Kim_Johnson
As the old adage goes, “I say Tom-MAY-toes, you say, Tom-MAH-toes, we have pronounced words differently depending on where you are from.
Ever since we came across the pond folks from both sides have chuckled at each other’s use of the English Language.
Here are ten of those words, that mean something totally different in the UK than in the US.
Can you guess what these 10 words mean?
*The photographs have nothing to do with the words.
Good luck and have fun!
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Question of
You could get wet in a “Bog”. What does it mean in the UK?
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Swamp
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Toilet
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Question of
If someone in the UK asked you if you would like to play a game of FOOTBALL, what game would you play?
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Soccer
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Foot Ball
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Golf
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Question of
How about a LIFT?
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An uplifting comment.
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An elevator.
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A ride somewhere.
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Question of
I am hungry for a BISCUIT.
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A cookie.
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A cat or dog treat.
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A small round baked bread lathered with butter for breakfast.
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Question of
I think I need a COACH!
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Someone to teach me.
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A buss.
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Covered Wagon
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Question of
I’m tired, maybe a TROLLEY would help.
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They have them in San Francisco. A trolley.
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A shopping basket.
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A baby carriage.
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Question of
Some people have BRACES on.
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Wires on their teeth.
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Blinders
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Dark sun glasses.
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Suspenders that go over your shoulder to hold up pants.
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Question of
A HAMPER would be nice.
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A quiet time.
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Clothes basket.
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Picnic basket
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To hinder someone.
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Question of
What does DUMMY mean?
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They use them in crash tests. Car Dummies.
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Pacifier
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Carpet
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A derogatory remark to say someone is stupid.
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Question of
And the word, SHAG?
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A long carpet that was popular in the 70’s.
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You might have heard of the word shag in the movie Goldmember with Austin Powers. It means sex.
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To dance really fast.
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You got 2 out of 10 right!
Good try Snezana, I had to learn as I went with this one. Thanks for playing.
do you know what a rubber is in the UK?
I just learned it, trying to find words for this. I was afraid to use it. hahaha. IT is an eraser over there.
a foreign exchange student asked for a rubber in class and started a riot
haha, bet he learned really fast what we call a rubber, right!
a female classmate offered to hook him up after class, that’s what started the riot
lol, well that figures. She started it, he didn’t. 😀
he opened the door, she walked right in. joint venture
Great fun quiz, Kim. I got 8/10, but I had the advantage that I lived in the UK for 6 years, though I’ve only spent a week in the US 🙂 Did you know that the word ‘bog’ (here in Ireland we only use it the American way) comes from the Irish word ‘bog’ which means ‘soft’, describing the ground underfoot!
Great score here Norman, funny that you did better on the US than the UK one. All in all you scored very high on all of them, thank you for playing all three!
Bog, what an odd sounding word, and a very nice way of describing a marsh/bog. It is soft underfoot for sure. Not mosquito infected stagnant mud water at all. lol
I went to an English School (British School) in Thailand. I built a British to American filter then. So this was a blast!!!
got em all!!!
Ah wonderful Doc, and it must of stuck with you. Congratulations on a perfect score!!!
merci!
it did, the two school systems are very different.
I used to give private English lessons in Latvia so I had to know both American and British English depending on what the person wanted to learn. So I got 9 but forgot the one
Way to go Sandra, that is really awesome. I didn’t know that. Congratulations on your score. Thank you for playing.
Love this one Kim, missed a few but great photos!
Thanks Carol, I thought it was amusing too. Much appreciated. 🙂
You got 10 out of 10 right!
I can thank British television shows for this knowledge I guess.
Ah, true, I also watch a lot of shows from across the pond. They have the best documentaries ever! Congratulations on a perfect score, thanks for playing.
I watch a lot of mystery and detective shows. (and Red Dwarf, etc…)
Great quiz, Kim! I didn’t know some of them!
Thanks for playing Ellie, glad you liked it!
I guessed many answers and actually was surprised that I made only two mistakes.
Wonderful guesses then Fortune, youre ESP must be kicking in! lol Thanks for playing.
Humm, I got most of them.
Good job Gramps, and thanks for playing!
Interesting! Being British, I had to do this the other way round – working out what the American English would be!
As egdcltd says, some of these words have more than one meaning in the UK – for example, “bog” can have either of the meanings you suggest.
You are not 100% correct with all your suggested answers. For example, there are fundamental differences between a bus and a coach, one being that the latter is good deal more comfortable! Basically, buses are used on regular routes, stopping many times to pick up passengers who are charged fares as they get on. Coaches are generally used on longer-distance journeys, quite often for private hire.
I see, so the answer should of been a long distance bus. A luxury bus.
A bog is a bog while a toilet is not a bog here. lol So confusing. I hope you had fun.
American words for toilets always amuse me. Why call it a bathroom when there’s no bath there? Or a restroom when that’s the last thing you’re going to do!
I once worked in a university library when an American came up to me one Saturday morning and asked if we had a restroom. This was the first time I had heard this term and I thought he had said “restaurant”. I replied that we did have one in the building, but it was closed on Saturdays and he would find one a couple of streets away!
True, I agree with you on that one. I remember asking that when I was a kid, why it was called bathroom if it had no bath.
lol I bet that guy was super confused. 🙂 closed and a couple of streets away there is one. hahaa.
Next one will be the other way around. Our weird words, and slang. Get ready!
Some of those do actually have two correct answers in the UK.
Yes, this is true, they all came from there.
Funny thing is, is that I almost put that in the cover. I was going to put this on the directions.
*Please excuse any terms or words that have multiple answers to those across the pond.
The one that stuck out was braces. If you’d chosen suspenders instead; well, that is a rather different item.