The Great British English vs US English Playoff

…Or one-hundred-ten. I mean, it’s obviously one hundred and ten, right?

Brit: Aluminium
US: Aluminum

Result: The British spelling wins, because apart from the US and Canada that’s what it’s called.

I thought the US equivalent was “divided road” (which I suppose you win as more plainly descriptive),and the British equivalent of “freeway” was “motorway” (which we win because only motor vehicles can use it, and I take it bikes and animals are equally restricted from a “freeway”).

UK:Tap
US: Faucet
Win: UK - short and sweet. And even the US uses tap for the important liquids.

UK: boiler suit
US: coveralls (South Africa: Overalls)
Win: US. A Boiler suit sounds painful.

UK: candyfloss
US: cotton candy
Win : UK. Candyfloss sounds lighter and airier.

UK: courgette
US: zucchini
Win: UK. Everything’s better in French.

UK: fringe
US: bangs
Win: UK - I wouldn’t want explosions anywhere near my hair. Plus fringe is descriptive.

UK: hairslide
US: barrette
Win: US - see courgette

UK: hen night
US: bachelorette party
Win: Neither - the UK one is horribly sexist, the US one has that horrible made-up pseudofrench word.

Brit: Tuna
US: Tuna fish

Result: British. Do you need to say “bovine beef” or “chicken poultry” in the US?
(As a Canadian this is interesting because we’re always caught in the middle of all this stuff.)

Well now I’ve got one.

UK: aubergine
US: eggplant

I’m going to say UK wins this one, because it sounds quite mysterious.

UK: trousers
US: pants

UK win. Because it sounds better when verbified. Compare:

“I gave him £5 to buy me some crumpets, but he trousered it”

With “… pantsed…”

Speaking of clothes…

UK: Jumper
US: Sweater
Result: Slight advantage to the US since is sounds marginally what we’re talking about.

I’m not sure the UK one is sexist; ‘hen’ is a pretty common friendly slang word in Scotland and some Northern areas for a woman, which seems to be especially commonly used by other women. Look a bit lost or upset and female, and ‘You alright hen?’ is something people, especially other women, will ask. Speaking as an English woman, I’ve encountered it far more as a neutral-positive term than the old ‘gossipy woman’ definition.
UK: Car boot
US: Car trunk

Win: UK; a car trunk sale just sounds weird, plus it adds a layer of unnecessary confusion to Nellie the Elephant.

Hen is perfectly fine in Scotland.

Boot was already mentioned in post number 2.

Plus then you can have the elevator company “Schindler’s Lifts”.

UK: Maths
US: Math

Win: US, we don’t study the subjects of “Histories” or “Englishes”, so why would we study “Maths”? (Mathematics? Pshhh, fight me!)

Is there an equivalent shortcut for escalator?

For me, “cheese macaroni” would make sense if one wanted to dispense with the conjunction. Then it would be analogous to cheese pizza or cheese sandwich or whatever. But we would never say pizza cheese or sandwich cheese, so macaroni cheese just sounds odd.

But where do we all stand on the Canadian Kraft Dinner? :smiley:

Some more:

Brit: rubbish
US: garbage

Result: US win
Reason: This one is difficult. Rubbish is a nicer word, but I think it sounds far too neat and tidy for what it signifies. Garbage sounds exactly like what it is. Especially effective when said in a broad New York accent.

Brit: dummy
US: pacifier

Result: US win.
Reason: Pacifier expresses the (perhaps naive) hope of the sleep-deprived parents that something (for-the-love-of-God-please-something) will actually soothe the baby. Dummy sounds vaguely insulting.

Brit: loo (or toilet)
US: bathroom

Result: Brit win
Reason: Without getting into all the class implications of these words in the UK, I think loo is a brilliant word and toilet certainly wins for directness.

Brit: Go to hospital.
US: Go to the hospital.

You don’t say “Go to store.” “Go to park.” Do ya’? US for the win.

Note that things like “Go to school.” and “Go to work.” refer to a place you do the corresponding activity at. No one goes “to hospital” to do some “hospital(ing)”.

When I was a wee lad a dummy was often given the full name of dummy-tit, which is nicely descriptive I think.

Theyused to

And do you university at uni? Or college at college?

And only theachers go to school to school. Pupils got to be schooled.

But “Hen party/night” isn’t just used Oop Norf and beyond…

It’s sexist when you compare it to the male equivalent - women are hens, men are stags. The women I know took to calling them vixen parties, instead. That’s women in the UK, mind you.

Mr.Dibble, I grew up in the US (Northeast), and say “overalls.” I’ve barely heard of “coveralls,” and I’ve lived all over the US, but I haven’t been in many situations where the word would be used, since moving out of the northeast.

Brit: Fag
US: Smoke

Uhhhh…

ETA: I can imagine the response if someone from the UK walked up to a stranger in the US and said “Can I bum a fag?”