missing prepositions in US English: I've mainly seen this in cnn.com headlines, but people do it in speech too: "Let's do this Tuesday" rather than "Let's do this on Tuesday".

How would you say "Let's do that this afternoon."? I can't think of any other way to say it that isn't terribly awkward, and surely both "this afternoon" and "Tuesday" are noun-phrases.

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...half the Leeds populus would get run over.

And what would be wrong with that?

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...half the Leeds populus would get run over.

And what would be wrong with that?

The other half wouldn't?

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...half the Leeds populus would get run over.



And what would be wrong with that?



The other half wouldn't?

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Speaking as a Kentish Man, as opposed to a Man of Kent, I've never had a problem with the folk of Leeds, not that I live in the immediate vicinity!

Nah, I was joking. And I'm a Man of Kent, so there

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Just a minute though....an empegger from the other side of the pond and he didn't come for the traditional yorkshire hospitality from Cris (As much a Yorkshireman a I!) myself, Mrs. B and the Boxette, make sure you get in touch if you come again

It would be a pleasure to visit! Thank you for the invitation.
Unfortunately, the work on my project was all-encompassing during this past stay and ruined any chance of breaking away- even for a day on the weekend.
I had to miss Hugo's garden party, too.
I'm not sure when the next trip over will be (not for a while or for as long, God willing) but be sure that I will post a thread.