The episode on “yeah, no” from the wonderful podcast Lexicon Valley (hosted by Slate).
I haven’t see it mentioned yet that Brit’s use “holiday” to describe what Americans call “vacation”. In the UK, you go on holiday. In the U.S., you go on vacation.
There’s also boot v. trunk, flat v. apartment, lift v. elevator, torch v. flashlight, bumbershoot v. umbrella, crisps v. chips, and chips v. fries.
…
My father grew up in Florida in the 50’s and would occasionally refer to the microwave as the “radar”. I also believe that the freezer is called the “ice box” in certain places.
Oh, and a water fountain isn’t a water fountain depending on where in America you’re from (it’s a “bubbler” in the Northeast, I believe).
Obvious differences in vocabulary don’t seem to me to be the kind of “subtle” dialectical differences the OP is asking about.
How about “taking a piss” vs “taking the piss” (UK, meaning something like “mocking, parodying, making fun of, etc.”) Don’t know if it quite qualifies as subtle, as you’d encounter them in very different contexts.
Another one is “Japs.” From what I can tell, the word seems innocuous in at least Hiberno- and British-English (there’s still a Japfest for Japanese automobiles across the pond), but it’s offensive in US English.
Curious. I am American and I say aux-il-yary.
On the use of the article in such phrases as “in hospital”, one curiosity I’ve noticed is that we say “He is away at college”, but “He is away at the university”. This is so idiosyncratic that I doubt there could be any principled explanation.
One difference that I have noticed is that Brits say “different to” while we USAns say “different from” or even (though my inner grammar nazi shudders) “different than”.
Canadians also say “in hospital” and “at university”, but say “different from”.
How is crisp v. chip obvious?
The OP was based on the premise that some people would use breaking off whereas other would use falling off. Sorry if, by the third page, we weren’t still up to that clearly defined parameter of distinction.
Regardless, two people who both speak perfectly good English could be completely confounded by each other due to dialectically differences as subtle as not understanding what the hell a “WC” is and why the other person is so insistent on finding it.
Oh, that’s a good one. My dialect (and I) typically says “different than,” although “different from” is also used. “Different to” is understood but does sound slightly odd to me. I’ve definitely encountered it before, but I can’t remember if it’s only from foreign dialects of English or not.
While I didn’t always answer in that spirit, what I understood the OP to be asking by using the word “subtle” is not so much complete vocabulary differences (like lift vs elevator), but rather small differences in meaning or connotation of words familiar to both speakers. American English speakers surely understand both “breaking off” and “falling off,” but to the OP, it seems that UK speakers would be more likely to use the former construction, and US speakers the latter. (I’m not entirely sure whether I agree that that is a distinction, but it may be. I could see myself using either phrase as an American speaker.)
Another subtle one I just thought of is “got” vs “gotten.” In American English, “gotten” is often (perhaps mostly) used as the past participle for “to get.” In British English, as far as I am aware, only “got” is used, and “gotten” is considered archaic sounding.
Fair enough. I was caught up with the “in hospital” discussion that I got carried away and wanted to participate.
Cheers 
(Does that, qualify? It a greeting that I hear commonly from Aussies. I like it enough that I’ve picked it up for myself, along with “no worries” instead of “no problem”).
“Cheers” is interesting. I’ve seen it used quite a bit in American email correspondences as a complementary close in the last few years, but a couple decades ago, I just knew it from my Aussie family (although I think the British use it commonly, as well.) Also, the usage of “cheers” as a synonym for “thanks” has been catching on a little bit, too. Growing up, “cheers” to me was only said when making a toast.
The closest W.C. to me is nine miles away and is only open on Sundays and Thursdays. :mad:
Maybe? I will say it’s not yeah (pause) no. It’s almost a single word “yeahno” with the yeah being mostly swallowed and emphasis on no. I used to use it essentially every time I would start a sentence with the word no. Never noticed until it was pointed out repeatedly.
Same here. But my dad ran a hotel when I was a kid, and I often worked summers at the pool deck. I always enjoyed departing from an Australian guest, who’d give a “cheers, mate” that, to my ears, sounds so much better than the more pedestrian “have a good day” or other nicety. Maybe I’m not alone, and it is catching on amongst more Americans.
This was great. Ignore anything I said in the thread. Listen to this instead.
A few dialectic oddities I noticed upon moving south:
Where I’m from, we said “sick to my stomach” to mean nauseated or vomiting. Down here, they say “sick on my stomach.”
Someone upthread mentioned multiple modals, and while I’ve never heard that phrase, I assume she meant double modals, a term I learned about upon Googling “might could” and “used to could.” Down here, where I would use the phrase “be able to,” people instead use the world “could.” “I used to could touch my toes.” “If you leave by seven and traffic’s not bad, you might could get there by nine.” The articles I found about double modals also state that “might should” and “might would” also exist, but I have yet to hear them in conversation.
“I don’t guess.” It’s hard to pinpoint a one-to-one correspondence between this and a phrase I would use. I think it depends on the context. In some cases, I would use “I guess not,” in others “I don’t think so.” Example: “Have you ever tried a higher dose of Prozac?” “No, I don’t guess I have.” It sounds odd to me because it sounds like you’re saying that you’re refraining from guessing, rather than that you’re guessing that the answer is a negative. But I suppose you could apply the same logic to “I don’t think so.”
This one’s more a matter of pronunciation, but I’ve noticed that down here they say “lawyer” as though they are distinctly enunciating the word “law,” then appending the syllable “yer.” Where I’m from, the syllables elide and you get the same vowel sound as in boil, coin, and boy." “Lawyer” rhymes with “foyer.”
I thought that foyer was pronounced FOY-yay? Like from French?
I’ve read that word more often than I’ve heard it, but in the outro to “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” Eric Idle says “By the way, this record is available in the foy-yay.”
I’m American, and I always understood “get bent” to imply that a non-consenting act of sodomy was about to occur.
Then this joke wouldn’t work:
The big chess tournament was taking place at the Plaza in New York. After the first day’s competition, many of the winners were sitting around in the foyer of the hotel talking about their matches and bragging about their wonderful play. After a few drinks they started getting louder and louder until finally, the desk clerk couldn’t take any more and kicked them out.
The next morning the Manager called the clerk into his office and told him there had been many complaints about his being so rude to the hotel guests…instead of kicking them out, he should have just asked them to be less noisy. The clerk responded, “I’m sorry, but if there’s one thing I can’t stand, it’s chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.”
“foi′ər” is the more common pronunciation in American English.
[Bolding mine]
Uh, from the order you’ve written the rest of these examples, it looks like you think ‘bumbershoot’ is a word used in the UK…?
It’s not.
Umbrella or, informally, brolly. I don’t think I’ve ever heard the word bumbershoot.