I can only say my own opinion here. Who cares what words anyone use, as long as the person your talking to understands what you mean, we are all educated and know what people mean. So as a Brit I personally have no issue with the “Americanisms”. Continue to be yourself girl and use whatever words are comfortable to you. Love the channel and much respect.
Whilst I agree, it is the understanding that matters, some words used have completely different meanings. What might be common usage in the US could be very insulting or rude in English and visa versa.
In England, a yard is a hard-paved area where you might park your car or store things which won't fit indoors. Most of what we would call a garden would have a lawn and flower beds.
The parking lot thing being weird to us Brits is because of the "lot" bit. In British English, the word "lot" - as a noun - is exclusively used to describe an item for sale in an auction. We simply don't use the word to describe a piece of land, unless it is being auctioned.
I find Dessert is now more common in the UK than pudding, especially on pub or restaurant menus. It's mainly middle aged or older people that say pudding or "pud". All the rest are spot on.
I was shocked when I heard someone say 'fag' and learning they meant cigarette. The context in which it was used, thinking they were saying when we know as a negative slur, made it even worse.
It was used to refer to cigarettes a long time before it was used to refer to homosexuals. It was initially coined to refer to a bundle of sticks, usually for burning, and being that cigarettes are a stick that is burnt, that is how they acquired the name, which incidentally is how it also came in to use to refer to homosexuals, but in reference to a different bundle of certain types of stick like objects altogether.
As a brit who has lived in the US for over 30 years, I can safely say you will never completely leave behind the words and expressions you grew up saying.
I loved changing my speech slightly to live int he US. It was fun saying aloominum, or tomaytoes at burger stand :-) people often asked which 'London; I was from as there are several in the US and many accents. I never felt out of place.
1st point - though the word toilet is the most used, an alternative when at a club/pub/restaurant is ladies or gents. And yes, do not say bathroom or restroom. 25 years ago while at MacDonalds in Wales with an ex girlfriend who was American, she needed to use the toilet so she went to the front counter to ask where they were (no signs we could see). She returned and said 'They don't have bathrooms here!' I told her to say toilet. She went back to the counter and tried again and then came back and said 'Nope, we have to leave and find somewhere.' She'd asked for the restroom the second time. Grrrr. She refused to say toilet as she considered it SO gross. I had to ask. Good times, she was such a joy, and I miss her every day even now. The one that got away.
Modern roads like railways were invented in Britain. A Scottish man named McAdam invented Tarmac to coat the old lanes to make the Modern road and they decided to make the sides of the road safe for pedestrians by putting in a raised curb edging and a safe walkway which they called a pavement.. As for toilet the proper word is Lavatory or you could say WC which stands for water closest
Alanna, As a Yorkshireman, I can reliably inform you that Yorkshire Puddings can be eaten as ANY course of a meal & can be either savoury or sweet. The can also be used for "Non-British" meals, as every so soften I do enjoy a nice curry in a large Yorkie!!!
As a non-Yorkshireman I can confirm this. I've seen them used with Sunday roasts and filled with jam. I've also been at a buffet where mini versions where filled with anything from egg mayo, to peppers, to fruits, to melted chocolate with mini marshmellows to whatever takes your fancy.
I was once at an Xmas dinner in a restaurant and got mad cos there were no yorkies with my chicken xmas dinner, but they came with the beef one (as others in my group went with beef.) I was like why? whats the diff? - I was told that it was traditional NOT to serve yorkies when having chicken! I was like WHAT? Barring the meat choice everything else was the same yet the beef dish got yorkies because the restaurant thought it was traditional with beef and not chicken. I was well peeved off I can tell you because I wanted those yorkies.
@@CrazyInWeston Did you ask for them? When you found out you didn't get them I mean. I would have demanded them, especially if you were paying the same price for the meal. I have heard that it's more traditional with beef but it's also bollocks. I bet they don't hold up a number of other restaurant traditions.
@@Elwaves2925 I was given yorkies by my sister who had the beef option only to calm me down because it wasnt the restaurant who told me it was traditional... It was my family. Bear in mind we were in a greek restaurant so maybe this "traditional with beef" thing has more traction than we thought.
My Grandma would make a roast dinner with Yorkshire pudding to eat with (or before) the meat course, she would also make extra Yorkshire puddings that she would then serve with Jam and custard as a dessert course
Although we say motorway the organisation that maintains them is called Highways England and the department of the local councils that maintain the local roads is the highways department.
I've had British friends for decades and I find myself using the US or UK equivalent, depending on who I talk to. I've noticed, "fries" are used for the thinner chips in many places in the UK.
@@missharry5727 Haven't run across the full French Fry thing, but Chips of Fries, yes. If we are eating fish in the US, we will say Fish and Chips, because you have to.
To put the record straight chips are actually slightly different to fries. Yes, they are both made from potatoes but fries are thinly sliced whereas chips are much thicker hence the "fish and chips" meal would not be the same as "fish and fries" 🍟😂😂😂
Hey Alana, If you like architecture have a look at the hoover building - it was the Hoover companies head office and is a fine example of Art Deco architecture ( its now a Tesco’s!!) It’s in Ealing West London
I used to shop there when I lived in England. It was such a huge supermarket. Hates going there as quite overwhelming. Gosh, I had forgotten all about that. 😊
A pavement is, or used to be, made of paving slabs, hence the word. A highway is the main road in a town, hence High Street. A backyard is a small enclosed area, usually with a wall around it, and paved. They used to be common in small terraced houses.
The legal use - Highway - covers any route or path with a public right of access, including footpaths etc. Wonder of what she makes of the "high street" - i.e. the Cumbrian hiking path.
we also use the water closet or wc. some old houses had concreated communal areas they called yards, but most of the teniments went after the war. we used to have yorkshire pudding for tea on sunday afternoon after the sandwiches with jam, yes for pudding!
I remember when i first moved to the USA and in a posh restaurant asking where is the toilet. The look of almost shock on the waitress's face was so amusing in fact in my mind at least I think the whole restaurant was shocked to silence. I quickly learnt to use the term bathroom. i think if i had said WC it might have been too much.
This reminded me of a book I read. The "hero" of the book asked a Singaporean policeman if he spoke English. He replied yes and I understand American.🤣🤣🤣
Brits sometimes say Hoover for vacuum, but Americans say Xerox (another brand) where we would probably say photocopy. Most Americanisms don't bother me as much as "could care less" which is one phrase I definitely *could* care less about hearing.
I was born and lived in the UK almost my entire life, But after a few years living in The USA, I came back and while driving with a friend I said "oohh We're low on Gas, I think there's a gas station in the next town"... She looked at me as if I'd just murdered the royal family 😂.
It seems that the ‘s’ that goes on the end of “maths” was misplaced at one point in time, possibly in the shipping process and put on the end of “Lego” by mistake! It must of dropped off when they were shipping the words over to America, some careless American Hermes worker at the other end must of thought it would be funny to slap it on the end of Lego!!! Americans: Math, Legos British: Maths, Lego.
Nice one. Your comment remind me of another channel called Lost In The Pond in which he talks about all the stuff that got lost in transit. Not much really bugs me on the internet, math doesn't but Legos really does. Americans just won't accept they are wrong, even when Lego themselves have said they are. 🙂
@@norabradley9108 Because people use the contractions "should've" and "would've" when they talk and think that it's written as "should of" and "would of".
Garden - anything with a lawn and/or plants. Front garden - in front of the house. Back garden - at the rear of the house. Yard - a space that is concreted or tarmac'd over.
The use of the word pudding for dessert is relatively recent. When I was growing up in the UK the dessert course was called the sweet. Also, while Hoover is a term used based on that being the name of a pioneer in the field, in the US and Canada Fridge is used for the refrigerator based on the name of a brand name pioneer company in that field: Fridigaire
🇨🇦 I have a friend from South Africa that has been here in western Canada for about 20 years. She uses British terms. I notice them especially regarding cars…bonnet and boot instead of our hood and trunk. Can drive me crazy sometimes, but it is a part of her and who she is.
Another great entertaining video. That whole chip/crisp discussion both confused me & made me hungry at the same time, aswell as making me laugh. I suppose it comes down to what you grow up with, your brain develops & gets used to set words, be easier if more people accepted that. Its like in some areas people grow up with words from local dialects that others wouldn't understand but I suppose thats a topic for another day
When I think of a garden, I think of vegetables that are planted in the dirt. I don't really thank about flowers, except for the ones blooming on the plants.
Love the channel; I suppose for pavement, that relates to paving slabs and ‘pavers’. In the Peak District we have limestone pavements on the top of some of the hills where the exposed limestone is naturally eroded into small block shapes - so pavement. There you go - take care 👍🏻
Biscuit is used for sweet, crisp baked product that snaps when broken. Cookies are sweet but softer, they don't snap apart. Crackers are crisp and unsweetened.
For us Brits a 'yard' is an industrial space where, for example cars are repaired, or you might have a builder's yard, where you might find fenceposts, long pieces of timber, etc. A yard is always either concrete or tarmac. So the image you portray by saying a 'back yard' is of an ugly area of concrete or tarmac - no grass, no flowers, no trees - just something industrial.
If it has grass and flowers it's a garden. Curiously the words garden and yard are very closely related. Garden is from the Old French gardin , while yard is from the Old English geard. Oh, and we do use cookies. Chocolate chip cookies have no other name. Just don't get me started on the American use of biscuits, which may not be a Canadian thing at all.
If you were brought up among streets of terraced houses, a yard always has a brick wall around it and a stone-flagged surface. it might have a flowerbed these days, but once upon a time it had most likely an outside toilet/loo/lavatory/convenience and a coal shed.
@@davidjones332 In Ireland, the piece of land at the back of my old family home was always referred to as the "back yard". It's not an Americanism. It's an old Englishism.
Alanna I think you would really enjoy Bill Brysons book notes from a small Isle, After living here for 20 years Bill is about to return back to live in the states so he takes a trip around the UK to explore all our weird pass times and strange customs. Its such a funny book, he also explains all the culture shocks he got when first here and he did a follow up called notes from a big country where he talks about the reverse culture shock of returning back to the states which is also brilliant.
I thought I knew my Americanisms but I never knew that “pavement” was the road surface. Mind blown. 😅 There’s something about dropping the “s” off of maths that grates on me, it just sounds too abrupt. I don’t know why people would have an issue with North American’s using Americanisms though, I mean, it’s in the name. 😂 Thanks for the vid Alanna
@@williamcampbell435 However originally the paved area was a pavement. that meant with paving stones I think, not a tarmac or similar. Saying that, most UK pavements are no longer paved. I live in York and many pavements are paved with paving stones and there is a street called 'The Pavement' which was one of the earliest paved streets in the city.
If you are out somewhere and in need of the loo, when asking staff for the whereabouts of the convenience it is quite acceptable to ask for directions to the "Ladies" or "Gents". Also the "Ladies Room" was sometimes referred to as the "Powder Room" where women would retire to replenish their makeup.
I love your videos, particularly as you are now using mild sarcasm in your commentary now that you've become more anglicised! In the same ilk, as US/Canuk people think "toilet" is too descriptive a word for where one goes to the toilet, I suggest Table Room instead of dining room (as "dining" may suggest over indulgence), rest room in place of bedroom (can't mention "bed" as it may have sexual undertones), parlour instead of lounge or sitting room (as the two may suggest idleness), and certainly activity room instead of den (as den may be suggestive of a room for wasting time)! 🤣🙄
@@wilmaknickersfit No, "toilet" actually originally came from the word in French which evolved into meaning a dressing room, or a place to wash and dress, in English a lavatory. "Loo" is the slang word. It derives from Waterloo, the battle which ended Napoleon's tyrany in Europe, when in effect the French self-styled emperor was washed into the toilet by Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington.
@@t.a.k.palfrey3882 Sorry, but I did know the origin of the word toilet (toilette, etc. I was just saying that although I prefer to use other words, I will say toilet sometimes! 😁 And loo is older than Waterloo, but it's likely to be another word from France. France and Scotland used to be great allies, especially against the English. In Scotland in the 18th century people would empty chamber pots out of the upstairs windows and shout the warning "gardy loo" meaning watch out for the water (l'eau). Loo is definitely slang, so perhaps I should have used a different word instead of slang about my use of the word toilet. 😉
Hi Alanna, we call that room a restroom here in Australia, as far as I know. Pavement in the UK is the footpath here. Cookies are biscuits here, though we do have some biscuits also called cookies. We use both car park and parking lot here. Motorways are freeways and highways here in Australia, though they become motorways again in New Zealand. we also say Maths here as well. Chips here are both crisps and fries. Fries here are hot chips. We use garbage and rubbish here strangely enough. We have back yards and front yards here and they contain gardens. We also use vacuum for both the machine and the action, like Canada. We usually say tissue rather than Kleenex, as Kleenex make both tissues and paper towels. I think we use queue rather than line. Pudding is mostly a dessert here. Anyway, take care and all the best. Rob.
Imagine how Canadisns feel when everything we do and say gets called American! Yes, we all live in North America, but that includes Mexico as well. And don't forget Central and South America! Anyone ever heard of someone from Brazil being referred to as "American"?
I was taught to call it a lavatory, or loo ('toilet' is a bit 'common'), but 'bog' is my preferred word. I was told that it's what roman legionaries in UK called it; that might be bogus! My first language was Dutch, and a loo is 'WC', which is the old British abbreviation for 'Water Closet'. A closet being a place where you close yourself away for privacy, not a place where you keep your clothes. Pavements are paved - with paving slabs or bricks. The footway (the legal term for the pedestrian way adjacent to a road) was traditionally paved, but these days they are often surfaced in tarmac. What's the difference between tarmac and asphalt? You can safely say to your Builder's Merchant "I'd like my tarmac". In UK a Highway is any road maintained by local or national government. Merkins shorten Maths, but not Stats. Chip derives from the same source as the Latin cippus - a post, stake, or beam. British potato chips are beam-shaped, which is what you'd expect. For some reason, Merkins decided to use the word 'chip' to mean a thin slice.
Yorkshire pudding was originally actually a desert….. In the north it still is quite often but the fashion is changing. They’re lovely spread with jam ….
This made me laugh, It always makes me smile when I hear people try to make the effort but slip into old habits but I appreciate the effort esp as is Brits don’t make this much effort when we go abroad…we just talk louder 😂 don’t ever loose your your Americanisms 😊
In America (or perhaps even Canada) someone may describe a house, apartment or condo as having 2 1/2 baths. The 1/2 bath refers to a toilet and sink, typically on the main floor and designed for the use of guests.
Interesting! I have opinions on some of these words 😂 Bathroom - I usually hear bathroom in the US but washroom in Canada (specifically Ontario). I'm surprised you don't call it washroom! Highway - In California, we call it a freeway even when it's not free, but in the rest of the US/Canada, people seem to call it a highway even when it's not high speed Chips - None of those words sound like real words anymore after hearing you say them so many times in a row lol Vacuum - Funnily enough I've never used a Hoover branded vacuum in my life
We do not call it a highway from the Midwest to the Eastern seaboard, its the interstate. Only on the west coast, yes, all 3 states its called a freeway. I may have misunderstood your comment about highways, if so, sorry. You may have confused me a bit.
I work for a national bowling chain in the UK, the one that's named after an American venue ... customers are directed to our toilets by a giant neon sign "Washrooms" 😊
Brits often use the abbreviation vac. I'll just get the vac out, or I was just vaccing the carpet. And we do use highway, for any public road. Our Highway Code contains the rules for road users. It's unspecific.
I really like the way you speak Alanna, American/Canadian words included. They're your words and I like to hear them. If i was to move down south, I would not lose my Yorkshire vowel sounds and you shouldn't lose your words. Thanks again for a delightful video.
It was a good segue, but you'd never refer to a cheese board as 'pudding' just cos it's after your main meal. By the way, as well as pud there's also 'afters' re dessert. Afters, is a good 'un.
The reason we say pavement is because it was traditionally made of paving slabs. The road surface is nowadays tarmac previously it was surfaced with cobbled stones. The American term sidewalk is to ensure Americans knew where to walk :)
To my knowledge it's always been bathroom. More popular now, the bath is often removed and replaced with a shower, so it becomes a shower room. A shower or bathroom exclusive to a bedroom is an en-suite, you could go further and call it an en-suite bathroom or en-suite shower. A toilet on it's own or with a hand wash basin is just normally a toilet. Those are often popular downstairs and folk tend to say downstairs loo. Washroom and restroom are not common, they tend to be named those in commercial premises (restaurants, gyms etc..)
I've got 5 years on top of you my dear and we aren't going to speak just like those around us, at least not for a good while longer. "Don't loose your North American accent".It's what makes you charming. I'm told this often by my fellow English neighbors, friends, and strangers. They always say the same thing, "it's so cool you are American and you sound like it still after all these years, that's great!!" Keep being exactly who you are. We sound unique and if anyone disagrees? Too dang bad 😉
Sorry if you can't become fluent in a language that so closely resembles your own within 6 years and certainly 11 years there has got to be a major problem.
I'm a Londoner and never fully got behind pudding. Don't know whether that word is posh or northern but we always used to say "what's for afters" in our house. Oh, and it's "where's the loo". Other than that, full marks "10 out of 10 bemused Canadian ex-pats".
"Highway" was widely used in the eighteenth century in the context of "the King's Highway" and the dangers of "highwaymen", and we still occasionally describe a very unfair deal as "highway robbery", but the term has mostly fallen out of common use in the UK. It's another of those words the Pilgrim Fathers took to America where it has survived long after it has ceased to be common currency here.
Pavements are made with paving stones or slabs. We pave an area like patios so it makes sense to us. And yes, maths. And someone should have told Adam he was living in the Yard of Eden. I never hoover, I vacuum with my vacuum cleaner. Never owned a hoover. We queue in a queue, you queue(get) in a line.
I think yard depends where you live in the UK, I live in the midlands and we say back yard, the yard is the slabbed or tarmac part just in front of the garden. Yard was used in the past when most lived in terraced houses.
Us Brits use so many different words and phrases for the same things that it doesn't really matter what terms you use. Unless it's absolutely necessary, for example in a legal document or court case, just use what comes naturally. You're fine just the way you are and you'll gradually assimilate more over time anyway.
Great little video Alanna and some very handy trans Atlantic translations. Just to confuse you a bit more about puddings have you ever tried Yorkshire pudding and ice cream topped with either jam, chocolate or treacle. It's amazing. 🍮🍦☺
I'm an American living in the northern United States, and we tend to say bathroom when we are in someone's home and restroom when in some sort of public setting. Washroom is mainly a Canadian word.
I am sure in American movies I have heard the word " JOHN " to describe a toilet! In Victorian times it was called a W.C., water closet and of course Americans still use the word Closet as a small walk in room.
Don't worry Alanna, we all understand these Americanisms. If anyone gets genuinely angry about them, they should perhaps get a sense of proportion, with everything else going on in the world. If you can understand our rhyming slang, then we should understand you ! BTW our euphemism for toilet, loo, is probably from the French word for water.
Sorry to cover old ground with this but in my family a Yorkshire pudding can be a feature of three different corses in a single meal. Here in Yorkshire we can and do have a starter of a Yorkie with gravy, followed by a main dish which has a Yorkie included as an ingredient in the dish. Or we might serve the whole main corse inside a large Yorkshire pudding either as a filling or with a part of the dish cooked inside the pudding batter as in a “Toad-in the -Hole”. Then we move on to the dessert course that can be basically a large flat piece of a Yorkie spread with jam or golden syrup served either rolled up, or just flat and covered in custard or if you prefer to have something a bit decedent you can have a dish of profiteroles filled with whipped cream and covered with a chocolate sauce. Another way of enjoying the Yorkshire pudding is to take a large flat one and lay the meat and vegetables out on top and fold and roll it up into a wrap or burrito shape, add the gravy and enjoy.
"Dessert" is well understood everywhere. What is a problem, though, is the way Americans call the main course the "entree", which is objectively insane.
Majority use Dessert nowadays. Every restaurant has a dessert menu. Every supermarket has a dessert section. Things have changed. Puddings can be savoury or sweet as you mentioned. An easy way to describe as a pudding, is if it could be eaten with a spoon.
Rather than asking where the "toilets" are, I'd personally ask where are "the Gent's" (gentleman's toilet) is, and you can do the same with "the Lady's". And I agree with the others who have said that skinny fast food style Fries and proper thick Chips are two totally different things.
i cook a sweet Yorkshire pud filled with different fillings , being Scottish I do Cranachan ( rasps with Whisky , toasted oats & whipped double cream all mixed together )or even Strawberry Romanoff ( fresh strawberries laced with Quatro spirit , double cream & crushed meringue mixed together )
As a first generation Canadian, my Mum and Dad came from England. I have learnt to speak both types of english. The funny thing is my Mum lived and worked (outside of the home)in Canada for over 30 years and still couldn't speak Canadian english. I have a sister who was born in Coventry and came to Canada at age 9, so most of her education is Canadian and she still uses British english. It is really funny because her husband is Mohawk, born on Six Nation in Caledonia, but part of his schooling was in California and he was in the US army during the Vietnam War, so he speaks more US english than Canadian english. I used to work for Bell Canada and one of my work mates was Australian. Four countries that are suppose to speak the same language but really we all speak a different english. Sorry this is so long. I am enjoying your videos. Keep your Canadian ways it makes you extra special. 😉😉 🇨🇦
Rest room in England often refers to a room in a factory where the workers take their break. True story: I was working on construction of a UK owned chemical plant in Alabama. The engineers were English, workforce good old southern boys. The site was large so radios were used for communication. Brits were very RAF "roger", "over' etc, Alabamans were C B radio "whats your 20", "10-4" etc. So over the radio English engineer asks where Chuck is. Answer " He's in the restroom". Response "Well, can he come out here & fix this do-hickey". Answer " He's in the RESTROOM". " Yea OK, can he come out here & fix this...". Laconic voice comes over radio "He's in the John". English "Oh..."
Another word sometimes used for the pavement (sidewalk) is "corsie", which is short for causeway. A causeway is "raised way over wet land or water", or its used to refer to ancient Roman roads.
As a British person in Canada I know how you feel, it’s not so easy to remember every time to use different words than you’ve been using your whole life. I’m good with my line-ups, sidewalks and baseboards. I tend to go for washroom as you wash your hands after going to the toilet, still always feels a bit weird saying it though. I recently learned that wall plaster is called mudding! Not sure I’ll ever get used to that. And bangs instead of fringe just sounds wrong.
I lived in Hungary for a while and they often use the English word hello but they use it when arriving or leaving. I could never bring myself to say it when leaving!
To this Canadian, mudding is the act of applying a plaster-like material to cover the joints between two sheets of drywall. (Drywall being those pre-made gypsum boards with paper backing usually 4x8 feet but can also be 4x12 feet, also called sheetrock). While it could apply to the act of building an actual plaster wall, I suppose, very few modern (ie less than 50 years old) houses would be plastered.
Got some more for you: windscreen/windshield, hood/bonnet, trunk/boot, caboose/brake van (not that there have been brake vans in the UK for about 70 years, and cabooses are pretty few and far between in North America these days…), erm… that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Your random use of the word period in conversation can have issues in polite company, well, with a certain generation, as it generally refers to a woman's menstrual cycle.
Ask for the "ladies" or the "gents" if trying to find the loo, lav, bog, head, dunny etc when in a restaurant. The Hoover thing is similar to how we tend to use "Google" as a verb rather than saying "please look that up on the internet using a search engine of your choice"...Google it.
@@robertewalt7789 From Wiki "It also established a major base in the United Kingdom; and, mostly in the 20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the Hoover brand name became synonymous with vacuum cleaners and vacuuming in the United Kingdom and Ireland." I find it very unlikely that two separate companies would use the name "Hoover" to brand vacuum cleaners.
A yard is an area that has been concreted over or paved, a garden is where plants are grown. I know that its a bit complicated and confusing for Americans.
Be brave, Alanna! Stand up for your people! Don't listen to Brits complaining! Express indignation when they criticize your "American" words; ask them how they dare dismiss Canada's importance by calling the words "American"! Declare that at the very least they ought call the words "North American"!
The hoover one is basically that we are wrong. I prefer to use vacuum, but grew up saying Hoover so sometimes I slip. It's just like when people used to call all personal stereos "Walkmen" or a lot of people call all MP3 players, iPlayers. It's just about brands that become synonymous with that product. As you say, Kleenex is another great example. Another one, that is not so common these days was referring to biro pens as a Bic.
None of the different words really bother me, not even a bathroom without a bath. Two mainly North Americanisms which really make me cringe are Write me and I could care less 🤬
Another one for the vac - hoover, tissue - kleenex topic. I've heard that Americans call cotton buds "Q-tips" and apparently that's for similar reasons. Oddly enough, I always remember saying backyard growing up. Back garden was normal as well, but I do remember saying "back gard" as a kid once and my dad correcting me to say it's either a back garden or a backyard.
While us Brits often use the brand name hoover (hoovering/hoovered) for the act of vacuuming, I know Americans will sometimes use the brand name xerox for photocopying.
I'm English, but I think the American abbreviation for mathematics ("math") is logically more correct. The non-American word "maths" is formed on the incorrect assumption that "mathematics" is a plural word; for example the logical abbreviation of "kilograms" is "kilos" - but "mathematics" is derived from the Greek "mathēmatikós" meaning “related to learning” - not plural and so the abbreviation should be "math". (But I still say "maths"!)
Also there is a linguistics video that goes over Math vs Maths. It's been found in American documents from the 1800s into 1900s but was finally dropped around 1910-1915. Interesting stuff ey?
In the UK the actual road is either the "roadway" or more usually the "carriageway". Pavement derives from the Latin pavimentum, which means “trodden down floor”, ie trodden on by people.
If anyone tells you stop using an "American" word, tell them to bog off! Your language makes our language richer. Current English (What is known as modern English - that is anything from the 16th Century onwards) is an amalgam of so many languages. Based around the proto-Germanic base (where Saxon comes from), it adds, Latin, Greek, Gaul, Asian languages, and so many more. That has made it the biggest language in the world, and it is still growing. There is lots of room for more! So, what are your words? Bathroom - that has been used as a euphemism for lavatory in the UK since the 18th C. So, your use is fine. Pavement - The reason you call a roadway "pavement" is because you got it from us in the first place. That is how we used the word going back to the 14th Century. So though it might be a little confusing these days, that is our fault and not yours. You are using it correctly. c 1330 Drawen is a while on London pauiment, & siþen was he hanged as thef for treson Sidewalk - oh! That's ours too, going back to the 17th Century where we would talk of the side-walk and even middle-walk. It is now mostly North America, but it started here. Cookie - this one is a little odd. It has some Scottish connection going back to 1730, but it possibly derives from Koekje, which is Dutch. And the Dutch had a lot of influence in the formation of the US. But all our supermarkets sell "cookies" so what's the problem? Parking Lot - That is definitely yours! (At last, one that you can claim!). But for Britons of a certain age who loved Canadian Joni Mitchell (very popular here), then "Paved paradise, put up a parking lot," is a well-known lyric. Keep using it. Highway - You confused me on that one. Yes, we use Motorway for, erm, motorways, but we use highway all over the place. And in the US (not sure about Canada), highway is used in the same generic way. Now, if you used Parkway or Freeway or Interstate, yes, I could see your point. Math and Maths - According to the OED, we Britons use Maths in speech, but math when written down formally. But people have forgotten that now. So mostly it is the US. However, the expression "You do the math" (which is US in origin), is common here too now. Both are completely acceptable in all variations of English according to the main literary sources. There is a word for the certain type of person who would even be vaguely irritated by this... Add your own! Chips... yeah, that one is confusing. But it shouldn't be. Very thin slices of potato, fried and served traditionally with game, are called Game Chips, and that goes back a long way! I was trying to work out why we call them potato crisps. This seems to only go back to around 1929. So it might be that your word for them has a little bit more history, and came from here. Personally, we eat frites... Garbage - That one is fine in the UK. I use it a lot. It is possibly from Old French originally. The Trash is less used here. Backyard/Garden - that is more mixed. But I think people know what you mean. An old term here is "backyarder" which is someone who keeps chickens in their backyard. That is UK, so there is possibly more to and fro on that one than you realise. Hoover - that one drives Dyson mad! Basically, the Hoover company gets free advertising. But I don't own a Hoover, so I tend to say, "I vacuum the carpet with the Henry." Hoover, the company, is, or course, American - from Ohio. Go figure! And Kleenex, I suppose, is the reverse to the Hoover problem! Get in line? Yeah, that is US, but it is over here now too. Pudding - it is both used for the course and for an item here. So, steamed pudding, peas pudding, steak and kidney pudding. I suspect there is a bit of a class thing here where some will use "dessert" - which is French. However, careful of your use - back in the 18th century, pudding was slang for penis! So, going by my breakdown, you don't sound foreign at all!!!! More seriously, no one has the right to take another person's language away from them - not individually, nor a whole people. We are all the richer for learning to understand each other.
To impress their friends, posh people might say they are getting the Dyson out (not the hoover) if they have one. Henry vacuum cleaners are often called "Henry Hoovers" which is nice and alliterative.
To be honest, with so many US Film/Television shown in the UK most of us know what the Americans/Canadians are talking about. Some people just like to complain for complaining's sake.
We do have back yards which are just that, desert is OK, and widely used is 'afters'. There is a distinction between chips and fries, which are french fries the type of chips you get in fast food chains.
I generally use vacuum or vac - I draw the line at queue! We use desert / pudding / sweet interchangeably. Yorkshire pudding traditionally was eaten before the roast as a separate dish.
Another great video Alanna 😀😀👍👍 When you said "We're having so-n-so/so and so for pudding that relates to you're having 'someone' for pudding. Where as We're having such and such/such-n-such for pudding, that would relate to something or an actual thing. So-n-so = Person, Such-n-such = thing/item/food. But that's what I've grown up with up here in North East Manchester 😀😀
Although many British will, for historical reasons, use Hoover and vacuum synonymously, the item used will normally be referred to as a "vacuum cleaner" rather than just the "vacuum". I suspect that vacuum is becoming more prevalent now that most cleaners are no longer made by Hoover.
It's so weird about Hoover because I think there's an element of that kind of usage with the Dyson brand. Although even when I had a Dyson I still called it a Hoover. I'm in my 60s now, maybe the younger generations will only use Dyson. 😉
Another great Video and very funny. I am told that Americans use the words Wash room and bathroom instead of toilet is because of Americans being prudish. The longer you stay here, logically your accent will become more British, but you will still say Canadian words for certain objects/items. In another 6 years we can test it out, so lets set our diary for 22/04/28😀🕰
You shouldn't worry about using Americanisms in your everyday life Alanna, we British are using them more & more. Having been to Canada (beautiful!) & America (fascinating) I do tend to translate the Britishisms into their own terms. I would ask an American for the location of the bathroom & a Canadian for the washroom. Ah, the perennial "hoover" terminology question. Personally, I would "vac" my floors having got the vac(uum) out of its storage space. I'd then put the dust into the bin once I'd finished. Have a great weekend Alanna (& partner). All the best, BY-EEE!
I have to say this is one of the funniest video's I seen in a while. At one point I almost fell off my chair I was laughing so much. You would have had some fun at our old house as we had a 'Bathroom' (No loo in there) a 'Toilet', a 'Shower Room' with a loo and a 'Cloakroom' with no bath or loo!
I can only say my own opinion here. Who cares what words anyone use, as long as the person your talking to understands what you mean, we are all educated and know what people mean. So as a Brit I personally have no issue with the “Americanisms”. Continue to be yourself girl and use whatever words are comfortable to you. Love the channel and much respect.
Whilst I agree, it is the understanding that matters, some words used have completely different meanings. What might be common usage in the US could be very insulting or rude in English and visa versa.
In England, a yard is a hard-paved area where you might park your car or store things which won't fit indoors. Most of what we would call a garden would have a lawn and flower beds.
@@davenwin1973 no you can have a paved yard that is not the driveway in the UK.
A yard is just under a metre
Yeah it’s an insult to call someone’s garden a yard.
The parking lot thing being weird to us Brits is because of the "lot" bit. In British English, the word "lot" - as a noun - is exclusively used to describe an item for sale in an auction. We simply don't use the word to describe a piece of land, unless it is being auctioned.
I find Dessert is now more common in the UK than pudding, especially on pub or restaurant menus. It's mainly middle aged or older people that say pudding or "pud". All the rest are spot on.
A of of UK people say 'buddy' now too.
Many year ago a friend moved to Canada and learnt to drive. He was told to drive on the pavement. He has not tried that since returning to England.
🤣🤣
What are roads paved with on the UK?
@@terryomalley1974 gold !
@@terryomalley1974 Tarmac, I Imagine?
@@terryomalley1974Roads are made with tarmac (short for tarmacadam) although in conservation areas, a lot are cobblestone instead
I always laugh when an American refers to their butt as "fanny" that's a totally different thing over here 🤣
😱
The Americans are all mixed up . They don't know whether they are coming or going .they just shoot whatever moves first .
I was shocked when I heard someone say 'fag' and learning they meant cigarette. The context in which it was used, thinking they were saying when we know as a negative slur, made it even worse.
A fag is also slang in Oxford uni, who is a fresher serving a more senior student lol.
It was used to refer to cigarettes a long time before it was used to refer to homosexuals. It was initially coined to refer to a bundle of sticks, usually for burning, and being that cigarettes are a stick that is burnt, that is how they acquired the name, which incidentally is how it also came in to use to refer to homosexuals, but in reference to a different bundle of certain types of stick like objects altogether.
As a brit who has lived in the US for over 30 years, I can safely say you will never completely leave behind the words and expressions you grew up saying.
You have the benefit of being always correct though. ;)
Confirmed (26 years here).
I loved changing my speech slightly to live int he US. It was fun saying aloominum, or tomaytoes at burger stand :-) people often asked which 'London; I was from as there are several in the US and many accents. I never felt out of place.
I worked with a guy from England and I would try to switch to the English versions of words when talking to him. It almost felt like being bi-lingual
1st point - though the word toilet is the most used, an alternative when at a club/pub/restaurant is ladies or gents. And yes, do not say bathroom or restroom. 25 years ago while at MacDonalds in Wales with an ex girlfriend who was American, she needed to use the toilet so she went to the front counter to ask where they were (no signs we could see). She returned and said 'They don't have bathrooms here!' I told her to say toilet. She went back to the counter and tried again and then came back and said 'Nope, we have to leave and find somewhere.' She'd asked for the restroom the second time. Grrrr.
She refused to say toilet as she considered it SO gross. I had to ask.
Good times, she was such a joy, and I miss her every day even now. The one that got away.
Modern roads like railways were invented in Britain. A Scottish man named McAdam invented Tarmac to coat the old lanes to make the Modern road and they decided to make the sides of the road safe for pedestrians by putting in a raised curb edging and a safe walkway which they called a pavement..
As for toilet the proper word is Lavatory or you could say WC which stands for water closest
Alanna,
As a Yorkshireman, I can reliably inform you that Yorkshire Puddings can be eaten as ANY course of a meal & can be either savoury or sweet.
The can also be used for "Non-British" meals, as every so soften I do enjoy a nice curry in a large Yorkie!!!
As a non-Yorkshireman I can confirm this. I've seen them used with Sunday roasts and filled with jam. I've also been at a buffet where mini versions where filled with anything from egg mayo, to peppers, to fruits, to melted chocolate with mini marshmellows to whatever takes your fancy.
@@Elwaves2925 I used to know a lady who used berries and fondant icing to fill a Yorkshire. It tasted like the most decadent dessert in the world!
I was once at an Xmas dinner in a restaurant and got mad cos there were no yorkies with my chicken xmas dinner, but they came with the beef one (as others in my group went with beef.)
I was like why? whats the diff? - I was told that it was traditional NOT to serve yorkies when having chicken! I was like WHAT? Barring the meat choice everything else was the same yet the beef dish got yorkies because the restaurant thought it was traditional with beef and not chicken. I was well peeved off I can tell you because I wanted those yorkies.
@@CrazyInWeston Did you ask for them? When you found out you didn't get them I mean. I would have demanded them, especially if you were paying the same price for the meal.
I have heard that it's more traditional with beef but it's also bollocks. I bet they don't hold up a number of other restaurant traditions.
@@Elwaves2925 I was given yorkies by my sister who had the beef option only to calm me down because it wasnt the restaurant who told me it was traditional... It was my family.
Bear in mind we were in a greek restaurant so maybe this "traditional with beef" thing has more traction than we thought.
My Grandma would make a roast dinner with Yorkshire pudding to eat with (or before) the meat course, she would also make extra Yorkshire puddings that she would then serve with Jam and custard as a dessert course
Instead of pudding, we say “afters”. For example: “Mum, have you gone to a lot of trouble for afters?” Mum: “here’s an orange”. 😉😝
I'm a Brit. Always say pudding never say afters
@@outerheaven8797 Born in North London in the 50s, we always said 'afters'.
Although we say motorway the organisation that maintains them is called Highways England and the department of the local councils that maintain the local roads is the highways department.
"Restroom" makes me think there should be a recliner in there or something.
I've had British friends for decades and I find myself using the US or UK equivalent, depending on who I talk to. I've noticed, "fries" are used for the thinner chips in many places in the UK.
Yes, French fries is common.
@@missharry5727 Haven't run across the full French Fry thing, but Chips of Fries, yes. If we are eating fish in the US, we will say Fish and Chips, because you have to.
To put the record straight chips are actually slightly different to fries. Yes, they are both made from potatoes but fries are thinly sliced whereas chips are much thicker hence the "fish and chips" meal would not be the same as "fish and fries" 🍟😂😂😂
If I lived in the US, I’d be fine saying fries/chips/gas etc.
I could never say ‘Drive stick’ or’Math’ though.
I didn’t even like typing them 🤣
Hey Alana, If you like architecture have a look at the hoover building - it was the Hoover companies head office and is a fine example of Art Deco architecture ( its now a Tesco’s!!)
It’s in Ealing West London
It now a block of flats [en-US: apartments / condominium] with a Tesco at the back. Was a Tesco warehouse until about 2 years ago.
I used to shop there when I lived in England. It was such a huge supermarket. Hates going there as quite overwhelming.
Gosh, I had forgotten all about that. 😊
A pavement is, or used to be, made of paving slabs, hence the word.
A highway is the main road in a town, hence High Street.
A backyard is a small enclosed area, usually with a wall around it, and paved. They used to be common in small terraced houses.
The legal use - Highway - covers any route or path with a public right of access, including footpaths etc. Wonder of what she makes of the "high street" - i.e. the Cumbrian hiking path.
we also use the water closet or wc. some old houses had concreated communal areas they called yards, but most of the teniments went after the war.
we used to have yorkshire pudding for tea on sunday afternoon after the sandwiches with jam, yes for pudding!
I remember when i first moved to the USA and in a posh restaurant asking where is the toilet. The look of almost shock on the waitress's face was so amusing in fact in my mind at least I think the whole restaurant was shocked to silence. I quickly learnt to use the term bathroom. i think if i had said WC it might have been too much.
Could have been worse, you could have said " Where's the bog?"
Another specific product we tend to use is “Biro” for a ball point pen, this is because the ball point pen was invented by Hungarian Lazlo Biro
We tend to mispronounce the word though.
This reminded me of a book I read. The "hero" of the book asked a Singaporean policeman if he spoke English. He replied yes and I understand American.🤣🤣🤣
He was either a wise man or a diplomat.All the best to you and yours,Rab
Yeah, that's quite logical! English from England and American from America. Cheers, mate!
Brits sometimes say Hoover for vacuum, but Americans say Xerox (another brand) where we would probably say photocopy. Most Americanisms don't bother me as much as "could care less" which is one phrase I definitely *could* care less about hearing.
I was born and lived in the UK almost my entire life, But after a few years living in The USA, I came back and while driving with a friend I said "oohh We're low on Gas, I think there's a gas station in the next town"... She looked at me as if I'd just murdered the royal family 😂.
😂😂
Alanna, I love listening to you; your accent and vocabulary. You carry on just as you are. If you changed we might not want to tune in.
It seems that the ‘s’ that goes on the end of “maths” was misplaced at one point in time, possibly in the shipping process and put on the end of “Lego” by mistake! It must of dropped off when they were shipping the words over to America, some careless American Hermes worker at the other end must of thought it would be funny to slap it on the end of Lego!!!
Americans: Math, Legos
British: Maths, Lego.
Oh my god you're right 😂
Nice one. Your comment remind me of another channel called Lost In The Pond in which he talks about all the stuff that got lost in transit.
Not much really bugs me on the internet, math doesn't but Legos really does. Americans just won't accept they are wrong, even when Lego themselves have said they are. 🙂
Here in America, I just drove by several deers and sheeps! 😆
I still wonder why "have" is often written as "of". It makes no sense
@@norabradley9108 Because people use the contractions "should've" and "would've" when they talk and think that it's written as "should of" and "would of".
Garden - anything with a lawn and/or plants. Front garden - in front of the house. Back garden - at the rear of the house. Yard - a space that is concreted or tarmac'd over.
“Can I borrow your rubber” would be hard to say for our North American cousins.
😂
The use of the word pudding for dessert is relatively recent. When I was growing up in the UK the dessert course was called the sweet. Also, while Hoover is a term used based on that being the name of a pioneer in the field, in the US and Canada Fridge is used for the refrigerator based on the name of a brand name pioneer company in that field: Fridigaire
🇨🇦 I have a friend from South Africa that has been here in western Canada for about 20 years. She uses British terms. I notice them especially regarding cars…bonnet and boot instead of our hood and trunk. Can drive me crazy sometimes, but it is a part of her and who she is.
I love your personality. The subject material is secondary to your presence and delivery.
Another great entertaining video. That whole chip/crisp discussion both confused me & made me hungry at the same time, aswell as making me laugh. I suppose it comes down to what you grow up with, your brain develops & gets used to set words, be easier if more people accepted that. Its like in some areas people grow up with words from local dialects that others wouldn't understand but I suppose thats a topic for another day
Glad you enjoyed it!
No, fries and chips are 2 different things.
@@AdventuresAndNaps Fries are those skinny things sold in McDonald's, not proper British chips.
In Australia crisps are called potato chips
"aswell" isn't a word on either side of the 'pond'.
When I think of a garden, I think of vegetables that are planted in the dirt. I don't really thank about flowers, except for the ones blooming on the plants.
Love the channel; I suppose for pavement, that relates to paving slabs and ‘pavers’. In the Peak District we have limestone pavements on the top of some of the hills where the exposed limestone is naturally eroded into small block shapes - so pavement. There you go - take care 👍🏻
Biscuit is used for sweet, crisp baked product that snaps when broken. Cookies are sweet but softer, they don't snap apart. Crackers are crisp and unsweetened.
For us Brits a 'yard' is an industrial space where, for example cars are repaired, or you might have a builder's yard, where you might find fenceposts, long pieces of timber, etc. A yard is always either concrete or tarmac. So the image you portray by saying a 'back yard' is of an ugly area of concrete or tarmac - no grass, no flowers, no trees - just something industrial.
If it has grass and flowers it's a garden. Curiously the words garden and yard are very closely related. Garden is from the Old French gardin , while yard is from the Old English geard.
Oh, and we do use cookies. Chocolate chip cookies have no other name. Just don't get me started on the American use of biscuits, which may not be a Canadian thing at all.
If you were brought up among streets of terraced houses, a yard always has a brick wall around it and a stone-flagged surface. it might have a flowerbed these days, but once upon a time it had most likely an outside toilet/loo/lavatory/convenience and a coal shed.
@@davidjones332 In Ireland, the piece of land at the back of my old family home was always referred to as the "back yard". It's not an Americanism. It's an old Englishism.
@@missharry5727 Unless it's a chocolate chip digestive, and then it's a biscuit!
Or three feet and 3 inches (aprox) not a pox on the difference.All the best to you and yours.Rab
Alanna I think you would really enjoy Bill Brysons book notes from a small Isle, After living here for 20 years Bill is about to return back to live in the states so he takes a trip around the UK to explore all our weird pass times and strange customs. Its such a funny book, he also explains all the culture shocks he got when first here and he did a follow up called notes from a big country where he talks about the reverse culture shock of returning back to the states which is also brilliant.
I thought I knew my Americanisms but I never knew that “pavement” was the road surface. Mind blown. 😅
There’s something about dropping the “s” off of maths that grates on me, it just sounds too abrupt. I don’t know why people would have an issue with North American’s using Americanisms though, I mean, it’s in the name. 😂
Thanks for the vid Alanna
Pavement is the material on the road in Canada and the USA. We usually refer to a road as a road.
noun
a paved road, highway, etc.
a paved surface, ground covering, or floor.
a material used for paving.
Atlantic Provinces and British. sidewalk.
So in Canada the Atlantic provinces also use Pavement for "Sidewalk".
@@williamcampbell435 However originally the paved area was a pavement. that meant with paving stones I think, not a tarmac or similar. Saying that, most UK pavements are no longer paved. I live in York and many pavements are paved with paving stones and there is a street called 'The Pavement' which was one of the earliest paved streets in the city.
Driving in Arizona I didn't realise the significance of a sign warning "Pavement ends in 100 yards": I hit the gravel doing 50 mph!
If you are out somewhere and in need of the loo, when asking staff for the whereabouts of the convenience it is quite acceptable to ask for directions to the "Ladies" or "Gents". Also the "Ladies Room" was sometimes referred to as the "Powder Room" where women would retire to replenish their makeup.
Referring to it as "the smallest room" is acceptable too.
I love your videos, particularly as you are now using mild sarcasm in your commentary now that you've become more anglicised! In the same ilk, as US/Canuk people think "toilet" is too descriptive a word for where one goes to the toilet, I suggest Table Room instead of dining room (as "dining" may suggest over indulgence), rest room in place of bedroom (can't mention "bed" as it may have sexual undertones), parlour instead of lounge or sitting room (as the two may suggest idleness), and certainly activity room instead of den (as den may be suggestive of a room for wasting time)! 🤣🙄
If Alanna is over-sensitive about using 'toilet', she'd best not go downunder to Australia- 'dunny' would be going way too far!
I'm not too keen on toilet either, but that's really because loo or bathroom just sound nicer. Toilet is as 'slang' as I get! 🤣
@@wilmaknickersfit No, "toilet" actually originally came from the word in French which evolved into meaning a dressing room, or a place to wash and dress, in English a lavatory. "Loo" is the slang word. It derives from Waterloo, the battle which ended Napoleon's tyrany in Europe, when in effect the French self-styled emperor was washed into the toilet by Arthur Wellesley, later Duke of Wellington.
@@t.a.k.palfrey3882 Sorry, but I did know the origin of the word toilet (toilette, etc. I was just saying that although I prefer to use other words, I will say toilet sometimes! 😁 And loo is older than Waterloo, but it's likely to be another word from France. France and Scotland used to be great allies, especially against the English. In Scotland in the 18th century people would empty chamber pots out of the upstairs windows and shout the warning "gardy loo" meaning watch out for the water (l'eau). Loo is definitely slang, so perhaps I should have used a different word instead of slang about my use of the word toilet. 😉
Hi Alanna, we call that room a restroom here in Australia, as far as I know. Pavement in the UK is the footpath here. Cookies are biscuits here, though we do have some biscuits also called cookies. We use both car park and parking lot here. Motorways are freeways and highways here in Australia, though they become motorways again in New Zealand. we also say Maths here as well. Chips here are both crisps and fries. Fries here are hot chips. We use garbage and rubbish here strangely enough. We have back yards and front yards here and they contain gardens. We also use vacuum for both the machine and the action, like Canada. We usually say tissue rather than Kleenex, as Kleenex make both tissues and paper towels. I think we use queue rather than line. Pudding is mostly a dessert here. Anyway, take care and all the best. Rob.
The worst one is when using "England" in a simplified way, when referring to the whole UK, rather than just specifically "England".
Imagine how Canadisns feel when everything we do and say gets called American! Yes, we all live in North America, but that includes Mexico as well. And don't forget Central and South America!
Anyone ever heard of someone from Brazil being referred to as "American"?
Oops, can't type on my phone!
@@susandavidson5357 Oops I can't type on your phone either.
Absolutely! Try doing that in front of a Scotsman! You would be taking your teeth home in a plastic bag. 🤬🏴😆😜
Ermiged! The conversation about back... LOL! I cant even. I slayed me.
I was taught to call it a lavatory, or loo ('toilet' is a bit 'common'), but 'bog' is my preferred word. I was told that it's what roman legionaries in UK called it; that might be bogus!
My first language was Dutch, and a loo is 'WC', which is the old British abbreviation for 'Water Closet'. A closet being a place where you close yourself away for privacy, not a place where you keep your clothes.
Pavements are paved - with paving slabs or bricks. The footway (the legal term for the pedestrian way adjacent to a road) was traditionally paved, but these days they are often surfaced in tarmac. What's the difference between tarmac and asphalt? You can safely say to your Builder's Merchant "I'd like my tarmac".
In UK a Highway is any road maintained by local or national government.
Merkins shorten Maths, but not Stats.
Chip derives from the same source as the Latin cippus - a post, stake, or beam. British potato chips are beam-shaped, which is what you'd expect. For some reason, Merkins decided to use the word 'chip' to mean a thin slice.
Ive only heard lavatory in an airplane.
@@Lemonade_Stand_ I always say lavatory.
Yorkshire pudding was originally actually a desert….. In the north it still is quite often but the fashion is changing. They’re lovely spread with jam ….
This made me laugh, It always makes me smile when I hear people try to make the effort but slip into old habits but I appreciate the effort esp as is Brits don’t make this much effort when we go abroad…we just talk louder 😂 don’t ever loose your your Americanisms 😊
Hi Deb,Lose or loose? you are a winner.All the best to you and yours.Rab
In America (or perhaps even Canada) someone may describe a house, apartment or condo as having 2 1/2 baths. The 1/2 bath refers to a toilet and sink, typically on the main floor and designed for the use of guests.
Interesting! I have opinions on some of these words 😂
Bathroom - I usually hear bathroom in the US but washroom in Canada (specifically Ontario). I'm surprised you don't call it washroom!
Highway - In California, we call it a freeway even when it's not free, but in the rest of the US/Canada, people seem to call it a highway even when it's not high speed
Chips - None of those words sound like real words anymore after hearing you say them so many times in a row lol
Vacuum - Funnily enough I've never used a Hoover branded vacuum in my life
We do not call it a highway from the Midwest to the Eastern seaboard, its the interstate. Only on the west coast, yes, all 3 states its called a freeway. I may have misunderstood your comment about highways, if so, sorry. You may have confused me a bit.
I work for a national bowling chain in the UK, the one that's named after an American venue ... customers are directed to our toilets by a giant neon sign "Washrooms" 😊
Brits often use the abbreviation vac. I'll just get the vac out, or I was just vaccing the carpet. And we do use highway, for any public road. Our Highway Code contains the rules for road users. It's unspecific.
In UK any road that is not privately owned is a public highway, when you take a driving test it includes questions on a book called the Highway Code.
The Highways Agency in the UK is responsible for the maintenance and safety of highways in the UK.
I really like the way you speak Alanna, American/Canadian words included. They're your words and I like to hear them.
If i was to move down south, I would not lose my Yorkshire vowel sounds and you shouldn't lose your words.
Thanks again for a delightful video.
It was a good segue, but you'd never refer to a cheese board as 'pudding' just cos it's after your main meal. By the way, as well as pud there's also 'afters' re dessert. Afters, is a good 'un.
a space is a yard if there is no grass and is used as a place to store things... like a builders yard has building supplies and equipment
The reason we say pavement is because it was traditionally made of paving slabs. The road surface is nowadays tarmac previously it was surfaced with cobbled stones. The American term sidewalk is to ensure Americans knew where to walk :)
That's what confuses me. Americans don't walk anywhere! My grandmother, a Yorkshire woman, used to call it the causeway.
To my knowledge it's always been bathroom. More popular now, the bath is often removed and replaced with a shower, so it becomes a shower room. A shower or bathroom exclusive to a bedroom is an en-suite, you could go further and call it an en-suite bathroom or en-suite shower.
A toilet on it's own or with a hand wash basin is just normally a toilet. Those are often popular downstairs and folk tend to say downstairs loo.
Washroom and restroom are not common, they tend to be named those in commercial premises (restaurants, gyms etc..)
I've got 5 years on top of you my dear and we aren't going to speak just like those around us, at least not for a good while longer. "Don't loose your North American accent".It's what makes you charming. I'm told this often by my fellow English neighbors, friends, and strangers. They always say the same thing, "it's so cool you are American and you sound like it still after all these years, that's great!!" Keep being exactly who you are. We sound unique and if anyone disagrees? Too dang bad 😉
Of course the Canadian language is English and French. Not Canadian.
@@nilocnolnah6788 gee thanks, fixed it.
Sorry if you can't become fluent in a language that so closely resembles your own within 6 years and certainly 11 years there has got to be a major problem.
Hi Julia M,Neighbors or neighbours.I will always love you! :>)
Are you seriously going to argue with the ENGLISH, about the ENGLISH language???? Really? Are you that stupid and ignorant?
Thanks Alanna, always interesting to hear what we'd take for granted, always isn't the same elsewhere!
I'm a Londoner and never fully got behind pudding. Don't know whether that word is posh or northern but we always used to say "what's for afters" in our house. Oh, and it's "where's the loo". Other than that, full marks "10 out of 10 bemused Canadian ex-pats".
Thanks so much!
That's interesting, as I'm from the North East and I thought Pudding was the southern way of saying afters or desert.
Same here in East Anglia - "what's for afters?". And sometimes afters really was a pudding!
Deffo a posh thing
I was boiught up in South london, i think we mainly said whats for pudding but also would use desert or afters
"Highway" was widely used in the eighteenth century in the context of "the King's Highway" and the dangers of "highwaymen", and we still occasionally describe a very unfair deal as "highway robbery", but the term has mostly fallen out of common use in the UK. It's another of those words the Pilgrim Fathers took to America where it has survived long after it has ceased to be common currency here.
There is the highways agency and the highway code
@@olavsantiago And the crime of obstructing the highway. The word is still standard in legal contexts.
Pavements are made with paving stones or slabs. We pave an area like patios so it makes sense to us. And yes, maths. And someone should have told Adam he was living in the Yard of Eden. I never hoover, I vacuum with my vacuum cleaner. Never owned a hoover. We queue in a queue, you queue(get) in a line.
In NYC we get on line. Not in line. Not join the queue.
I think yard depends where you live in the UK, I live in the midlands and we say back yard, the yard is the slabbed or tarmac part just in front of the garden. Yard was used in the past when most lived in terraced houses.
Us Brits use so many different words and phrases for the same things that it doesn't really matter what terms you use.
Unless it's absolutely necessary, for example in a legal document or court case, just use what comes naturally.
You're fine just the way you are and you'll gradually assimilate more over time anyway.
It's "We Brits".....
As a UKer. I understand all you said quite well. Only ‘line’ cracked me up. We use ‘line’ differently. So it is funny when you use in that way
Great little video Alanna and some very handy trans Atlantic translations. Just to confuse you a bit more about puddings have you ever tried Yorkshire pudding and ice cream topped with either jam, chocolate or treacle. It's amazing. 🍮🍦☺
I haven't!!
Give it a try some time, I don't think you will be disappointed.
Yes, Yorkshire pud and golden syrup- a typical pudding from my childhood.
Or black pudding. Not with the sweet stuff though.
I'm an American living in the northern United States, and we tend to say bathroom when we are in someone's home and restroom when in some sort of public setting. Washroom is mainly a Canadian word.
Interesting!!
@@AdventuresAndNaps Yep!
Restroom sounds like you're needing to lie down in dark room.
BTW pudding is actually means something that's been steamed or boiled.
I am sure in American movies I have heard the word " JOHN " to describe a toilet! In Victorian times it was called a W.C., water closet and of course Americans still use the word Closet as a small walk in room.
Listening to 8:10 to 8:39 I think my brain has just melted. My respect for the patience of your partner grows ever more.... 😂
The "Back Yard" is (in the North) a paved area at the back of a 2 up/2 down old terraced house
Don't worry Alanna, we all understand these Americanisms. If anyone gets genuinely angry about them, they should perhaps get a sense of proportion, with everything else going on in the world. If you can understand our rhyming slang, then we should understand you ! BTW our euphemism for toilet, loo, is probably from the French word for water.
Thanks so much!
Sorry to cover old ground with this but in my family a Yorkshire pudding can be a feature of three different corses in a single meal. Here in Yorkshire we can and do have a starter of a Yorkie with gravy, followed by a main dish which has a Yorkie included as an ingredient in the dish. Or we might serve the whole main corse inside a large Yorkshire pudding either as a filling or with a part of the dish cooked inside the pudding batter as in a “Toad-in the -Hole”. Then we move on to the dessert course that can be basically a large flat piece of a Yorkie spread with jam or golden syrup served either rolled up, or just flat and covered in custard or if you prefer to have something a bit decedent you can have a dish of profiteroles filled with whipped cream and covered with a chocolate sauce. Another way of enjoying the Yorkshire pudding is to take a large flat one and lay the meat and vegetables out on top and fold and roll it up into a wrap or burrito shape, add the gravy and enjoy.
"Dessert" is well understood everywhere. What is a problem, though, is the way Americans call the main course the "entree", which is objectively insane.
Really, so what do they call the actual entreé?
Majority use Dessert nowadays. Every restaurant has a dessert menu. Every supermarket has a dessert section. Things have changed.
Puddings can be savoury or sweet as you mentioned. An easy way to describe as a pudding, is if it could be eaten with a spoon.
Rather than asking where the "toilets" are, I'd personally ask where are "the Gent's" (gentleman's toilet) is, and you can do the same with "the Lady's".
And I agree with the others who have said that skinny fast food style Fries and proper thick Chips are two totally different things.
i cook a sweet Yorkshire pud filled with different fillings , being Scottish I do Cranachan ( rasps with Whisky , toasted oats & whipped double cream all mixed together )or even Strawberry Romanoff ( fresh strawberries laced with Quatro spirit , double cream & crushed meringue mixed together )
Lego and Sheep are both plural.
As a first generation Canadian, my Mum and Dad came from England. I have learnt to speak both types of english. The funny thing is my Mum lived and worked (outside of the home)in Canada for over 30 years and still couldn't speak Canadian english. I have a sister who was born in Coventry and came to Canada at age 9, so most of her education is Canadian and she still uses British english. It is really funny because her husband is Mohawk, born on Six Nation in Caledonia, but part of his schooling was in California and he was in the US army during the Vietnam War, so he speaks more US english than Canadian english. I used to work for Bell Canada and one of my work mates was Australian. Four countries that are suppose to speak the same language but really we all speak a different english. Sorry this is so long. I am enjoying your videos. Keep your Canadian ways it makes you extra special. 😉😉 🇨🇦
Rest room in England often refers to a room in a factory where the workers take their break. True story: I was working on construction of a UK owned chemical plant in Alabama. The engineers were English, workforce good old southern boys. The site was large so radios were used for communication. Brits were very RAF "roger", "over' etc, Alabamans were C B radio "whats your 20", "10-4" etc. So over the radio English engineer asks where Chuck is. Answer " He's in the restroom". Response "Well, can he come out here & fix this do-hickey". Answer " He's in the RESTROOM". " Yea OK, can he come out here & fix this...". Laconic voice comes over radio "He's in the John". English "Oh..."
Another word sometimes used for the pavement (sidewalk) is "corsie", which is short for causeway.
A causeway is "raised way over wet land or water", or its used to refer to ancient Roman roads.
As a British person in Canada I know how you feel, it’s not so easy to remember every time to use different words than you’ve been using your whole life. I’m good with my line-ups, sidewalks and baseboards. I tend to go for washroom as you wash your hands after going to the toilet, still always feels a bit weird saying it though. I recently learned that wall plaster is called mudding! Not sure I’ll ever get used to that. And bangs instead of fringe just sounds wrong.
I lived in Hungary for a while and they often use the English word hello but they use it when arriving or leaving. I could never bring myself to say it when leaving!
Good to see you've retained 'different than' rather than the UK's 'different from'.
To this Canadian, mudding is the act of applying a plaster-like material to cover the joints between two sheets of drywall. (Drywall being those pre-made gypsum boards with paper backing usually 4x8 feet but can also be 4x12 feet, also called sheetrock). While it could apply to the act of building an actual plaster wall, I suppose, very few modern (ie less than 50 years old) houses would be plastered.
Got some more for you: windscreen/windshield, hood/bonnet, trunk/boot, caboose/brake van (not that there have been brake vans in the UK for about 70 years, and cabooses are pretty few and far between in North America these days…), erm… that’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
Your random use of the word period in conversation can have issues in polite company, well, with a certain generation, as it generally refers to a woman's menstrual cycle.
Noooo, don't tell her that, just watch the fun
We say it both ways. Like period full stop and a women’s menstrual cycle. It’s only the context that matters over here.
Ask for the "ladies" or the "gents" if trying to find the loo, lav, bog, head, dunny etc when in a restaurant. The Hoover thing is similar to how we tend to use "Google" as a verb rather than saying "please look that up on the internet using a search engine of your choice"...Google it.
So true!
My understanding is that the Hoover company in UK is not associated with the Hoover company in the US.
@@AdventuresAndNaps WC works pretty well, even in the rest of Europe.
@@robertewalt7789 From Wiki "It also established a major base in the United Kingdom; and, mostly in the 20th century, it dominated the electric vacuum cleaner industry, to the point where the Hoover brand name became synonymous with vacuum cleaners and vacuuming in the United Kingdom and Ireland." I find it very unlikely that two separate companies would use the name "Hoover" to brand vacuum cleaners.
Hi, Alanna, another entertaining video. It must almost be like learning a foreign language moving here. Great fun. Hope it does well.
@jay little hi, Patreon does that.
A yard is an area that has been concreted over or paved, a garden is where plants are grown. I know that its a bit complicated and confusing for Americans.
Be brave, Alanna! Stand up for your people! Don't listen to Brits complaining! Express indignation when they criticize your "American" words; ask them how they dare dismiss Canada's importance by calling the words "American"! Declare that at the very least they ought call the words "North American"!
The hoover one is basically that we are wrong. I prefer to use vacuum, but grew up saying Hoover so sometimes I slip. It's just like when people used to call all personal stereos "Walkmen" or a lot of people call all MP3 players, iPlayers. It's just about brands that become synonymous with that product. As you say, Kleenex is another great example.
Another one, that is not so common these days was referring to biro pens as a Bic.
None of the different words really bother me, not even a bathroom without a bath.
Two mainly North Americanisms which really make me cringe are Write me and I could care less 🤬
It also bugs me when Americans say "the proof is in the pudding".
@Hadz English too.
The proof of the pudding is in the eating!
Another one for the vac - hoover, tissue - kleenex topic. I've heard that Americans call cotton buds "Q-tips" and apparently that's for similar reasons.
Oddly enough, I always remember saying backyard growing up. Back garden was normal as well, but I do remember saying "back gard" as a kid once and my dad correcting me to say it's either a back garden or a backyard.
While us Brits often use the brand name hoover (hoovering/hoovered) for the act of vacuuming, I know Americans will sometimes use the brand name xerox for photocopying.
I'm English, but I think the American abbreviation for mathematics ("math") is logically more correct. The non-American word "maths" is formed on the incorrect assumption that "mathematics" is a plural word; for example the logical abbreviation of "kilograms" is "kilos" - but "mathematics" is derived from the Greek "mathēmatikós" meaning “related to learning” - not plural and so the abbreviation should be "math". (But I still say "maths"!)
Shhhhh 🤫 She's Canadian remember? You gotta say North American 💙🤭
Also there is a linguistics video that goes over Math vs Maths. It's been found in American documents from the 1800s into 1900s but was finally dropped around 1910-1915. Interesting stuff ey?
In the UK the actual road is either the "roadway" or more usually the "carriageway". Pavement derives from the Latin pavimentum, which means “trodden down floor”, ie trodden on by people.
If anyone tells you stop using an "American" word, tell them to bog off! Your language makes our language richer. Current English (What is known as modern English - that is anything from the 16th Century onwards) is an amalgam of so many languages. Based around the proto-Germanic base (where Saxon comes from), it adds, Latin, Greek, Gaul, Asian languages, and so many more. That has made it the biggest language in the world, and it is still growing. There is lots of room for more! So, what are your words?
Bathroom - that has been used as a euphemism for lavatory in the UK since the 18th C. So, your use is fine.
Pavement - The reason you call a roadway "pavement" is because you got it from us in the first place. That is how we used the word going back to the 14th Century. So though it might be a little confusing these days, that is our fault and not yours. You are using it correctly. c 1330 Drawen is a while on London pauiment, & siþen was he hanged as thef for treson
Sidewalk - oh! That's ours too, going back to the 17th Century where we would talk of the side-walk and even middle-walk. It is now mostly North America, but it started here.
Cookie - this one is a little odd. It has some Scottish connection going back to 1730, but it possibly derives from Koekje, which is Dutch. And the Dutch had a lot of influence in the formation of the US. But all our supermarkets sell "cookies" so what's the problem?
Parking Lot - That is definitely yours! (At last, one that you can claim!). But for Britons of a certain age who loved Canadian Joni Mitchell (very popular here), then "Paved paradise, put up a parking lot," is a well-known lyric. Keep using it.
Highway - You confused me on that one. Yes, we use Motorway for, erm, motorways, but we use highway all over the place. And in the US (not sure about Canada), highway is used in the same generic way. Now, if you used Parkway or Freeway or Interstate, yes, I could see your point.
Math and Maths - According to the OED, we Britons use Maths in speech, but math when written down formally. But people have forgotten that now. So mostly it is the US. However, the expression "You do the math" (which is US in origin), is common here too now. Both are completely acceptable in all variations of English according to the main literary sources. There is a word for the certain type of person who would even be vaguely irritated by this... Add your own!
Chips... yeah, that one is confusing. But it shouldn't be. Very thin slices of potato, fried and served traditionally with game, are called Game Chips, and that goes back a long way! I was trying to work out why we call them potato crisps. This seems to only go back to around 1929. So it might be that your word for them has a little bit more history, and came from here. Personally, we eat frites...
Garbage - That one is fine in the UK. I use it a lot. It is possibly from Old French originally. The Trash is less used here.
Backyard/Garden - that is more mixed. But I think people know what you mean. An old term here is "backyarder" which is someone who keeps chickens in their backyard. That is UK, so there is possibly more to and fro on that one than you realise.
Hoover - that one drives Dyson mad! Basically, the Hoover company gets free advertising. But I don't own a Hoover, so I tend to say, "I vacuum the carpet with the Henry." Hoover, the company, is, or course, American - from Ohio. Go figure!
And Kleenex, I suppose, is the reverse to the Hoover problem!
Get in line? Yeah, that is US, but it is over here now too.
Pudding - it is both used for the course and for an item here. So, steamed pudding, peas pudding, steak and kidney pudding. I suspect there is a bit of a class thing here where some will use "dessert" - which is French. However, careful of your use - back in the 18th century, pudding was slang for penis!
So, going by my breakdown, you don't sound foreign at all!!!!
More seriously, no one has the right to take another person's language away from them - not individually, nor a whole people. We are all the richer for learning to understand each other.
Are you Scottish?
👏
To impress their friends, posh people might say they are getting the Dyson out (not the hoover) if they have one. Henry vacuum cleaners are often called "Henry Hoovers" which is nice and alliterative.
To be honest, with so many US Film/Television shown in the UK most of us know what the Americans/Canadians are talking about. Some people just like to complain for complaining's sake.
Pudding is desert - normally…
Steak & ale / Yorkshire pudding etc deserve a whole sub-video!
But pudding is NEVER cheese.
Loving your channel! 👏👏👏👏
I make you right however cheese can easily replace a desert now that i'm almost grown up.All the best to you and yours. Rab
We do have back yards which are just that, desert is OK, and widely used is 'afters'. There is a distinction between chips and fries, which are french fries the type of chips you get in fast food chains.
Nice one! Garden does sound nicer, but yeah I will always think of it as a yard...
I generally use vacuum or vac - I draw the line at queue! We use desert / pudding / sweet interchangeably. Yorkshire pudding traditionally was eaten before the roast as a separate dish.
Another great video Alanna 😀😀👍👍 When you said "We're having so-n-so/so and so for pudding that relates to you're having 'someone' for pudding. Where as We're having such and such/such-n-such for pudding, that would relate to something or an actual thing. So-n-so = Person, Such-n-such = thing/item/food. But that's what I've grown up with up here in North East Manchester 😀😀
Although many British will, for historical reasons, use Hoover and vacuum synonymously, the item used will normally be referred to as a "vacuum cleaner" rather than just the "vacuum". I suspect that vacuum is becoming more prevalent now that most cleaners are no longer made by Hoover.
It's so weird about Hoover because I think there's an element of that kind of usage with the Dyson brand. Although even when I had a Dyson I still called it a Hoover. I'm in my 60s now, maybe the younger generations will only use Dyson. 😉
Another great Video and very funny. I am told that Americans use the words Wash room and bathroom instead of toilet is because of Americans being prudish. The longer you stay here, logically your accent will become more British, but you will still say Canadian words for certain objects/items. In another 6 years we can test it out, so lets set our diary for 22/04/28😀🕰
You shouldn't worry about using Americanisms in your everyday life Alanna, we British are using them more & more.
Having been to Canada (beautiful!) & America (fascinating) I do tend to translate the Britishisms into their own terms. I would ask an American for the location of the bathroom & a Canadian for the washroom.
Ah, the perennial "hoover" terminology question. Personally, I would "vac" my floors having got the vac(uum) out of its storage space. I'd then put the dust into the bin once I'd finished.
Have a great weekend Alanna (& partner). All the best, BY-EEE!
I have to say this is one of the funniest video's I seen in a while. At one point I almost fell off my chair I was laughing so much. You would have had some fun at our old house as we had a 'Bathroom' (No loo in there) a 'Toilet', a 'Shower Room' with a loo and a 'Cloakroom' with no bath or loo!