Lollipop and sucker are both hard candy on a stick in the US, but “sucker” is also used as a synonym for “chump” - someone who is easily duped. A gobstopper is a jawbreaker (extremely hard, round candy, no stick.) And we in the US don’t have “sweet shops” - we have candy stores. I think most Brits refer to the places where they buy things as “shops” while Americans tend to call them “stores.”
US
“I guess so”
UK
“I think so” or “I suppose so”
US
Elementary School
UK
Primary School
US
Orange drink
UK
Orange squash
US
white trash
UK
ned/spide/chav (regional variation)
US
Muppet= puppet from Jim Henson’s creature shop
UK
Muppet=idiot
US
Bake sale
UK
Cake sale
(I think there’s also room for a lot of confusion with jumble sale/car boot sale/bring and buy sale/white elephant versus “yard sale”.)
Alice band is a headband, but I have no idea what a kirby grip is. I do know that what we call a “barrette” is what my English friend Kathleen calls a “hair slide.”
I kinda like “Knickers in a twist?”
eleanorigby, a kirby grip is a bobby pin.
“umbrella stroller” is a “buggy”
Also, American “bangs” become a British “fringe” when you’re talking about the bit of hair that covers your forehead.
The runway? I thought it meant not the runway, but the pavement on the area surrounding the terminals where the planes are loaded, and the passengers get on and off.
There is a difference between and child-minder and a baby-sitter. The former is someone who comes to your house, for a couple of hours in the evening, to look after your children while you go out.
You take your child to the child-minder’s house during the day while you go to work. They are , in fact , a small-scale day nursery looking after a handful of kids. Also child-minders have to be licensed . baby-sitters , usually teenagers earning pocket money, don’t have to be.
I screwed up the second sentence. It is the baby-sitter who comes to your house. :smack:
Right.
The what do you call the elastic band that grips long hair back away from your face in a ponytail? We call 'em ponytail holders (we are so clever)–what about UK’ers?
That’s another one–
US “smart” = UK “clever”
I’ve noticed that my British friends say “good on you!” when we would say "good for you! (not sarcastically).
That’s really something. I presume that scrummy comes from scrumptious; as a joke my wife and I will sometimes say that something that tastes good tastes “scrumpy”.
No one’s mentioned the grammatical differences yet, of which the main ones are these:
Use of plural conjugations with collective nouns:
*Manchester Utd are…[/]; The government are… (UK)
vs.
Manchester Utd is and The government is… (US)
And the use of the present subjunctive in American, in expressions of wish or command:
The school insisted that he went to chapel daily (UK)*
The school insisted that he go to chapel daily.
*this sentence could also be American English, but would have a significantly different meaning.
UK: Pot plant = a plant in a pot
US: Pot plant = cannabis
UK Mars Bar = US Milky Way
UK Milky Way = US Three Musketeers
Thank you! I couldn’t remember the differences, I just remember being perplexed whilst in the UK (heh).
If we start on grammar, we’ll be here forever!
Is it true that on your birthday, you buy the drinks/goodies?
In USA, it’s the other way around.
Still no answer on ponytail holders.
Zebra crossing=pedestrian walkway.
in the gods=nosebleed seats (in a theater)
Ward=unit (hospitals)
locum=covering doc (USA). Although, this is not quite translatable–to my understanding, a locum is a doc who comes for an extended period of time (say 3 weeks) to replace a doc on holiday or whatever. We do have docs who “cover” for other docs–they just don’t do it for 3 whole weeks! Am I way off track here?
I think the pony-tail holder is called a scrunchie. Here are some pictures.
http://www.lady2b.com/group/6.html
BTW I am married to a hairdresser, that’s why I know!
The zebra crossing is so called because it is made up of black and white stripes painted on the roadway
UK Smarties =~ US M&Ms
Don’t know if there’s a UK equivalent to the candy we call Smarties in the US.
We call those Scrunchies, too. A pony-tail holder is basically a plain rubber band that wrapped in thead, but without the fabric that Scrunchies have. They sometimes have little balls or other decorations on them.
Perhaps it doesn’t exist?!
I think that our Smarties are their Neccos (which is a brand, but ?)
That’s right-ish. Smarties are pretty much M&Ms without the ‘m’ printed on them. But we do have M&Ms as well.
If you mean Necco wafers, we don’t have those here.
Speaking of sweets/candy, one difference between the UK and US is sweet flavours of the purple variety. In the US, loads of candy is grape flavor which isn’t used here to the best of my knowledge. Our purple sweets are blackcurrant flavour.
Oh, and pony tail holders: Bobbles, they’re called.
Except that Smarties are slightly bigger, and they contain chocolate, rather than brown sweet grit that smells of burnt rubber.
The ‘pretty much’ dealt with that. But a correction: Smarties are filled with angel poo.