British versus American and versus Australian. We all speak English and yet there are so many differences. Did you know that in the UK when a man and woman get married just before their wedding day they will both have a party.
The woman has a party with her female friends and that is called a 'hen do' and the man has a party with his male friends and this is called a 'stag do'. In British English - a stag do. In American English 'a bachelor party' and down under in Australian English 'a buck's night' or bucks party.
Isn't it fascinating. So I decided to do a little bit more investigating and find out some more of the differences between British, American and Australian English. And in order to keep this lesson authentic I wanted to make sure I had some natives here so that you guys get the truth and not some stuff that I've just looked up on Google.
Now do I have access to an Australian or an American. Cambly, yes why didn't I think of this before. Cambly provides English lessons with Canada New Zealand the UK and Australia.
That's exactly what we need: the United States and Australia. Perfect now the other good thing about Cambly is that you can connect to a teacher one-on-one 24/7. You just go on whenever you're ready and look who's online connect like that so I don't have to wait around.
So let's see who we've got for America. Hi my name is Ruby and I'm from Texas. And who do we have for Australia?
Hi my name is Marcus. Hi Anna my name is Debra. I how can I help you today.
Fantastic so let's get started. By the way if you would like a 15-minute free called with a native English teacher then all you have to do is click on that link down below. There's no commitment it's 15 minutes.
A free call, try it out and see what you think, but not until you've finished this lesson. So we've had number one - a stag do in America is a bachelor party and in Australia is a Buck's night but what do you guys call a pair of flip-flops? Sandals or thongs.
A thong but to us a thong is a very skinny pair of knickers. So what would you call a thong in America? Oh a thong.
And what would you call a thong in Australia? G-string. oh okay okay sticking with clothing what would you call trousers?
Pants. In the area I'm from we do say trousers and we say slacks so we use both. Do you ever say pants?
We can say pants but pants just refers to something a little bit more casual. All right let's move on to food this is what we call candy floss but what do you call it? Fairy floss.
Cotton candy. Amazing. What about a good old aubergine?
Either an aubergine or an eggplant it just depends where you go. All right let's try a courgette. A zucchini.
How about a pepper? Capsicum. We either go by the full name bell pepper or we call it a pepper.
Okay let's move on to a food type that confuses everyone and that is the cold potato snack that I would refer to as crisps. Okay for me potato chips or chips. So you call them chips but for us chips are still a potato snack but they're hot and they're like chunky so what would you call that?
Hot chips. French fries. Okay let's move on.
After eating you might eat some chewing gum what would you call chewing gum? If it's something you can make a bubble with we call it bubble gum. If not then we just call it gum.
Chewie we say chewie. Okay so if I'm not snacking on crisps I might be snacking on sweets. Lollies.
Okay for me candy. Interesting because we call a lolly only the sweet that you have on a stick a lollipop or a lolly. How about beers?
Beers. Tinnies. Okay how about something that we don't really need that often in the UK but that we call air conditioning.
Air con. Some people shorten it to AC. And something we do experience even though it's not that hot here in the UK are mosquitoes.
Mosquito. Mozzies. Yeah sometimes we call them mozzies as well.
If you're going for a swim in the pool in the UK you might wear a swimming costume. If it's a one-piece it's just a bathing suit, some children refer to it as a bade-ing suit you'll hear that a lot. Cozzies or swimmers.
When driving down the street you'll often see lights that tell you when to go and when to stop we call them traffic lights how about you? Stop lights or just lights. Stop lights or traffic lights.
And while waiting at the traffic lights you realise you're running out of petrol and you must head to the petrol station to fill up. Servo. A gas station.
And just a few more before we finish up: in the UK and in the US the time between midday and the evening we refer to as the afternoon but in Australia you often refer to it as 'arvo'. When you're waiting in a line for something in Australia and the UK we all this Queuing, you're standing in a queue you are queuing but in America they don't use queue you use . .
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. . so there you go twenty really interesting differences between British English American English and Australian English now if you know any differences that I haven't mentioned please do let me know in the comment section below I want to say a quick goodbye to everyone that helped me out from Cambly and remind you that if you would like to take 15 minutes for free one-on-one with a native English tutor then why not to go and click on the link below and try it out.
I really have enjoyed using Cambly to make this particular lesson. Alright guys until next time take care and goodbye.
