British Words and Phrases We've Adopted (That Confused Us at First!) | Americans in the UK

After 6 months in the UK, our vocabulary has gone through some unexpected changes. In this video, we discuss the British words and phrases we've adopted into our daily lives - many of which initially left us confused. From common terms like "takeaway" and "washing up", we'll share how some of these words confused us at first, but now we use them regularly. Join us as we explore these language quirks and how they've become part of our everyday conversations.
Have any American words or phrases confused you? Let us know in the comments!
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10 British Habits I've Adopted After 6 Months in the UK: • Americans in England: ...
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Have any American words or phrases confused you? Let us know in the comments! Want to see more videos like this one? Watch next: 10 British Habits I've Adopted After 6 Months in the UK: kzbin.info/www/bejne/jKi9pq2elLOCZ9U&t 10 Things That SURPRISED Us About the UK: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fV7JeaKbo7WmatU&t How we see the US after 8 months in the UK & Europe: kzbin.info/www/bejne/nmrRc5ukd7abnsU&t

[@Rachel_M_]

There ar loads of American word that confuse me as to how they were created. A couple of Examples Burglarized vs Burgled Deceadent vs deceased I'm not saying either way is right or wrong, I just suspect it to be a difference in the application of the same grammar rules. But our 🇬🇧 way is right 😉 ( Joke)

[@itsmephil2255]

The 1 word I hate hearing Americans say is 'JagWar' when it's JagUar

[@tomsenior7405]

Maybe the Brits have a better chance of understanding North American words? We are exposed to American language foreign films, cartoons and shows from childhood. For example; I learned "Vacation" from a Goofy Cartoon, of all things. Chips, Highway, Lot, Pants and countless others don't seem to cause as much confusion. If anything, when you guys say "Pants" it still makes me snigger like a schoolboy.

[@alanmon2690]

the suffix "-ette" means small, so a "small bachelor party"... "washing up bowl"

[@sandrabutler8483]

There is also a great difference in how we pronounce words, and letters not Zee but Zed, Zebra Crossing, not pronounced Zeebra, traffic lights sequence Red, Amber ( not orange) green and the reserve,. Route and router pronounced root /rooter, cooker is a whole thing, we'd be buying it as a whole so we might say we'll stick it in the oven, or under the grill, baked potatoes or jacket spud, we don't tend to say things how they appear to be written, semi isn't Sem I, it's all one word, oh and Americans talking about A1 sauce, we actually invented it in the UK, not sure how common it is here anymore, but you got it from us Brits Some of our place names also common, and calling everything cute or quaint, it's just a cottage or a small village or town, which again gets lost in translation, many of our foods which have had a bad wrap especially sorry from your side of the pond, but I think it's mainly because we don't tend too add a chemistry lesson for ingredients, yes we do have some, and certainly more common than when I was growing up, but that's a very long time ago, even pickles aren't the same, have you tried a jar of pickled onions? my grandparents used to make them for Christmas, but not the upcoming one but possibly two years down the line, and we eat and drink things which have a BB which is just a guide you can eat tins and packets which have BB on for a few years after the date because of the way it's been processed, I can't say I remember having Use By as a child, we'd do the old fashioned smell, look taste, and I'm still here, and my grandparents were born between 1895 and 1905 all but one lived until they were 90 the other passed from cancer in her 70's. I think tourists just need to get used to our sense of humour, I've lived and worked in Dubai and Australia, and Australians share a similar outlook, and have quite a lot of our slang, or understand our slang for whatever, Dubai was slightly different because of being a Muslim country and you just adjust to their rules, which I think some who visit the UK forget, you're after all visiting another country, don't mess with our Armed Forces who you see at one of our Palaces or Castles, and try not doing the British accent. Slightly off topic, but just a few things people visiting other countries need to remember

[@MatthaisUK]

It's a "washing-up bowl". Also I think what you call a "parking garage", we'd call a "multi-storey car park" (or abbreviated to just "Multi-storey'). And we'd call that San Francisco Trolley a "tram"

[@hazelmeldrum5860]

Or a basin

[@marleneclough3173]

Yes. Trolley bus for us is one which is powered by electricity the power lines are overhead not on rails like a tram but silent . Not many left these days

[@Psylaine64]

or just Bowl .. kitchen bowl sometimes

[@Psylaine64]

@@hazelmeldrum5860 no a basin is where you wash your hands normally in the bathroom

[@slowswimming5853]

Washing up bowls in kitchens are becoming a lot more rare. They are seen as low class and poor.

[@tonycasey3183]

I worked with a young American man doing a gap year in the UK and he loved using British terminology and idioms. Sometimes he would get them mixed up, and the funniest example was when he took a test to do with IT where we worked. Someone in the office asked how he thought he had done. His reply: "I think I did okay, but I'm touching cloth just in case". You don't want to mix up the words "cloth" and "wood" in that scenario.

[@ruth1231]

Haha, did you explain the difference. I can imagine his face when he realised :)

[@ianharvey8025]

I had a sceptic mate years ago I told him it was considered polite to address any authority figures especially policemen as 'Me old wanker' Didn't turn out well

[@whitedwarf4986]

Us up North, "Where's the bin?" "I've not bin anywhere! Bin here all day!" 😊

[@SgtSteel1]

Us down south, I've not BEEN anywhere.

[@Phiyedough]

If they've bin men, what are they now?

[@tonycasey3183]

Where's the wheelie bin? No. Weally I've bin 'ere all day.

[@hadz8671]

"No, where's the wheelie bin?" "I've really bin here all day!"

[@yahouallavoix4512]

😂

[@James-gc5if]

In the UK, I'd say "going to hospital" (as a patient) and "going to *the* hospital" (to visit my friend who's a patient) are subtly different. Same as "going to *the* church" (to check out some old frescos) vs "going to church" (to worship).

[@qwertyTRiG]

I was going to make the same comment. It's one of those subtle distinctions you're not consciously aware of until someone points it out.

[@janeb871]

I was asked once about the reason for that difference and I didn’t know what the reason was. I just knew that, as you say, “going to hospital” specifically implies being admitted as a patient but “going to the hospital” means going to the hospital for any other reason, eg to visit a patient. Apparently the distinction is to do with being admitted as a member of an institution. So we also say “going to school” for school age children but parents go “to the school”. It’s the same for prison if you’ve committed a crime or university as a student. I think I’ve heard Americans say “go to school”and “go to jail” or “go to college” even “go to church” so I think the nuance of “go to hospital” must just have been lost in American English

[@andrewhargreaves504]

Great examplez.

[@adb7834]

I believe the name for it is "zero-marking" or "zero article"! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zero-marking_in_English

[@Donna-pl9zn]

Thank you, you are the kind of Americans that we like in UK. You take our language and culture and appreciate it rather than insist that we are the ones that are saying things wrong.

[@nicolajackman2809]

Well said

[@scottkenyonteaching]

Washing up bowl .. wonderful thing .. very useful for all kinds

[@robertlonsdale5326]

Soaking your feet.

[@samtrinity-iq1jp]

As the family sick bowl. Although not the same one just have identical one for the family sick bowl. 😂

[@ashleighhogan941]

​@@robertlonsdale5326Vomiting in?

[@beverleykirby5778]

@@ashleighhogan941 but bleach after,used for kids that cant get to the loo in time

[@bermudagirl50]

Basin.

[@emdiar6588]

In British English, 'hospital' is a singular, collective noun for the medical institutions where you go for treatment when you are sick. It requires no definite article and cannot be pluralised. "Going to hospital" does not specify which hospital you are going to - it merely indicates that you are going to be treated in a hospital. Like when you say 'I go to church on Sundays'. You don't need to say 'I'm going to *the* church' unless you are talking about an actual building, rather than the act of collective worship. THE hospital is the specific building - the bricks and mortar, not the staff and patients. This CAN be pluralised. eg "Three of the hospitals in the county are in need of renovation". If a taxi driver says "I need to get to the hospital" you can assume they are late, on their way to pick someone up from the nearest hospital. If the same taxi driver were to say "I need to go to hospital", you can assume he has some kind of medical emergency. A painter/decorator is late for work, on his way to paint a hospital ward. He might say "I need to get to the hospital quickly". If the same person got very ill, he'd say "I need to go to hospital, quickly". Americans do not have this useful distinction. Or universal health care.

[@ianm.7712]

We have separate hot and cold because our cold tap is direct drinking water from the mains and hot water would go through a heating system

[@Psylaine64]

and no one fills the bowl to wash thier hands..its either wash in cold water or risk the hot already being too hot .. and then washing your hands in cold anyway lol

[@PaulaAnderson-fg2po]

absolutely. Certainly our 'tap' water (cold) is fantastic for drinking. Not the same in lots of European and Transatlantic venues

[@ianz9916]

The American term bangs referring to hair confused me for a long time, in the UK it's a fringe.

[@redbeki]

Bangs doesn't make sense does it.

[@MargaretTindale]

Bangs?? It's a loud noise, nothing to do with hair!!!

[@joancline4844]

Wonder how they got to use the word bangs for a fringe ?? Strange ..

[@JustMe-ks8qc]

I don't use a washing up bowl myself, but my parents do. I think it goes back to when sinks were ceramic, so a bowl would protect the sink from the dishes and the dishes from the sink.

[@terenceretter5049]

..and reduce water wastage maybe.

[@bermudagirl50]

I've always called it a basin.

[@PaulaAnderson-fg2po]

and you could also re-use the water and move it to use elsewhere

[@lp2934]

We use one for exactly this reason 👍

[@jrd33]

It also serves to effectively shrink the sink. This is use for example if you don't have running hot water and had to heat water separately. A smaller sink needs less hot water and a bowl absorbs much less heat from the water than a ceramic sink.

[@ChristineStables]

Many years ago I heard a British comedian called Mike Harding talking about the some of the differences between English and American names for things. He said he had once been explaining to an American audience what it had been like growing up and going to school in England in the 1960's and how on his first day at school he had been given an exercise book, a pencil and a rubber, and how the teacher had warned them to not to lose the rubber because they would be expected to use the same one for several years.

[@AntonGully]

Mike Harding is a name I haven't heard for a while. I feel like a YT deep dive is in order. (Holy fuck, that man was doing three hour shows)

[@tallypupthompson7888]

Back yard is one for me, in the uk its usually referring to a small walled area either paved concreted, or some other hard covering, quite often associated with terraced housing, there may or may not be grassed area beyond that, usually with a gate from the back yard, and grassed area would then be garden. In america someone could have for example a six acre garden / plot, and they would still refer to it as the back yard which always flummoxed me.

[@marleneclough3173]

Me too when I moved I just couldn't get used to a huge garden being a yard! Really confusing at first when I grew up the yard was a hard paved area near the house so no mud to take into the house but vthe large garden beyond that

[@glanguish9390]

"A ginnel"

[@lisalewis8989]

I’d say path (and road) rather than pavement. And it’s a washing up bowl xx

[@PaulaAnderson-fg2po]

I'd say pavement. I think it stems from when the roadway was just a dusty track and they 'paved' the side of the road?

[@free..to..air..]

Yes...And depending on which part of the UK you live in....the plarrrnts in your garden grow near the parrrthway..

[@yoshiclubcaptainfeerick7750]

Chuffed means pleased/happy/delighted. Chuffed to bits.

[@davidberesford7009]

It can also mean the opposite

[@ursulacosta307]

Basin is the word that we always called the bowl that you use in the sink. We immigrated to New York when I was 16, and with so many different words and phrases, it truly was like learning a whole new language.

[@pinkorchid2137]

The washing up bowl (and I’m washing up whilst listening to you!) is very because in the olden days everyone had an enamel sink. It could get cracked easily by the pots - so everyone has a bowl. This bowl is also legendary as being the vomit bucket when you get home drunk from the pub 😅

[@griswald7156]

Oh yes,the vomit bucket we wash our crockery in..

[@griswald7156]

Jacket potato..

[@suegermaine5730]

Never use the washing up bowl for being sick in, YuK. I bought a really cheap black bowl and its marked sick bowl and kept in the bottom of the cupboard. However it is washed out with soapy water and then left with bleach soaking over night. Then I dry it and it is in an old plastic carry bag so I can just grab it quick if one needs it.

[@Phiyedough]

I thought it was the other way round, you could easily damage your bone china dinner service if you dropped items in the earthenware sink but a plastic bowl would absorb the shocks.

[@BrandonLeeBrown]

The washing up bowl is used in America, where it is called a "dishpan" and its purpose is to conserve water usage.

[@andrewhargreaves504]

Your “cheerio” reminds of when a French woman said “ooh la la” to me. I burst out laughing because I loved it. She asked why I was laughing. When I told her she said it to me again. I felt so privileged to live the stereotype. 😂

[@AcornElectron]

9:00 proper in the uk also means very. Examples are: it was proper smart (that’s very cool) or in a sentence: “Was he angry?” “Oh he was proper pissed off!”.

[@Lee-kf9tq]

Yeh it's the sane here in Wales but we also use pure alot too, so "he was pure pissed off I swear". Or even "I swear down" .

[@timhannah4]

Smart can also mean Hurt/ Pain in Proper English!

[@PaulaAnderson-fg2po]

'proper' is very recent (in my life) just 'estuary' (South and London). However, in the 50s/60s and beyond, we all made up words that are no longer used like 'gopping' and 'mingin' (although still used in Scotland). The language keeps evolving

[@ninaelsbethgustavsen2131]

​@@timhannah4 😅 I'd like to meet an American who can explain "smarting"...

[@WreckItRolfe]

It's also more Northern.

[@adrianmcgrath1984]

People in the UK will say multi-storey car park and sometimes shorten it to multi-story - especially in towns where there is only one. These may become a thing of the past though. They were typically built as adjuncts to large department stores (which are vanishing) and large supermarkets, who now build on cheap land outside towns. The death knell may well be electric vehicles. Most of these multi-storeys went up in the '60s and '70s, when cheap concrete construction was happening across the country. A Ford Cortina from that era weighs about 1900lbs a Morris Minor about 1700lbs. The lightest Tesla weighs over 4000lbs. Many multi-storeys will not be able to handle the weight

[@EuroScot2023]

On the linguistic confusion front, I have a story that still makes me laugh 30 years on. Its not a Transatlantic mix-up though. It's a cross Channel one. I had a friend who was pretty fluent in French, though her learning had been mainly academic. She was over in France for a few weeks and out shopping for food stocks for the flat (apartment) she was in. She went in to a small food shop in her street with over the counter service - not self-serve. The lady behind the counter had piled up everything she'd been after and then my friend remembered one last thing. She was into healthy eating way before most of us and wanted some real, unadulterated yoghurt. In her best French, she asked the lady for some 'Yaourt sans preservatifs.' - Yoghurt without preservatives. After the lady lifted her jaw off the counter, she started laughing out loud and asked (in French) 'Why would we put preservatifs in yaourt!!?' After a few minutes of gradually getting to the bottom of the confusion, my friend realised that she'd asked for yoghurt without condoms/rubbers. Every time she went into the shop after that she was asked if she needed 'any preservatifs today?' When you think about it the French term is more descriptive than either of our English ones but it's one to be aware of if you're travelling in a Francophone country.

[@chrisbree3467]

A fanny in the US is different to a fanny in the UK. Love your channel, been a subscriber for a long while xx.

[@marleneclough3173]

Yes very big difference!!!

[@PaulaAnderson-fg2po]

I heard that recently a Sporran (worn with a Kilt) was called a 'Fanny Pack'!!

[@willowtree9291]

​@@PaulaAnderson-fg2poI thought a fanny pack was what we call a bum bag.

[@russellpotter7294]

When little kids go back to school after their Summer break. The teacher would ask them to write an essay on 'What we did on our Holidays'. Mind you I made most of it up when I was a kid.

[@stephenlee5929]

I think many adults do too.

[@paulicini]

As others have said, the washing up bowl was to protect the old ceramic ( Belfast) sinks and delicate china crockery. In addition we don't have machines under the sink that grind up veg peelings etc. It is a drag to fish them out of a sink, much easier with bowl.

[@johnclements6614]

Also saves heating water to fill a large and cold sink.

[@yoshiclubcaptainfeerick7750]

Scrape any food left off plates into bin before putting plates in bowl.

[@adrianmcgrath1984]

A lorry is a single bodied vehicle, larger than a van. In the US, a truck. When it is vehicle for towing a container (tractor/trailer) the British will say 'articulated lorry'

[@markpayne2057]

As a former HGV driver, HGV stands for Heavy Goods Vehicle, I was taught that Trucks run on rails, and were goods wagons on the railways, while Lorries run on the road. Note smaller commercial vehicles in the UK are normally referred to as Vans, though confusingly Lorries can be fitted with a van body,ie a solid enclosed box body. Two terms that only the older generations were familiar with and are not common anymore were Juggernauts for very large lorries and Pentechicon which was the term for a large furniture removal lorry. Thanks to the influence of American media and culture, the term Truck has become increasingly prominent in the UK.

[@CrazyInWeston]

I'd call them both a Lorry but I have heard 'An Artic' for the Articulated Lorry.

[@claymor8241]

Or just ‘artic’.

[@davidjones332]

@@markpayne2057 A lorry (originally "lurry") was strictly a flatbed wagon, originally horse-drawn. Over the years the word has changed its meaning to include all large goods vehicles, including box vans, dropsides, car transporters or whatever. Pantechnicon is a Greek term meaning "all the arts". In Victorian times an exhibition called The Pantechnicon was staged in London, and the various exhibits were delivered in a fleet of large horse-drawn box vans. The word caught on and was thereafter applied to any large box van, though as you say, that usage is dying out except among us oldsters.

[@ArferKipper]

​@@davidjones332In Hull growing up a Hoss and Rully was a horse drawn flat cart with 4 wheels. I believe that's where the name Lorry came from.

[@TheChunder3]

British bloke here. So interesting to hear and be reminded of some of our awesome language. We use rubber too for condoms and that’s just one example of what gives us the opportunities to use double entendres as part of our British humour. Love it, thank you. Ps I live in Cambodia at the moment and I miss the natural, funny use of my language. 😊

[@PaulaAnderson-fg2po]

we used to say 'rubber johnny' in my time

[@stevenpalmer8058]

I can't speak for the rest of the UK, but here in Scotland we would never pronounce semi/multi as 'sem-eye/multi_eye 🙂

[@lp2934]

Likewise in England for sure, I've never heard sem-eye or mult-eye used anywhere in the UK (well, unless the speaker was from the US of course)

[@mastiffsal8185]

​@@lp2934 yeah we say it more like multy or semmy.

[@francesherati8195]

Washing up bowl

[@lottie2525]

It's so cute that you have a cheeky use of some of our British words now you're back home.

[@tonycasey3183]

I was told that Lorry comes from an old verb, Lurry, which means to tug or pull. US term Semi which is short for semi-attached. It describes the fact that the tractor unit s semi-attached to the trailer unit. Those types of vehicle are called "articulated Lorries" in the UK, because the semi-attachment allows the whole rig to bend/articulate in the middle. When I was a kid, these massive (for the time) lorries were called juggernauts from an Indian word meaning....well...look it up.

[@chrisaskin6144]

I'm glad that here in the UK we fully attach trailers to tractor units, rather than only half attaching them like they do in the States - sounds like accidents waiting to happen.

[@billyhills9933]

'Articulated lorry' is often shortened to artic.

[@johnclements6614]

My understanding is that Semi means semi trailer. If you pull a heavy trailer the tractor unit needs to be heavy enough to have the wheels spin when it pulls away. If the tractor unit is very light it will only be able to pull away very slowly or the wheels will loose traction and when you change direction you will have problems. You can just put ballast on the tractor unit but then you are just using fuel to move a weight around. This is used on vehicles that are used to tow large abnormal loads. A semi trailer puts some of the load from the trailer onto the tractor unit as well as its own wheels so that the tractor units wheels have enough load on them not to spin. So the trailer is not a complete trailer as not all the load is being towed hence semi.

[@watcherzero5256]

Its not semi-attached, its semi-supported. They rely on the tractor unit to support the weight of the front of the trailer rather than the trailer being self supporting (i.e. just towed).

[@philtyke747]

or minimulised Artic

[@ennahh76]

Videos like this make me want to meet up with you and talk all day about different words.

[@carolineskipper6976]

The plastic thing that goes in the sink to do the washing up is called, you will not be surprised to learn, a 'washing up bowl'. They used to be mainly round, which is more 'bowl-like' but are often square or rectangle these days. There are lots of good reasons for using one...but I know Americans often struggle with the notion of why we would. Out of interest, what do you call the small wheeled table that a hostess might use in the house to bring food through from the kitchen to serve her guests from? Or the similar cart in upscale restaurants that might be used to bring the desserts round to your table for you to choose from? Because those are trolleys in the UK.....and serves a similar purpose to a 'shopping trolley'. My daughter, when visiting New York a couple of years ago, had a classic 'language confusion' with the Hotel Reception when she was asking if they could have a 'bin' in the bathroom in their room.....It took a bit of to-ing and fro-ing before she realised why the receptionist wasn't following what she wanted.

[@freewheelinfranklin6201]

A Tea Trolly (in uk).

[@danowen79]

A parking lot is a bizarre one for Brits because we don’t really use the word “lot” much at all, so car park just seems a lot easier and more natural and descriptive.

[@Phiyedough]

We do use the word lot for an auction item.

[@BrandonLeeBrown]

Lot in America is a piece of land.

[@dreamlodge]

Often built on an actual park, so potentially historic.

[@MarchMeadow]

I use the word "lot" a lot...

[@SeanS102]

Enjoyed hearing you on Elis & John this week!

[@dh7314]

This sounds significant

[@BrandonLeeBrown]

In America a washing-up bowl is called a "dishpan." They are used in America to save water, to reduce the amount of water needed.

[@Newamazingproduct]

In the north of England, trolleys is slang for underpants. Some of the best english words and phrases are cockney rhyming slang. So people might say knackered, but they also might say cream crackered, or creamed. Also not sure if you know, but knackered comes from the term knackers yard, which is a place old farm animals were taken when they were too old.

[@popstar1660]

And the two of you just became even more endearing 😊 If you like “bloke”, have you also heard people use “matey” for someone you don’t know the name of? That bloke over there, or matey over there 👉🏻

[@Psylaine64]

not to be confused with mate .. unless the specifc 'my mate' is used lol

[@PaulaAnderson-fg2po]

can't stand 'matey' very 'souf lndn'

[@RobertHogg-u8w]

7.47 a basin . I think it’s about protecting the metal sinks surface from scratching . Old sinks were ceramic finished and although liable to chipping they were not scratch-able. We used to have a second larger sink ( Belfast Sink ) that people used mostly for laundry , “ doing the washing “ mainly for “ steeping “ clothes , letting them soak overnight often . Also doubled up as a bath for children 😃 A Ringer was part of the activity as you put it through the Wringer to squeeze as much water out as you could , loved getting to try that as a youngster . Then came twin tub washing machines , A washer spin dryer . Modern technology that saw women get more time to themselves although house work is never done , they say .

[@iddjutt]

Lorry from the verb, 'lurry' - meaning to lug or pull about (16th Century)

[@spoonunit03]

Thanks for that, clever clogs.

[@danowen79]

British words I’m hearing more Americans use these days are “cheeky”, “flabbergasted”, and “gutted”. I’m hoping knackered takes off soon too.

[@BrandonLeeBrown]

Flabbergasted has been used in America for as long as I can remember and is in even older American TV programs and movies. It is in the American dictionary. Cheeky is not American and gutted is chiefly British. Nothing unusual about using flabbergasted in America and it is as American as it is British.

[@iangt1171]

I've also heard "ginormous" used a few times.

[@laurelcosten1012]

Gobsmacked and chuffed also….

[@stephenlee5929]

Its hard, being knackered.

[@S-North]

'Cheers' as a thank you, and used correctly in this same context is a word I now hear a lot in U.S vocabulary.

[@Sharon_Mc]

🇬🇧 I call it a 'washing up bowl. '

[@Muswell]

You both seem so happy.

[@TeaPot-s3l]

The container in the sink is called a washing up bowl.

[@BlueBlueBluBlu-vd5rs]

Ha ha ha, I really enjoyed that. Thank you for posting it. Great personalities. I also think a big part of why I liked it was that you guys picked up words that are genuinely used in the UK, rather than from some bad movie. It was nice too, how you discussed that you each had acquired different words in differing levels of use. Lad & lass are very much used in The North of England, where I reside. Bloke, I agree, is just a nice word to use. I'd never heard the term ' gutted ' before I'd visited the south east, however, now I think it's more widely used. The use of the definite article, I'd say is personal preference. Two words from a lot of places in The North are ' Aye ' for yes, or ' yes, of course ', depending on tone, and ' ta-ra ' for good bye.

[@freewheelinfranklin6201]

I've been using 'gutted' for more than six decades. Another word used up here in the NE is 'marra', now used casually as you would say pal or mate. Back in the day (Ghod! I hate that phrase) it would mean workmate or collegue but before that it refered to the guy you worked next to in a coalmine or other dangerous place (your Buddy). He was the guy who would risk his life to save you in the event of an accident. You might not like him, you might hate him but you respected him!

[@missprimproper1022]

One of the slogans from the 70's (I think, if my memory serves me correctly from the public information broadcasts) is: "Find a bin to put it in" regarding the proper disposal of personal litter.

[@itsmephil2255]

This is a very happy video, couldn't stop smiling and laughing watching you guys, you are definitely adopted Brits 🇺🇸🇬🇧😂😂 🫶🏼

[@baztweed]

washing up bowl for the sink, and a washing up drainer for the side of the sink for the utencils

[@amandalewis1003]

Car park or you could say multi storey, in the uk

[@mbxyz89]

Washing-up bowl,genius! Not having separate hot and cold taps? 😅

[@spiderboris79]

You mentioned the toilet again! I don't know if it's exclusively a Scottish one, but it's common to also refer to the toilet as 'the bog'

[@JohnyG29]

It's certainly not "exclusively Scottish".

[@stephenlee5929]

It is not exclusive to Scotland, bog is very much used in England (London definitely, but I'm sure I have heard it in Kent, South Coast and Somerset, and I think in Yorkshire).

[@stevethomas5849]

Also here in the West Country it's a Bog.

[@rossholmes9865]

Don't know about other parts of the uk but in the northwest we sometimes use the expression "made up" to mean thoroughly satisfied with , ie I'm made up with my new job.

[@marmite1076]

5.40 Our outdoor bins used to be marked "Rubbish". Now we sometimes have separate recycling bins for Paper, Glass and Plastics. Everything else non-recyclable goes into the "General Waste" bin.

[@lisafletcher3136]

Love your videos! It's a washing up bowl you are referring to 😂

[@mparkes1821]

We call it a washing up bowl, as you know UK kitchen sinks don’t typically have 2 sinks and even rarer if at all would be a waste disposal so for those who choose to hand wash their dishes or don’t have a dishwasher, food particles that remain on dishes even after disposing of food waste in a bin (trash can) can get easily trapped in the plug hole without the use of a plug or filter or worse, over time builds up in waste water pipes (we also are lazy and like to keep sinks free of food debris as much as possible) so we use a bowl. Not sure how it works over there but here we can take out limited insurance to cover blocked pipe work and drains belonging to our own property but if the shared drainage system designated between private pipe work and the public sewer gets blocked then the liability is shared between whomever uses it but repair work isn’t covered by the private contractors used by your insurance companies it’s covered by the environmental health service who will charge considerably more to fix it plus it’s off your property so yeah. Obviously no one who shares liability wants to pay for repairs so whomever household it affects foots the bill. No one wants that so we are a preventative bunch 😅

[@lawrencegt2229]

Nice to hear that you have become a favourite of UK comedy royalty Sir John Robins - well done! Enjoyed your guest call on the Elis & John podcast!

[@raymondporter2094]

You seen to be very decent people. Thanks for the video and I look forward to your next visit to rhe UK.

[@Jayjay-dt4fg]

Y'alright? That was a proper sorted vid! :-) The most confusing are those packet of French Fries, you showed for reference.. They are crisps not chips, but also not chips but fries. In England you don't ask for chips at a McDonald's, but fries. We do have Fries and Cookies, but they are specific things.

[@JanetChamberlain-m9p]

A pavement is also known as the footpath. It's a washing up bowl. Lorry - I think what you call a semi is what we would refer to as an articulated lorry, if we used the full name - which is a truck/lorry cabin attached to a trailer. We have smaller lorries, where the "trailer" part isn't detatchable - and we sometimes will refer to these as a truck (depending on the size), then, as they get smaller, they become a van. I think another difference that stands out to me is that you refer to a queue as a line. And I don't think you call Wellies (Wellington boots) this? I think you call them rubber boots? I was once visited by an American friend that carried their money etc in a bum bag around their waist. We were in the middle of a very busy area, full of families with small children when they misplaced it and loudly shouted to our group - who were some distance away - to ask if anyone had seen it. The shock on parents faces (and ours) turned into a hilarious lesson that - to us - "fanny pack" isn't a phrase you want to shout out and ask if anyone has seen yours. LOL.

[@jamesforrest8993]

I have always enjoyed your videos. I have watched since the very first ones when you just got hold of some UK chocolate. You two are very open to new experiences and open minded. Good for you.

[@ruth5506]

Thanks for sharing these differences, so interesting. We would say washing up bowl. Also a car park on more than one level is a multi-storey car park or just multi-storey.

[@rrey1234]

It's a washing up bowl. Over here we do have trolley buses in some cities, and they are trolley buses, as trolley could refer to supermarket trolleys, or trolleys they use for heavy goods like sacks etc.

[@lara28490]

The trolley they didn't refer to, the hospital trolley, is now I notice being called a gurney by some of the youngsters on account of all the US TV shows. But that word suggests movement: the one you are treated on in the hospital corridor because there are no NHS beds, is definitely a trolley.

[@rickb3645]

A washing up bowl goes in the sink for washing up guys. 👍

[@spoonunit03]

...Where do you wash up the Gals?... :)

[@karyne826]

Definitely.

[@colinbirks5403]

Semi truck? It's when the tow unit is just the cab, without the back. The cab has towing setups to connect the trailer. Means it can dump one trailer for offloading, and immediately pick up the next empty (or full for a delivery) trailer for use. Less truck (lorry) downtime.

[@adrianmcgrath1984]

Having crossed the Atlantic as an adult, I can tell you that nowhere is as difficult to navigate than a hardware store. Virtually every widget and clamp has different name, some tools have different names, and somethings are sold under a brand name, which may have a different manufacturer on either side of the Atlantic.

[@Phiyedough]

Even things invented in my lifetime have different names. Cable ties in UK are zip ties in USA. A strimmer in UK is a weedwacker in USA. One that always puzzled me was motorcycle petrol tap. In USA it is called a "petcock". That would suggest the "pet" part is short for petrol or petroleum but Americans don't call it petrol.

[@Chris-we7jx]

Hi there, I really enjoyed your review. There are also many regional words and sayings that you may not have experienced yet. Popular ones in my area of the Midlands is '" It's the Dogs" or " Dogs Bollocks" meaning that it's the absolute best. It refers to how some breeds of dogs (bulldogs etc) walk in such a way as to display their genitalia in a proud way ! Another is "Bostin'" also meaning great / excellent. A lorry is usually any goods vehicle more than 7.5 tonnes ( or tons) in weight. A semi-trailer is a large lorry (usually 40 feet / 12 metres long ) which is detachable from the front end (the tractive unit ) if it cannot be detached then it is a trailer.

[@DarenC]

I first heard "bostin" when _We've Got a Fuzzbox and We're Gonna Use It_ released their first album, _Bostin' Steve Austin_ back in the mid 80s. :D

[@pob4117]

I live simultaneously halfway between London and Birmingham, And we all find each other's accents amusing

[@rosewardale159]

Im laughing sat here watching your lovely video and thinking about last wks video were Baps were mentioned and I wrote a comment, dying to know what you thought of that word was also used for🤣 Carly is just adorable xxx

[@ruk2023--]

Semi truck refers to the trailer being semi-supported by the truck rather than its own axle at the front. I had to look up the British lorry though. We often have no idea where our words come from. Lorry comes from lurry in the 16th century meaning to lug along.

[@Pickleamintdrop]

Washing up bowl - is the name for the receptacle used in the sink - I love your videos and how much you love the quirky UK

[@MeinirHughes-vr6vh]

Such an interesting watch as a Brit! I never even realised so many words were just specific to the uk!

[@joecitizen5185]

there are many things that have to do with a motor vehicle(Car) terms that are used by British is rather unique and not at all used in the States. Petrol=gas, Wind screen=Windshield, Boot=trunk, bonnet=hood, motor way=highway, lorry= truck. I anticipate there are more, but these are the ones that come to mind.

[@maebe5361]

Pavement or Path in UK. Washing Up Bowl. A mixed Stag & Hen Do are sometimes referred to as a Hag Do😂

[@nicolajackman2809]

I could be wrong but I think sidewalk comes from the slatted wooden affairs that sprang up when Americans no longer wanted to walk ankle deep in mud. Pavements here were legislated for and initially buildings were responsible for purchasing the paving stones and kerb stones outside the property. As they were massively expensive people carved marks into them so that if someone stole the slabs and kerbs tones, they were recognisable and the owner could retrieve their property (you can see them all over the place in London, but I don't know about other British cities)

[@johnhickman2033]

The holiday is specific, on holiday is general...

[@ruk2023--]

I have adopted "to-go" in England after a lot of visits to the US which also leads to a lot of back and forth.

[@joecitizen5185]

Two of the words I tend to incorporate now after travelling the UK several times are: Posh and Al U Min E Um. A few of the word combinations I use are; wheelie bin, Straight away and Fancy a pint.

[@richard6440]

Fancy a pint? Right , put your posh aluminium wheelie bin out straight away and leg it to the pub for a quickie:)

[@julietannOsfan1972]

Great video. I love that you still say a lot of British words. Did you ever find the words for different meals confusing? I always say breakfast, dinner & tea. Dinner to me is a sandwich etc. Why do people in the US say Dr’s office instead of surgery? Or an eye Dr instead of an opticians?

[@mbxyz89]

Holidays are either bank holidays (national day off for most) or specific day e.g. Christmas day ,eater Sunday etc

[@doctorf1144]

The definite article is used for certain buildings and institutions; I live in Oxford where we refer to the Bodleian Library, the Radcliffe Camera, and the Sheldonian theatre. There is no article used when referring to our colleges or churches: e.g. All Souls, Christ Church, Magdalen, Balliol, St Mary’s etc. I’m not enough of a grammarian to fully understand why, or perhaps it’s just a convention. By the way, in Oxford and Cambridge the word college is often omitted after the name of the College as understood, and never used for Christ Church, which is also sometimes just called ‘The House’ i.e the translation of its Latin name: Aedes Christi.

[@pob4117]

The benefits of a washing up bowl, There is a gap between you and the water, so it doesn't splash on you, and you can pour things down the plug hole with out contaminating the washing up water

[@Muswell]

Proper doesn't mean lovely. It means a correct version of something.

[@cketts8128]

As Brits, we grow up hearing American ways of saying things from a young age so are very used to knowing what everything means so it’s easier for us to go to the States and have no issues with words. Americans tend not to hear so many British words so find it difficult to know what British words mean. Although it’s nice to hear that so many British words are creeping in to daily speech….it’s about time! 😂🇬🇧

[@alternatealfgarnett]

If you like saying "chuft" then you can extend it to the commonly used "chuft to bits" which is like being extra pleased

[@steviegibson5847]

Washing up bowl!!! I'm Scottish and I live in England and I say a lot of things that they don't even know. Love it. 😆🇺🇸🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[@Em45567]

16:39 yeh up North we tend to drop “the” a lot. Like instead of saying “I’m going to the shops” we usually say “goin’ tuh shops”. We tend to be quite lazy in our vocab, dropping or shortening words 😂

[@RobertHogg-u8w]

Holiday ( Holy Day )has little religious meaning these days , days off work are all classed as Holidays to have family time or not . people will mostly use this time to go to the countryside the coastline beaches if they don’t live there already and abroad , for the guaranteed sunshine mostly and likely some alcohol for many 🙂

[@ianmaonaigh7215]

Hi to ya both . That plastic tub for washing your dirty dishes , is known in Scotland as a ' basin ' . Best regards

[@AcornElectron]

Sunday MG? Definitely. I’m looking forward to this ❤

[@raydriver7300]

You would say: split rig, tractor trailer or semi. In the UK it’s an articulated lorry. The original reason for separate taps for hot and cold in the UK is that water was pumped directly to the cold water taps and also stored in a tank in the loft and gravity fed to a boiler for hot water. Dead birds and other detritus could find their way into the tank. We now have more modern heating systems 😊🌞

[@TIDYJOKER]

Great use of the term 'cheeky'. Something naughty, but is funny or nice. Like when a 2 year old swears. If you aren't the parent and giggle, you'd call the kid cheeky

[@ednammansfield8553]

Another thing said here in the UK is if you say something that seems strange to someone a person may reply you are off your trolley which means that you are not right in the head for saying that. It could be used also as a disagreement with somebodys opinion about doing something if it was carried out. Another word for a police officer would be 'Copper' or 'Rozzer' depending on what part of the UK you are in. There are different words used in the military also for military police officers. For the British Army military police it would be 'Red Caps' due to the caps or berets they use. For the Royal Air Force Police it would be 'Snow Drops' because of their white caps that they wear.

[@surfaceten510n]

When renting property in London it is usually a thin line between TO LET and TOILET.

[@freewheelinfranklin6201]

Appreciate what you did there😆

[@watcherzero5256]

The American 'Trolley' actually actually refers to vehicles using the early method of collecting electricity from the overhead, they have a wheel on a pole (the Trolley Pole) that runs along the wire rather than the later pantograph contact strip design. When electric buses used the same method they were called Trolley Buses. Thus the similar wheels on poles in the UK became a Shopping Trolley while Americans decided to call it a Shopping Cart (as they had earlier buggy car like designs for a basket on wheels which didn't catch on but created the name). Trolley bus and Trolley Tram were used as names in the UK as well until the method of electricity collection changed to pantographs and we switched to calling them Pantograph Cars.

[@artistjoh]

I am Australian, and while there are some differences, our words are generally more similar to British than American. Rubbish bin for example. However, when words are different we still find it easy to understand what the other words mean. In the US, however, Americans are so unfamiliar with the outside world that people are totally perplexed by anything not used in the US. I remember trying to buy a rubbish bin in Walmart in San Francisco and the assistant couldn't figure out what a rubbish bin is. After what seemed like endless descriptions - you put rubbish in it, etc, she eventually asked if we meant trash can. I didn't know that I needed to call it a trash can, but I instantly knew what was meant by that name. And what could a rubbish bin be other than a trash can and vice versa? As to the word trolley, it is equally correct to call a shopping trolley and a tram a trolley-bus. The word was originally troll, and referred to hand carts used in the streets for carrying goods from place to place, usually by small businesses. After rail became a thing small carts were used on rail for carrying goods, and San Francisco trams are a particularly small kind of train, so it is kind of reasonable to also call them trolley-buses, even though they carried people rather than goods. Most of the rest of the English speaking world uses the word tram. Tram is a much older word than trolley-bus. It comes from the grooves that would get worn into cobble stones by horse drawn carriages. Following the tram tracks referred to driving your horse drawn vehicle in the grooves. This had the advantage of forcing the horse to take a straight line, and was often worn very smooth so gave a more comfortable ride for anyone aboard. When rails were first laid in streets they often permitted horse drawn rail traffic, and it was natural for people to liken it to driving in the tram tracks, and while the larger steam driven trains were just called trains because of the train of connected wagons behind the locomotive, the smaller (at first horse drawn, later electrically powered) rail vehicles were called trams from the old horse days. Thus both trolley bus and tram are logical names for that kind of transportation. EXCEPT that in some parts of the world buses powered electrically from overhead lines, but otherwise regular buses with rubber tires and no rails were called trolley buses. To be extra confusing the poles that reach up from the roof of the bus to the electrical wires are called trolleys, and are probably the reason the buses are called trolley buses. And more confusion, some older tram systems, like San Francisco are powered by cables, but not called cable cars, whereas there are many cable driven tram systems that are indeed called cable cars, like the one in Wellington in New Zealand. And just to show that English is totally strange, the word cable car is also applied to small carriages that are suspended from cables and used in mountainous places. Meanwhile trolleys (hand carts) were still being used to go shopping long after shops and small businesses started using trucks and delivery vans to carry goods. Sometime in the 19th century the word troll became trolley, goodness knows why. It is logical that both shopping trolleys and trolley buses use the word trolley, but it is very strange that in the US they dropped the word trolley for hand pushed smaller contraptions and started just calling them hand carts, and that lead to calling shopping trolleys shopping carts.

[@mlc2492]

Another name you might hear for a car park is “multi-storey” but we use that as a shorthand to refer to a car park that has multiple levels

[@andysherwood]

You call them 'Semis' because they are a combination of a tractive unit (The controls and engine etc) along with a Semi-trailer. A semi trailer is one that does not support all of it's own weight and relies on the '5th wheel' of the tractive unit to support the weight of the front end, the 5th wheel also provides articulation of the vehicle.

[@pob4117]

You should get the leaders of your country to form an NHS, we all pay for the NHS here, and we all use it and benefit from it

[@chrisfox3161]

The history of the washing up bowl. It's one of those things from way back when the water came out of one tap and it was cold. The one tap in the house was over the kitchen sink which was in a normal working class 1850s home was a "Slop Stone" . It's a bit of social history.

[@terenceretter5049]

If indeed (in 1850) there was a tap inside, more likely to be a communal tap outside serving several houses or whole street. In which case a bowl would reduce wastage particularly with regard to hot water.

[@waynefairclough3328]

Washing up bowl is the term you were struggling with 😂❤

[@ronakio]

Love your videos. Keep em coming.

[@AndrewMarshall-e7n]

English is very much derived from a medieval culture, before the modern age the only days off you got were holy days, holidays, therefore the association between time off and holy days was made. It seems in the US this connection was lost at some point. As a historian I can also add that the departure of American English from Standard English is analogous to the departure of Anglo Norman French from Old French. Like the English colonists who left England for America the Normans who left France for England grew apart from the land and language they came from.

[@demonbarber101]

Bloke is a good one.

[@robinwhitebeam4386]

In Scotland a takeaway is called a carryout.