I have never been told by an American that I'm speaking British but here's a short conversation that I had in a Washington DC deli. I was paying for my groceries, chatting to the guy on the till, when the man in the queue behind me said "That's a cute accent. Where are you from?". I said "England". "Oh, OK", he said, "and how long have you been in the US"? "Three weeks", I replied. "Only THREE WEEKS??? Wow!! Your English is almost perfect already!" I had no words, so I just smiled and walked to the door, but as I left I heard heard a woman in the queue saying "She's from ENGland and she's speaking ENGlish. The clue's in the name"!!
Here is a true story. About 20 years ago, my uncle and his family were on holiday in Florida. He went in a supermarket and asked an employee (a woman in her 50s) where the ice lollies were. She replied “What are ice lollies?” My uncle couldn’t remember what Americans called them, so he just said “Where’s the frozen section?” She showed him, and when he picked up a box of ice lollies, the employee said “Sir, those are called popsicles”. My uncle said “Sorry, yes. We call them ice lollies in Britain”. The employee then said “That’s something I’ve never understood about you Brits. When you got the English language from us, why did you feel the need to change so many words and to change the accent, instead of just sticking to the proper English that Americans speak?” Hoping he’d misheard her, my uncle said “Excuse me? Americans did not invent English!” The employee replied “Of course Americans did not invent English”, and he thought to himself ‘Oh, thank god, she gets it’. No. No. And No. What she actually said was “Of course Americans did not invent English. Jesus did! We got it from Jesus and you got it from us!”
Pavement refers to the paved area of the road that's designed exclusively for pedestrians. It's taken from the Latin pavimentum, which means “trodden down floor.” Trodden on because it's for pedestrians.
Churchill was quoting George Bernard Shaw when he said this. It is uncertain whether Shaw coined the phrase or was, in turn, quoting someone even earlier.
The american influence here though! I work in a school the amount of students now asking to use the bathroom. I tell them they can use the toilets but there's no bath in there 😂
In the UK we are used to picking up context and ‘obvious’ unstated requests etc in a way that doesn’t happen over the pond routinely. My American friend visiting over here had problems with words like sorry. As you’ll know this can mean anything from contrition to a prequel for a punch in the face. She translated all shades of meaning to politeness initially. Similarly ‘can you check the windows’ before going out to us obviously means to check, and if they’re open close them. She would come back and say they were open requiring additional specific instructions to close them if open and being annoyed that this was seen by most as her being thick - which she isn’t. It’s an interesting cultural difference. I have been told by an American before ‘why don’t you speak English?’. Obviously I had to point out ‘I AM English, so I do….the clue is in the word’. He didn’t get it - not one of your brightest citizens sadly. It’s always a pleasure to talk to or listen to an intelligent and aware American like yourself who can ‘hear between the lines’ and so appreciate wit and British humour.
We call the footpath "the pavement" because originally, that was the only part of the road that was paved. You know, for pedestrians to walk on without getting muddy.
Whereas in the US, I believe they used wood, so it was the boardwalk. And on the subject of funny compound words, did you just say "footpath"? Is that to differentiate it from a handpath?
Pavement is not the middle of the road.. It's the walkway at the side of the road which is paved with paving slabs.. That's why it's called a pavement..
Originally the road was a dirt or gravel track and at the side was drainage ditches which were covered by slabs. Pavement comes from Pavimentum 'Latin' so here in England we learned the original word for "Raised walkway next to a road" from the original road builders themselves. Pavement = Pavimentum.
I find it crazy that American English is more literal (like the mentioned "sidewalk, eyeglasses, horseback riding etc.") yet when it comes to a sport where you kick a BALL with your FOOT you straight up refuse to call it football.
An American did once say to me when I was overseas "you speak our language so well" and I wasn't in the best of moods and immediately went "you mean, I speak my language, in which you use a dialectical form of, natively. It's called English. I'm from England. The clue is in the bloody name."
In Germany we don't call it "horse riding" but just "riding". Only if you go riding on another animal than a horse you would add the animal, like e.g. "camel riding", "donkey riding" or "riding on an elephant".
@@martindunstan8043 No In Germany we don't say ride a bike. We say drive a bike (Fahrrad fahren) directly translated means Drive wheel driving, but the proper translation of Fahrrad is bycycle so we drive our bikes.
@martindunstan8043 Like Knightwish in the meantime answered, in Germany we say drive a bike/car/boat/motor cycle. I guess we say it for everything with wheels or motor you can sit on or in. Also for Inliner or skate board or even (water) Ski or balloon. But not for planes.
Check also: tie ("necktie"), coast ("seacoast"), cod ("codfish"). The reason for these apparent oversimplifications is because American English is the language of a country of mostly immigrants, who need to learn the laguage from basics to assimilate.
The British and Aussies have a similar sense of humour.. the Brits and Aussies don't hold back and will just give ppl a lot of sh** to get a rise.. as a joke, of course, like banter 😃 ..
Same here. I am from Pittsburgh and half of my banter with friends is to "jag" (make fun of) them. And it is brutal. It is probably true in most countries, too.
BTW I love the USA. I have been many times for both business and holidays. We’ve almost RV’d our way around the USA, and have decided now to check out every State that we missed on previous trips. Even in the middle of New York City, I had people wanting to help me out with getting into a cab/taxi in pouring rain. We’ve never had one bad experience in all of those holidays 😊❤😊
Here is a true story. About 20 years ago, my uncle and his family were on holiday in Florida. He went in a supermarket and asked an employee (a woman in her 50s) where the ice lollies were. She replied “What are ice lollies?” My uncle couldn’t remember what Americans called them, so he just said “Where’s the frozen section?” She showed him, and when he picked up a box of ice lollies, the employee said “Sir, those are called popsicles”. My uncle said “Sorry, yes. We call them ice lollies in Britain”. The employee then said “That’s something I’ve never understood about you Brits. When you got the English language from us, why did you feel the need to change so many words and to change the accent, instead of just sticking to the proper English that Americans speak?” Hoping he’d misheard her, my uncle said “Excuse me? Americans did not invent English!” The employee replied “Of course Americans did not invent English”, and he thought to himself ‘Oh, thank god, she gets it’. No. No. And No. What she actually said was “Of course Americans did not invent English. Jesus did! We got it from Jesus and you got it from us!”
Only in America. Land of "the free". With more guns than they know what to do with. With more mass shootings than anywhere else in the world. America, America - where schools have drills for shootings! America, America - where you have more % of people (of colour) incarcerated than anywhere else in the world. Where your health insurance in now deadly. Where your paid time off is diabolical Where your maternity and paternity (you may not know that last word) is too short. America, America - Definitely not the land of the free and for the next 4 years God help us all.
Michael Mackintyre is so funny just from truly observing human behaviour. By the way, pavement isn't the middle of the road. Roads just used to be the space between the houses - not surfaced, just mud and the slops that were thrown into the street. That was okay for carriages, but not for pedestrians. So the sides of the roads were paved to lift them above the mud and slops - hence pavement.
I'm Danish so I will call my English a mix of British and American English, but one American word I have a hard time to understand is the word 'Restroom', are you taking a nap every time you take a dump? Why not call it 'Toilet' like the rest of the world. I do know that the British also call a toilet a loo but in public spaces they are still called toilets. First time in America we landed in JFK airport in transit to Florida and I couldn't find the toilets as I didn't know they were called Restrooms. 😒Fast lesson learned.
At one time, especially Ladies' Rooms, had couches and settees next to the toilet area where women could retreat from the hustle and bustle of daily life and restore themselves. Some higher end Men's Rooms had them, also. Over time, they combined, and since restroom sounds nicer, it became more common usage, even if les descriptive and no longer quite as accurate.
Because the toilet is the actual throne you take your dump on, sister, not the entire room that typically also has sinks and faucets, and also showers at some roadside rest stops in the US. If I am going to wash my hands I don't say I need the toilet, which makes me wonder where you wash your hands?😉
I normally call it "the road". In the UK, we "cross the road" which involves stepping *off* the pavement into "the road" and concludes when we reach the edge of the opposite side of "the road" before the pavement begins. What do Americans cross? I rest my case.
You might need to add a few words, too. Such as when you say your are going to hospital. Do you say you are going to house, or beach? Sounds like a educated caveman (thank you, Jim Gaffigan).
While in the US I didn't understand a theme park worker who was saying the same instructions over and over, and was speaking very quickly with (to me) a strong accent. When I didn't do what they wanted they asked me "Do you speak English?" to which I replied "Yes, I'm from England!"
Well not so surprising. We have Germans, etc., who come here and speak English with British pronunciations (as that is how it is taught) and don't assume these folks are from England.
All of the Texans? Come on. Enough with the Americans are stupid shit. Or are you willing to turn over all of the things we invented, such as the internet and your mobile devices, and your computer, just to name a few off the top of my head. How would that work out for ya?
Obviously referring to petrol, from the word 'Petroleum' which is a liquid the Americans call 'gas' because the only place in the world that calls 'Petroleum' gasoline is America.
I speak right English. You speak an invented coarse dialect. I recently revisited the town where I was raised. The thing that struck me hardest was that the people had no accent at all. It's a small town in the North of England, some would call it a village. If Americans spoke English rather than their weird dialect they would be much easier to understand.
Americans have hundreds of dialects. There is no one "weird dialect" and Brits speak multiple dialects, too. If Brits, such as you, would stop burning books and start reading them, maybe you would fill these pages with head-up-your-ass, unsupportable assertions about a country that has 5 times more people than the entire UK, pal?
In the UK, PAVEMENT is never on the road, that is TARMAC! Pavement is always on your SIDEWALK, but never on the road, JP!! As for American English, English originated in the UK, not in America! You just borrowed the language and then pimped it/ADULTERATED IT/RUINED IT, according to us, Brits!! 😂✌
Every country has its specialty. The British are the best at humour. The Italians at design. The French at food. The Germans at engeneering. The Dutch at trade. And so on.
British the best at humor? Huh? They are the best at British humor, but you have not one like George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, and more recently, Dave Chapelle, Bill Burr, Jim Gaffigan, etc. We are the best at American humor. The French us too much G-D butter in their cuisine, think duck liver is a delicacy, and believe they can tell what wine they are drinking (my testing with a limited sample of French friends proved differently), "oh, it has a slightly earthy, wood flavor with a hint of fruit". Get the F out of here. I would say the US is best at inventing, e.g., mobile devices, internet, computers, airplanes, etc., and they keep coming...
Americans: "Yeah, football! That's the game you play with an 'egg' in your hand, right!?" World: "Nope! We play a ball with our foot! That's why we call it football!? o_O" Americans: "Got ya! You mean soccer ..." < *wtf!?
No such thing as "American" as we have hundreds of dialects across 330 million people. Maybe you should get your information from books instead of movies about NYC and LA? Or maybe you should first stop burning books and start reading them to begin with, eh, Oppenheimer?
You’re definitely not a content leach! I get why comedians and celebrities want to own their content, and many RUclips creators within reason. Unlike so many reaction channels, you give credit to the creator and link the original. Plus you provide your own travel content and show enthusiasm into the culture you’re visiting.
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" (Portuguese origin). Roads are paved now, but at the time of that expression a UK high street was earthen for horse and cart, with paving stones/bricks for pedestrians.
Britain = pavement. America = sidewalk. Australia = foot path. Even more descriptive, a path for your feet LOL BTW I love reaction channels, it's interesting to hear someone else's point of view on a clip. G' day from Australia.
The one word in Amercian English that makes the least sense is aluminium. Americans drop the 2nd letter "i" - perhaps to make it easier to say. However a lot of other chemical elements end "ium", most of them are metals.
There is a fair bit of history in this. Both aluminum and aluminium have been used on both sides of the pond, but the UK adopted aluminium very early on as that was what was preferred by rest Europe (and it was the trend to end elements with -ium). In the US, Webster used aluminum in his dictionary, but aluminium was still quite common. It was from a big advertising campaign in the 1890s for some product that they used aluminum spelling (preferred because of its connotations to platinum) that cemented it in American culture as the preferred spelling (though they only officially settled on that in 1925).
@ it’s spelt speciality and thus pronounced that way in the UK. But we also use specialty in certain circumstances (usually as an adjective eg. “specialty store”). But for most intents and purposes, the two are interchangeable
Some hope? Huh? The Trumps of this country will come and go. You've been reading too many hysterical commentaries. Hey, we didn't vote to get out of the best common market in the world. But I think there is still hope for yinz, though that train has left the station, pal.
@@gregcable3250 since I am Australian and not English the Common Market comment is not valid. I'm darned sure I didn't vote for our current Prime Minister but last elections we had to choose between bad or worse.
His first sentence explains it best: 'Americans need explanations'.... take a look at traffic signs From a simple "YIELD" on a "Yield Sign' over to "DO NO ENTER" on a "DO NOT ENTER SIGN" to complete multi-line sentences sprayed on the pavement ;) ....
You said another example when you said ‘Trash Can’ if Can is your word for bin then why do you have to state that you have to put trash in the can ? Another one I noticed on a trip to San Francisco was Tuna FISH sandwich we just call it a Tuna Sandwich as we know that Tuna is a fish 😂
Why do you say codfish when cod is fish? Also there are cans for multiple things. Garbage can is not where you put the trash (or recycled materials). Should have thought that one through a bit, Oppenheimer.
I grew up in South Africa where we say robot instead of traffic lights 🚦. I moved to Sweden and it's always fun seeing how they try to figure out what I'm on about 😅.
Roads are made from tarmac, pavements are made from 'paving' stones or flag stones, probably because they used to be as big as a flag, I'm just guessing.
"Sidewalk" is quite sensible, especially since not all high streets, suburban streets and roads in Britain have a pedestrian pathway that is specifically paved, i.e. laid with paving stones. Most paved walkways in suburbs are too expensive to maintain as such and a raised tarmacadamed footpath edged with kerbstones is as much as is provided now.
The only thing I see with that Comment is if An American TRYED to say speak English to a Scotsman and was given the Universal Hello of Scotland A Glasgow KISS ! Or anyone from the North of England or TRYED that SH outside Any of the Hundreds of Pubs on a Friday Night Out ?.
Everybody I know in UK, including me, uses twice. Once, twice, three times... Thrice only appears in Shakespeare- "thrice the brindled cat has mewed etc"
@gregcable3250 mildly intonated accental variations that can be quite literally reduced to the odd state like Massachusetts or Alabama hardly amounts to regional variation let alone a fully blown divergent dialect. Meanwhile, the UK with just a fraction of the population not only share a common language but have actual unintelligible dialects that vary from one town to the next. Scouse, brummie, Geordie, Mancunian, Glaswegian, Cockney. To name but a few. I do hope this retort didn't contain too many multi syllabic words for you. Perhaps have a lie down
Michael McIntyre is SO very funny. You should google him and hopefully you'll come up with the live comedy shows he did at the London Palladium. He used to do the most marvellous setups, which involved very intricate arrangements to get people into the theatre and on to the stage, and spoof them in front of the whole nation.
There's a difference between an accent and a dialect. Europe's languages are not as old as these dialects and in most cases one particular dialect was chosen as the standard language (like the Florence dialect in Italy I think, Haarlem in the Netherlands). The dialects in Germany and the Netherlands close to the border are much closer to each other than to the stanndard language.Dialects can have different grammar and different words. I grew up in a rural area where especially the names for farm animals and other farm were different. We also had only one version of 'you' (singular) and no formal/informal as standard Dutch does.
What a shame you can't see more of Michael McIntyre re copyright. I've watched other Americans reacting to him on You Tube. I came across a separate one recently (not a reaction one) with him talking about having a silent letter day eg knocks = k... nocks, school = sc...hool, half= hal...f , subtle = sub...tle and so on. He did a whole conversation of it. Hilarious. Another one is from Monty Python and the Holy Grail "knights"= k...nig....hts.
Hunny, let's get u out of this rabbit hole yeah? BRITISH IS A CULTURE -ENGLISH IS THE LANGUAGE -YEAH? Is. that clear enough? Coming from an AUSTRALIAN!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!
As many have said, pavement is the side of the road not the middle. Whoever told you that was clearly playing with you or demanding you play with te traffic. Much love from Cornwall.
I think racquetball is such a weird name compared to squash - like, if you say you're going to play squash, everyone will know what you mean, if you say you're going to play racquetball that could be any kind of game with a ball and a racquet! I've never understood that word xD
Well it depends on whether or not you are intelligent enough to know where to walk or if you need to be told to walk at the side of the road rather than down the middle of it.😂
Michael McIntyre is hilarious. Even if you can’t do a reaction, you should just watch his stuff because it’s brilliant. He doesn’t use foul language too much either, which is refreshing.
I have never been told by an American that I'm speaking British but here's a short conversation that I had in a Washington DC deli. I was paying for my groceries, chatting to the guy on the till, when the man in the queue behind me said "That's a cute accent. Where are you from?". I said "England". "Oh, OK", he said, "and how long have you been in the US"? "Three weeks", I replied. "Only THREE WEEKS??? Wow!! Your English is almost perfect already!" I had no words, so I just smiled and walked to the door, but as I left I heard heard a woman in the queue saying "She's from ENGland and she's speaking ENGlish. The clue's in the name"!!
I would have said 'almost?'
What the absolute fook 😂
It makes laugh when Americans believe they invented the English language, and are surprised at how how well the English speak, well…… English. 😂
Here is a true story. About 20 years ago, my uncle and his family were on holiday in Florida. He went in a supermarket and asked an employee (a woman in her 50s) where the ice lollies were. She replied “What are ice lollies?” My uncle couldn’t remember what Americans called them, so he just said “Where’s the frozen section?” She showed him, and when he picked up a box of ice lollies, the employee said “Sir, those are called popsicles”. My uncle said “Sorry, yes. We call them ice lollies in Britain”. The employee then said “That’s something I’ve never understood about you Brits. When you got the English language from us, why did you feel the need to change so many words and to change the accent, instead of just sticking to the proper English that Americans speak?” Hoping he’d misheard her, my uncle said “Excuse me? Americans did not invent English!” The employee replied “Of course Americans did not invent English”, and he thought to himself ‘Oh, thank god, she gets it’. No. No. And No. What she actually said was “Of course Americans did not invent English. Jesus did! We got it from Jesus and you got it from us!”
@@jackcarter5101😅😅😅
I laugh when some Americans claim they speak American.
@@shaunwild8797Well they do in the same sense that Austrians speak Austrian. It’s a dialect not a language.
@@jackcarter5101 Why am I not surprised by this, It sounds bonkers, but that's what we expect from Americans, but obviously Not All Americans.
Pavement refers to the paved area of the road that's designed exclusively for pedestrians. It's taken from the Latin pavimentum, which means “trodden down floor.” Trodden on because it's for pedestrians.
That's far too historical and sensible for Yanks!
pavimentum means a floor beaten or rammed down. It refers to all kind of coverings for a road nowadays
Was it Churchill who described the British and the Americans as “two nations divided by a common language”?
Churchill was quoting George Bernard Shaw when he said this. It is uncertain whether Shaw coined the phrase or was, in turn, quoting someone even earlier.
"Two countries diveded by a great big ocean, thank Christ" Thankyou Al Murray.
@@baylessnow I think he said "thank f*ck for that" which I feel expresses how we truly feel about such an arrogant bunch of people
To me the strangest one is 'tuna fish'. What's next, Turkey bird? Beef mammal? Calamari cephalopod?
There's also 'diesel fuel'.
what about pizza pie, it's just pizza
I've heard another one recently, the plain old men's tie is a 'neck tie'. Complete with instruction it seems. 😂
Yes, that one has always puzzled me, 'Tuna fish sandwich"
Bacon Pig.
The american influence here though! I work in a school the amount of students now asking to use the bathroom. I tell them they can use the toilets but there's no bath in there 😂
Are there sinks and faucets in the "tiolet"? Or just the toilet/commode alone? Hmmm.
@@gregcable3250 No "faucets"in there but there are taps.
In the UK we are used to picking up context and ‘obvious’ unstated requests etc in a way that doesn’t happen over the pond routinely. My American friend visiting over here had problems with words like sorry. As you’ll know this can mean anything from contrition to a prequel for a punch in the face. She translated all shades of meaning to politeness initially. Similarly ‘can you check the windows’ before going out to us obviously means to check, and if they’re open close them. She would come back and say they were open requiring additional specific instructions to close them if open and being annoyed that this was seen by most as her being thick - which she isn’t. It’s an interesting cultural difference. I have been told by an American before ‘why don’t you speak English?’. Obviously I had to point out ‘I AM English, so I do….the clue is in the word’. He didn’t get it - not one of your brightest citizens sadly. It’s always a pleasure to talk to or listen to an intelligent and aware American like yourself who can ‘hear between the lines’ and so appreciate wit and British humour.
All i can say is you need new friends.
It's just ignorance.....
We call the footpath "the pavement" because originally, that was the only part of the road that was paved. You know, for pedestrians to walk on without getting muddy.
Whereas in the US, I believe they used wood, so it was the boardwalk. And on the subject of funny compound words, did you just say "footpath"? Is that to differentiate it from a handpath?
@@KaiHenningsen It's to differentiate it from a cycle path or a horse path. 😊
@@KaiHenningsen or a psychopath.
Pavement is not the middle of the road.. It's the walkway at the side of the road which is paved with paving slabs.. That's why it's called a pavement..
Poor Americans were walking in the middle of the road before they started to use "sidewalk".
The road surface is also paved, with either Tarmac or concrete.
And in some countrys a "asphalt paving machine" is one which lays tarmac on a road not a pavement/footpath.
@@darthgardner yeah just so you know, that's wrong too. In proper English we call it tarmac. (named after it's inventor)
What is a footpath ??
Originally the road was a dirt or gravel track and at the side was drainage ditches which were covered by slabs. Pavement comes from Pavimentum 'Latin' so here in England we learned the original word for "Raised walkway next to a road" from the original road builders themselves. Pavement = Pavimentum.
I find it crazy that American English is more literal (like the mentioned "sidewalk, eyeglasses, horseback riding etc.") yet when it comes to a sport where you kick a BALL with your FOOT you straight up refuse to call it football.
Loved you saying 'daft', Joel!
I love your “I’m going down pub” at the end. You’ve pretty much nailed the northern accent by now.
An American did once say to me when I was overseas "you speak our language so well" and I wasn't in the best of moods and immediately went "you mean, I speak my language, in which you use a dialectical form of, natively. It's called English. I'm from England. The clue is in the bloody name."
What was the American’s response?
😂😂😂😂
The yank didn't realise you were from England so i'm guessing you have a regional accent/dialect and not RP or cockney?
actually, the yanks speak a more authentic original form of English as taken to the Kings Plantation in America by the founding fathers.
@@stirlingmoss4621even if that happened, its not more authentic if it’s not from England..
In Germany we don't call it "horse riding" but just "riding". Only if you go riding on another animal than a horse you would add the animal, like e.g. "camel riding", "donkey riding" or "riding on an elephant".
Do you also say ride a bike/motorcycle?
Can’t say riding in ireland. Means something entirely different 😅
@@paulwhitehead6709same here in the northeast England 😂
@@martindunstan8043 No In Germany we don't say ride a bike. We say drive a bike (Fahrrad fahren) directly translated means Drive wheel driving, but the proper translation of Fahrrad is bycycle so we drive our bikes.
@martindunstan8043 Like Knightwish in the meantime answered, in Germany we say drive a bike/car/boat/motor cycle. I guess we say it for everything with wheels or motor you can sit on or in. Also for Inliner or skate board or even (water) Ski or balloon. But not for planes.
It's Graham Norton you want, not Johnathan Ross on his American talk show. Norton's show will do your brain in...lol
Check also: tie ("necktie"), coast ("seacoast"), cod ("codfish"). The reason for these apparent oversimplifications is because American English is the language of a country of mostly immigrants, who need to learn the laguage from basics to assimilate.
Also Mr Webster of Webster Dictionary who simplified English Spelling
😅😅so does Britain..no excuse😂😂😂
The British and Aussies have a similar sense of humour.. the Brits and Aussies don't hold back and will just give ppl a lot of sh** to get a rise.. as a joke, of course, like banter 😃 ..
Same here. I am from Pittsburgh and half of my banter with friends is to "jag" (make fun of) them. And it is brutal. It is probably true in most countries, too.
BTW I love the USA. I have been many times for both business and holidays. We’ve almost RV’d our way around the USA, and have decided now to check out every State that we missed on previous trips. Even in the middle of New York City, I had people wanting to help me out with getting into a cab/taxi in pouring rain. We’ve never had one bad experience in all of those holidays 😊❤😊
Here is a true story. About 20 years ago, my uncle and his family were on holiday in Florida. He went in a supermarket and asked an employee (a woman in her 50s) where the ice lollies were. She replied “What are ice lollies?” My uncle couldn’t remember what Americans called them, so he just said “Where’s the frozen section?” She showed him, and when he picked up a box of ice lollies, the employee said “Sir, those are called popsicles”. My uncle said “Sorry, yes. We call them ice lollies in Britain”. The employee then said “That’s something I’ve never understood about you Brits. When you got the English language from us, why did you feel the need to change so many words and to change the accent, instead of just sticking to the proper English that Americans speak?” Hoping he’d misheard her, my uncle said “Excuse me? Americans did not invent English!” The employee replied “Of course Americans did not invent English”, and he thought to himself ‘Oh, thank god, she gets it’. No. No. And No. What she actually said was “Of course Americans did not invent English. Jesus did! We got it from Jesus and you got it from us!”
ROTFL
Only in America.
Land of "the free".
With more guns than they know what to do with.
With more mass shootings than anywhere else in the world.
America, America - where schools have drills for shootings!
America, America - where you have more % of people (of colour) incarcerated than anywhere else in the world.
Where your health insurance in now deadly.
Where your paid time off is diabolical
Where your maternity and paternity (you may not know that last word) is too short.
America, America - Definitely not the land of the free and for the next 4 years God help us all.
WTAF?!😂😂 I wasn't expecting that ending!!! 😂😂
That's the Bible Belt for you. Different worlds all over the US. We are complex beyond description.
@@gregcable3250 I think that woman was simple beyond description.
Michael Mackintyre is so funny just from truly observing human behaviour.
By the way, pavement isn't the middle of the road. Roads just used to be the space between the houses - not surfaced, just mud and the slops that were thrown into the street.
That was okay for carriages, but not for pedestrians.
So the sides of the roads were paved to lift them above the mud and slops - hence pavement.
I'm Danish so I will call my English a mix of British and American English, but one American word I have a hard time to understand is the word 'Restroom', are you taking a nap every time you take a dump? Why not call it 'Toilet' like the rest of the world. I do know that the British also call a toilet a loo but in public spaces they are still called toilets. First time in America we landed in JFK airport in transit to Florida and I couldn't find the toilets as I didn't know they were called Restrooms. 😒Fast lesson learned.
At one time, especially Ladies' Rooms, had couches and settees next to the toilet area where women could retreat from the hustle and bustle of daily life and restore themselves. Some higher end Men's Rooms had them, also. Over time, they combined, and since restroom sounds nicer, it became more common usage, even if les descriptive and no longer quite as accurate.
Because the toilet is the actual throne you take your dump on, sister, not the entire room that typically also has sinks and faucets, and also showers at some roadside rest stops in the US. If I am going to wash my hands I don't say I need the toilet, which makes me wonder where you wash your hands?😉
Loo is a mispronounciation of the French l'eau which means the water
American redundancy is Tuna Fish and it drives me crazy. In Canada, it's a given that a tuna is already a fish. What else is known as a tuna?
Actually the name IS tuna/thunnus..of course.,don't ask me why but the Germans call it Thunfish, too. Prob the only 2 countries in the world...,
Four years! Blimey I have followed you that long. You must be doing something right.😊
Pavement is actually correct as the "sidewalks" are made up from PAVING slabs. We refer to road surface as tarmac usually
They are called 'sidewalks' because otherwise they wouldn't know not to walk down the middle of the road!
Tarmac to an American is where planes land and take off.
I normally call it "the road".
In the UK, we "cross the road" which involves stepping *off* the pavement into "the road" and concludes when we reach the edge of the opposite side of "the road" before the pavement begins. What do Americans cross? I rest my case.
We don’t call Tarmac / asphalt /bitumen road surfaces “pavement” like you do in the US. Pavement is a pedestrian walkway
The Yanks do seem to have a need for additional words. The classic being "At this moment in time" when a simple "now" will do.
No one says that except for dramatic effect. Kind of like saying you're knackered when you are tired. Hmmm.
You might need to add a few words, too. Such as when you say your are going to hospital. Do you say you are going to house, or beach? Sounds like a educated caveman (thank you, Jim Gaffigan).
My problem would be "At that moment in time" ...does it mean past or future? Who knows?
I personally feel...
@@Paulie-v2t 🤣
Great video Joel, and you were in a really happy mood 🙂
While in the US I didn't understand a theme park worker who was saying the same instructions over and over, and was speaking very quickly with (to me) a strong accent. When I didn't do what they wanted they asked me "Do you speak English?" to which I replied "Yes, I'm from England!"
Well not so surprising. We have Germans, etc., who come here and speak English with British pronunciations (as that is how it is taught) and don't assume these folks are from England.
You might like Michael McIntyre's skit on Silent Letter Day... also about language... hilarious!
Here in South Africa it's also a Pavement, Rubbish Bin, Squash, Glasses, Horse Riding.
My sisters best friends brother moved to Texas with his girlfriend (from Glasgow). The Texans were surprised at how fluent they were at English….
All of the Texans? Come on. Enough with the Americans are stupid shit. Or are you willing to turn over all of the things we invented, such as the internet and your mobile devices, and your computer, just to name a few off the top of my head. How would that work out for ya?
My favourite one, which is from Jeremy Clarkson
"They call a liquid gas"
Obviously referring to gasoline
Obviously referring to petrol, from the word 'Petroleum' which is a liquid the Americans call 'gas' because the only place in the world that calls 'Petroleum' gasoline is America.
He also said that a coop is where you keep chickens (referring to the French car Coupe which is mispronounced by Americans.
I speak right English. You speak an invented coarse dialect. I recently revisited the town where I was raised. The thing that struck me hardest was that the people had no accent at all. It's a small town in the North of England, some would call it a village. If Americans spoke English rather than their weird dialect they would be much easier to understand.
Americans have hundreds of dialects. There is no one "weird dialect" and Brits speak multiple dialects, too. If Brits, such as you, would stop burning books and start reading them, maybe you would fill these pages with head-up-your-ass, unsupportable assertions about a country that has 5 times more people than the entire UK, pal?
Australia: Road (for cars), footpath (for walking).
Pavement is the hard surface.
And the road is paved with bitumen.
In the UK, PAVEMENT is never on the road, that is TARMAC! Pavement is always on your SIDEWALK, but never on the road, JP!! As for American English, English originated in the UK, not in America! You just borrowed the language and then pimped it/ADULTERATED IT/RUINED IT, according to us, Brits!! 😂✌
"arm goin daan poob" hahah. That was good bro. Respect fro England.
Every country has its specialty.
The British are the best at humour.
The Italians at design.
The French at food.
The Germans at engeneering.
The Dutch at trade.
And so on.
You know what hell looks like?
That's false😂
British the best at humor? Huh? They are the best at British humor, but you have not one like George Carlin, Richard Pryor, Robin Williams, and more recently, Dave Chapelle, Bill Burr, Jim Gaffigan, etc. We are the best at American humor. The French us too much G-D butter in their cuisine, think duck liver is a delicacy, and believe they can tell what wine they are drinking (my testing with a limited sample of French friends proved differently), "oh, it has a slightly earthy, wood flavor with a hint of fruit". Get the F out of here. I would say the US is best at inventing, e.g., mobile devices, internet, computers, airplanes, etc., and they keep coming...
Americans: "Yeah, football! That's the game you play with an 'egg' in your hand, right!?"
World: "Nope! We play a ball with our foot! That's why we call it football!? o_O"
Americans: "Got ya! You mean soccer ..." < *wtf!?
There’s a saying, Britain and America are two countries divided by a common language!
And a f*cking great big ocean, thank Christ - Al Murray
@ yes I forgot about that! 🤣🤣
@@jackcarter5101 You beat me to it!
America doesn't speak English. America speaks American, which is English with the vowels removed & dumbed down. It's essentially English lite.
No such thing as "American" as we have hundreds of dialects across 330 million people. Maybe you should get your information from books instead of movies about NYC and LA? Or maybe you should first stop burning books and start reading them to begin with, eh, Oppenheimer?
@@gregcable3250 Well done. Solid proof, if ever it was needed.
You’re definitely not a content leach! I get why comedians and celebrities want to own their content, and many RUclips creators within reason. Unlike so many reaction channels, you give credit to the creator and link the original. Plus you provide your own travel content and show enthusiasm into the culture you’re visiting.
I'm goin down pub. 😂
You nailed it, that's how my dad speaks
'Gooin t' pub' really made me laugh. Brilliant. Michael Mcintyre is great as well.
2:44 In Australia, it is footpath, and where the vehicles drive is on the road.
lol
I'm Australian and heard both pavement and footpath ..
I am also Australian and have only heard, and used, "footpath" all my life 💁♀️😊 @@citteecat1949
@@citteecat1949 Same here in the UK, pavement or footpath.
I'm from the northeast of England and in Newcastle we don't say pavement, we just say path
It’s starting to make sense now why they get mad when you try and eat your food with cutlery.
What's mental is that it's been almost four years and you just recently heard of A bit of Fry and Laurie.... still mindblown by that😅
Wait until he hears about 'Jeeves and Wooster'!
Looking at JPS’s t-shirt, I guess he didn’t receive an iron for Christmas. 😊
🤣 or know how to use one (sorry JPS)
Boys don't understand irons.
I'm guessing he'll get about 10 irons in the next PO Box now!
@@BomberFletch31 yes.
@BomberFletch31 OMG yes, the Atlantic crossing will become iron highway 😂
Thanks, Joel, awesome reaction! From a ring in....Aussie! (Although born in England).
"The road to hell is paved with good intentions" (Portuguese origin). Roads are paved now, but at the time of that expression a UK high street was earthen for horse and cart, with paving stones/bricks for pedestrians.
In German it's just "riding" (Reiten) with no specifying the animal. Riding a bike or a car is simply "driving" (Fahren).
In English, we RIDE a bike or a horse but DRIVE a car.
Britain = pavement. America = sidewalk. Australia = foot path. Even more descriptive, a path for your feet LOL
BTW I love reaction channels, it's interesting to hear someone else's point of view on a clip.
G' day from Australia.
The one word in Amercian English that makes the least sense is aluminium. Americans drop the 2nd letter "i" - perhaps to make it easier to say. However a lot of other chemical elements end "ium", most of them are metals.
There is a fair bit of history in this. Both aluminum and aluminium have been used on both sides of the pond, but the UK adopted aluminium very early on as that was what was preferred by rest Europe (and it was the trend to end elements with -ium). In the US, Webster used aluminum in his dictionary, but aluminium was still quite common. It was from a big advertising campaign in the 1890s for some product that they used aluminum spelling (preferred because of its connotations to platinum) that cemented it in American culture as the preferred spelling (though they only officially settled on that in 1925).
We spell it differently, too! No i in it. But why do you say schedule as sh sound for sch and school with a k sound for sch? Head scratcher.
Brits pronounce specialty speciality
@@gregcable3250I’m now completely confused which version of schedule I’m supposed to use 😂
@ it’s spelt speciality and thus pronounced that way in the UK. But we also use specialty in certain circumstances (usually as an adjective eg. “specialty store”). But for most intents and purposes, the two are interchangeable
New year resolution for Joel..buying an iron😂😂
Joel every time I watch you I think there is still some hope for the United States of America. You are like a breath of fresh air. Thank you.
Some hope? Huh? The Trumps of this country will come and go. You've been reading too many hysterical commentaries. Hey, we didn't vote to get out of the best common market in the world. But I think there is still hope for yinz, though that train has left the station, pal.
@@gregcable3250 since I am Australian and not English the Common Market comment is not valid. I'm darned sure I didn't vote for our current Prime Minister but last elections we had to choose between bad or worse.
Happy New Year JPS hope to see you in Scotland again soon
Barbra Streisand , on the Jonathan Ross Show ,had to have the word 'bin' explained to her. This was circa 2009.
Hate when Americans say "Eye-rak" instead of Iraq or Moss-Cow instead of Mos-co
I don’t know how that works but I had to subscribe to you on every device and tv separately lol… does that mean I’m subscribed to you five times ?
the reaction is always the same mate "we invented the fking language"
Happy new year x
I love how you need specific language so you don't walk in the road 😂
I think the best way to describe it is that other countries speak a variant of the English language.
Latin?
His first sentence explains it best: 'Americans need explanations'.... take a look at traffic signs From a simple "YIELD" on a "Yield Sign' over to "DO NO ENTER" on a "DO NOT ENTER SIGN" to complete multi-line sentences sprayed on the pavement ;) ....
You said another example when you said ‘Trash Can’ if Can is your word for bin then why do you have to state that you have to put trash in the can ? Another one I noticed on a trip to San Francisco was Tuna FISH sandwich we just call it a Tuna Sandwich as we know that Tuna is a fish 😂
Why do you say codfish when cod is fish? Also there are cans for multiple things. Garbage can is not where you put the trash (or recycled materials). Should have thought that one through a bit, Oppenheimer.
And then there's "momentarily." In Americanish they mean "in a few minutes , or shortly." In English it actually means briefly , or gone in a flash.
I grew up in South Africa where we say robot instead of traffic lights 🚦. I moved to Sweden and it's always fun seeing how they try to figure out what I'm on about 😅.
Love your videos. Makes me laugh.
Roads are made from tarmac, pavements are made from 'paving' stones or flag stones, probably because they used to be as big as a flag, I'm just guessing.
Happy New Year. I have NOTHING thats going to change or to look forward to. Just as it should be 🤣🤣 👍great video
"Sidewalk" is quite sensible, especially since not all high streets, suburban streets and roads in Britain have a pedestrian pathway that is specifically paved, i.e. laid with paving stones. Most paved walkways in suburbs are too expensive to maintain as such and a raised tarmacadamed footpath edged with kerbstones is as much as is provided now.
The only thing I see with that Comment is if An American TRYED to say speak English to a Scotsman and was given the Universal Hello of Scotland A Glasgow KISS ! Or anyone from the North of England or TRYED that SH outside Any of the Hundreds of Pubs on a Friday Night Out ?.
TRIED
You only enjoyed it "Quite a lot"? 🙄🤣
Happy New Year pal, hope you have a great one.
✌️💙🏴🇬🇧
Language changes constantly, in my life time we, in uk, have dropped the words "twice and "thrise" for 2 times and 3 times. Its just evolution 😂
*thrice,unless that's changed as well🤣👍
@@martindunstan8043 🤣
Twice is still used a lot. Thrice almost never - but many older people still use “treble” for 3 times
Twice has definitely not been dropped in the UK. If someone said two times to me, I'd say, "You mean twice."
Everybody I know in UK, including me, uses twice. Once, twice, three times... Thrice only appears in Shakespeare- "thrice the brindled cat has mewed etc"
American English is to British English what Simplified Chinese is to Traditional Chinese
No such thing as American English since we have hundreds of dialects across 330 million people. Uh oh, Winston.
@gregcable3250 mildly intonated accental variations that can be quite literally reduced to the odd state like Massachusetts or Alabama hardly amounts to regional variation let alone a fully blown divergent dialect. Meanwhile, the UK with just a fraction of the population not only share a common language but have actual unintelligible dialects that vary from one town to the next. Scouse, brummie, Geordie, Mancunian, Glaswegian, Cockney. To name but a few.
I do hope this retort didn't contain too many multi syllabic words for you. Perhaps have a lie down
Any British visits planned for this year? ❤
Pavement is the path at the side of the road, that is paved. The road is the road.
Michael McIntyre is SO very funny. You should google him and hopefully you'll come up with the live comedy shows he did at the London Palladium. He used to do the most marvellous setups, which involved very intricate arrangements to get people into the theatre and on to the stage, and spoof them in front of the whole nation.
Must be the German influence, this words literally sound like they were translated from German. They explain excactly the meaning of the word. 😊
There's a difference between an accent and a dialect. Europe's languages are not as old as these dialects and in most cases one particular dialect was chosen as the standard language (like the Florence dialect in Italy I think, Haarlem in the Netherlands). The dialects in Germany and the Netherlands close to the border are much closer to each other than to the stanndard language.Dialects can have different grammar and different words. I grew up in a rural area where especially the names for farm animals and other farm were different. We also had only one version of 'you' (singular) and no formal/informal as standard Dutch does.
A laughed when you imitated the northern "Goin ta pub"
What a shame you can't see more of Michael McIntyre re copyright. I've watched other Americans reacting to him on You Tube. I came across a separate one recently (not a reaction one) with him talking about having a silent letter day eg knocks = k... nocks, school = sc...hool, half= hal...f , subtle = sub...tle and so on. He did a whole conversation of it. Hilarious.
Another one is from Monty Python and the Holy Grail "knights"= k...nig....hts.
'Sidewalk' is in fact old British usage which has disappeared from modern British speech.
Hunny, let's get u out of this rabbit hole yeah? BRITISH IS A CULTURE -ENGLISH IS THE LANGUAGE -YEAH? Is. that clear enough? Coming from an AUSTRALIAN!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!!!
How can u say us brits don’t speak English further up north when u Americans don’t speak English further down south with southern accents
You never got an iron for Christmas then
Apparently gone are the days of feeling embarrassed that you didn't iron your shirt.
I really enjoy your channel. I have seen others do reactions for some of his stand-up recently. So maybe he's now letting some stuff out.
Gads, you Yanks have "polluted" some of our English up here, as well. Great video, lots of fun!!! Cheers, John
As many have said, pavement is the side of the road not the middle. Whoever told you that was clearly playing with you or demanding you play with te traffic. Much love from Cornwall.
Even the English don’t understand English - I used to interpret for two lifetime friends from New Castle
I think racquetball is such a weird name compared to squash - like, if you say you're going to play squash, everyone will know what you mean, if you say you're going to play racquetball that could be any kind of game with a ball and a racquet! I've never understood that word xD
Where do we Aussies stand with footpath for the sidewalk.
Well it depends on whether or not you are intelligent enough to know where to walk or if you need to be told to walk at the side of the road rather than down the middle of it.😂
horse back riding lol never heard that one.
What is flat about a flat, especially if the "flat" has two levels as some apartments do, here.
I'm Native American........"English" are English narcissist's, forked tongue and perfect speech.😊😊.
At what point is the pavement in the middle of the road?
Michael McIntyre is hilarious. Even if you can’t do a reaction, you should just watch his stuff because it’s brilliant. He doesn’t use foul language too much either, which is refreshing.
Squash and racquetball are similar but not the same game.
My pet hate is “can I get” no you can’t I’ll get it it’s can I have or more politely please may I have not can I get
I love reaction channels