English is spoken both in the UK and US but there are differences and people in both countries understand each other very well. In UK day to day English, whilst some ‘Americanisms’ have crept into British English, there are some words that are not used here!
sidewalk
This is an obvious difference as we always describe the area at the side of the road where people walk as the ‘pavement’.
Follow the pavement and eventually you will see the restaurant on the left.
wiseguy
In the US, a wiseguy is annoying or knows everything.
In the UK, we might say smart-arse.
Nobody likes a smart-arse.
It is worth noting that in the UK we say ‘arse’, in the US they say ‘ass’.
Clothing
A huge difference can be found with the word ‘pants’.
In British English, pants are underwear worn by men.
Trousers are what are worn on the outside.
If you go to a shop in the UK and ask for pants, you will be asking for underwear!
Cars and driving
Here are a number of interesting differences.
The window at the front of a car in British English is called the windscreen.
In the US it’s called a windshield.
In the UK it’s called a windscreen.
What about the back of the car?
in the UK, this is called a boot but in the US it is called a trunk.
What about the front?
In British English this is called ‘the bonnet’. In US English, ‘the hood’.
You can ask someone formally to open the bonnet. Informally it is not uncommon to say ‘pop’ the bonnet.
Spellings
There are also many words that are more or less pronounced the same but they are spelt differently.
centre (UK) center (US) /ˈsentə/
colour (UK) color (US) /ˈkʌlə/
There are also many words where in the UK we use and ‘s’, in US English they use a ‘z’. Incidentally, in UK English we say /zed/ in US English they say /zi:/.
standardise (UK) standardize (US)
localise (UK) localize (US)
Can you think of any others, there are quite a lot?
There are also different ways of pronouncing different words
aluminium (UK) /ˌæljʊˈmɪnjəm/
aluminum (US) /ˌæl.jəˈmɪn.i.əm/
mummy (UK) /ˈmʌm.i/
mommy (US) /ˈmɑː.mi/
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