Greetings, steemians! Today I'd like to present a list of 20 noteworthy idiomatic differences between British English and American English. As most of you already know, English is a pluricentric language, meaning that it has more than one standardised version in use worldwide. Other examples of pluricentric languages around the globe are Spanish, German, French, or Portuguese.
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In this article, I aim to present only a set of 20 rather subtle differences between British English and American English, most notably in terms of vocabulary or idiomatic expressions (simply put, idioms). Therefore, without further ado, here are the differences I would like to showcase in the following list:
- Argy bargy (UK) = Verbal dispute (US)
- Eggy bread (UK) = French toast (US)
- Crisps (UK) = Potato chips (US)
- It's monkeys outside! (UK) = It's very cold! (US)
- Torch (UK) = Flashlight (US)
- Rasher (UK) = Slice of bacon (US)
- Off licence (UK, but also New Zealand and Ireland) = Liquor store (US)
- Pillar box (UK) = Mailbox (US)
- Butty (UK) = Sandwich (US)
- Fairy lights (UK) = Christmas lights (US)
- Bedsit (UK, but also Ireland) = Studio apartment (US)
- Anti-clockwise (UK) = Counter clockwise (US)
- Brolly (UK, slang) = Umbrella (US)
- Off to Bedfordshire (UK) = Going to bed (US)
- Know your onions (UK) = Knowledgeable (US)
- Trainers (UK) = Sneakers (US)
- Fish fingers (UK) = Fish sticks (US)
- Loudhailer (UK) = Megaphone (US)
- Kip (UK) = Nap (US)
- Biscuits (UK) = Cookies (US)
You can also check this two Wiki articles for more detailed differences between UK and US English:
And while we're still at it, if you know of any additional significant discrepancies between the two standardised forms of English that I've previously wrote about here you might as well want to share them in the comments' section below. Cheers!
Cool post. I only knew a couple of them.
Do you know differences between US or British English and Canadian English?
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I know a fair few, yes. But, in general, Canadian English is much more closer in terms of spelling to British English, though you can also find alternative American English spellings of some words in a text written in Canadian English for example.
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The U.K English mostly contains idioms
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