Are there vocab differences between English (US) & English (UK) for everyday things?

[Ryan-1945]

I've noticed it when upon learning Taiwanese Mandarin, in which they use Chinese (Traditional) as their main script. Getting further into the language, I can spot whether somebody is using Mainland and Taiwanese Mandarin vocab, for example: they refer a cab driver as 司機 in Taiwan but in China they instead say 師傅 despite both meaning the same thing. 番茄 in Taiwan while it's 西紅柿 in China, both meaning Tomato.

In Taiwan, they refer Cheese (like as in the dairy product itself) as 起司 (China says: 奶酪), video (like watching YouTube or TikTok vids for instance) is known as 影片 in Taiwan but Chinese people instead say 視頻. If you're texting someone from Taiwan, they refer that as 訊息 and not 信息 since Mainlanders say that. Potatoes are known as 馬鈴薯 in Taiwan but people from China say 土豆.

In hindsight:

• Is it a dead giveaway if a Brit is pretending to be American based on their wordings alone if they're trying to be an American online?
  
• Are there examples that vocab for mundane things is different for US & UK English, like what do they call fruits, vegetables, etc.?

[trousers]

It's a dead giveaway, but it's for set phrases and words.

An American asks for a ride into town.
A Briton asks for a lift into town.

The lines get blurrier because the USA is a very immigrant nation, to the point where everyone in Michigan thinks I'm from the UP because my accent kind of sort of sounds like a goose. But it's the little things really.

Trunk vs. boot, line vs. queue.

Only rarely is there an actual whole phrasing, where one just wouldn't do it, whereas the other would. I'll have to ask my wife for some examples but she's asleep so I'll instead just forget and also go to sleep. Goodnight (this is totally me going to sleep and not continuing to post idly because I work really weird shifts)

[sfnhltb]

Yeah, there are a whole host of words that vary between the two, although some could just be confusing rather than allowing you to know which -for example the US Jelly means UK Jam, while the UK Jelly means the US Jello (I think), or if someone in the UK takes off their Pants they now have no underwear, where if someone in the US took of their Pants they would still be in their underwear having taken off what someone in the UK would call their Trousers. You might be able to tell in context which meaning is more likely, but you could easily get it wrong in other cases by assuming the wrong semantic meaning.

Others are simpler, Boot vs Trunk for the storage area at the back of a car, Plaster vs Band Aid for what you use to cover a small cut, Flat vs Apartment for a individual dwelling in a shared building, Nappy vs Diaper for use with babies, Rubbish vs Trash for things you throw out (although with movies/TV, Trash is used a fair bit in the UK to mean something that isn't very good figuratively, but not for literal rubbish), Holidays vs Vacations, Lifts vs Elevators, Trainers vs Sneakers, Cookies vs Biscuits, and hundreds of other combinations.

Still over recent decades there have been a lot of cross cultural contamination due to films/TV/social media that make it a lot less reliable, particularly if you only pick up on one individual word that isn't "normal" for a particular culture, as someone might just be a big fan of a particular TV show from the other culture and have picked up a term from it.

[Echo NO Aim]

from school i remember fries (us) and chips (uk) and trousers (uk) and pants (us)

[Chaosolous]

Yeah. A lot of them.

[NW/RL]

Plenty, and there are times where words sound the same but are spelt differently, like gray and grey, or color and colour (although I'm not sure how often the British spelling is used anymore)

[salamander]

Originally posted by it's me:

It's a dead giveaway, but it's for set phrases and words.

An American asks for a ride into town.
A Briton asks for a lift into town.

The lines get blurrier because the USA is a very immigrant nation, to the point where everyone in Michigan thinks I'm from the UP because my accent kind of sort of sounds like a goose. But it's the little things really.

Trunk vs. boot, line vs. queue.

Only rarely is there an actual whole phrasing, where one just wouldn't do it, whereas the other would. I'll have to ask my wife for some examples but she's asleep so I'll instead just forget and also go to sleep. Goodnight (this is totally me going to sleep and not continuing to post idly because I work really weird shifts)

and then there are countries like mine. which are more heavily influenced by british english and vocab overall, but in recent years have started to become influenced by american english as well. so we are using a hodgepodge of both.

[Sherasonni]

Some of the spellings are different. Such as...

honor (US) : honour (UK)

color (US) : colour (UK)

defense (US) : defence (UK)

offense: (US) : offence (UK)

traveler (US) : traveller (UK)

cancel (US) : cancelled (UK)

center (US) : centre (UK)

theater (US) : theatre (UK)
(Though some of the old ones in the US use the UK spelling such as the Greek Theatre and the Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles).


Quotation marks (for dialogue or titles) are different...

double quotation marks " " (US) : single quotation marks ' ' (way more common in the UK)


When quotes are used within a quote...

single quotation marks ' ' (US) : double quotation marks " " (way more common in the UK)


Comma...

___, ___, and ___. (US) : ___, ___ and ___. (UK)


(The other countries that use English as the official language and aren't the US use the British spelling).

[videogames10]

Typing the words British or Scottish would not raise suspicion. However, it would be a dead giveaway if you were to type Bri-esh or Scaw-esh.

[kbiz]

In America, it's called a trunk. In the UK, it's called boot.
In America, it's called a vacation. In the UK, it's called a holiday.

[76561198356019466]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXBHY7uco0Y

[Bjørn]

Originally posted by kbiz:

In America, it's called a vacation. In the UK, it's called a holiday.

I always thought there was a different meaning to these, in both languages.

Holiday is national / bank holidays like Christmas and Easter and such, while vacation is when you go somewhere in your time off, as in 'vacate the premises'?

But I don't know. We learn British English here, but many use a mix...

[vkobe]

Originally posted by Ryan-1945:

I've noticed it when upon learning Taiwanese Mandarin, in which they use Chinese (Traditional) as their main script. Getting further into the language, I can spot whether somebody is using Mainland and Taiwanese Mandarin vocab, for example: they refer a cab driver as 司機 in Taiwan but in China they instead say 師傅 despite both meaning the same thing. 番茄 in Taiwan while it's 西紅柿 in China, both meaning Tomato.

In Taiwan, they refer Cheese (like as in the dairy product itself) as 起司 (China says: 奶酪), video (like watching YouTube or TikTok vids for instance) is known as 影片 in Taiwan but Chinese people instead say 視頻. If you're texting someone from Taiwan, they refer that as 訊息 and not 信息 since Mainlanders say that. Potatoes are known as 馬鈴薯 in Taiwan but people from China say 土豆.

In hindsight:

• Is it a dead giveaway if a Brit is pretending to be American based on their wordings alone if they're trying to be an American online?
  
• Are there examples that vocab for mundane things is different for US & UK English, like what do they call fruits, vegetables, etc.?

yup just listen Corvus XIII and jd vance talking it look different

[IAMFROG]

growing up jewish we learned the english language a little differently at my all jewish boys school. The common way to remember your vowels in school may have sounded something like "A E I O U" which is fine, but at my all jewish boys school, our learning of the vowels sounded like "A E U O ME"