Practice English Speaking&Listening with: AMERICAN vs BRITISH English **55 DIFFERENCES**

okay so, what do you see here?

leaves?

what season is it?

fall

autumn

what's this?

a faucet

tap

what's this?

Wi-Fi?

yeah, but what's the box that the Wi-Fi is pumped out of?

router

router... we say router

what's... wait, what are we looking at? oh... these little green things... what do you call them?

pickles

gherkins

what's in the glass pot?

jelly

jam

so if that was jelly then what's this?

jello

We call this jelly

wibble wobble wibble wobble... jelly on a plate... did you never say that?

no... that's weird

what are we looking at here?

a house

okay, so what's the general term for like houses and buildings and stuff?

if you were like, 'oh, I've got loads of money. I want to buy some...'

real estate

property... we would say property, you would say...

real estate

some real estate comes with a massive one of these... what are you look at there... this nice green area

a backyard

we'd call that a garden

...or a front yard

well, this yard is like a sideways yard because it's so damn big. I wish this was my house (it's not)

when you actually make the purchase, who do you talk to in order to actually buy it?

oh! I know this one

go

the realtor

we would call them an estate agent

PD: 'you gave it to me, a realtor, and I promise I am NOT gonna let you down.'

what's this person of unspecified gender doing?

jumping rope

skipping

what are these kids in?

ball pit

ball pool... we say pool... ball pool

yeah, ball pool

ball pool

no, it's a ball pit

It's a ball pool

because you disappear

because it's a pool of balls

... and it's a pit

who's this guy?

a janitor

we would call him... a caretaker cos he's taking care of the building

you would say...

a janitor

this is somewhere where you'd go... there might be a pool, a gym, maybe a sauna... a steam room all this stuff

what would you call it?

a gym

well, that's the gym... the gym part...

but the whole building which might encapsulate all this like a sports hall, a gym, a swimming pool

a sauna, steam room... what you call the whole building?

a gym

'Oh, the gym has a sauna... cool. Oh, the gym has a pool cool.' It's a gym

we would call it a leisure center...

have you heard... like do you know leisure center... you say that in the States?

no

what class are these poor people sitting in?

coach

yeah, we would say economy

when you get on the plane you are permitted to take this on board... what do you call this?

carry on

we would say hand luggage

what's this vehicle?

an RV

an RV... we call that a camper van, and I really want one

so you go on your summer holiday and you spend the week in a...

trailer park

we'd call that a caravan park

so what would you call these white things that are parked up here?

trailer

we call them caravans

what bird is this?

a parakeet?

Budgerigar... did you not know that?

excuse me?

budgerigar... do you not know budgerigars?

you never had a budgie when you was younger?

no

you never had a budgie?

no

these are budgies

I don't like birds

you like cats

yeah

because they kill birds

yeah

so budgie comes out the oven. What's that?

a rotisserie chicken

we'd call that a roast chicken

what's this thing with the handle?

a pitcher

jug

juice box

juice carton... or carton of juice

milk

thicker...

yogurt?

yoghurt

do it again

yogurt?

yoghurt

yogurt

yoghurt

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no

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this girl has finished her project... her work and she's going to give it to her teacher

what's she going to do?

turn it in

hand it in

turn it in

hand... she's going hand it to her teacher... hand it in

now the teacher is gonna take it and he's going to go through it and he's going look at it

so what's he going to do?

grade

he's going to grade it?... we say mark... he's going to mark it

'have you marked your work?... sir, have you marked my test?'

'have you graded my test?'

if you're clever, you'll get lots of these in it

what are these?

checkmarks

yeah... we'd say ticks

ticks... ticks... tick box...

check mark

what are these kids doing right now?

taking a test?

they are sitting an exam

they're taking a test

who's this bloke?

a teacher?

what's his job?

a proctor?

what does a proctor do?

proctor's an exam

we call him an invigilator

these kids have just been told class is over... what are they now on?

recess

break time

these kids are in their final years of high school

so they're 17 turning 18... kind of thing... what would you refer to these kids as?

they're seniors

seniors... we would say year 13

so we don't have this whole freshman... sophomore....

what's after that?... junior...

junior... senior

so Americans say...

freshman, sophomore, junior, senior

we just have year 10... 11... 12... 13... as those equivalents... we don't have special names

so these guys... if they were leaving to go to university next year as you would say...

college

then we would say they're in year 13

i.e. second year of sixth form

what game are they playing with these things?

baseball

mmm... it's like baseball, but for kiddies

wiffle ball

wiffle ball

we would call it rounders... a good game of rounders down the beach or in the school field is a great laugh

you have rounders or not?

no

it doesn't mean anything to you?

no

oh... okay

who's this bloke?

Santa Claus!

Father Christmas

Santa Claus

how would you greet your fellow Americans at this festive time of year

Merry Christmas

we would say Happy Christmas

although loads of people say Merry Christmas now

what's this girl wearing?

a bathrobe

we'd call that a dressing-gown

do you have this concept of dressing-gown or not?

no, it's a bathrobe... you take a shower or bath and then you put your bathrobe on

leave a comment if you have a dressing-gown and if you love your dressing gown

what's this guy doing?

foraging for food in the forest

true, but what's his job?... he's getting paid to do this

oh, he's restocking the shelves

stocking shelves... we say stacking shelves

no he's stock... stack... stocking?... yeah

that's confused you hasn't it?

yeah it has

we literally say stock.... wait... no, you say stocking we say stacking

yeah, he's restocking

yeah, I'd say he's a shelf stacker

cause he's stacking the things on the shelf

he's a shelf stocker because he's restocking his stock of goods on the shelf

you're driving down the road... High Street... you want to hack a left at the end of the road, what do you do?

you would use your turn signal

we'd call that an indicator

you probably haven't... I don't know... do you have any clue what this is?

a tractor?

it's like the bottom bit of a motor vehicle... it's got a special name, which is spelt like this:

c-h-a-s-s-i-s

have you even...

a chassis?

Americans say chassis, right?

I think so

we say chassis

what's the big city here that isn't London?

Birmingham

Birmingham

what do you typically call the main road or street that runs down the centre of the town?

Main Street

we call it the High Street

what's this?

a garage

garage... do it again

garage?

what's in the red circle?

a period

full stop

parentheses

brackets

what letter is that?

zee

zed

this girl dresses in tie-dye... she's got a nose piercing

how would you describe her?

crunchy

I would say she's a hippie

yeah hippie or...

crunchy

wow... these guys are really crunchy

yeah... very crunchy

so peaceful...

on Netflix, there is a whole variety of different TV...

shows

programs... to watch

program was always like the typical word for a TV show, but it's kind of dying out

but I'm trying to keep it alive in this video

so if you're a lover of a good old-fashioned TV program then leave me a comment

one for the musicians:

so I'd call this: semibreve, minim, crotchet, quaver, semiquaver, demi semiquaver, and then demi...

(mumbling)... one of them. I don't know...

I would call them:

whole note, half note, quarter note, 8th note , 16th note, 32nd note, 64th note

Americans keep things simple, right?

mm-hmm

fire truck

fire engine

hospital

mmm... specifically the part that you would go to if you had had some kind of major accident

oh... ER

A&E

what does the ER stand for?

emergency room

A&E stands for accident and emergency

so the bad news is if you've had a really bad accident, you need an operation

okay, this girl is going to come and put some stuff in your veins

or your arteries which is going to make you go to sleep. Who is she?

the anesthesiologist

anaesthetist

anesthesiologist

okay, so your operation didn't go so well, and now you are here

she's on a life-support machine

she's in the ICU

she's in intensive care

intensive care unit

we just call it intensive care

you've lost a job and you're given this

pink slip

what's a pink slip?

basically... you're fired

when you're fired in the UK, you're handed your P45

and I think the P45 is kind of the equivalent of the U.S. pink slip

yes

your boss gives you this box and says pack your stuff you're done

you didn't do anything wrong, but what's happened to you?

you've been laid off

yeah, we would say 'you've been made redundant' so we would say this is redundancy

you've been laid off

if you want a new job once you've been laid off/ made redundant, then you might want to write up one of these... what is it?

a resume

CV... curriculum vitae

curriculum vitae

testing your knowledge of constellations

what is this constellation here... these last two point north... to the north star... the pole star

Big Dipper

we call it the plow

what game is this?

chutes and ladders?

snakes and ladders... we have snakes you have...

chutes

this guy sat on a...

haystack

bale of hay... is holding a...

flashlight

torch