American-British English Translation

Like all studies of language and slang, this is a work-in-progress. I hear something new every day...

Apartment	Flat
Ass	Arse
Baked potato	Jacket potato	*Wide variety of fillings (toppings) that you wouldn’t find in the States, like Chicken Tikka
Balls	Bollocks
Bangs	Fringe
Bathroom or restroom	Toilet, loo, bog
Biscuit	Dinner roll
Boots	Boots or Wellies (from Wellingtons)
Boyfriend	Fella
Bun (i.e. for burger)	Bap
Butt or fanny	Bum
Can (of food)	Tin	*canned=tinned
Candy	Sweets
Cell phone	Mobile
Center	Centre
Cigarette	Fag
Cilantro	Coriander
Clear off, or f-off	Sod off, bugger off, piss off
Color	Colour
Condom, rubber	Condom, Johnny
Cookie	Biscuit
Corned beef (roast that you would cook for St. Patrick’s day)	Doesn’t exist.  The only ‘corned beef’ is in a tin, like Spam.	*US version of St. Patrick’s day food actually comes from Irish immigrants in NYC, not Ireland.
Crazy	Mental or mad
Detour	Diversion
Dick	Knob
Dickhead	Knobhead
Dirty, muddy	Mucky, covered in muck
Dirty, racy (sexual)	Naughty, blue, rude
Discount (i.e. tickets)	Concessions	*Student discounts are  more widely available in the UK than in the US
Don’t feel like it	Can’t be bothered, or can’t be arsed...
Drunk, wasted	Pissed, trollied
Dumpster	Rubbish tip
Eggplant	Aubergine
Eraser	Rubber
Favorite	Favourite
Flavor	Flavour
Flea market or swap meet	Car boot sale or boot fair	*garage sales are rare
Floozy (loose older woman)	Slapper	*Not a nice thing to say
For Rent	To Let
Friend/Buddy/Pal	Mate
F-word	Bugger, sodding, bloody
Garbage	Rubbish
Garbage can	Rubbish bin
Gay man	Poof,
Girl/woman	Bird
Grandma	Nan
Grandpa	Granddad
Gross	Manky
Ground beef	Minced beef	*Minced steak, turkey, lamb, pork, etc. also available.
Hood (of a car)	Bonnet
Ice cream bar (chocolate covered)	Choc ice
-ize	-ise	*organise, globalisation, mechanised, etc.
Jawbreaker (candy)	Gobstopper
Jerk or idiot	Git
Jerk-off (a person who masturbates)	Wanker, tosser
Jump start	Bump start
Knocked up	Up the duff	*both are crude versions of pregnant
Line	Queue	*Line up=queue up
Man’s man, one of the guys	Lad	*beer, birds and ball
Maple syrup	Golden syrup	*not the same thing, of course, but this is what they use instead
Mercedes Benz	Merc
MF-er (or any strong derogatory noun directed at a person)	C-word	*C-word is used more often in UK than in US, but is still very offensive
Mouth	Gob
Multi-story building	Multi-storey building
Nasty, really unattractive	Minging, or a minger	*’she’s a right minger’
Off your rocker (crazy)	Off your trolley
Orientation	Induction
Pants	Trousers	*very confusing...see ‘underpants’
Pasta sauce (with meat)	Bolognese
Pint (16 fl oz)	Pint (20 fl oz)	* Imperial pint
Prissy, girly (for an effeminate man)	Pansy, nancy boy
Private parts, privates	Naughty bits
Real	Proper
Sandwich	Butty	*Northern
Screw up	Cock up, balls up
Senior Center	Day Centre
Senior citizen	Older Aged Person (OAP)
Shopping cart	Shopping trolley
Shopping mall	Shopping center
Someone from Birmingham	Brummie
Someone from Liverpool	Liverpudlian, Scouse (adjective), Scouser (noun)
Someone from Manchester	Mancunian
Sprite, Sierra Mist, 7-Up (carbonated lemon-flavored soft drink)	Lemonade	*what US calls lemonade is sometimes sold as ‘fresh-squeezed lemonade’
Stupid or silly	Daft
Tire (of a car)	Tyre	*spelling distinguishes it from the verb, to tire
To discard something	To bin it
To get a raise (at work)	To get a pay rise
To like or want something	To fancy something
To look at, or check out	To cop a load of something
To sleep in	To have a lie-in
Trunk (of a car)	Boot
Turnip or rutabaga	Swede
Umbrella	Brolly
Underpants	Pants or knickers
Vacation	Holiday
Vagina	Fanny, minge
Wal-Mart	Asda	*same ownership, same sort of prices and 24 hr supercentres
Wow!	Blimey!	*yes, they really do say it
Wrench	Spanner	*also used in phrase, ‘to throw a spanner in the works’ (to mess it all up)
Zucchini	Courgette