26 British and American English word differences

British and American word differences are curious things. Super Agent Awesome stopped by to explore some with us.

We looked at differences with words like crisps/chips and chips/French fries and compared what we’d call things in British and American English. Words we explore in this video include swimming costume and bathing suit, spanners and wrenches, hundreds and thousands and sprinkles, and lots, lots more.

We have lots of other kinds of videos that compare British and American English that you might enjoy. Click here see some more.

Here’s your first word. What is it?
Potato chips.
OK, I call them crisps.
Whaaaat?
OK, what’s this?
French fries.
No, no, no. They’re chips.
Wh… what?

Chips. Crisps. French fries. Chips.

Hi everybody. I’m here today with Super Agent Awesome. Thank you for coming.
Anytime.
And we’re looking at British and American English words today. What’s this?
A cell phone.
OK, and I’d call it a mobile.
A faucet.
OK, and I’d say it’s a tap. What’s that?
An airplane.
I say aeroplane.

Cell phone. Mobile. Faucet. Tap. Airplane. Aeroplane.

We got candy. Oooh, nice.
And I’d call them sweets.
We got sprinkles.
We call these hundreds and thousands.
Wow. A pretty big name for a really little dot.
And what’s this stuff.
Jello.
And I’d say jelly.

Candy. Sweets. Sprinkles. Hundreds and thousands. Jello. Jelly.

And what are these people wearing?
Costumes.
OK, we’d say they’re in fancy dress.
I wear costumes for Halloween.
And if you dress up very smartly, you might wear this.
We will wear a tux.
And we’d call it a dinner jacket.
Hmmm?

Costumes. Fancy Dress. Tux or tuxedo. Dinner Jacket.

What’s this thing on the back of the car?
That’s a license plate.
And I’d call it a number plate. This bit of glass in the front of a car.
It’s a windshield.
A windscreen.

A license plate. Number plate. Windshield. Windscreen.

Oh, these are fish sticks.
We call them fish fingers.
Fish fingers.
Like fish have fingers.
Fish sticks. Fish fingers.
He’s doing push-ups. He wants to be fit.
And I’d say he’s doing press-ups. And, what are these people doing?
Waiting in line.
And I’d say they’re waiting in a queue.

Push-ups. Press-ups. Waiting in line. Waiting in the queue.

He’s holding a wrench.
That’s a spanner. And, do you know what that’s called?
Uh, I think that’s an Allen wrench.
We’d call that an Allen key.
Wrench. Spanner. Allen Wrench. Allen key.
We’re looking at thumb tacks.
And I’d call them drawing pins.
Oh, they’re clothes pins.
And we’d call them pegs.
A vacuum cleaner.
We’d often call it a hoover.
Why would you call it a hoover?
It’s named after the American firm, Hoover.
That makes sense. Thumbtacks.

Drawing pins. Clothes pins. Clothes pegs. Vacuum cleaner. Hoover.

We got the laundromat.
And I’d call it a laundrette. And what kind of shop do you think this is?
Uh… a pharmacy.
We’d normally call it a chemists. Do you also call it a drug store?
Yeah.
In British English a drug store sounds funny, because it sounds like a place where you can buy drugs.

Laundromat. Laundrette. Drug store or pharmacy. Chemists.

Uh, that’s a merry-go-round.
Usually, we’d say roundabout. We call this a roundabout too.
Oh, it’s a traffic circle.
We have a lot of these in the UK.

Merry-go-round. Roundabout. Traffic circle. Roundabout.

A woman… a ladies’ swimsuit.
Yes, and we could call it that too. Um, would you ever call it a swimming costume?
Err no, why would we ever say that? It’s not for halloween.
We would call it a swimming costume. Would you call it a bathing suit?
Yeah, we would.
OK, that for us is a bathing suit. It’s really old fashioned for us.
That’s a bathing suit?
Yes.

Swimsuit or bathing suit. Swimsuit or swimming costume. Bathing suit.

OK everyone. We’ve finished. So that’s it. Bye now.
Bye, oh wait! We almost forgot something really important.
What?
The subscribe button.
Oh, could you tell them about that?
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