As I'm sure you're well aware, British English and American English have lots of different words for exactly the same thing. Well, I happen to be back in my hometown in central England this week and I thought I'll take this opportunity to show you some of those differences by giving you a little tour around the village. So.
. . I've popped on my trainers and I've hit the pavement.
Right, first stop It's the post office where we send things via the post not in the mail This is a post box not a mailbox We queue we don't stand in line Now, a very important one. . .
That is the fish and chip shop where we eat fish and chips, not french fries. Incidentally what the Americans call chips we call crisps. What else have we got?
That is the Chinese takeaway - what an American would call Chinese takeout This is a bus stop. We call buses and trains public transport. In America, they're called public transportation.
Ooh, here's a good one. . .
This is what we'd call an estate car where the Americans would call it a station wagon. Litter. Littering is a British word for dropping trash on the floor.
Here's a key difference. . .
That's a dust bin or a litter bin. It's not a trash can. This is a phone box It's not a phone booth.
No one uses them anyway. It smells weird. This is a pedestrian crossing.
It's not a crosswalk And this is probably the most important thing in the village It's the pub, where one can get varying degrees of pissed on pints including slightly sozzled and totally trollied.
