American English vs British English: 50 differences! How many did you know? Can you think of any others? Our American friends have different names for things than us in England. If you are learning English as a 2nd language it can get confusing. If you want to learn the British accent it's useful to know some of these differences.

Ok, I'm gonna show you 50 things, OK, 50 different things. I just want you to tell me what you see... how you call this thing that you're looking at, ok? starting with this one:
what do you see?
a purse
it's a handbag... I would say
what's in her hand?... the green thing
a wallet
that actually is a purse, because it carries her money
this girl has some hair on her forehead.... what do you call that?
bangs
bangs?
fringe... we call it a fringe
what's in the corner of the room?
a teddy bear?
what's the teddy bear in?
a crib
a cot
what's the baby's wearing?
the baby is wearing a diaper
we call that a nappy
where are these children?
in a nursery
yeah... what what's another name for it?
kindergarten
kindergarten... we don't say kindergarten we say preschool or playgroup... something like that
what's this?
bar of soap?
look closer
an eraser
yeah, we'd call that a rubber
rubber... why is that funny... a rubber? What does a rubber mean to you?
condom
so this is a school and there are boys and girls in the class
so how would you describe what kind of school this is?
co-ed
we would just say mixed... it's like a mixed school
this teacher... she's having a class and she wants to check that all the students are there
So she's going to do what?
take attendance
we would say she's taking the register... do you say taking the register?
no
okay
what's that?
a band-aid
plaster
what's she got on her face?
a zit
or
a pimple
we say spot... a spot, or you say spots... like in England we say, 'I've got a spot'
or 'I've got some spots'
I'd say. 'oh, I have a pimple or I have a zit'
these people are graduating from
college
University
ok, so you've left University now, you get a job and you ask your boss for more money each month
what would you call that?
a raise
a raise... we would say a pay rise
extra bonus marks to anyone in the comments who can tell me what steuern means
these people are on holiday... what are they? What's the name that you could give to these people?
vacationers
vacationers... yeah, we would say holiday makers
what's this girl lying on?
a floatie
a lilo
What are these boys up to?
having drinks?
I think one of them might be about to get married
bachelor party
yeah, we would say stag do
and the girls?
bachelorette party
bachelorette party... oh, we would say hen do
one place these girls might go on their hen do is to this place... what's it called?
Tenerife
Tenerife... yeah
that's how the Spanish and Walter White says it
Tenerife has... has anybody heard of Tenerife?
but in the UK... in England, we just say Tenerife
so the hens went to Tenerife, what if the stags went to this place?
This is a Russian city, I think it's the capital
Moscow
Moscow... see Americans say Moscow we say Moscow
well you'd say cow
C O W... cow... why would it be Moscow?
get out
the main account that you have your salary paid into each month... what do you call it?
my checking account
we say current account
this man is wearing a...
vest
waistcoat...
this is what we call a vest...what do you call this?
an undershirt
an undershirt... okay
what's this?
a couch
Yeah, I sometimes sit on that in my vest
we call that a settee
what's this girl getting?
shots
shots... she's far too young for that
she's getting a jab... it might be her meningitis jab or a tetanus jab or MMR jab... measles, mumps, rubella
we don't say shots...
these are shots
what's this guy doing ?
a pumpkin
what's he doing?
oh, throwing up
or... do you have another word for it, I've heard this word on The Simpsons
barfing?
barf... anything else?
throwing up... yeah, we say chunder... do you say chunder?
we do not say chunder
and then I just chundered everywhere
what kind of store is this?
a liquor store
a liquor store?
we would just call that off-license or an alcohol shop
what's happening to McLovin here?
he's getting carded
carded?
does that mean you're asked to show your card?
yes
okay, we say ID'd... you say carded
we say...
ID'd
hello
Mindy
if you've seen the film you will know that he does successfully get sold alcohol
and then shortly after the shop gets raided and some guy comes in... punches him in the face
and tries to take money from the...
cash register
this is a till
cash register
what do you have stamped on the bottom of the beer can or a coke can
expiration date
what does the BB stand for?
Best By
Best Buy?
we would say best before
what's this?
paper towel
kitchen roll
a place to buy these things
a drugstore
drugstore... we don't have drugstores, we have pharmacies or chemists, for example Boots is a chemist
or صيدلية in Arabic
what is this?
a sandwich
It's long and thin and kind of circular, do you have a special name...
oh, a hoagie
hoagie...
Do you really call them hoagies? We just call it a baguette
that's a hoagie
that's a hoagie... okay
what's going on here?
it's being broiled
broiled? B R O I L E D... what does that mean? we say grilled
this is a grill
it's being cook on the top
do you call this bit at the top...
a broiler...
do you call it a broiler?
a broiler
we just call that a grill
What are these hanging...
drapes
curtains
what's this?
a subway
this is an underground or a tube... certainly in London it'd be called a tube
Europe, it would be called a Metro, but we don't really use the term subway.... certainly not in in the UK
Okay, so here's a question... this snow is falling but it's too warm for the snow to stay on the road when it hits
So we could say the snow isn't...
sticking
yeah, it's not sticking, we say it's not settling. So if it snows but it doesn't stay it doesn't settle
what's this?
a bus
we call that a coach
this guy has bought a plane ticket. It's gonna take him there and back what you call this kind of ticket?
a round trip
we'd call it a return
what is missing... enter your something code and press enter
this is at the gas station or the petrol station as we would say
your zip code
we'd call it a postcode
what's the punctuation at the end of this sentence
an exclamation point
exclamation mark...
what's this?
a question mark
oh **** do you call it the same thing?
do we?
what's this
quotation marks
we'd say inverted commas
what's this?
colon
colon... we say colon, that's like a pronunciation thing
colon... colon right but you still spell it O N at the end?
not one of those
what's this?
windshield
windshield... yeah, we say windscreen
so this is a car and the headlights are on they're on their highest setting
so what you call that?
high beam
high beam... we say full beam
what's this?
chocolate?
no, actually it's not chocolate try again
debris
we say debris
what would you call the takeaway that you get from the place which is called China?
takeaway?
yeah, but what's it called?
Chinese food?
Chinese or Chinese?
Chinese
which syllable do you put the emphasis on, the CHINese or the ChinESE?
please answer in the comments cos I'm really curious about this
and apparently we can't come to a conclusion here
what's this?
a dumpster
skip
what road are these people driving on?
a highway
motorway
who are these guys?
the cops
police
what's this little fella?
a ladybug
ladybird