3 ms·
That might not be just the accent. I noticed that British English seems to use synonyms for a lot of nouns. Sometimes this just sounds quaint (rubbish -> trash)
by prewett 5y ago
That might not be just the accent. I noticed that British English seems to use synonyms for a lot of nouns. Sometimes this just sounds quaint (rubbish -> trash), sometimes it takes me a moment (car park -> parking lot), but sometimes the word is simply not used that way in American English (bin -> [rubbish] bin -> trash can; pavement -> sidewalk [but "pavement" in American is the road surface, so it's a valid word, just means the opposite in British]).
- drcongo 5y agoImagine coming at it from the other side and seeing "biscuits and gravy" on a menu.
- bradknowles 5y agoThere’s a whole line of books about the same words that take on different meanings in American versus British English. Like pants. In the US, pants are something you wear on the outside over your underwear. In the UK, pants are what you wear under your trousers. But the hysterical thing to me, is that the act of “pantsing someone” means exactly the same thing in both languages, despite the different meanings of the word themselves. Either you are pulling down someone’s pants to expose their underwear, or you are pulling down someone’s trousers to expose their pants. The French would call these words “faux amis”, or “false friends”. You think you know what you mean when you say the word legume, but you don’t understand that they have a different definition of that word. In the UK, you do NOT want to be caught selling or giving away Fanny Packs. The word Fanny in the UK is a reference to female genitalia, and not your butt. In the UK, if you want to sell or give away these things, you do so with “Bum Bags”. But the word “bum” in the US has a rather different connotation. Oh, so many hilarious things can be found in this line of books.