Yeah, same here. It is common for a home bathroom to have a tub or shower as well as a toilet (one without a tub or shower is a “half bathroom” or “powder room” though if a visitor asks for the bathroom, showing them one of these rooms instead is fine, as it has the fixture they actually heed in it. Public facilities are generally assumed to lack bathing fixture, but they did at one time often have lounges outside them (e.g. in old school department stores) so “restroom” would have made sense, but “bathroom” would not. If I walked into Lowes and asked where the “toilets” were, I would expect to be shown the part of the store where you can buy a new toilet for your home, but if I asked for the “restrooms” I would expect to be shown a room where I could *use* a toilet. As it happens, in the Lowes store nearest me, the restrooms are located in the area that sells toilets, sinks, and tubs, so asking for “toilets”, “bathrooms”, or “restrooms” would all get you to the same place. I wonder if that was deliberate.
My Canadian sister went to grad school in the South, and absorbed some of the local lingo, while retaining her Canadianisms. This was beautifully illustrated when I heard her say, “How y’all doing, eh?”.
I've known a few people from Alberta and saskatchewan it sounds like the way they speak, they speak lots of Southern rural colloquialisms and Canadian ehs
As an American; a restroom is used when talking about a public bathroom. In a school or office etc. You would not use that word to describe the bathroom in a house
Now I understand why the charming UK RUclipsrs I watch can cut up an old towel or clothing into rags and call the results “flannels.” To me flannel is a specific weave of cotton or wool. Thanks, Laurence, for translating!
To me, a flannel is always a shirt. Other things can be made of flannel, but they’re referred to as flannel (thing), while flannel shirts are just ‘flannels.’
After a few days of trying to find butterfly paper clips and not succeeding, I recall not seeing any thumbtacks, either. Usually they came on a thick card. One reason they probably are getting replaced by push pins is that thumbtacks are awful on the underside of human fingernails, either to get them off the card or pluck them out of the bulletin board or whatever they are attached to. (I did find butterfly paper clips on line, though).
I was thinking the same thing. I've tried to ask for pushpins using the word "thumbtacks" before and it often confuses people. Sometimes they'll even go right over the pushpins in their drawer while looking specifically for thumbtacks, when in reality I would have been happy with either one.
I really applaud Lawrence for his ability to adapt to a whole new culture. And I love that he compares America and the United Kingdom without trashing either (neither is perfect and neither is horrible). Thanks, Lawrence
I wouldn't say "whole new." We are both English speaking countries who's cultures semi diverged a couple of centuries ago but he grew up on the A-Team and we've all seen Monte Python so "whole" is right out.
On the term thumbtack. The things that you showed in the animation, I've always known as push pins. A thumbtack is actually a slightly concaved, round piece of metal, with a short, metal pin attached to the underside.
You're probably right about the turn of phrase being your American tell. I've been watching Midsomer Murders and on 2 occasions when they had characters who were American, they used phrases we never do. I had thought up to that point they may be Americans, but after hearing them say something we wouldn't ever, both of them were Brits using an American accent (or just following the British script loyally), because we'd never say "make a packet" instead of "make a fortune" or "he phoned" instead of "he called".
In the film Inglorious Basterds, one slip by an American undercover as a German, signaling for three drinks by holding up three fingers rather two fingers and a thumb led to a brutal shootout. Such things are important!
@@pinecone2455 I've found that "bathroom", "washroom", "restroom", "toilet", "potty" and "facilities" will all get you directions to the peeing and pooping place throughout North America.
"I'll get the post" in the USA sounds like you're going to pluck out a support pole from a picket fence. Or install one, depending on whether it's been previously used or not. "I'll get the mail" normally gets the point across, unless you're in the SCA, dressing for a Renaissance Fair, or are a historical re-enactor. Then it might mean something completely different.
I grew up with a thick Southern American accent but we spent summers in campgrounds all around the country. I worked in phone sales for a prominent credit card company and found that people would be very difficult if they detected a Southern accent. I memorized area codes and studied their dialects so to match their accents and phrases and it resulted in far more sales.
I did telemarketing in my younger years and found when calling down to the deep south If I did not do a southern accent they could be fairly rude. They did not like to talk to a Yankee.
Boy, do I hear ya on this one!! It doesn't matter what educational background, number of degrees and/or how impressive a work history one has when you meet someone and, upon hearing that first "y'all", they immediately dismiss any & everything you say. It's frustrating! My folks moved to Wisconsin for a few years when I was in college and, I swear, I got dragged around inside gyms, restaurants, churches, wherever with a person saying, "Hey yous' guys! Come and listen to this hillbilly talk!! It's CRAZY!!!" 🙄🙄🙄
If I ever move to England, I'll always call the "garden" a "yard" since a "garden" is only a portion of a yard if someone bothers to plant flowers or vegetables. Or maybe puts in rocks in a deliberate, artistic manner.
Same thing in New Zealand, where I moved to two years ago. Aside from the accent and a few mannerisms, knowing the British terms and pronunciations helps. Still, I have to mentally check myself when I am about to say the American ones, with saying "garden" instead of "yard" and "al-u-min-ium" instead of "a-lu-min-um" being the most irritating to have to keep doing.
Have lived in England for four years now and I say garden now. Didn't think I would but it just happens. Find myself just saying what everyone else does to reduce confusion. As soon as I visit home it changes right back.
"Yard" in the UK (or at least where I grew up) means a paved area, we would call the school playground the yard and the old houses would have back yards rather than back gardens.
"Flat" vs "apartment" is an interesting one, especially in Chicago. Rarely will you hear 'flat' singular, but you'll very often hear that someone lives in a 'three-flat,' which is typically a building with 3 floors, each of which is a separate dwelling. There are also 2 and 4 flats, but 3 are the most common. 3-flats are iconic Chicago architecture along with bungalows that establish the character of the city.
I never heard that terminology before. Wonder if it is unique to Chicago? I live in 2-flat in Texas but never thought to describe it that way and don't know if anyone would understand if I did. I usually say I live in a duplex, but the units are upstairs/downstairs instead of side by side. Too many words! "2-flat" would be useful.
It's the same situation in San Francisco. Each flat has its own front door and street address, ie 184, 186, 188. An apartment has one front door leading to a lobby. Each apartment has an apartment #, ie 1A, 3C, 3D.
When I was a kid living in Milwaukee back in the '70s, I would hear people mention living in a "Polish flat". I believe it referred to a two-family duplex where the first floor was about halfway below ground level.
Lately, I've heard them referred to as "dad caps" by younger people. (I've also heard "gimme cap" -- and sometimes "trucker cap" though those tend to be shaped a little different.)
I’m not sure if this is still true, but it used to be that baseball caps had a significantly longer, and slightly more curved (in the vertical dimension) brim than a seed cap. (One source I just found says 4-6” for a seed cap/trucker cap and 10” for a regulation baseball cap, but I don’t know if that is current.)
I’ve always heard “cupboard,” pronounced as you do (cub’bird) as a medium-sized storage space with shelves. Kitchens have built-in cupboards for storage. (Sometimes they are also called cabinets .) A closet is bigger, with a big door that reaches the floor and often space to walk into. I’ve lived in several regions of the US and it was the same for this.
@@SubFT : yes, that’s right. Harry lived in a closet, but that just doesn’t sound right. Actually, his living space was on the borderline of small and low enough to be a cupboard and an American might call it either name.
@@catherinehubbard1167 Perhaps, but I tend to think of a cupboard as an area too small to even stand up in, much less enter whole bodily. What comes to mind is the storage under a kitchen sink or counter. I admit that I never read Rowling's novels, and thus her full dimensional description of the space, but having seen storage under staircases I identify these as broom closets rather than the aforementioned cupboards. Usually these spaces might require an adult to lean over, but rarely are they designed so as to require an adult to kneel as a bottom cupboard would, especially when trying to reach for something from the rear.
Can confirm, as an 11-year-old American I needed to have it explained to me that Harry actually lived in a closet. The American meaning of "cupboard" is just not close enough to work in context.
You lift my spirits. My ancestors are from the UK, and especially Scotland. I'm 80, alone, in Montana, and just had life- saving surgery. So your beautiful humor is delighting me. Thank you so very much for lifting my spirits. . I'm a poet, so I'm also into words, and humor, like you are. As you say, "You had to be there". (or here.) Wish you were here, in beautiful, beautiful Montana.
8:26 The types of pins which are shown in the animation, and which I think most people use most of the time nowadays, are actually, in my personal opinion (as an American), "push pins", not "thumb tacks". "Thumb tacks" are actually pins with wide, flat tops which, when fully inserted into a board, etc, lie (almost) completely flush and do not stick out at all (and thus to push them fully in you need to put your _thumb_ on top of them and press down).
I've usually heard the ones with the broad metal head, usually called thumbtacks. The ones with a plastic cylindrical head, similar to the ones shown in the video, are push pins 📌 and the ones with a round head were drawing pins.
Something interesting about cookies vs. biscuits in America, is dog treats, such as Milkbone, are marked as “Dog Biscuits”. Even though they are more like a cookie than a biscuit. Everyone I know calls them dog treats or a bone, but my grandparents and other older people would call it a dog biscuit. That’s just my experience personally though.
No they're more like a biscuit. They're more like what the Brits called biscuits which is a more Savory style cookie. If I remember correctly the chocolate chip cookies and a few other very sweet cookies the Brits also called cookies and not biscuits. Though there are things like tea cookies that are something that they would call biscuits because it's a little less sweet a lot of their recipes are less sweet than ours General but that's my understanding of the difference between the two. Basically a chocolate chip cookie is a chocolate chip cookie whether you're American or British
Also dog treats is the most common one at least that I know of in the Pacific Northwest. I've met people from all over the Pacific Northwest and pretty much it's unanimously called dog treats here occasionally you'll hear other ones but typically that's coming from like pet stores or you know things like that Mud Bay Petco I guess you know
@@borttorbbq2556 Anytime I have heard an English person talking about what we would refer to as a cookie (sweet), they always say biscuit. And they usually refer to savory biscuits as scones.
I’ve noticed your accent is definitely more American now than when your channel first started. It’s bound to happen. Doesn’t matter. We love your channel!
The few early videos I’ve seen of his, he speaks in a weird mixture of American & British accents that is definitely not elegant enough to call “Midatlantic.” His accent seems more pure British now. His vocabulary is more American, like this video, I’ll give you that.
No matter how long a person from another country lives in a new country they never loose their accent. It might not be as strong but it's still there. Foreigners always stand out and in a good way.
This is a thing around the world imo. Even people choosing to stay home and not move to the US, people like Jacksepticeye, his accent has changed greatly overtime from deep Irish to an Irisrican.
@@cynthiakeller5954 : not just from another country, also between Northern and southern USA states. My husband was from Connecticut and used to say Pahk instead if park, cah instead of car, gabage instead of garbage, etc. Now that he has lived in North Carolina for over half of his life, he used to rarely say his words like he used to. I have noticed that as we are senior citizens now, he does slip back into those old pronunciations from time to time.
I think that what he describes throughout the video is technically called code-switching. You hear about it among people who have to speak one way, using one set of vocabulary and pronunciations, and then another way with another group of people. An example would be how youth will speak among themselves using slang unique to their peer group, only to then go home and drop those terms from their speech so their parent(s) can understand them. You also see it with multilingual individuals who switch between different languages at work versus at home. Each environment has different communication needs unique to them, so the person has to tailor their speech for each group with the understanding, consciously or not, so as to not be misunderstood by any group they interact with in their daily life.
Exactly what it's called. Deaf people do this when conversing with hearing people who don't know Sign. Then what the both of them are using is called "contact" language or a pidgin form of the language. Funny thing with hearing people talking to Deaf people is that the hearing person tends to take a step closer and talk louder which then distorts their mouth shapes. I suppose different language speakers do that with hearing folks as well, but it is funny in the case with a hearing person speaking to a Deaf person.
I knew an English family who lived in Scotland. When their son was talking to his parents he had an English accent and used vocabulary typical of England. When talking to his Scottish friends he had a Scottish accent and used vocabulary typical of that region of Scotland.
finding out that “cupboard” can also mean what i refer to as a closet makes all the references i’ve heard or read to people hiding in cupboards make more sense. i always wondered how there was room, because i was picturing a kitchen cabinet.
My grandparents called a closet "the wardrobe." The funny thing is, they actually had pieces of furniture in their house that were wardrobes, in addition to the closets.
This reminds me of what happened a couple of weeks ago. I just happened to be listening to "Tempted" by Squeeze, and heard (as I had about a million times). "I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a flannel for my face...." and all of a sudden I exclaimed "OH I GET IT!" I can never say I didn't learn something by watching this channel.
@@Valkanry, what!? 😅 Well, I guess it depends on the pants, and the lesbian? It's a type of soft fuzzy fabric, often used for winter PJs. If you already knew all that and we just desperately need sarcasm font, you will appreciate the fact that I think the young man across the street dresses like a lesbian I knew in the 80s. I don't know what look he's actually going for?
Back in the dark ages when I was a child, my mother and I would go downtown to a department store. There in the "ladies' restroom" there was a separate area with couches and armchairs, where we could rest from the rigours of shopping. I've always thought that this was the origin of the term.
I've always thought that, too! I could swear our downtown department store used to have chairs in the ladies room. The only place I've seen that in recent years is when I've been at wedding receptions held at upscale country clubs one of which had a chaise lounge I couldn't resist swooning on dramatically much to a friend's embarrassment. I really think that used to be a thing!
Back in the day, nicer department stores labeled the female facilities as the "Ladies Lounge" for gentility and because it included the amenities you describe plus a mirror over a (dry) counter for touching up makeup and hairdos. It was a lovely benefit that I miss in modern stores, along with staff that actually offered and provided assistance when you needed it.
I more or less use the term, “going to the bathroom” to describe the overall action. For instance, when I say, “I have to go to the bathroom,” it could mean on a tree, in a pond, on a bush, in a Gatorade bottle, behind a building, etc. An actual bath could be within close proximity of those things, but is certainly not a requirement.
When you really have to answer that call of nature, you don't really care what it's called. The only questions are where is the nearest place to go, and what's the quickest way there
I don't know of any RUclipsr who does as much research and also puts as much time into making their videos humorous as you do. I really appreciate the fact that you take this work seriously and commit so much of your time and work into entertaining us. Well done Laurence.
The one that makes my American relatives hoot is “plaster”. They had no idea I was asking for a Band Aid (which to me of course, was a 1980s fundraising record …)
Band Aid is what my friends from college refer to as a "BN is PN." There was a drinking game where if a certain thing happened, we'd go around the circle listing "Brand Name is Product Names" and whoever messed up first would have to drink. Others include: Thermos, Post-It, Frisbee, Ziploc Bag, Chapstick, Crock-Pot, and Popsicle. There are a lot more of course.
In Britain, the bath tub and toilet are in separate rooms. In America, the tub and toilet are in the same room. So going to the bathroom is technically correct. Restroom is for businesses with public facilities.
It's always so strange to me when people talk about the toilet and bath/shower being in separate rooms. It feels like a waste of space! But I guess it's also convenient if someone needs to use the toilet while someone else is in the shower or bath.
They are not always in separate rooms, our old house in the UK had the bath, sink and toilet in the same room. Most people I know in UK say they are going to the 'loo'.
I had never considered the cookie nuance you discussed, but you're absolutely right. I'm Canadian, and I'd never say "digestive cookie". That'd be weird! It's a digestive biscuit. And a social tea biscuit. But it's a chocolate chip cookie and an oatmeal raisin cookie.
A cookie is also a tracking file that a website tries to install on your computer to gather information about you. Are those also cookies in the UK? Or do people talk about Internet biscuits?
On the east coast of Canada , everyone i know calls it a “face cloth” even though people use it for their whole body. I wonder if it’s because it’s also often used just on the face to freshen up. I think it sounds better than washcloth which sounds very generic and vague.
"Warsh" for "wash" was in Texas, if I remember from my nomadic childhood. We lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, Memphis, West Texas and Beaumont. Mother would not allow us to say "warsh". Or "gaw" for gosh or heaven forbid, "oh, god."
As a New Zealander who lived in the Midwest for 17 years, I say most of these also. Along with y'all, hot tea vs cuppa tea, candy instead of lollies. I'm back in New Zealand now and these words have stuck with me.
The cookie/biscuit thing -- and whether you ate them in childhood influencing what you call them -- reminds me of when I put "the" in front of freeway numbers. I grew up on the east coast, and then moved to southern California for many years, where freeways are referred to as "the 5," "the 73," "the 91" and so on. Turns out that when I moved back east, I referred to numbered roads that we drove frequently as a kid without adding "the," but ones that we didn't much drive along or that opened after I left, get a "the" in front. This leaves me talking about taking the 476 to 95, and my oldest brother still finds this hilarious. Someday I will live west of the Rockies again, back where freeways are prefaced with "the," as Mother Nature intended.
Chicago also uses "the" in front of their freeways a,es. but they don't use numbers. All of the freeways in Chicago have names(i.e. the Kennedy, the Eisenhower, etc.) and it's horribly confusion for an outsider who doesn't know which name goes with which number
I wonder if that's a California thing. Because I grew up in Washington and we called interstates I-[number], e.g. I-5, I-90 I live in Oklahoma now and here the highways are just referred to as their numbers, e.g. 35, 40, 44. The same numbered city streets are referred to as 35th, 40th, and 44th. 🤷♀️
So, you lived in Anaheim/Santa Ana/Irvine? Trying to guess based on your random list of highways haha. I used to live in Anaheim, Orange, and Fullerton (also B.P. but we don't talk about that).
In Maine, old timers will put "the" in front of any road. The Pushaw Road, the Beech Hill Road. But not in front of streets, avenues, lanes, nor boulevards. Portland's Promenades are always preceded by "the". The folks who live along them pay a pretty penny on their taxes to live there, so I am sure they deserve having an extra word in their address.
The images used to illustrate "thumbtacks" actually showed "push pins" -- because thumbtacks are flat, so you can use your thumb to push them in. They're shaped kind of like very tiny beach umbrellas.
You, too? 😜 I think I've single-handedly converted my apartment house to use "brilliant" in the British definition. Such as "House of Dragons" is BRILLIANT, mainly because Matt Smith makes a brilliant baddie."
When you talked about fueling your car, I was once again reminded of the time I arrived at Salisbury by train too late to catch the bus to the hostel, and a very kind couple overheard me trying to find a way to get a cab. They immediately offered to drive me, which I accepted gratefully. When we reached my destination I offered to give them some money for gas. I realized my mistake when I saw them trying to hold back their laughter, which they covered by refusing any payment.
As an American who became acquainted w/ British terms when I was introduced to Agatha Christie mysteries in my youth ( about a hundred years ago , it seems ) , it's interesting some of the Brit. words or phrases we've adopted over the years here in the US . Perhaps a future video about this ?
I learned that the short all-metal lentil-shaped pins for hanging posters were thumbtacks, and the colorful glass or plastic topped ones for corkboards were pushpins.
i find most people just call them "ball caps" and not full on baseball caps or baseball hats, even if it's an actually hat for a baseball team. cap, hat, lid.. probably the most common i use and hear
Trash? When I was growing up, we had two barrels next to the garage. One for Rubbish and one for Garbage. The latter being the waste parts of food -- eggshells; the outer layers of cabbage or lettuce that you discarded to get to the good parts; bones; fat and grizzle that'd been cut from the meat, that sort of stuff. Rubbish being the mostly dry, non-food items, like cardboard boxes, papers, wood scraps, etc. It occurs to me that 70 some years later we still (or is it again?) keep the two categories mostly separate, but now they are trash and recyclables.
I was recently talking to an old high school acquaintance who had spent the last 15 or so years in England, and while hadn't picked up an accent or anything, she did liberally sprinkle her speech with British words she'd probably picked up in daily life. This topic is really interesting, and I'd love to take a deeper dive into this regionalism code switching.
I've learned something new, code-switching. I've done this since second grade when I became aware of the fact my Mom "talked funny". Mom was German, had only been in the U.S. for 8 years and learned her English mostly from "I Love Lucy" reruns and a few neighbors with exceptionally twangy southern accents. Mom would read me my favorite book at night, "Vine-kin, Bline-kin unt Nutt". My teacher started reading a story after lunch one day, she gave the title, but I didn't recognize it. However the story I knew quite well, and it made so much more sense as, "Winken, Blinken and Nod" So I began code switching without anyone telling me at 7, yet never truly developing a Southern accent. Now over half a century later, I still seldom realize I'm doing it.
some people in the US do refer to baseball caps as just caps, it's just that cap is often used as a synonym to hat so that's generally not as specific as baseball cap
When I lived in Milwaukee I lived in a "flat" rather than an apartment. The difference was a "flat" included the entire 2nd 3-bedroom floor of a house built in the early 20th century where families of means would have a live-in maid quartered next to the kitchen. An apartment was usually smaller and part of a building with other apartment units. It was a nice place by the way.
Do some traveling within the US and you will find different words for the same item depending on what area you're in. For instance, when I moved to the east coast from the midwest, I had to change a few words in my vocabulary. The caffeinated, sugary, fizzy drink changed from "pop" to "soda". The hard sugary snack on a stick went from "sucker" to "lollipop". The encompassing thing you use to bring in your groceries went from "sack" to "bag". A vehicle that is larger than cars and has a bed rather than a backseat went from "pickup" to "truck", because a "truck" in the midwest is an 18 wheeled behemoth known as a "semi" on the east coast. Just a few to chew around on.
As an Australian with an American father all 12 of these words are part of my regular vocabulary, either from Australian English or the snippets of American English I got from my dad. I'm also a programmer so "color" and words with Zs are usually my preferred spelling
Thumbtacks have flat, round metal heads, and your picture displayed red plastic, push pins. Thumbtacks are much harder to remove, and are used for longer term display items, whereas push pins are meant to frequently be removed and reinserted into a corkboard. While thumbtacks are used almost exclusively to secure a flat item to a board or wall, colored pushpins are most often used to identify locations on a map, and many on-line mapping apps use virtual pushpins to indicate the location of an address. Do you say French Fries, instead of Chips, or Potato Chips instead of Crisps? What about Hood and Trunks, versus Bonnet and Boot? Elevator or Lift?
I am an English speaking American, but I married into a Hispanic family. They are forever trying to get me to use Spanish. Because my mother was from Canada (and I am cantankerous) I have decided to start using British English terms at key moments in a friendly retaliation. So, thank you for the list. It's bloody awesome. 😄
8:44 Those are what I've always called push-pins, to distinguish them from the traditional thumb tack with a wide flat disc for a head which allows it to be applied with the thumb. Google image search shows a lot of push pins, sometimes calling them push pin thumb tacks, along with a few of the old, flat "real" thumb tacks..
From middle USA, Kansas. Restroom is public with toilets and sinks. Bathroom is for homes with a shower, tub or combo. Washroom or mud room is a laundry room with a large sink for workers/farmers to scrub up.
A washroom is simply a synonym for a restroom. A laundry room is a room with a washer and dryer and a laundry tub. A mudroom is an entryway room where a person removes their footwear before proceeding deeper into the house, so that they don't track mud into the house.
One more: I was trying to set up a meeting with a British co-worker. I asked "How about next week?" and he said, "Oh, that won't work: I'm on vacation." I asked "Don't you mean 'on holiday'?" and he said "I guess I'm becoming assimilated!".
I can't speak for all Canadians, but most people I know say "washroom." Washing is definitely one of the activities that should go on in there, whether it's got a bath or not. I've gotten blank stares from Americans when asking for the washroom. In French Canada, it's either "salle de bain" or "toilette." Some older apartments in Montreal have the toilet in a little closet separate from everything else, so that's definitely a "toilette."
@@dalemoore8582 We do? I have no recollection of it being called that in elementary school. In general, you can't go wrong just asking for the "shitter". Sure, it's a touch rude, but any English speaker will understand what you'd like to accomplish.
"Washroom" is not a part of the active vocabulary in my area of the USA, but I would be surprised if anyone here didn't have it as part of their recognition vocabulary. The sign on restrooms in very old buildings in my town read "lavatory"--which puzzled me when I was small. After studying French, I realized this word is derived from the French word for "to wash."
"WC" - I was in a building (US) a few years back that had been "repurposed/restored"... was once a warehouse just outside the main downtown where home furnishings would be kept. You'd buy at the downtown storefront showroom and then go to the warehouse just outside of the prime retail area to get your bed/sofa/table. Had been turned into a 5 story blg that sold reclaimed items such as stained glass windows, tin ceiling tiles, church pews, bazillion of doorknobs, hand forged latches and ironwork, anything salvageable and interesting. Off to the side on the main floor they had two structures... one with frosted glass and "WC" and then one with a hinged door of gorgeous wood. The hinged door was an old inside the building phone booth with beautiful wood, and of course WC was the Water Closet - public restroom/bathroom/loo/wthever.
When my husband and I were dating a year after his mission from Ireland. Once told me he has to get back to his flat. I was like what do you mean? You had a flat tire? He said no, in Ireland they call an apartment a flat. Sorry. Haha! He didn't call them flats much after that because it just confuses people here.
I often wonder about baseball when I’m watching a British tv show. If the murder victim has blunt force trauma from something like a baseball bat, I wonder whether they play baseball or just keep the bat around as a weapon. Or they’ll use the expression “out of left field”. Do they really know what that means? And of course everyone wears baseball caps.
This video's visual for the "thumbtack" is actually a "push pin." An authentic thumbtack is made of all-metal with a quite flat head having approximately 3/8" of surface to accommodate adequate thumb pressure for inserting into the object material.
Lol I don't call the kitchen things cupboards, I've always called them cabinets. I also grew up saying flat. Mostly because we lived in a flat in a private house and not an apartment building. Our landlord lived in his flat on the first floor & we lived on the 2nd. They were 2 separate residences with only the back yard as shared space.
Here (SW Michigan) it's the opposite. The ones in your kitchen that hold food or dishes are called cupboards. The ones that are tall and freestanding in other rooms are cabinets. I'm wondering now if the distinction has anything to do with having one door vs. two doors.
@@kynn23 too funny, I grew up in SE Michigan! Specifically in the actual city proper of Detroit. I'm sure not everyone will have grown up using the same terms as I did.
I am reading an autobiography of Bananarama ( Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin) - I've just started. . In 30.pages I've come across dozens of Britishisms. I've got a " British A To Zed" dictionary but I cant identify so many terms! " Cola- cube hair bobbies." " Crimpolene" " Bob- a- job" " Trrvira" " Wore my hair in bunches" " infants school " etc
I don't think there is an American alive that would accuse you of having an American accent. 😜 (And thank God for that because we love your British one!) 😁
I don't know if Laurence will actually see this comment (he rarely gets to respond these days) but I'm so glad to see how his channel has grown so much. As one of the founding fathers (if you will) of his subscribers, I've been here from the beginning. I wanted to say how happy I am to see him getting sponsors now and have checked out every single one of them. Make sure everyone goes to check out Wondrium. They've got really cool and unique videos on so many topics.
My mom (mum) was from England, as little kids, we'd call a washcloth a flannel. With her accent, we went to England. I remember people at stores and restaurants asking my mom, what part of States she was from? Here in the USA, people would ask her what part of England she was from. Being raised with her, I didn't really notice her accent.
Growing up, I lived next door to an interesting family. The father was from Belfast, and the mother was from Nova Scotia, so they both had accents that stood out from the surrounding Appalachian dialect. Their kids, oddly, didn't pick up the accent of their peers, but rather had an accent that sounded like a blend of the two parents'.
I’m American and the part where I’ve mostly lived we tend to say commode not toilet. A lot of people consider the word toilet to be crude. Asking to use the toilet is up there with asking to take a leak in my book. I also think of restroom as being the more refined sounding term. I said bathroom more as a child. When I am at someone’s home I ask “May I use your restroom?” Although some people here say we don’t call it restroom inside of houses. I really enjoy your channel.
It’s probably a regional thing between the two words. “Commode” sounds outdated, and I’ve really only heard it used by the older generations. I looked up the etymology and it comes from the Latin word “commodus” which means convenient or suitable. It was also the name of a Roman emperor who was more recently portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 film “Gladiator”.
Yes, I have always found toilet crude and even a bit offensive when someone is asking to use it. Commode seemed much more polite, but I have not heard it used since childhood.
Where I am in the US, I'd say that *cupboard* = mounted boxy structure that stores food (some overlap with the word pantry, but pantry can refer to the stored food as much as the space it's stored in and isn't specific to a mounted, box-like container with hinged doors) *Closet:* stores anything and is usually ground-to-ceiling, used especially for a room to store clothes or cleaning supplies (i.e. it's not mounted). The one exception might be "linen closet," which is a full term. I might even describe a linen closet as a 'cabinet' when describing its architecture, but "linen closet" when referring to its storage function. But I may refer to it as a linen cabinet if it's not a ground-to-ceiling space. Closets are often but not exclusively walk-in. *Cabinet:* mounted storage of anything, including but not limited to food, usually has shelves, is not walk-in.
When I hear the word cupboard, I think of a wall-mounted structure with shelves within which is used to store crockery and other types of food-storage utensils.
New England: baseball caps are generally just referred to as "hats" (as in, "Where is my hat?") unless you're trying to describe the style of hat (e.g. baseball cap vs. fedora). I don't hear many people under 80 say cap. It may be a regional thing, like how we don't say "tennis shoe" either.
I have a friend of more than 20 years from Bath, England who has lived in the US for nearly 30 years. When I hang out with him I find the exact opposite happens. I find I will often use British words instead of the American equivalent. We both borrow each other’s English, fluidly.
I use the word "trash" to refer to refuse that's not going to rot right away: I.E. Paper, Cardboard. "Junk" means larger, not rotting stuff like metal or wood. I use "garbage" to mean either shit that IS subject to rotting quickly, Food scraps and the like, But I also use "garbage" OR "rubbish" as a "catch-all" for all of the above. (I'm an American.)
Canadian here; we say Washroom, not restroom - I got a load of flack for this in Australia once. We also say eggplant and soccer, like Americans. But I would argue Canadians are more British than they are American, as not only do we use British spelling (Commonwealth?), but we do use cabinet, cap, post, and petrol (perhaps this one is regional). Also, with respect to the adopted accent thing, I am French Canadian by origin, but internationally, people regularly question whether I am Irish, so I suppose anything is possible!
I do think petrol is regional. I'm not sure where in Canada you're from, but I've lived mostly in the Ottawa area (including Western Quebec) and the Greater Toronto Area, and I've very rarely heard anyone refer to gas/gasoline as petrol. But yeah, washroom is very common here - to me it makes more sense than bathroom or restroom.
Australian here and yes we say eggplant, literally never aubergine. Whenever I hear the word aubergine I have a brief panic attack trying to remember what an aubergine is and sometimes I get confused and picture a courgette which we call zucchini.
Great vid, Laurence. I am, right now, watching this vid from my daughter's living room in Morley Leeds. She made a transition here for her masters degree in English at the U. of Leeds and stayed, she's been here about 15 years. She doesn't have an English accent, but she does have an English "turn of the phrase" that I always find so interesting. She usually uses the English words from your list, as opposed to you who ues the American versions. Thanx for the video.
Hi Lawrence, you definitely have not loss your accent so it must be the American words/terms your using. I love your channel, keep up the good work! Watching from 🇺🇸
Hi Laurence ,I enjoy your channel and have so for quite some time now.I live in Canada where the English words are often more used than the USA ones but with that said I think all 3 of our counties get along very well! Peace and have your best life,NOW!
Hi Laurence! Here are a couple of other choices re: the bathroom/rest room/toilet situation. Have you tried "Where are the facilities?" There's also "Where is the men's room? (or women's room, as the case might be). And my favorite, "I need to hit the head." - granted, most people won't know that expression unless they have a maritime background, but I really don't care...I like saying it anyway. Cheers!
A cupboard, or "cup board" comes from when in the old days, folks simply affixed a board to the wall to set their cups, and sometimes other dishes, up out of the way when not in use.
Lawrence, I am a born and raised American and I must say that you are becoming more and more American with each passing day, for better or for worse. As for me personally, I am glad to have you and I really enjoy your videos. I would love it if you could visit Jamestown-Williamsburg-Yorktown, Virginia, and give us your thoughts and perspective of that part of America. Cheers.
Aussie here - I forget where in the US it was, but I asked someone where the toilet was and they looked utterly shocked, like I'd used a bad word or something. It was kinda hilarious.
We say eggplants and thumb tacks in Australia, but the other words on this list would be the same as the UK. Flat, biscuit, petrol etc. What the Brits call a pavement and what the Yanks call a sidewalk is called a *footpath* in Australia.
I use the term drawing pins for those that look like those in the video, but thumb tacks for the pins with a domed head. It seems 'apartment' is taking over from 'flat' as well, at least here in Melbourne. Maybe it sounds more upmarket so real estate agents keep using it? Soccer or football probably depends on who you ask. I tend to use the term 'face washer' for 10.
for your point about bathroom, the way the brits do it is actually just correct. There's a bit of a divide in the US between people who just say bathroom and don't care, and people who actually care about using the words according to what they actually mean. And because words are hard I at least sometimes end up doing it the entirely wrong way around, yet no one blinks an eye because most people just consider them synonyms
In Hawaii we use many Hawaiian words in our everyday speech & because we're so Isolated from the Mainland the local dialect is unique. In HI we use the word rubbish for trash. I think a holdover from the missionary days. The local accent has a slightly New England feel. On a related note, there's always confusion caused by the English phrase 'Thank You' that's usually on rubbish boxes in restaurants. Thank You is replaced with the Hawaiian equivalent 'Mahalo'. Tourists think Mahalo means trash.🤣 Just as an FYI: trash in Hawaiian is 'opala'.
I worked with a really charismatic guy from Hawaii and we had tons of down time so I'd bombard him with questions. One thing he told me that I've always loved was he called flip-flops "slippahs". I watched an incredibly interesting doc on PBS about pidgin dialects and the segment on Hawaiian pidgin was fascinating.
@@MikeP2055 yes, Pidgin is a real thing & each island has it's own twist. Flip flops are known as rubbah sleepahs here. Trash is rubbish. Grocery cart is a wagon at the market. Most ppl born & raised here can seamlessly switch btwn regular English & Pidgin as the situation dictates.
I didn’t see anyone mention your weight loss, so I wanted to let you know that you look awesome. You can definitely see a difference in your face. Keep up the good work. It must be hard kicking the sugar and alcohol.
I was trying to explain to someone that Brits use some words, and their variations, differently, such as "sat". (USA: I was sitting on a park bench. UK: I was sat on a park bench.) He was also being a jerk to a girl who wrote 'smellt', which is an English variation and perfectly reasonable across the pond. He was having none of it and refused to believe me, then called me uneducated, which I found hilariously ironic.
On my one and only visit in London, I stopped at a shop for tea and a cookie. The man behind the counter gave me a strong and polite - but quite stern - British lecture that what I wanted was a "biscuit". I found nicer folk elsewhere..... like the street newspaper seller who helped me count my pocket change.
Lawrence is becoming an expert on the English language and it's many differences! Coincidentally last night I re-watched the whole series of "Smiley's People", which was serialized on British TV. It involved an incident where an agent had to put a thumbtack on a post but the British agent referred to it as "push pin". It's always strange to watch a TV show or movie that takes place before cell phones to see people trying to find a phone, or to see someone writing a letter. It seems like only yesterday to me, but really at 72 most of my life is now described as being old!
I remember the scene from both the book and the setialization. What I can't remember is, was it a thumb tack or a tin tack that the British agent used for the
For the safety signal. I loved the serialization of both "Smiley's People" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." I wish they had also done a serialization of "The Honorable Schoolboy." Alec Guinness defined the role of George Smiley
First American word I adopted was "soda" (instead of "pop") for soft drinks. That was within a week to avoid attracting attention, just like Laurence. This isn't because the Americans in my town were unfriendly to foreigners, it was actually the opposite! They wanted everyone to feel welcome and to do that they'll show an interest in just about anything to do with you. In my case, it was Canadian English, and they just wanted to talk about how nice Canadians are and how beautiful my country is which is fine, but sometimes you just wanna get your groceries and go home.
@@badgerattoadhall Yes, but not in the region I was living in and using "pop" was getting comments. I just wanted a Coke, not an immigration interview.
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As an American, I've always used the word "bathroom" at home or in a home, and the word "restroom" in a public space. Anyone else?
Me too! I remember being taught as a kid that it's more polite to say "restroom" in public, but usually just bathroom at home.
Yep !
Yeah, same here. It is common for a home bathroom to have a tub or shower as well as a toilet (one without a tub or shower is a “half bathroom” or “powder room” though if a visitor asks for the bathroom, showing them one of these rooms instead is fine, as it has the fixture they actually heed in it. Public facilities are generally assumed to lack bathing fixture, but they did at one time often have lounges outside them (e.g. in old school department stores) so “restroom” would have made sense, but “bathroom” would not.
If I walked into Lowes and asked where the “toilets” were, I would expect to be shown the part of the store where you can buy a new toilet for your home, but if I asked for the “restrooms” I would expect to be shown a room where I could *use* a toilet. As it happens, in the Lowes store nearest me, the restrooms are located in the area that sells toilets, sinks, and tubs, so asking for “toilets”, “bathrooms”, or “restrooms” would all get you to the same place. I wonder if that was deliberate.
Always!
Depends on the age. We said girls bathroom and boys bathroom in school. As adults we mostly said restroom but we might say ladies room and men’s room.
My Canadian sister went to grad school in the South, and absorbed some of the local lingo, while retaining her Canadianisms. This was beautifully illustrated when I heard her say, “How y’all doing, eh?”.
Ha ha ha
As a Southerner, I can say she kept the best of both worlds.
That's beautiful. It really is. 😆🥰
I've known a few people from Alberta and saskatchewan it sounds like the way they speak, they speak lots of Southern rural colloquialisms and Canadian ehs
As a southerner, I must say I love that. Maybe I should start using it. I do work with a Canadian, so I'll try it on him to start with.
In the UK, the Royal Mail delivers the post.
In the USA, the Post Office delivers the mail.
Makes perfect sense to me!
"Where is the nearest restaurant?"
"How do I find the toilet?"
"How do I call an ambulance?"
_Well, that escalated quickly._
Sounds like a sequence of events to me
😂😂😂
I totally thought the same thing 😂
He went to a kitchen nightmare restaurant
😂😂
As an American; a restroom is used when talking about a public bathroom. In a school or office etc. You would not use that word to describe the bathroom in a house
I never use toilet. Perhaps I just want to “freshen up”?
Perhaps it’s a regional thing? In California, we visit public restrooms not bathrooms. In Canada, washroom is more common.
Sometimes I really need to rest in there.
Untrue, what are you on?
Maybe in terms of signage, but I'd say they're used interchangeably by most. Maybe there's a few regional exceptions though.
Now I understand why the charming UK RUclipsrs I watch can cut up an old towel or clothing into rags and call the results “flannels.” To me flannel is a specific weave of cotton or wool. Thanks, Laurence, for translating!
Yep, some shirts and bedsheets are made of flannel, but I've never seen a washcloth made of flannel.
To me, a flannel is always a shirt. Other things can be made of flannel, but they’re referred to as flannel (thing), while flannel shirts are just ‘flannels.’
Those pins are called push pins. Thumbtacks are the flat round metal ones.
After a few days of trying to find butterfly paper clips and not succeeding, I recall not seeing any thumbtacks, either. Usually they came on a thick card. One reason they probably are getting replaced by push pins is that thumbtacks are awful on the underside of human fingernails, either to get them off the card or pluck them out of the bulletin board or whatever they are attached to. (I did find butterfly paper clips on line, though).
The flat metal ones are 'drawing pins'
I frequently refer to push pins as thumbtacks too.
I was thinking the same thing. I've tried to ask for pushpins using the word "thumbtacks" before and it often confuses people. Sometimes they'll even go right over the pushpins in their drawer while looking specifically for thumbtacks, when in reality I would have been happy with either one.
That's what I came here to say. 🙂
I really applaud Lawrence for his ability to adapt to a whole new culture. And I love that he compares America and the United Kingdom without trashing either (neither is perfect and neither is horrible).
Thanks, Lawrence
It's hardly a stretch, it's America, not China.
Wow, a Brit really adapted to American culture, what a hero…
I wouldn't say "whole new." We are both English speaking countries who's cultures semi diverged a couple of centuries ago but he grew up on the A-Team and we've all seen Monte Python so "whole" is right out.
@@ParadiseDB7 I'm not British. I'm American. That you couldn't tell supports my point, so thanks for that bit of ignorance.
On the term thumbtack. The things that you showed in the animation, I've always known as push pins. A thumbtack is actually a slightly concaved, round piece of metal, with a short, metal pin attached to the underside.
Me, too.
_Convex_ - I've never seen a concave thumbtack; though I have seen level ones.
I was thinking that myself
I just call the lot of them tacks.
Edit: Also, I just said "the lot of them." I'm American... but watch too much British content, apparently.
@@garyballard179 The underside is concaved. The top side convexed.
You're probably right about the turn of phrase being your American tell. I've been watching Midsomer Murders and on 2 occasions when they had characters who were American, they used phrases we never do. I had thought up to that point they may be Americans, but after hearing them say something we wouldn't ever, both of them were Brits using an American accent (or just following the British script loyally), because we'd never say "make a packet" instead of "make a fortune" or "he phoned" instead of "he called".
Yep, I've noticed that too, when "American" characters appear on British TV shows.
In the film Inglorious Basterds, one slip by an American undercover as a German, signaling for three drinks by holding up three fingers rather two fingers and a thumb led to a brutal shootout. Such things are important!
Canadian here. This whole channel is amusing because we sit kind of in-between.
When I first visited Canada, I knew to as for the washroom, but on subsequent visits bathroom seems to translate if I forget.
“ask”
Also a Canadian; I was thinking the same thing.
@@pinecone2455 you do know you can edit one of your own posts if you make an error or want to add something? It’s those dots to the right.
@@pinecone2455 I've found that "bathroom", "washroom", "restroom", "toilet", "potty" and "facilities" will all get you directions to the peeing and pooping place throughout North America.
In Canada we also use closet as a catch-all term. That’s where we keep our toques.
Under-appreciated comment!
Nailed it.
"I'll get the post" in the USA sounds like you're going to pluck out a support pole from a picket fence. Or install one, depending on whether it's been previously used or not.
"I'll get the mail" normally gets the point across, unless you're in the SCA, dressing for a Renaissance Fair, or are a historical re-enactor. Then it might mean something completely different.
Or in San Francisco or West Hollywood or similar places.
This was very funny!
Hmm, to me, "I'll get the post" sounds like a threat against the postal carrier. Lol
SCA being Society for the Creative Anachronism…I wonder if that is really common knowledge?
@@jamesc7277 It is.
I grew up with a thick Southern American accent but we spent summers in campgrounds all around the country.
I worked in phone sales for a prominent credit card company and found that people would be very difficult if they detected a Southern accent. I memorized area codes and studied their dialects so to match their accents and phrases and it resulted in far more sales.
I did telemarketing in my younger years and found when calling down to the deep south If I did not do a southern accent they could be fairly rude. They did not like to talk to a Yankee.
Boy, do I hear ya on this one!! It doesn't matter what educational background, number of degrees and/or how impressive a work history one has when you meet someone and, upon hearing that first "y'all", they immediately dismiss any & everything you say. It's frustrating!
My folks moved to Wisconsin for a few years when I was in college and, I swear, I got dragged around inside gyms, restaurants, churches, wherever with a person saying, "Hey yous' guys! Come and listen to this hillbilly talk!! It's CRAZY!!!"
🙄🙄🙄
Brilliant!
If I ever move to England, I'll always call the "garden" a "yard" since a "garden" is only a portion of a yard if someone bothers to plant flowers or vegetables. Or maybe puts in rocks in a deliberate, artistic manner.
I had this real bad with European colleagues. How the HECK can you relaxing in your "GARDEN"!?!? Its the yard....
Same thing in New Zealand, where I moved to two years ago. Aside from the accent and a few mannerisms, knowing the British terms and pronunciations helps. Still, I have to mentally check myself when I am about to say the American ones, with saying "garden" instead of "yard" and "al-u-min-ium" instead of "a-lu-min-um" being the most irritating to have to keep doing.
Have lived in England for four years now and I say garden now. Didn't think I would but it just happens. Find myself just saying what everyone else does to reduce confusion. As soon as I visit home it changes right back.
Yes. That has always been big puzzle to me. Garden in America has always meant an area within your yard to plant flowers or vegetables
"Yard" in the UK (or at least where I grew up) means a paved area, we would call the school playground the yard and the old houses would have back yards rather than back gardens.
"Flat" vs "apartment" is an interesting one, especially in Chicago. Rarely will you hear 'flat' singular, but you'll very often hear that someone lives in a 'three-flat,' which is typically a building with 3 floors, each of which is a separate dwelling. There are also 2 and 4 flats, but 3 are the most common. 3-flats are iconic Chicago architecture along with bungalows that establish the character of the city.
I never heard that terminology before. Wonder if it is unique to Chicago? I live in 2-flat in Texas but never thought to describe it that way and don't know if anyone would understand if I did. I usually say I live in a duplex, but the units are upstairs/downstairs instead of side by side. Too many words! "2-flat" would be useful.
I grew up in a 4 flat in Chicago.
It's the same situation in San Francisco. Each flat has its own front door and street address, ie 184, 186, 188. An apartment has one front door leading to a lobby. Each apartment has an apartment #, ie 1A, 3C, 3D.
In Boston area we called those triple deckers, or three deckers. Oh excuse me, that's triple deckah 😂
When I was a kid living in Milwaukee back in the '70s, I would hear people mention living in a "Polish flat". I believe it referred to a two-family duplex where the first floor was about halfway below ground level.
I'm originally from North Dakota and the farmers called baseball caps seed caps because they received free ones from the seed companies. 😆
In Illinois , we called them " gimme caps " since various farm businesses gave customers caps as free advertising . 😊
@Lana J My mom always referred to them as seed caps with a slight tone of disapproval in her voice. ☮️
Lately, I've heard them referred to as "dad caps" by younger people. (I've also heard "gimme cap" -- and sometimes "trucker cap" though those tend to be shaped a little different.)
Ah the good old gimme caps
You go to a business they'd offer a hat for free it was a yeah gimme one of them
I’m not sure if this is still true, but it used to be that baseball caps had a significantly longer, and slightly more curved (in the vertical dimension) brim than a seed cap. (One source I just found says 4-6” for a seed cap/trucker cap and 10” for a regulation baseball cap, but I don’t know if that is current.)
I’ve always heard “cupboard,” pronounced as you do (cub’bird) as a medium-sized storage space with shelves. Kitchens have built-in cupboards for storage. (Sometimes they are also called cabinets .) A closet is bigger, with a big door that reaches the floor and often space to walk into. I’ve lived in several regions of the US and it was the same for this.
I'm pretty sure that if J.K. Rowling had been American, Harry Potter would have lived in a closet under the stairs instead of a cupboard. :)
@@SubFT : yes, that’s right. Harry lived in a closet, but that just doesn’t sound right. Actually, his living space was on the borderline of small and low enough to be a cupboard and an American might call it either name.
@@catherinehubbard1167 Perhaps, but I tend to think of a cupboard as an area too small to even stand up in, much less enter whole bodily. What comes to mind is the storage under a kitchen sink or counter. I admit that I never read Rowling's novels, and thus her full dimensional description of the space, but having seen storage under staircases I identify these as broom closets rather than the aforementioned cupboards. Usually these spaces might require an adult to lean over, but rarely are they designed so as to require an adult to kneel as a bottom cupboard would, especially when trying to reach for something from the rear.
Can confirm, as an 11-year-old American I needed to have it explained to me that Harry actually lived in a closet. The American meaning of "cupboard" is just not close enough to work in context.
When I was growing up they were the Kitchen Cupboards (cub birds), or the bathroom cupboard.
You lift my spirits. My ancestors are from the UK, and especially Scotland. I'm 80, alone, in Montana, and just had life- saving surgery. So your beautiful humor is delighting me. Thank you so very much for lifting my spirits. . I'm a poet, so I'm also into words, and humor, like you are. As you say, "You had to be there". (or here.) Wish you were here, in beautiful, beautiful Montana.
Wishing you a speedy recovery.
@@thecatatemyhomework Oh, gosh, thank you. You're the first to wish me that. You just "made" this great gramma's day.
Greetings from Indiana- Praying you feel better soon! You should do a RUclips channel of you reading your poetry aloud.
@@BitterBetty76 thank you for suggesting that. When I was in my 40s and 50s, I did many public readings. Won some awards.
Warmest wishes for a speedy recovery!
8:26 The types of pins which are shown in the animation, and which I think most people use most of the time nowadays, are actually, in my personal opinion (as an American), "push pins", not "thumb tacks". "Thumb tacks" are actually pins with wide, flat tops which, when fully inserted into a board, etc, lie (almost) completely flush and do not stick out at all (and thus to push them fully in you need to put your _thumb_ on top of them and press down).
I think I depends on the area in the US because I’ve always called those thumb tacks and I live in southern NC
@@parkergoodson3428 from central NC, im the same i've always referred to both as thumbtacks
I've usually heard the ones with the broad metal head, usually called thumbtacks. The ones with a plastic cylindrical head, similar to the ones shown in the video, are push pins 📌 and the ones with a round head were drawing pins.
Something interesting about cookies vs. biscuits in America, is dog treats, such as Milkbone, are marked as “Dog Biscuits”. Even though they are more like a cookie than a biscuit. Everyone I know calls them dog treats or a bone, but my grandparents and other older people would call it a dog biscuit. That’s just my experience personally though.
Everyone I know calls them biscuits. I'm in the southeast.
No they're more like a biscuit. They're more like what the Brits called biscuits which is a more Savory style cookie. If I remember correctly the chocolate chip cookies and a few other very sweet cookies the Brits also called cookies and not biscuits. Though there are things like tea cookies that are something that they would call biscuits because it's a little less sweet a lot of their recipes are less sweet than ours General but that's my understanding of the difference between the two. Basically a chocolate chip cookie is a chocolate chip cookie whether you're American or British
Also dog treats is the most common one at least that I know of in the Pacific Northwest. I've met people from all over the Pacific Northwest and pretty much it's unanimously called dog treats here occasionally you'll hear other ones but typically that's coming from like pet stores or you know things like that Mud Bay Petco I guess you know
When I give these to my dog I will ask her if she wants a cookie, because they are a treat.
@@borttorbbq2556 Anytime I have heard an English person talking about what we would refer to as a cookie (sweet), they always say biscuit. And they usually refer to savory biscuits as scones.
I’ve noticed your accent is definitely more American now than when your channel first started. It’s bound to happen. Doesn’t matter. We love your channel!
The few early videos I’ve seen of his, he speaks in a weird mixture of American & British accents that is definitely not elegant enough to call “Midatlantic.” His accent seems more pure British now. His vocabulary is more American, like this video, I’ll give you that.
No matter how long a person from another country lives in a new country they never loose their accent. It might not be as strong but it's still there. Foreigners always stand out and in a good way.
This is a thing around the world imo. Even people choosing to stay home and not move to the US, people like Jacksepticeye, his accent has changed greatly overtime from deep Irish to an Irisrican.
@@cynthiakeller5954 ^lose
@@cynthiakeller5954 : not just from another country, also between Northern and southern USA states. My husband was from Connecticut and used to say Pahk instead if park, cah instead of car, gabage instead of garbage, etc. Now that he has lived in North Carolina for over half of his life, he used to rarely say his words like he used to. I have noticed that as we are senior citizens now, he does slip back into those old pronunciations from time to time.
I think that what he describes throughout the video is technically called code-switching. You hear about it among people who have to speak one way, using one set of vocabulary and pronunciations, and then another way with another group of people. An example would be how youth will speak among themselves using slang unique to their peer group, only to then go home and drop those terms from their speech so their parent(s) can understand them. You also see it with multilingual individuals who switch between different languages at work versus at home. Each environment has different communication needs unique to them, so the person has to tailor their speech for each group with the understanding, consciously or not, so as to not be misunderstood by any group they interact with in their daily life.
I believe code switching started as a way, during the war, for agents and resistance people to talk without being understood by possible enemies.
I believe you are referring to code talking, not code switching.
Exactly what it's called. Deaf people do this when conversing with hearing people who don't know Sign. Then what the both of them are using is called "contact" language or a pidgin form of the language. Funny thing with hearing people talking to Deaf people is that the hearing person tends to take a step closer and talk louder which then distorts their mouth shapes. I suppose different language speakers do that with hearing folks as well, but it is funny in the case with a hearing person speaking to a Deaf person.
Growing up all over even my accent would change to match my surroundings.
I knew an English family who lived in Scotland. When their son was talking to his parents he had an English accent and used vocabulary typical of England. When talking to his Scottish friends he had a Scottish accent and used vocabulary typical of that region of Scotland.
finding out that “cupboard” can also mean what i refer to as a closet makes all the references i’ve heard or read to people hiding in cupboards make more sense. i always wondered how there was room, because i was picturing a kitchen cabinet.
My grandparents called a closet "the wardrobe." The funny thing is, they actually had pieces of furniture in their house that were wardrobes, in addition to the closets.
Remember Harry Potter lived in the cupboard under the stairs. One British usage that wasn't changed in the American version.
In Scotland a cupboard for storage is a press !
The room some people call a "pantry", I grew up calling the "cupboard." It was a room big enough to hide in.
This reminds me of what happened a couple of weeks ago. I just happened to be listening to "Tempted" by Squeeze, and heard (as I had about a million times). "I bought a toothbrush, some toothpaste, a flannel for my face...." and all of a sudden I exclaimed "OH I GET IT!" I can never say I didn't learn something by watching this channel.
I thought flannel was a type of lesbian pants
@@Valkanry, what!? 😅 Well, I guess it depends on the pants, and the lesbian? It's a type of soft fuzzy fabric, often used for winter PJs.
If you already knew all that and we just desperately need sarcasm font, you will appreciate the fact that I think the young man across the street dresses like a lesbian I knew in the 80s. I don't know what look he's actually going for?
I never made that connection either! And now I'm singing the song.
Except that it is only the really elderly that call them Flannels in the UK. Most of us Brits call them a Facecloth, as far as I'm aware.
This is what I thought as soon as he said it. It finally makes sense.
Back in the dark ages when I was a child, my mother and I would go downtown to a department store. There in the "ladies' restroom" there was a separate area with couches and armchairs, where we could rest from the rigours of shopping. I've always thought that this was the origin of the term.
I've always thought that, too! I could swear our downtown department store used to have chairs in the ladies room. The only place I've seen that in recent years is when I've been at wedding receptions held at upscale country clubs one of which had a chaise lounge I couldn't resist swooning on dramatically much to a friend's embarrassment. I really think that used to be a thing!
Back in the day, nicer department stores labeled the female facilities as the "Ladies Lounge" for gentility and because it included the amenities you describe plus a mirror over a (dry) counter for touching up makeup and hairdos. It was a lovely benefit that I miss in modern stores, along with staff that actually offered and provided assistance when you needed it.
It was also a place where you could breastfeed with a little privacy
In the US, one gets the mail from the Post Office, but in the UK, one gets the post from the Royal Mail.
I more or less use the term, “going to the bathroom” to describe the overall action. For instance, when I say, “I have to go to the bathroom,” it could mean on a tree, in a pond, on a bush, in a Gatorade bottle, behind a building, etc. An actual bath could be within close proximity of those things, but is certainly not a requirement.
I do the same.
The whole phrase is a verb, ie: “The dog went to the bathroom on the grass…”
When you really have to answer that call of nature, you don't really care what it's called. The only questions are where is the nearest place to go, and what's the quickest way there
I only use “thumbtack” for the ones with the flat metal heads. The type shown in the illustration I would call pushpins.
The closet one is definitely new to me! Where I live in the US, we call it a cabinet, and older people around here call it a cupboard
I don't know of any RUclipsr who does as much research and also puts as much time into making their videos humorous as you do. I really appreciate the fact that you take this work seriously and commit so much of your time and work into entertaining us. Well done Laurence.
@donna: Agreed! Laurence, your thought perceptions, along with your highly educated sense of humor are a win-win! Please keep at it, Sir.
yes, well done for sure. thank you. p
Max Miller @ Tasting History also does a fair amount of research. I like them both.
It is neat his observations plus the fact he's come to really love America.
The one that makes my American relatives hoot is “plaster”. They had no idea I was asking for a Band Aid (which to me of course, was a 1980s fundraising record …)
Band Aid is what my friends from college refer to as a "BN is PN." There was a drinking game where if a certain thing happened, we'd go around the circle listing "Brand Name is Product Names" and whoever messed up first would have to drink. Others include: Thermos, Post-It, Frisbee, Ziploc Bag, Chapstick, Crock-Pot, and Popsicle. There are a lot more of course.
In Britain, the bath tub and toilet are in separate rooms. In America, the tub and toilet are in the same room. So going to the bathroom is technically correct.
Restroom is for businesses with public facilities.
Unless it's a half bath, which is just a toilet and a sink. I've heard it called a powder room, but not by anyone who under the age of 90 now.
It's similar in Asia.
In house in Japan the toilet is in a room by itself.
Whereas in China the toilet is in the same room as the shower.
In newer homes in America, the toilet is in a separate room…especially in master bathrooms.
It's always so strange to me when people talk about the toilet and bath/shower being in separate rooms. It feels like a waste of space! But I guess it's also convenient if someone needs to use the toilet while someone else is in the shower or bath.
They are not always in separate rooms, our old house in the UK had the bath, sink and toilet in the same room. Most people I know in UK say they are going to the 'loo'.
I had never considered the cookie nuance you discussed, but you're absolutely right. I'm Canadian, and I'd never say "digestive cookie". That'd be weird! It's a digestive biscuit. And a social tea biscuit. But it's a chocolate chip cookie and an oatmeal raisin cookie.
A cookie is also a tracking file that a website tries to install on your computer to gather information about you. Are those also cookies in the UK? Or do people talk about Internet biscuits?
Washcloth was a word I learned to say after going to college. We always said washrag, or actually warshrag. Anybody else?
We did sometimes. Washrag for your body in the bathroom, dishrag for your dishes in the kitchen.
Always "washrag" here too. "washcloth" seems like the fancy way to say it.
On the east coast of Canada , everyone i know calls it a “face cloth” even though people use it for their whole body. I wonder if it’s because it’s also often used just on the face to freshen up. I think it sounds better than washcloth which sounds very generic and vague.
"Warsh" for "wash" was in Texas, if I remember from my nomadic childhood. We lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, Memphis, West Texas and Beaumont. Mother would not allow us to say "warsh". Or "gaw" for gosh or heaven forbid, "oh, god."
"Warshrag" or "warshcloth," but the rag version was more common.
As a New Zealander who lived in the Midwest for 17 years, I say most of these also. Along with y'all, hot tea vs cuppa tea, candy instead of lollies. I'm back in New Zealand now and these words have stuck with me.
♥️👍
The cookie/biscuit thing -- and whether you ate them in childhood influencing what you call them -- reminds me of when I put "the" in front of freeway numbers. I grew up on the east coast, and then moved to southern California for many years, where freeways are referred to as "the 5," "the 73," "the 91" and so on. Turns out that when I moved back east, I referred to numbered roads that we drove frequently as a kid without adding "the," but ones that we didn't much drive along or that opened after I left, get a "the" in front.
This leaves me talking about taking the 476 to 95, and my oldest brother still finds this hilarious.
Someday I will live west of the Rockies again, back where freeways are prefaced with "the," as Mother Nature intended.
Chicago also uses "the" in front of their freeways a,es. but they don't use numbers. All of the freeways in Chicago have names(i.e. the Kennedy, the Eisenhower, etc.) and it's horribly confusion for an outsider who doesn't know which name goes with which number
I wonder if that's a California thing. Because I grew up in Washington and we called interstates I-[number], e.g. I-5, I-90
I live in Oklahoma now and here the highways are just referred to as their numbers, e.g. 35, 40, 44. The same numbered city streets are referred to as 35th, 40th, and 44th. 🤷♀️
So, you lived in Anaheim/Santa Ana/Irvine? Trying to guess based on your random list of highways haha. I used to live in Anaheim, Orange, and Fullerton (also B.P. but we don't talk about that).
@@beckys2825 Here in Maine, we often refer to I-95. On the other hand, I never hear anybody use an I in front of 295.
In Maine, old timers will put "the" in front of any road. The Pushaw Road, the Beech Hill Road. But not in front of streets, avenues, lanes, nor boulevards. Portland's Promenades are always preceded by "the". The folks who live along them pay a pretty penny on their taxes to live there, so I am sure they deserve having an extra word in their address.
The images used to illustrate "thumbtacks" actually showed "push pins" -- because thumbtacks are flat, so you can use your thumb to push them in. They're shaped kind of like very tiny beach umbrellas.
American here. Ever since I started watching your videos, I've taken up using British words & terms. 😄 I love the look on my friend's faces. ❤️
You, too? 😜 I think I've single-handedly converted my apartment house to use "brilliant" in the British definition. Such as "House of Dragons" is BRILLIANT, mainly because Matt Smith makes a brilliant baddie."
@@melodyszadkowski5256 I've started using brilliant that way too, mostly after watching formula 1 broadcasts and analysts
My niece's daughter when she was smaller started using British vocabulary because of Peppa Pig
@@LindaC616 We started using British words when we fell in love with the Beatles at age 12. We still do, even though we're very old now 🤗.
@@tomsdotter3228 yes. Paul McCartney (so?) is my age, 80, in three months.b
When you talked about fueling your car, I was once again reminded of the time I arrived at Salisbury by train too late to catch the bus to the hostel, and a very kind couple overheard me trying to find a way to get a cab. They immediately offered to drive me, which I accepted gratefully. When we reached my destination I offered to give them some money for gas. I realized my mistake when I saw them trying to hold back their laughter, which they covered by refusing any payment.
As an American who became acquainted w/ British terms when I was introduced to Agatha Christie mysteries in my youth ( about a hundred years ago , it seems ) , it's interesting some of the Brit. words or phrases we've adopted over the years here in the US . Perhaps a future video about this ?
I learned that the short all-metal lentil-shaped pins for hanging posters were thumbtacks, and the colorful glass or plastic topped ones for corkboards were pushpins.
i find most people just call them "ball caps" and not full on baseball caps or baseball hats, even if it's an actually hat for a baseball team. cap, hat, lid.. probably the most common i use and hear
Trash? When I was growing up, we had two barrels next to the garage. One for Rubbish and one for Garbage. The latter being the waste parts of food -- eggshells; the outer layers of cabbage or lettuce that you discarded to get to the good parts; bones; fat and grizzle that'd been cut from the meat, that sort of stuff. Rubbish being the mostly dry, non-food items, like cardboard boxes, papers, wood scraps, etc. It occurs to me that 70 some years later we still (or is it again?) keep the two categories mostly separate, but now they are trash and recyclables.
I was recently talking to an old high school acquaintance who had spent the last 15 or so years in England, and while hadn't picked up an accent or anything, she did liberally sprinkle her speech with British words she'd probably picked up in daily life. This topic is really interesting, and I'd love to take a deeper dive into this regionalism code switching.
I've learned something new, code-switching. I've done this since second grade when I became aware of the fact my Mom "talked funny". Mom was German, had only been in the U.S. for 8 years and learned her English mostly from "I Love Lucy" reruns and a few neighbors with exceptionally twangy southern accents. Mom would read me my favorite book at night, "Vine-kin, Bline-kin unt Nutt". My teacher started reading a story after lunch one day, she gave the title, but I didn't recognize it. However the story I knew quite well, and it made so much more sense as, "Winken, Blinken and Nod" So I began code switching without anyone telling me at 7, yet never truly developing a Southern accent. Now over half a century later, I still seldom realize I'm doing it.
some people in the US do refer to baseball caps as just caps, it's just that cap is often used as a synonym to hat so that's generally not as specific as baseball cap
When I lived in Milwaukee I lived in a "flat" rather than an apartment. The difference was a "flat" included the entire 2nd 3-bedroom floor of a house built in the early 20th century where families of means would have a live-in maid quartered next to the kitchen. An apartment was usually smaller and part of a building with other apartment units. It was a nice place by the way.
Do some traveling within the US and you will find different words for the same item depending on what area you're in. For instance, when I moved to the east coast from the midwest, I had to change a few words in my vocabulary.
The caffeinated, sugary, fizzy drink changed from "pop" to "soda".
The hard sugary snack on a stick went from "sucker" to "lollipop".
The encompassing thing you use to bring in your groceries went from "sack" to "bag".
A vehicle that is larger than cars and has a bed rather than a backseat went from "pickup" to "truck", because a "truck" in the midwest is an 18 wheeled behemoth known as a "semi" on the east coast.
Just a few to chew around on.
Where’s grew up in Pennsylvania , a bag or sack was a “poke.”’
As an Australian with an American father all 12 of these words are part of my regular vocabulary, either from Australian English or the snippets of American English I got from my dad. I'm also a programmer so "color" and words with Zs are usually my preferred spelling
Interestingly, as an Australian I only ever refer to thumbtacks when I want one of the flat headed brass looking ones.
Otherwise it's a pin
Thumbtacks have flat, round metal heads, and your picture displayed red plastic, push pins. Thumbtacks are much harder to remove, and are used for longer term display items, whereas push pins are meant to frequently be removed and reinserted into a corkboard. While thumbtacks are used almost exclusively to secure a flat item to a board or wall, colored pushpins are most often used to identify locations on a map, and many on-line mapping apps use virtual pushpins to indicate the location of an address.
Do you say French Fries, instead of Chips, or Potato Chips instead of Crisps? What about Hood and Trunks, versus Bonnet and Boot? Elevator or Lift?
I am an English speaking American, but I married into a Hispanic family. They are forever trying to get me to use Spanish. Because my mother was from Canada (and I am cantankerous) I have decided to start using British English terms at key moments in a friendly retaliation. So, thank you for the list. It's bloody awesome. 😄
8:44 Those are what I've always called push-pins, to distinguish them from the traditional thumb tack with a wide flat disc for a head which allows it to be applied with the thumb. Google image search shows a lot of push pins, sometimes calling them push pin thumb tacks, along with a few of the old, flat "real" thumb tacks..
From middle USA, Kansas.
Restroom is public with toilets and sinks. Bathroom is for homes with a shower, tub or combo. Washroom or mud room is a laundry room with a large sink for workers/farmers to scrub up.
A washroom is simply a synonym for a restroom. A laundry room is a room with a washer and dryer and a laundry tub. A mudroom is an entryway room where a person removes their footwear before proceeding deeper into the house, so that they don't track mud into the house.
One more:
I was trying to set up a meeting with a British co-worker.
I asked "How about next week?" and he said, "Oh, that won't work: I'm on vacation."
I asked "Don't you mean 'on holiday'?" and he said "I guess I'm becoming assimilated!".
I can't speak for all Canadians, but most people I know say "washroom." Washing is definitely one of the activities that should go on in there, whether it's got a bath or not. I've gotten blank stares from Americans when asking for the washroom. In French Canada, it's either "salle de bain" or "toilette." Some older apartments in Montreal have the toilet in a little closet separate from everything else, so that's definitely a "toilette."
We use 'washroom' in the US especially in elementary schools. Don't know why you would get blank stares.
@@dalemoore8582 We do? I have no recollection of it being called that in elementary school.
In general, you can't go wrong just asking for the "shitter". Sure, it's a touch rude, but any English speaker will understand what you'd like to accomplish.
"Washroom" is not a part of the active vocabulary in my area of the USA, but I would be surprised if anyone here didn't have it as part of their recognition vocabulary.
The sign on restrooms in very old buildings in my town read "lavatory"--which puzzled me when I was small. After studying French, I realized this word is derived from the French word for "to wash."
We know what that means. It’s toilet that concerns me. Lots of variety there.
@@jonc4403 I never heard "shitter" until the early '80s.
Just you let know, while talking about thumbtacks, you illustrated pushpins.
(Yes, I'm being pedantic.)
"WC" - I was in a building (US) a few years back that had been "repurposed/restored"... was once a warehouse just outside the main downtown where home furnishings would be kept. You'd buy at the downtown storefront showroom and then go to the warehouse just outside of the prime retail area to get your bed/sofa/table. Had been turned into a 5 story blg that sold reclaimed items such as stained glass windows, tin ceiling tiles, church pews, bazillion of doorknobs, hand forged latches and ironwork, anything salvageable and interesting.
Off to the side on the main floor they had two structures... one with frosted glass and "WC" and then one with a hinged door of gorgeous wood. The hinged door was an old inside the building phone booth with beautiful wood, and of course WC was the Water Closet - public restroom/bathroom/loo/wthever.
When my husband and I were dating a year after his mission from Ireland. Once told me he has to get back to his flat. I was like what do you mean? You had a flat tire? He said no, in Ireland they call an apartment a flat. Sorry. Haha! He didn't call them flats much after that because it just confuses people here.
In the UK the Royal Mail delivers the post. In the US the US Postal Service delivers the mail.
I often wonder about baseball when I’m watching a British tv show. If the murder victim has blunt force trauma from something like a baseball bat, I wonder whether they play baseball or just keep the bat around as a weapon. Or they’ll use the expression “out of left field”. Do they really know what that means? And of course everyone wears baseball caps.
Love the " keep the bat around as a weapon " ! 😂
They play 'rounders' in the UK, similar style bats.
Using a baseball bat as a murder weapon in Britain? Well, that's not Cricket. 😁
In Britain, isn't the victim usually bludgeoned with a cricket bat? 🏏
This video's visual for the "thumbtack" is actually a "push pin." An authentic thumbtack is made of all-metal with a quite flat head having approximately 3/8" of surface to accommodate adequate thumb pressure for inserting into the object material.
Lol I don't call the kitchen things cupboards, I've always called them cabinets. I also grew up saying flat. Mostly because we lived in a flat in a private house and not an apartment building. Our landlord lived in his flat on the first floor & we lived on the 2nd. They were 2 separate residences with only the back yard as shared space.
Here (SW Michigan) it's the opposite. The ones in your kitchen that hold food or dishes are called cupboards. The ones that are tall and freestanding in other rooms are cabinets. I'm wondering now if the distinction has anything to do with having one door vs. two doors.
Do they have medicine cabinets in the bathrooms?
I say cupboard and cabinet. But I only use cupboard for where food or dishes go.
@@anndeecosita3586 I can see that
@@kynn23 too funny, I grew up in SE Michigan! Specifically in the actual city proper of Detroit. I'm sure not everyone will have grown up using the same terms as I did.
Good to hear that hanging around with us has started to fix your english.
Can't lose sight of 'cookie' being one of the vestiges of Dutch culture from colonial New York.
I am reading an autobiography of Bananarama ( Keren Woodward and Sara Dallin) - I've just started. . In 30.pages I've come across dozens of Britishisms. I've got a " British A To Zed" dictionary but I cant identify so many terms! " Cola- cube hair bobbies." " Crimpolene" " Bob- a- job" " Trrvira" " Wore my hair in bunches" " infants school " etc
I don't think there is an American alive that would accuse you of having an American accent. 😜 (And thank God for that because we love your British one!) 😁
I don't know if Laurence will actually see this comment (he rarely gets to respond these days) but I'm so glad to see how his channel has grown so much. As one of the founding fathers (if you will) of his subscribers, I've been here from the beginning. I wanted to say how happy I am to see him getting sponsors now and have checked out every single one of them. Make sure everyone goes to check out Wondrium. They've got really cool and unique videos on so many topics.
My mom (mum) was from England, as little kids, we'd call a washcloth a flannel. With her accent, we went to England. I remember people at stores and restaurants asking my mom, what part of States she was from? Here in the USA, people would ask her what part of England she was from. Being raised with her, I didn't really notice her accent.
Growing up, I lived next door to an interesting family. The father was from Belfast, and the mother was from Nova Scotia, so they both had accents that stood out from the surrounding Appalachian dialect. Their kids, oddly, didn't pick up the accent of their peers, but rather had an accent that sounded like a blend of the two parents'.
A biscuit is a breakfast pastry to an American. A cookie is a sweet treat made with sugar, flour, and perhaps chocolate.
I’m American and the part where I’ve mostly lived we tend to say commode not toilet. A lot of people consider the word toilet to be crude. Asking to use the toilet is up there with asking to take a leak in my book. I also think of restroom as being the more refined sounding term. I said bathroom more as a child. When I am at someone’s home I ask “May I use your restroom?” Although some people here say we don’t call it restroom inside of houses.
I really enjoy your channel.
I would consider "commode" to be the cruder word and "toilet" the more refined.
Unless you are 80 years old and live in Queens, terlet is uncouth.
It’s probably a regional thing between the two words. “Commode” sounds outdated, and I’ve really only heard it used by the older generations.
I looked up the etymology and it comes from the Latin word “commodus” which means convenient or suitable. It was also the name of a Roman emperor who was more recently portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 film “Gladiator”.
I just call it the pisser
Yes, I have always found toilet crude and even a bit offensive when someone is asking to use it. Commode seemed much more polite, but I have not heard it used since childhood.
Where I am in the US, I'd say that *cupboard* = mounted boxy structure that stores food (some overlap with the word pantry, but pantry can refer to the stored food as much as the space it's stored in and isn't specific to a mounted, box-like container with hinged doors)
*Closet:* stores anything and is usually ground-to-ceiling, used especially for a room to store clothes or cleaning supplies (i.e. it's not mounted). The one exception might be "linen closet," which is a full term. I might even describe a linen closet as a 'cabinet' when describing its architecture, but "linen closet" when referring to its storage function. But I may refer to it as a linen cabinet if it's not a ground-to-ceiling space. Closets are often but not exclusively walk-in.
*Cabinet:* mounted storage of anything, including but not limited to food, usually has shelves, is not walk-in.
When I hear the word cupboard, I think of a wall-mounted structure with shelves within which is used to store crockery and other types of food-storage utensils.
There is an old cultivar of eggplant/aubergine/brindjal that has small oval white fruit.
New England: baseball caps are generally just referred to as "hats" (as in, "Where is my hat?") unless you're trying to describe the style of hat (e.g. baseball cap vs. fedora). I don't hear many people under 80 say cap. It may be a regional thing, like how we don't say "tennis shoe" either.
I have a friend of more than 20 years from Bath, England who has lived in the US for nearly 30 years. When I hang out with him I find the exact opposite happens. I find I will often use British words instead of the American equivalent. We both borrow each other’s English, fluidly.
I use the word "trash" to refer to refuse that's not going to rot right away: I.E. Paper, Cardboard. "Junk" means larger, not rotting stuff like metal or wood. I use "garbage" to mean either shit that IS subject to rotting quickly, Food scraps and the like, But I also use "garbage" OR "rubbish" as a "catch-all" for all of the above. (I'm an American.)
Canadian here; we say Washroom, not restroom - I got a load of flack for this in Australia once.
We also say eggplant and soccer, like Americans.
But I would argue Canadians are more British than they are American, as not only do we use British spelling (Commonwealth?), but we do use cabinet, cap, post, and petrol (perhaps this one is regional).
Also, with respect to the adopted accent thing, I am French Canadian by origin, but internationally, people regularly question whether I am Irish, so I suppose anything is possible!
I do think petrol is regional. I'm not sure where in Canada you're from, but I've lived mostly in the Ottawa area (including Western Quebec) and the Greater Toronto Area, and I've very rarely heard anyone refer to gas/gasoline as petrol. But yeah, washroom is very common here - to me it makes more sense than bathroom or restroom.
Australian here and yes we say eggplant, literally never aubergine. Whenever I hear the word aubergine I have a brief panic attack trying to remember what an aubergine is and sometimes I get confused and picture a courgette which we call zucchini.
Great vid, Laurence. I am, right now, watching this vid from my daughter's living room in Morley Leeds. She made a transition here for her masters degree in English at the U. of Leeds and stayed, she's been here about 15 years. She doesn't have an English accent, but she does have an English "turn of the phrase" that I always find so interesting. She usually uses the English words from your list, as opposed to you who ues the American versions. Thanx for the video.
The pins in the illustration are called "pushpins" A thumbtack is flat rounded with a short pin on the bottom.
Hi Lawrence, you definitely have not loss your accent so it must be the American words/terms your using. I love your channel, keep up the good work! Watching from 🇺🇸
In the US, the mail is deliver by the US Postal Service. In the UK, the post is delivered by the Royal Mail.
Hi Laurence ,I enjoy your channel and have so for quite some time now.I live in Canada where the English words are often more used than the USA ones but with that said I think all 3 of our counties get along very well! Peace and have your best life,NOW!
I do like how all of these terms, and their English versions, are commonly known and intelligible to both Brits and Yanks.
Hi Laurence! Here are a couple of other choices re: the bathroom/rest room/toilet situation. Have you tried "Where are the facilities?" There's also "Where is the men's room? (or women's room, as the case might be). And my favorite, "I need to hit the head." - granted, most people won't know that expression unless they have a maritime background, but I really don't care...I like saying it anyway. Cheers!
A cupboard, or "cup board" comes from when in the old days, folks simply affixed a board to the wall to set their cups, and sometimes other dishes, up out of the way when not in use.
I have yet to visit America, but thanks to Facebook, Twitter and RUclips, I find myself using all of these words.
Talking about "Thumb Tacks" you show an animation of what I call a "Push Pins."
Lawrence, I am a born and raised American and I must say that you are becoming more and more American with each passing day, for better or for worse. As for me personally, I am glad to have you and I really enjoy your videos. I would love it if you could visit Jamestown-Williamsburg-Yorktown, Virginia, and give us your thoughts and perspective of that part of America. Cheers.
Do you know he became 100% American when he found that he not only discovered but loved chicken fried steak
Aussie here - I forget where in the US it was, but I asked someone where the toilet was and they looked utterly shocked, like I'd used a bad word or something. It was kinda hilarious.
We say eggplants and thumb tacks in Australia, but the other words on this list would be the same as the UK. Flat, biscuit, petrol etc.
What the Brits call a pavement and what the Yanks call a sidewalk is called a *footpath* in Australia.
footpath makes a lot more sense than pavement, considering the roads that theyre usually adjacent to are also paved
I use the term drawing pins for those that look like those in the video, but thumb tacks for the pins with a domed head.
It seems 'apartment' is taking over from 'flat' as well, at least here in Melbourne. Maybe it sounds more upmarket so real estate agents keep using it?
Soccer or football probably depends on who you ask. I tend to use the term 'face washer' for 10.
for your point about bathroom, the way the brits do it is actually just correct. There's a bit of a divide in the US between people who just say bathroom and don't care, and people who actually care about using the words according to what they actually mean. And because words are hard I at least sometimes end up doing it the entirely wrong way around, yet no one blinks an eye because most people just consider them synonyms
In Hawaii we use many Hawaiian words in our everyday speech & because we're so Isolated from the Mainland the local dialect is unique.
In HI we use the word rubbish for trash. I think a holdover from the missionary days. The local accent has a slightly New England feel.
On a related note, there's always confusion caused by the English phrase 'Thank You' that's usually on rubbish boxes in restaurants. Thank You is replaced with the Hawaiian equivalent 'Mahalo'. Tourists think Mahalo means trash.🤣
Just as an FYI: trash in Hawaiian is 'opala'.
And how about “lua “ which most likely evolved from “loo”? 😊
I worked with a really charismatic guy from Hawaii and we had tons of down time so I'd bombard him with questions. One thing he told me that I've always loved was he called flip-flops "slippahs".
I watched an incredibly interesting doc on PBS about pidgin dialects and the segment on Hawaiian pidgin was fascinating.
@@MikeP2055 yes, Pidgin is a real thing & each island has it's own twist.
Flip flops are known as rubbah sleepahs here.
Trash is rubbish. Grocery cart is a wagon at the market.
Most ppl born & raised here can seamlessly switch btwn regular English & Pidgin as the situation dictates.
I didn’t see anyone mention your weight loss, so I wanted to let you know that you look awesome. You can definitely see a difference in your face. Keep up the good work. It must be hard kicking the sugar and alcohol.
I really love your humor and your takes on pretty-much everything. You're awesome, and a helluva writer and speaker!
I love linguistics and hearing different words for the same things fascinate me, especially when it's American English vs. British English.
I was trying to explain to someone that Brits use some words, and their variations, differently, such as "sat". (USA: I was sitting on a park bench. UK: I was sat on a park bench.) He was also being a jerk to a girl who wrote 'smellt', which is an English variation and perfectly reasonable across the pond. He was having none of it and refused to believe me, then called me uneducated, which I found hilariously ironic.
This is the first time I've heard "it's all back to front" used for things getting switched around. Wonder if that is a British turn of phrase?
On my one and only visit in London, I stopped at a shop for tea and a cookie. The man behind the counter gave me a strong and polite - but quite stern - British lecture that what I wanted was a "biscuit". I found nicer folk elsewhere..... like the street newspaper seller who helped me count my pocket change.
Lawrence is becoming an expert on the English language and it's many differences! Coincidentally last night I re-watched the whole series of "Smiley's People", which was serialized on British TV. It involved an incident where an agent had to put a thumbtack on a post but the British agent referred to it as "push pin". It's always strange to watch a TV show or movie that takes place before cell phones to see people trying to find a phone, or to see someone writing a letter.
It seems like only yesterday to me, but really at 72 most of my life is now described as being old!
I remember the scene from both the book and the setialization. What I can't remember is, was it a thumb tack or a tin tack that the British agent used for the
For the safety signal. I loved the serialization of both "Smiley's People" and "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy." I wish they had also done a serialization of "The Honorable Schoolboy." Alec Guinness defined the role of George Smiley
First American word I adopted was "soda" (instead of "pop") for soft drinks. That was within a week to avoid attracting attention, just like Laurence. This isn't because the Americans in my town were unfriendly to foreigners, it was actually the opposite! They wanted everyone to feel welcome and to do that they'll show an interest in just about anything to do with you. In my case, it was Canadian English, and they just wanted to talk about how nice Canadians are and how beautiful my country is which is fine, but sometimes you just wanna get your groceries and go home.
Pop is used in several regions of the country...like Michigan.
@@badgerattoadhall Yes, but not in the region I was living in and using "pop" was getting comments. I just wanted a Coke, not an immigration interview.