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It is often said that Britain and America are two countries [[Separated by a Common Language|divided by a common language]]. For your perusal, here are some American terms that may be lost on tropers from British or Commonwealth countries. And so we begin!
Sister pages include [[Stock American Phrases]], [[British English]] and [[G
For those interested in articulation rather than vocabulary, there are many pages about [[Accent Tropes|various nations' accents]], including [[American Accents|American ones]].
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** To clarify, to "bum," means to either beg for something, or to act lazy and without purpose. "Can I bum a cigarette?" and "I just bummed around my house today," are both examples. Of course "bum" as a noun means a hobo, or vagrant. The anatomical definition definitely ''is'' known to Americans as well, which makes "bumming a fag" doubly amusing to our 12-year-olds.
* Other sexual alignment related terms:
** '''Homosexual''' is considered "clinical" in tone, so it may sound either very neutral or distinctly distasteful depending on context and tone.
** '''Lesbian''' is used for a female homosexual.
** '''Gay''' has two distinct meanings, confusingly enough- a homosexual person of any gender, OR a homosexual man specifically. Most commonly it carries the former meaning ''unless'' it's specifically contrasted with lesbian, in which case it only refers to men. Also see [[Have a Gay Old Time]] for how gay ''used'' to be used.
** '''Queer''' basically means anything but heterosexual—homo-, bi-, pan-, a-, whatever. It is a slur that has been ''partially'' "reclaimed." Basic rule is, [[N-Word Privileges|use it only for yourself and groups you belong to]].
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** Americans also pronounce H without using an H sound. "Aytch" instead of "haytch".
** There isn't that somewhat rare letter ash ("Æ"). "E" is used instead, or in some cases type out an A followed by an E. "Æsthetic", for example, is "aesthetic" or "esthetic". To type out an "ash" requires the use of the alt codes on U.S. keyboards (alt-145 for lowercase and alt-146 for uppercase, if you were wondering). The same goes for ''ethel'' ("œ").
* '''Check''' -- the U.S. spelling of ''cheque''—in a restaurant refers to the bill. Hence, [[Check, Please!]]. It can also refer to an actual check, which you fill out to buy something. Thus, you can pay a check with a check.
** Although virtually no restaurant accepts checks any longer.
* '''Bills''' is the colloquial name for paper money in the US, such as "a one-dollar bill," rather than "notes," which is the technical term used in banks.
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** And it's not uncommon to find that the thirteenth floor is omitted in American buildings.
* An '''elevator''' is a lift that runs indoors. "Lift" is still used for hydraulic outdoor lifts used by construction workers, and is acceptable for lifts used for transporting goods (but more commonly known as "freight elevators" or "service elevators") and possibly dumbwaiters (probably derived from the association with ''English'' manors).
** And elevators, those things that you put in the back of your shoes, are called "lifts."
** '''Electric Steetcars''' are the equivelent of a "tram" or "trolly"—a bus that runs on rails or wires. They are occasionally thought of as the types of cable cars that run in San Francisco, but that is not the correct term for them. A "tram" is an interchangeable word for either. Tourist trolleys are considered different vehicles, and are called "trolley replicas".
* '''Gasoline''' or '''gas''' is what fuels cars in America, not "petrol." Filling a car's fuel tank is sometimes called "gassing up," and to tell the driver to press down on the accelerator pedal you can say "give 'er the gas."
* '''[French] fries''' (No one actually calls them
** '''[potato] chips.''' are "crisps" (confused yet?) Fish and chips ''is'' generally referred to as fish and chips, however, but otherwise "chips" will always mean "crisps". Or is it the other way round....
*** And if you get asked "Would you like fries with your fish and chips?" by the waitstaff, feel free to mock them - they should know better.
* '''Plastered''' means extremely drunk. Has nothing to do with Band-Aids.
* '''Public school''' refers to [[American Educational System|any school funded by federal or state government money]].
** '''Private school''' refers schools funded by tuition, donors, or both.
* '''College''' and '''university''' are used interchangeably in most contexts. If someone says "I'm going to college," they mean university. "College" rolls off the tongue easier. A typical university has several "colleges" on it (such as College of Arts & Sciences, College of Engineering, etc), which is the reason for the interchangeability. University is generally reserved for four-year degree schools. Graduate school comes after for anyone that wants to pursue a 2-year graduate degree. State Schools are largely taxpayer funded and can vary between 4-year school or community college, which is a publicly funded school usually reserved for 2-year associate degrees.
* '''Elementary school''' or "grade school" is what those in the UK call a "Primary School", "grammar schools" are esentially defunct in the UK. Schools with grades 6-8 are called junior high schools or middle schools.
* '''[[American Football]]''' is simply called football. Association football is only called soccer, though Americans are aware that other countries simply call it "football." If you personally call it "gridiron" they will know what you mean, too.
* A sandwich made using a whole small loaf of bread cut in half lengthwise could be called one of many things, depending as much on whom you buy it from as where you are. '''Submarine sandwich''', or "sub" for short, is the most universal, but '''hoagie''', '''hero sandwich''' (not to be confused with gyros, which are sometimes pronounced phonetically), and other variations exist.
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** Hardly anyone calls it a "condominium" unless they're being formal, either.
** "Flat" is also a term that's starting to be used Stateside for an apartment in highly urban areas, such as New York or newly constructed residential blocks. This is most likely in an attempt by realtors to sound "modern." For some reason it only tends to be used when describing either extremely small and sparse apartments, or extremely large and lavish ones.
* '''Mate''' on its own is very rarely used to mean "friend," and even then it's still seen as borrowing British and Australian slang. "Mate" is commonly used on the zoological sense to indicate a sexual pair of animals, or the sexual act itself. It would generally sound odd or archaic to use it in reference to humans.
** To some Americans, a male referring to a male friend as a "mate" can have unintended homosexual connotations.
* A large stretch of road which allows cars to drive very fast to various destinations is a '''freeway''' or '''highway'''. If it costs money to get on, it's called a "turnpike," or just a toll road. The words motorway or expressway are not used unless they are part of the formal name of a certain road (''e.g.'', the Long Island Expressway). If it's part of the Interstate Highway System, it may also be called "the Interstate".
** Although using "freeway" interchangeably with "highway" is not at all unheard of, there is a difference in literal meaning, as not all highways are freeways. Some roads that are not all that different in appearance or width from ordinary roads but which go on for a very long ways from town to town are still called "highways", whereas "freeway" tend to refer to the wide, four-or-more-laned, median-divided roads with road signs all over the place telling you how close you are to the next turn or town.
*** To the lawyers, the terminology is still more different. Under most states' Vehicle Codes, the term "highway" has the specific legal meaning of ''any'' public roadway bigger than an alley. Under California State Law, for example, that little cul-de-sac road out in front of your house is a "highway."
** And of course, Americans will park in driveways and drive on parkways.
** Hawaii and Alaska (which are non-contiguous states) and Puerto Rico (which is a non-contiguous protectorate) have interstates, so the definitions really are starting to get mixed...
*** It helps to understand that the purpose of the interstate system is to facilitate the movement of military materiel and personnel, at least on paper. That and the aforementioned states were a bit annoyed that they didn't get to share in the federal highway kitty because they weren't contiguous.
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** '''Question mark''' means "interrogation point".
* '''The government''' to an American means the entire ruling body, i.e. the State (a term Americans don't use this way for obvious reasons). The President and those under him are usually collectively called "the Administration" or more commonly "the [name of President] Administration."
** "Congressmen" literally refers to any member of either the House of Representatives ("the House") or the Senate, both of which are referred to as "Houses" of Congress. Representatives are in the former, and Senators in the latter, but when you refer to a specific Representative or address them by name, you call them a Congressman or Congresswoman (i.e. Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, Representative from the 6th District of Minnesota). Senators are still referred to as Senators. Basically: "Congress" consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate combined. A person who holds office in the House is a "Congressman," "Representative," or "House member," while a person holding office in the Senate is a "Senator."
*** The term "Congressman/woman" has officially fallen out of favor for the gender-neutral "Representative" (a change that was made, unsurprisingly, during Nancy Pelosi's term as the first female Speaker Of The House.)
*** And if you're looking to be pejorative about the elected officials in Washington, "Congresscritter" is often used.
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* '''Asphalt''', '''pavement''', and '''blacktop''' are all used to describe tarmac. The popularity of each depends on the region, but generally all will be perfectly understood. "Tarmac" is only used to describe paved runways. The term "bitumen" is completely unknown except as an obscure technical term.
** '''Pavement''', meanwhile, can also refer to the concrete or flagstones that a sidewalk is made of, but the sidewalk itself is just that, a sidewalk.
* A '''buzzard''' refers to a vulture, not a hawk.
* As noted on the [[American Accents]] page, in the South and Texas you'll hear "y'all" quite a bit. "Y'all" is a contraction of "you all" and is used as a second-person plural pronoun. Depending on where exactly one listens in, "y'all" will be pronounced as one syllable, rhyming with the American pronunciation of "Ball," or two, so it sounds almost like the German "''Jawohl!''," without the harsh inflection. Though almost everyone in America will understand what "y'all" means, it is ''not'' used in common conversation in all parts of the country, and can earn you some ribbing if you use it too far north.
** In some places, especially Texas, one will also hear the phrase "all y'all." This functions essentially the same as "y'all," with the caveat that "all y'all" is used to refer to a large group of people, with whom the speaker may not immediately be interacting, ''especially'' in cases where he is trying to get their attention. For example, if a man at a dinner party is conversing with the people at his table, he might use "y'all"; if he stands up to make a toast he would refer to the entire room as "all y'all."
** Another use of "all y'all" is to make sure every last member of the party being spoken to is being addressed. For example, "Are y'all going to the movies?" is asking if the group in question is going to a movie theater, but "Are all y'all going to the movies?" wonders if all the people in that group are going to the movies.
** An equivalent word used in New York (and possibly other parts of the East Coast) is "youse" or "youse guys". In Jersey, it tends to be just "you guys".
** [[Pittsburgh]] "yinz" (a contraction of "you ones").
* In the South, one can also hear a few unique phrases such as "Might Could" for "might be able to," "Fixing To" for "about to." "Fixing to" is sometimes compressed to "Fit'nta" or "Finta" - either of these is stereotypically an urban black term but that's not strictly true anymore.
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** That said, a single specific type of event is still called ''a'' sport.
*** and a sport can also mean a player in context of sportsmanship such as "he's a good sport", "he's a poor sport", or just "he's a sport" with the assumption being good sport. Similarly sport can be used to mean the competitive spirit of enjoying a challenge as in "where's the sport in that?"
* '''Vacation''' what Americans might call a "holiday", this break from school/work is called a "vacation" or a "break." A recreational trip somewhere is also called a "vacation." "Holiday" is used only to refer to special days that generally get people out of work or school, such as Christmas or the Fourth of July. Using "holiday" to mean "vacation" is recognized, but rare.
* '''The shit''' When something is "the shit", then it is great. Something that is just "shit" is the opposite.
* '''Guy''' (pronounced the standard, non-French way, so as to rhyme with "fry") is what Americans say instead of "bloke". It means exactly the same. The plural, "guys," can mean a group of males or a mixed-gender group, but never a group of females (except in the Jersey/Midwest "you guys" sense).
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:English language]]
[[Category:Useful Notes/The United States]]
▲[[Category:American English]]
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