Comments on: Weekend Word Wrap: British Words/Spellings

By: kainoa

kainoa — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 05:16:00 +0000

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 !

By: jill

jill — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 22:48:47 +0000

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)

By: Drew

Drew — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 03:55:57 +0000

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.

By: Aemi

Aemi — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 20:49:31 +0000

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”.

By: violet/riga

violet/riga — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 10:09:58 +0000

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”.

By: Liz

Liz — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 01:21:39 +0000

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.”

By: Maxine

Maxine — Sat, 30 Jun 2007 00:15:27 +0000

I spell grey with an e and cross my 7s. That’s about the extent of it for me.

By: donner

donner — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 21:04:41 +0000

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

By: annie

annie — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:26:07 +0000

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

By: sporkk

sporkk — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 20:24:13 +0000

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”.