# What Britishisms most baffle Americans? What Americanisms most baffle Brits? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 18, 2024, 8:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941 "2024-10-18T08:53:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 14
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 1:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/261 "2024-10-19T13:03:58Z")
> [@colinfred](#): > > There is a split between sk-own and sconn though. “Scone” is originally a Scottish word. In Scotland it is always pronounced to rhyme with “gone”. Therefore when people from elsewhere tell Scottish people that the Scottish pronunciation is wrong (which from time to time they do) they are demonstrating a not inconsiderable amount of _brass neck_. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 1:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/262 "2024-10-19T13:33:39Z")
No, fair enough, I don’t want it to be a hijack. I do want to just say, though, that I wasn’t meaning to suggest it was a supply issue, but rather that there’s no particular pressure in the UK to find extra uses for grapes. There’s also the point that the place that grape flavour occupies in the US palate (drinks, preserves, sweets, etc) is already taken by blackcurrant in the UK. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/263 "2024-10-19T13:53:41Z")
Grade 13 made first year university very straightforward. I had seen half the material in my engineering courses already. Given the general excitement and debauchery of living away from home, I think positively about Grade 13. It helped me improve my French, master cooking foods Canadians eat every day like Beavertails and fish and brewis, learn to hunt snipe, learn the art of motorcycle maintenance, and apply useful skills like playing crokinole and cribbage. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/264 "2024-10-19T13:54:23Z")
There are, starting with the word “Coger” which means “To get something” in Spain but “To fuck something” in Argentina, or “Correrse” which means “Getting out of the way” in Argentina and “Having and orgasm” in Spain 😁 ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/265 "2024-10-19T14:24:32Z")
Of course the first examples have to be related to sexuality or obscenity, so I must add “concha”, which means shell in Spain but mutates into cunt in Argentina. And a polla is a horse race in Peru but a penis in Spain. So combining your post (with an aditional meaning of correrse) and mine we get the real headline in a Peruvian newspaper “mañana se corre la polla del Presidente” which is meant to mean “tomorrow we will celebrate the horse race to honour the President” and Spaniards find hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/266 "2024-10-19T16:13:59Z")
Worcestershire also has a three-tier system. Some years ago, a proposal to switch to the more common two-tier system was voted down. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/267 "2024-10-19T16:17:25Z")
Yeah I think the C word was uttered on Stewart Lee’s Comedy Vehicle more than once ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/268 "2024-10-19T16:19:00Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > learn to hunt snipe There’s another thing that confuses some Americans. Snipe is the name of a small game bird here. People hunt them. Really. To at least some people on the other side of the pond, snipe is a fictional animal and hunting them is a joke. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/269 "2024-10-19T16:46:53Z")
Over in another thread there was talk of a “Parking Garage” in American versus “Car Park” in British. I think that both styles have their advantages and American could take advantage of both stylings. If you’re just looking for a place to park, saying you’re looking for a “car park” could mean that it doesn’t matter if it’s multistor(e)y or not. You’re just trying to park and aren’t being particular. Whereas if you want to specify that where you’re located at is definitely single or multistory, you can say “parking garage” (for covered, multistory ones) or “parking lot” (for flat, uncovered ones) instead of “multistorey car park” or – just “car park” for uncovered ones? The exception to “multistory” is that we still call single-story car parks “parking garages” if they are underground, most likely under a large building. I’m not sure what we’d call a covered, ground-level, non-multistory car park because I can’t remember seeing them. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/270 "2024-10-19T16:48:35Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > Often, it’s not just the words they get wrong, but the phraseology. I’m reminded of a passage from one of the earlier _Harry Potter_ books, the one where Moaning Myrtle is introduced. Hermione complains of having to deal with her when she’s trying to do her business in the bathroom, and says something to the effect of “it’s awful having a pee when she’s about…” No American girl has ever said any such thing, whether there’s a ghost in her bathroom or not. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/271 "2024-10-19T18:18:36Z")
Nicely done. Didn’t think anyone would pick up on that. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/272 "2024-10-19T18:47:22Z")
A female friend\* of mine, from grade school and high school in Wisconsin, spent a semester abroad in college, studying at a college in England. One of the stories she told me about, after she returned, was her spending some time one evening with a group of her fellow students. She and one of the other students (a guy) were discussing doing something together the following morning. He said “I’ll come by and knock you up tomorrow morning.” She was, for a moment, surprised, confused, and a little offended, not initially realizing that he meant, “I’ll come knock on your door,” and not “I’ll impregnate you.” \*- We were friends (and never more than that) from around 8th grade, through college, though I had a massive, unrequited crush, on her for the better part of ten years. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/273 "2024-10-19T19:38:43Z")
‘Knocker up’ used to be a profession in England - before the availability of cheap, reliable alarm clocks. > **[Knocker-up](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knocker-up)** > > A knocker-up or knocker-upper was a member of a profession in the Netherlands, Britain, Ireland, and some other countries that started during, and lasted well into, the Industrial Revolution, when alarm clocks were neither cheap nor reliable. A knocker-up's job was to rouse sleeping people so they could get to work on time. By the 1940s and 1950s, this profession had more or less entirely died out, although it still continued in some pockets of industrial England until the early 1970s.\[4 The kn... ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/274 "2024-10-19T20:26:59Z")
> [@Ludovic](#): > > The exception to “multistory” is that we still call single-story car parks “parking garages” if they are underground, most likely under a large building. I’m not sure what we’d call a covered, ground-level, non-multistory car park because I can’t remember seeing them. Other US terms for multi-story parking facilities are “parking structure” or “parking ramp”. The latter being pretty regional centered on IIRC Minnesota or Iowa … -ish. Covered, or semi-covered ground level open lots are semi-common in the desert southwest. Commonly called a “covered lot” or a “carport lot”. Many office-type businesses will have one or two rows of employee parking with carport roofs over them for the bigwigs, then uncovered parking in the rest of their lot for the peons. Like this: > **[Commercial Carport Kits for Large Scale Applications](https://www.absoluterv.com/carport-kits-commercial/)** > > We manufacture commercial parking carports and shade canopies for residential, commercial and industrial complexes. Engineered and solar panel ready. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/275 "2024-10-19T20:57:20Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > In the American system: > > Generally, up until 6th grade (may or may not include kindergarten, so six or seven years) = elementary school. > > 7th and 8th grade = middle school, or junior high school. In some systems, this includes the 6th grade, meaning elementary ends with the 5th grade. Except for where it doesn’t work that way. Here primary= 1st through 4th, middle= 5th through 8th, and high= 9th through 12th. And a number of years back (but long after I was out) my old high school built a large new building on the high school grounds that they call the “freshman academy”. I’ve never looked much into the details, but apparently all the 9th graders are isolated off in their own special area away from 10-12. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/276 "2024-10-19T21:05:37Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > To at least some people on the other side of the pond, snipe is a fictional animal and hunting them is a joke. I was just reading something fairly recently (have _no_ memory where) by an American who was talking about hunting snipe – and not the fictional kind. So, there must be real snipe somewhere in N America. > [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Except for where it doesn’t work that way. Here primary= 1st through 4th, middle= 5th through 8th, and high= 9th through 12th. And I went to a Catholic elementary school that was K-8. Then I went on to public school. My city had a junior/senior high school set up with 7-9 being junior high and 10-12 being senior high. The Catholic high schools were all 9-12. So, I came into the 9th grade where nearly all the other kids had been funneled in from their various elementary schools in 7th grade and already had two years to sort out socially. That was a relatively miserable year for me. Only a few kids from my Catholic school went to my jr/sr high school, and none of them were especially my friends. By 10th grade it worked out, thankfully. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/277 "2024-10-19T21:08:19Z")
> [@carrps](#): > > I was just reading something fairly recently (have _no_ memory where) by an American who was talking about hunting snipe – and not the fictional kind. So, there must be real snipe somewhere in N America. Yeah, it looks like that is the case, but some people have assumed the snipe is a fictional entity on the basis of ‘snipe hunts’ being a kind of prank or practical joke, where the victim is told to do ridiculous things that would never result in catching a snipe. ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/278 "2024-10-19T21:10:42Z")
Heh, yeah, one of our advisers with the Explorer Post I was also an adviser for organized a snipe hunt for our kids on one of our camping trips. High school age kids. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/279 "2024-10-19T21:15:22Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Except for where it doesn’t work that way. To be fair, @Cervaise did say “generally.” But, that said, as with pretty much anything related to the U.S., unless it’s specifically prescribed by the federal government, it’ll vary widely by state (and even within a state) – and educational systems and standards are one of those areas. So, _generally_: - First graders (age 6-ish) through fifth graders (age 10-ish) will typically be in the same school, which is typically called an “elementary school,” a “grade school,” or a “primary school” - Grades 10 (age 15-ish) through 12 (age 17-ish) will typically be in the same school, which is usually called a “high school” - Grades 6 through 9 are where there’s the most variability. At some point in that range, students transition out of the grade school, and by the end of that, they’re heading into (or are already in) high school. Any given school system may do it any of a number of ways, as has already been noted. - Kindergarteners (age 5-ish) and even pre-K (age 4-ish) may be part of an elementary school, or they may be in a stand-alone school. But, I have no doubt that there are also corner cases in which there are school systems (or independent schools) which are structured differently still. ---
**Author:** ![griffin1977](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@griffin1977](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/griffin1977)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2024, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941/280 "2024-10-19T21:16:18Z")
> [@Cervaise](#): > > Generally, up until 6th grade (may or may not include kindergarten, so six or seven years) = elementary school. > > 7th and 8th grade = middle school, or junior high school. In some systems, this includes the 6th grade, meaning elementary ends with the 5th grade. > > 9th year to 12th year = high school. Each of these has its own special name. > > - 9th year = freshman > - 10th = sophomore > - 11th = junior > - 12th = senior Yeah I’m only just getting my head round this as my own kids are in elementary school. The kindergarten thing being my recent cause of confusing. It is actually the first year of “primary school” (the first year of “infants” to be precise) but historically it was not included in mandatory public school. Nowadays it is almost everywhere (at least everywhere I’ve lived in the states) so there is nothing really distinguishing it from the rest of elementary school Another reason highschool is confusing as a non American your exposure to it is via Hollywood movies where the average age of the actors playing “high schoolers” is like 30 🙂 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941.md?page=13) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-britishisms-most-baffle-americans-what-americanisms-most-baffle-brits/1008941.md?page=15)