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Regarding the coinage contest from last week: I promise to pick 3 winners really, really soon! Just give me a couple days to catch up after jury duty. Meanwhile, there was an interesting article in yesterday’s Telegraph on the straightening of the Leaning Tower of Pisa, which has been moved 18 centimeters to keep it from collapse. In the article, there were the following words spelled as I spell them here:
centimetre, civilisation realised and tonne
British spellings have always fascinated me and I’ll embarrassingly admit to you loyal readers that during a particularly pretentious couple years while in college, I actually used theatre over theater, colour over color and obnoxiously pronounced schedule, shedule. (Give me a break, folks! I was only 19 at the time and having difficulty finding my writer’s voice.)
So how is it that we Americans have a bunch of words that are spelled differently than our cousins on the other side of the pond? Easy, English spelling was exactly standardiZED when we won our independence from Britain. It took dictionaries to set the standards on both sides of the Atlantic and, surprise-surprise, our dictionaries and Britain’s developed differently. Noah Webster is credited with a lot of our spellings, publishing his first dictionary in the 1820s.
If you’re into the differences between “ours” and “theirs” and want to see a pretty cool chart comparing the two, Susan Jones over at Georgia State University has put together one for you here.
As interesting to me as the differences between spellings are the differences between words. For instance, we call the place where you buy nails and hammers a hardware store, while they call it an ironmonger. Yes, I said an IRONMONGER—a word I should have noted a couple weeks ago in my short-list of favorite funny sounding words. Anyone else have a good English word from another country or region in the world that means the same as one commonly used here in the States? Let’s hear ‘em!
Comments (39)
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I’m confused, you said
“there were the following words spelled as I spell them here:
Centimeter, civilization, tonne, and realized”
Which I took to mean that the words are spelled the same in the article, but that’s only the case for tonne.
posted by Aimee on 6-29-2007 at 2:33 am
I am from the North of England and we called the Ironmongers, a hardware shop. Nowadays, most hardware shops are huge stores on retail parks and they get called DIY stores.
Many people in the South of England use the word “pants” to mean underwear – of the Y-Front variety. However, in the North we use the word in the “trousers” sense, much like an American would.
I gather that a 18th Century Brit would probably have an accent that sounded more like the modern day American one than its English equivalent.
posted by Liam on 6-29-2007 at 2:41 am
We wouldn’t really call it an ironmonger, you know. We’d call it a DIY shop (”do-it-yourself”).
posted by Andrew on 6-29-2007 at 3:22 am
I still prefer to say “hire a car” rather than “rent a car”. And “anwerphone” makes more sense than “answering machine”. But never could call a truck a “lorry”.
See David, you are not alone. I started using British spellings and colloquialisms in junior high. A lot of it was just a result of the lit I was reading and television I was watching. I even developed a slight accent, too, probably from all the English movies and TV. I actually THOUGHT with a Northern English accent I still sound a little funny – (North British/Southern American. A lot of people just think I’m Canadian???)It was BIG deal with my family and friends, and I had to see a shrink. (okay, it was addressed by the shrink I was already seeing)
So here’s my question: How come you can show up with new body parts, new haircolour, a totally different clothing style, different eye colour and its acceptable, but if your accent changes, you are a pretentious weirdo trying to be somebody you are not?? That could be a whole other thread!
posted by Allison on 6-29-2007 at 3:28 am
Um, I think you mean: centimetre, civilisation and realised
For a moment, I thought this was going to be about The Telegraph falling victim to Americanised spelling!
posted by Jess on 6-29-2007 at 3:59 am
Some of my favourite differences are: (I’m from the UK by the way, as you can propbably tell by my spelling of “favourite”); over here, what you call “diapers”, we call “nappies”; and what you call a “fanny” is what we would call an arse (which obviously you’d call an ass – but to me, an ass is a donkey).
What we call a “fanny” is not an arse, and it is only found in ladies’ pants; and by “pants”, I don’t mean what an American would mean by pants. Pants here are underwear, whereas what you call pants, we call trousers.
And on it goes…
posted by Martin on 6-29-2007 at 4:27 am
We don’t call it an ironmonger! … I’m not sure what we’d call it, to be honest.
I always get a little confused about these things because I have lived in Britain all my life, but my mother’s American (my dad’s British) – and she still has her American accent, and uses American phrases, so I sometimes pick things up from her. I say ‘grass’ instead of ‘graaaahss’ which my friends all think is weird.
posted by Julia on 6-29-2007 at 5:51 am
hee hee hee I remember getting into a somewhat dramatic argument with my English teacher after I spelled the word “flavour” on a spelling test. I tried arguing that the spelling would be correct in the UK; but I still lost. :)
posted by Brian on 6-29-2007 at 6:07 am
Yeah, I’m with Aimee. It seems that between David 1st writing the posting and it getting published here, the spellings he quoted got Americanized (with a “z”). If David saw them in the UK paper, the words should read:
“Centimetre”, “civilisation”, “tonne” (that one was OK), and “realised”.
posted by Sid Morrison on 6-29-2007 at 6:42 am
I’m more the type that’s picked up on British phrases than spellings – like cursing.
Especially cursing.
However, I am awful fond of the pharmacy/drugstore being called the far more interesting “apothecary.”
posted by Mygaera on 6-29-2007 at 7:05 am
“fag”, which is lovingly referred to in the US as a “cigarette”, now try using that word in everyday speech here!
posted by Gussie on 6-29-2007 at 7:37 am
My favorite British-ism is “fairy cake” for cupcake. I think I laughed for a month when I found out about that one.
posted by Molly on 6-29-2007 at 7:48 am
He guys, thanks for the notes. It seems MS WORD autocorrected the spellings without me even noticing! Anyway, I’ve switched them back. If you click on the Telegraph link, you’ll read how they were spelled, of course. Oh, and Julia and the others in the UK: I was last in London in 2001, and at that time there were still Ironmongers in South Ken. Maybe they’ve all closed up or turned into DIYs? Hmmmmm
posted by David on 6-29-2007 at 8:04 am
I like to think that I’m bilingual in English and English, but the one word that caught me off guard was “muppet.” Whereas here in the northeast US, we would lovingly call someone an “f-ing idiot,” the British use “muppet” to mean the same thing. They make calling people stupid sound so cute!
posted by Jess on 6-29-2007 at 8:12 am
American – English
french fries – chips
potato chips – crisps
suspenders – braces
cookies – biscuits
Yup, I love this stuff.
I know this entry is about spelling but pronunciation differences always rocks my boat, as well.
Al U min um *vs* Al u MIN e um
posted by KJ on 6-29-2007 at 8:33 am
We brits sometimes get to pick up useful distinctions based purely on spelling. For example,
dialog – computer message window
dialogue – conversation of two parts
I suppose it’s because you chaps marketed computers first. The same is true of “disk” and “disc”, even though the line is a little more blurred there. The Acorn Archimedes always used to localise “floppy disk” to “floppy disc”, which irritated me no end. The spelling “compact disc” is part of the CD standard though.
chequer – a chessboard pattern
checker – one who checks [facts]
check – to check [facts], or to
mark with a chessboard pattern
cheque – written order to a bank to
pay money
The gsu.edu link thinks we spell “bank” as “banque”. No we don’t.
posted by Andrew C on 6-29-2007 at 9:19 am
Looking at Susan Jones’ site has me thoroughly baffled. As a Canadian, I seem to follow half of the American rules and half of the British ones. No wonder MS products are always complaining about my spelling.
Oh, and she forgot “neighbour” in the “ou” rules.
posted by Janice on 6-29-2007 at 9:57 am
I’ll never forget being with a US teen missions group and going to England wearing our brightly colored shirts with the slogan “Get dirty for God. Go lay a brick.” (It was a group building things like orphanages.)
Someone told us that in GB a brick is slang for a hooker or prostitute.
Can anyone verify that one?
posted by khm on 6-29-2007 at 10:10 am
I struggle ALL the time with british/american spellings — especially when my spell-checker has anything to say about it.
How about:
– through vs. thru
– cancelling vs. canceling
posted by Stephanie on 6-29-2007 at 10:19 am
my moms family is from england, and whenever i go to my grandparents house, i learn a while new set of words.
english-american
potful-cup of tea
ta-thank you
jubbies-gloves
paws-hands
troters-shoes
petrol-gas
there are a lot more, but these are the most common. they may not be used in the UK today, but in my defence my grandpa is 80 something years old and grew up in england.
does anyone know of the english mag. MECCANO??
posted by ashley on 6-29-2007 at 10:19 am
Don’t the Brits refer to a costume party as a FANCY DRESS PARTY? That’s just asking for trouble!
posted by Jen on 6-29-2007 at 10:46 am
Try working for a company with headquarters in the UK but a manufacturing facility in Indiana.
Any memo that comes from the UK is full of mis-spellings per MS Word.
And conference calls are fun. Especially if a phrase is said that some one doesn’t know. Most often the people from the UK don’t use slang and they translate into US english otherwise calls take twice as long.
Getting thru the accent can be fun. Currently we have people on a call from the US, Germany, UK, India and Mexio all speaking English but someone always needs to translate for some one else because the accent gets in the way.
posted by beth on 6-29-2007 at 10:53 am
KHM, I’m from England and never heard the term “lay a brick” to mean sleep with a prostitute, however if I were to use it, it would more to do with a euphemism for a certain bodily function when visiting the toilets.
Talking of which, I visited NYC earlier this year, I wasn’t sure how prudish the Americans would be, so when I asked for directions to the toilets, I always referred to it as the bathroom, made me feel a bit silly as I only need the toilets, not a shower
posted by Alistair on 6-29-2007 at 11:07 am
Tonne and ton are actually different measures, not just a difference in spelling. A tonne refers to the metric (SI) measurement of 1000 kg, whereas a ton is only 907.18474 kg.
posted by Krista on 6-29-2007 at 11:26 am
Not really what you are looking for, but as a theater major in college, most students would use both spells of theater/ Generally “theater” refer to the actual physical performance space and “theatre” was the craft we practiced.
posted by audrey on 6-29-2007 at 11:33 am
Stephanie, “thru” is not correct on either side of the Atlantic. It’s an abomination, along with “lite” and “nite.”
Now, who can tell which side of the pond I’m on based on the previous sentence?
posted by JB on 6-29-2007 at 11:37 am
I was honestly shocked at seeing ‘judgment’ as the standard American spelling. Not only does that just look totally wrong to me, but I’ve ALWAYS seen it spelled with an ‘e’ and spelled it that way myself without having anyone correct me. And I’m American.
posted by Delia on 6-29-2007 at 12:17 pm
I’m with Delia… I (in U.S.) always spell it “judgement” too. I looked up the movie and it was “Judgment at Nuremberg”… It still looks wrong though!
Ditto on “thru” — that is just a jingoistic spelling in advertisments and the like. Any teacher of English in the US would mark off for that.
“Banque” is FRENCH, as in Banque du France, the French Central Bank.
Finally, I was thinking the same potty-mind thing as Alistar when I read the line about “laying bricks”! Hah, hah… It sounds akin to the euphemism of “dropping the kids off at the pool”!!!
posted by Sid Morrison on 6-29-2007 at 1:43 pm
You can see the influence of the French in British spelling.
Webster wwas a nut and most of his spellings gained no favor.
My boss told me the story of working at a pharmacy in England that was midway between two villages. It was the only pharmacy around and people came from both villages. Though within walking distance the residents of each village had unique accents. She, being native to neither village, could not understand any of them.
posted by Bassman on 6-29-2007 at 1:49 pm
A year or so ago I came across some hilarious books by British author Robert Rankin.
Some of my favorite differences were “kerb” instead of “curb” and the use of single quotations to indicate speaking– ‘this’ instead of “this”.
posted by sporkk on 6-29-2007 at 2:24 pm
thus far, my favorite british phrase is “popped his clogs” which supposedly is equivalent to the american phrase “kicked the bucket”
at least thats what a harry potter translation site said
posted by annie on 6-29-2007 at 2:26 pm
One of my favorites is ’smalls’…As in one of the singers in Spinal Tap, Derek Smalls…
Smalls in the UK is another name for ‘underpants’ (underwear, briefs, BVDs, whatever you wanna call them)…So, his US name would be “Derek Underpants”…
UK – US
Knickers – Underwear
Chuffed – happy or excited
Cheers – Thanks, hello/goodbye
posted by donner on 6-29-2007 at 3:04 pm
I spell grey with an e and cross my 7s. That’s about the extent of it for me.
posted by Maxine on 6-29-2007 at 6:15 pm
encylopedia encylycopaedia
I think that both spellings listed for encyclop(a)edia are wrong…
Unless that’s how Brits actually spell it?
The list leaves off p(a)ediatrics, as well.
Did any other Americans find themselves thinking “The British spelling is a noun and the American spelling is a verb,” ala “I cataloged the catalogues,” or “I plow using a plough”?
How about thinking that the British past tense was passive voice and the American was active? “He forecast the forecasted weather.” “Grandma knit the knitted potholders, the others were a gift.” “The cigar was lighted,” v. “I lit the cigar.”
posted by Liz on 6-29-2007 at 7:21 pm
Whenever someone says “we say THIS in England” you need to take it with a pinch of salt. Poster #2 Liam says about ‘pants’ referring to trousers in the North of England, but that’s just wrong. Perhaps some people he knows does so but it’s certainly not universal.
There are thousands of differences even around each country, let alone between the UK and the US. It’s not just spelling… “a couple weeks ago” would be grammatically incorrect here as it should be “a couple OF weeks ago”.
posted by violet/riga on 6-30-2007 at 4:09 am
Thru is not a word at all.
I’ve used double consonants [i.e. travelled instead of traveled] my whole life and I refuse to stop; they just look better that way.
One time I got counted off on a test because I said “aerofoil”. I didn’t know there was another spelling of it. However, I do prefer our use of Z’s in words like “realize”.
posted by Aemi on 6-30-2007 at 2:49 pm
This has little to do with the difference between American and British pronunciations, but when I took a history class on medieval Europe a few years back, the professor explicitly told us that the word “schism” was to be pronounced “sizm,” not “skizm.” Not only that, but we should also correct our friends whenever we heard “skism.”
My friends and I all found this amusing and have consistently distracted people at church whenever singing a hymn that contains the word “schism.” Good times, good times.
posted by Drew on 6-30-2007 at 9:55 pm
due to my rubbish spelling and grammer i cant even comment on these subjects but i can add some more words for you (sorry for any american spelling mistakes i am a brit)
american – english
pacifia – dummy
fanny pack – bum bag
garbage – rubbish
trash can – bin
trunk (of a car) – boot
sidewalk – pavement
cotton candy – candy floss
candy – sweets
a few english sayings for you here as well
were you born in a barn – this is what my family up north say when you walk into a room and leave the door open
and a bit of cockney rhyming slang which iv always loved
would you adam and eve it – would you belive it
apples and pears – stairs
butcher’s (butcher’s hook) – look
china plate – mate (friend)
i found it very strange when i went to america, and quite a few americans came up to me and said they loved my accent where as in england my accent is quite commen origanating in south london and then moving to essex – i never was going to have any luck with my accent was i (the brits will know what i mean)
posted by jill on 7-1-2007 at 4:48 pm
Well imagine the laugher when I made an observation aloud that I noticed the men in town don’t wear kaki pants. I’m American and was visiting my British family in the north of England. My English cousins (with all the grace and control they could muster,) informed me that the word kaki meant; diarrea !
posted by kainoa on 2-11-2009 at 12:16 am