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

3 comments:

  1. Car boot sale, Molly. Not boot fair!

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  2. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  3. According to Wikipedia, both 'sale' and 'fair' are OK. I got 'boot fair' from Richard--wondering if it's a Southern thing? :)

    ReplyDelete