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13 American Words Brits Always Notice
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- Published on Mar 11, 2026
- Some American words just make more sense to me than the British ones!
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Substantial difference between "having a piss" and "Taking the Piss".
Ha Ha your English roots are showing through there, here's the other verbs about P1ss, when a yank is "P1ssed" are they Drunk? or Just mad with you? the letter "Z" seems to have metamorphisised from "Zed" to "Zee" for the Sesame St Generation and for added fun and games the actual dates are awsome for hours of fun. The Chinese do the date YR\MM\DD the Brits and the rest of the normal World do it DD\MM\YR. Logical right? So in murica why do they do the date MM\DD\YR? whose idea was that?
@BobbinsB American dates match the way we say the date. If you're saying the full date you'll start with the month. E.g. September 21st 2025. I believe in the UK you'd say 21st September 2025. Or if you leave out the year we'll almost always say month first. I imagine that the date code follows the common language usage and then both reinforce each other which is why it's so sticky even if the date code formate doesn't make a lot of sense. For reference the only right way to do things is YYYYMMDD format so your file systems are easily sorted. Thanks for coming to my TED talk.
@BobbinsB Usually when an American is pissed it means the are very angry. Not drunk.
@laserwolfturbo36 Fourth of July.
@etherealbolweevil6268 isn't it rather the difference between taking *a* piss and taking *the* piss though?
1:42 You said "Wet the cleaning rag" and I momentarily thought that was a vulgar euphemism for taking a leak
😂
Same, like "touching the cotton" lol
Yeah, what does it mean? I’ve never heard “wet the rag” before!
@ezrizedchannel2759 In this video, it's actually just... wetting a rag. Y'know, to clean.
@Feraloidies"touching cloth" 😮
You can avoid anti-clockwise and counter-clockwise by using the old word " widdershins".
I only know that word bc my dad had a book growing up called “Widdershins Round the Kirk” (the man who walked anti-clockwise around the church 😂😂😂)
Any reader of Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld series knows this word :)
All hail STP
Well that sounds counter-intuitive, or is that anti-intuitive? 😁
Or the more obscure witherwise which has, according to the OED, been used at least once in English.
GNU Terry Pratchett
Auntie Clockwise 😆
Anti-clockwise
Counter clockwise - the time at the shop
She's cuckoo. 😆
You said "math" not "maths" several times. Should have added that to the list!
We think of it as being a system of mathematics. There being only one system, we keep the noun singular. "I'm studying math"
But I think the British think of it as an operation, so doing mathematics is simply shortened to doing the maths.
It's all kind of like how we pronounce the full three syllables in "medicine", so we think the Brits are just collapsing the word to "med'cine" but in fact they're using the colloquial phrase "meds in" as in "Time to pop these pills down your gullet, ol' bean, cause it's time you took your meds in."
@misterrea861 I’m Scottish and when we pronounce it medsin, we aren’t saying meds in, just medicine but in our accents.
@misterrea861I don’t recognise that explanation of the English pronunciation of medicine. Mostly people just say ‘meds’ for any kind of medicine you would be administered, and one might practice ‘medicine’ (as a career) and pronounce all 3 syllables. But maybe that’s just my corner of the UK.
Oh, right. Pronouncing English in English sends them right through the roof.
@misterrea861also.. Maths (used in Australia as well) is a contraction of Mathematics.
surprised you didn’t get to ‘maths’
I was waiting for that one as well...
Insane word! Math is the abbreviation for the plural, meaning, the entire field of mathematics. So what does maths mean? The entires fields ofs mathematicss?
@MissionHomeowner One thing's for sure, clearly people like maths over math in most places other than North America 😀
"Sport" is another good one, as in "I play sport," never sports.
@MissionHomeowner The word is mathematics. Nobody's adding an 's', you either keep it or drop it in the abbreviated form.
“I could care less” infuriates me because that is the exact opposite of what you mean it’s “I COULDN’T care less”
It's weird because I've always heard the phrase as "I couldn't care less." So when ppl started responding with, "so you do care" I was very very confused. I guess I've just always assumed that even if I didn't hear the "n't" part, that it was supposed to be there and they just misspoke.
"I could care less" works better if you're trying to be cold
No. It's open ended. It's an invitation to the speaker to attempt to think of something even less interesting than what they are already saying. I could care less about what you're saying if you continue to speak.
Both are valid complete sentences.
Too many people think it's one or the other, not realizing there's a time and place for both and they are not the same thing.
Other people realize they're different but still use them interchangably, now that is infuriating cause say what you mean.
Can usually pick up via tone of voice and other context clues whether they meant could or couldn't, but when texting it can cause quite a miscommunication (depending on if the person is reading it to understand or just reading it to respond)
@TragicGFuel Both can be cold, it depends on tone of voice.
"I couldn't care less" my thoughts of you are so low they cant go lower
"I could care less" My thoughts of you are low and going lower
Both can also be warm
"I couldn't care less" This is the most exciting thing, I can't stop thinking about it
"I could care less" This is the most exciting thing, Ive been thinking non-stop about it
Look up linguistics comedy and there are some excellent examples of not just these phrases but other frequently swapped ones being played with, English is funny AF when you let it be
It's possible that "wet the cleaning rag" was assumed to be a euphemism ....
@erict.watson2460 in Australia it is called 'the pool'. As in 'I'm just going to drop the kids off at the pool.' 😇
Ah, for sure I thought it was "The Shitter".
@venahtmusic: That's where Trump keeps his classified documents in Mar-a-Lago.
Nah, that's more Aus and NZ. It's the crapper if you're in more polite company.
Lol, imagine asking for that in a fancy restaurant. Call over the Maitre D' and say: "Excuse me, could you direct me to the shitter?"
@KindredBrujah "Le Shittré"
The Shitter is where americans take a "comfort break".
Yes, we can hear the difference between Ma’am, and Mum. We can also hear the difference between Mom, and, Mum.
I've always found it that ma'am is often said like marm or mam by brits. I find it quite confusing to be called ma'am though because I'm Welsh and to me mam is mum so I've had Americans call me ma'am and I'm like 'Have I got a child?'
I agree. In UK we call our mother's Mum, not Mom which is an odd way to address her. My late mother hated that term, she said we are British NOT Americans. She was'nt the sort of mother you answered back, if you dared you got slap across back of the legs if little, or across the face or back of the head. She even boxed my ears as a child and perforated them, had surgery to repair the damage, hearing is really bad now in my older years I have to wear two hearing aids.
@kimgrattage6049 I'm from the UK and I, and everyone I've ever known, says "mom" rather than "mum." the latter might be more common, but only by a little.
also, holy fucking shit, I'm so sorry your mother was so abusive to you. I hope you're doing okay regarding all of that.
After watching Slow Horses and then Ashes to Ashes I had to ask ChatGPT what the hell was up with everyone calling the women "mum." 🧐
@YouLikeKrabbyPattiesDontYou it differs by region. Most it's mum, some it's mam and some it's mom
"Hide and go seek" Vs "Hide and seek". One of those has more words than necessary
Huh I’ve never heard the go variant
At least in the US, we say both
The "go" seems superfluous to my lugholes seek already tells you the activity without the need for it, similar to GMO genetically modified organism, I always think if it has genetics we already know it's an organism so the O isn't needed, in the UK we just say GM
I grew up in Minnesota and we all said the "go" part. But I don't say it as an adult. Now I am wondering when the change happened.
Who cares
"Please may I have a cone....thank you"
I came here to say exactly this😂
buss me a twin flake mint choc chip please fam
Yes always say Please first aha
@juliemichaud8702 that’s a very pleasant polite way to make a request. But we almost never follow a rigid formula in our speech. So in real life, as we can see from this video and from our lives, there are many many many possible ways to make polite requests and many possible ways for our request to be misunderstood.
@jsbrules well, I was brought up properly! My children and now grandchildren are all taught to ask for something with a "please may I have...." or "please may you open the door for me...." or "please sit down....". "Please" always comes first!
Even when yelling at aforementioned children and saying "please be quiet" 😅
You don't zip your zip, you zip up your zip
And if its not Zipped up you are 'flying low'.
you zip your fly
@Paul-s1k2r nah, you do up your flies. Your 'fly' would only make sense if you had a pet fly 🪰
Zip is a verb in mu Oxford dictionary.
You zip up your zipper, "-er" indicating "one that does." A builder is not a "build." A slicer is not a "slice." A toaster is not a "toast."
I still find the word Restroom very confusing. I know what it means, but in my mind I keep picturing a room full of reclining chairs and sofa beds
@arndaniels1117 some fancy bathrooms are like that in North America
Yeah on my trip to the UK last year by the end of the trip I was definitely using "toilets" because restroom never failed to create some sort of amused or confused reaction. 😂
Well I wish restaurants also fit this description. Imagine eating food on the bed
But “bathroom” is totally wrong because there are no baths. How about the Canadian “washroom”?
yes the womens room XD
Horseback riding as opposed to horseunderbelly riding, often the last part of the horse ridden before falling off completely.
If you're attached to the underbelly of a horse, you're not riding it.
@nattsTell that to the Sheriff of Rottingham.
Like "tuna fish"... so you don't confuse it with some other kinda of tuna.
@greggb1686piano tuna? 😅
@jsa-z1722 😂
"Can I get" does sound a lot less polite than "Could I have" to my ears
Okay, but what about "Could I get" vs "Can I have"?
@snewl5324 It's actually "May I have" as “could” is technically the past tense of “can."
Can = ability
May = permission
@snewl5324 - Yes… but “Can I get… please” is definitely better than “ Let me get a…”.
That one always bugs me. 🤓
@snewl5324 I was genuinely a little bit surprised to hear that he got multiple comments from Brits saying it was _rude_ to ask “can I get a _blank_ please?”
There are other ways to ask that are more optimal/more polite of course, but that question doesn’t sound _rude_ to my ears and I don’t believe I know anyone here who would take issue with it personally
Definitely rude when Americans say things like “gimme a _blank_ “ though because that has no Ps & Qs and isn’t even a question really, it’s moreso just telling someone what to do
I think it's really more considered informal, friendly even when used in that kind of context, ordering from an ice cream truck. It's a northeast US way of saying it, specifically. It might still be considered a rude way of asking in the south.
Gotta love how Evan gets all het up about a whole list of words, but doesn't even notice when he talks about something being 'on the telly.'
@dov0000 it's a list of american terms that brits always notice, "on the telly" is a british phrase
@maple22moose44 that is my point. The video is about his usage of British vs US words and phrases, but he didn't seem to notice himself using a British (also Australian) phrase instead of the perhaps more familiar US phrases.
Not can I get, it’s may I have!!
@FrankyHindamrsh
Yes, because you can't come round the café counter to get yourself a coffee, you have to wait for the server to pour it for you.
@dov0000 I'm sure he's adopted a lot of British terms. He even mentioned he says "have a bath".
When I'd ask my mum "can I have/do x? She would say -" yes you CAN, but you MAY NOT....
SAME
I was about to say: the word we prefer when we want something is May, as in may I have, please or please may I have. Sometimes if offered something I really love all you'll hear from me is "PLEEEASE!!!"
British here, similar thing that whenever I would phone my friend on the landline when I was a child, and his father would answer, I would ask "Is Joe there please?" and he would reply, "Yes, he is, thank you." and would act like he was going to put the phone down as it was the end of the conversation lol.
I feel like that's very much an older generation thing over here but yeah, I had some older teachers who would say stuff like this
THAT was my Mom, for sure!
When I was growing up “can I get” or “can I have” was answered with a sarcastic “I don’t know, can you? The problem wasn’t the get or the have it was the can. It was more polite to ask May I have or May I get.
Mother May I?
@websurfer5772
Yeah, yet that seems quite loaded. Having just chanced upon it, I look forward to digging through the mists surrounding it to understand the unwritten rules.
Too true. Please May I have.
There’s a semantic difference between “can I get” and “ can I have”.
Canadian here, I would like a......
It's not a cone, it's an ice cream. 🤣
“Ma’am”, “miss” and “sir” heavily suggest that the person is of a higher status to you in the UK, whereas in the US it’s more something you can call anyone just to be polite. So when random people in the UK get called “miss” or “sir” and especially “ma’am” it can feel a bit awkward to be the person receiving that, because you feel like the person thinks you are above them when you’re not. It can also feel performative or like you are being mocked.
Sir and Ma'am are for superiors, while sir, madam and miss would be (or would have been) appropriate when talking to customers in a retail setting, for example: "Would madam like to try on a hat to go with that outfit?" The difference between madam and Ma'am here is significant.
Whereas a lot of the US is influenced by our conservative Southern culture. If you're in the deep South, failing to call any stranger "sir" or "ma'am" apparently makes you rude and disrespectful.
Absolutely!! Britain's relationship with class means "sir" is real uncomfortable.
In Britain we know our place and our station in life. And we're careful not to get ideas above our station.
Which creates something of a conundrum about how to address someone whose name you don't know. The AU/NZ solution to that seems to be to use "mate".
"Period" in place of full stop is the biggest one
I have (used to have) a book on Victorian grammar for English lessons, and this is one case where we are both wrong. a 'Period' is the dot at the end of a sentence, and a 'Full stop' is the dot at the end of the paragraph. No I don't use period, but it does make more sense [period] But it's archaic [full stop]
@davidord2934 How can you tell the difference? Is a full stop bigger than a 'period'? Is a 'period' coloured red to distinguish it?
@r@rahb1, you can tell the difference because one is at the end of the paragraph, and all the others aren't.
you might want to avoid her, she's having her full stop.
They are different terms lol. Period is usually used by women, and it has a different connotation than full stop. Which by the way, we do use here
Proprietary Eponym: As an English guy now living in SoCal (yes, I'm the twit from Evan's AI video with 1.7 million views and counting), I grew up calling Q-Tips "cotton buds." The funny part is that Cotton Buds is a Johnson & Johnson brand, which is an American company, while Q-Tips is a Unilever brand, which is a British company. So Americans use the British company's name, and Brits use the American company's name.
Or May I have*
That is funny. 😂
I always called them cotton buds and always will, will never use that dumb title Q-tips, does'nt even look like the letter Q, who the hell thought that name up should be fired, preferably out of a cannon at a circus.
@kimgrattage6049 It just stands for quality, they aren't supposed to look like a Q lol
American here and I've only ever called them "cotton swabs", I wouldn't use "Q-Tips" unless I'm talking about the actual brand.
“Ma’am” versus “Mum” reminds me of “pen” versus “pin” in a Southern American accent.
“You’re flying low” is the most common form of saying someone needs to zip up their trousers here.
Never heard this! I think I'll start using that and see what puzzled looks I get!
@Jonathan_Doe_ the cage is open but the beast is sleeping😁
😮
@davidpitkin9352usually said only to a male, of course 😁
You're flying at half mast
When I was learning Spanish I learned that when asking for food its considered "ridiculous" to *ask* for food. They don't know why you *ask* when of course you can have it, it's why they are there. They literally use "dame", "give me." Give me a corndog.
That's actually real like why do you have to ask to survive? Like may I pee or may I eat. Uhm I have to.
Perhaps that’s where the American phrase originates. A large portion of American land was originally settled by Mexicans and Spaniards, so there is lots of Hispanic cultural influence here that most fail to recognize.
Oh, that would piss me off, as a service worker. What's the magic word?
@thewhistlingpixie that’s completely right! But sometimes for being polite we say “deme” which is the same but in a “formal” way or we just go with the “para mí sería…” (for me it would be…) so, it depends haha
Learning French realising how direct romance languages are
I'm British, and work as a compliance officer in New Zealand. I regularly have dealings with members of the public whom I don't know the name of, so use the terms sir & madam. I received a complaint from a guy who I had called sir, because in his opinion I had used the term in a condescending manner, and he should know, he was a former police officer, and he had used it in a condescending manner himself, many times. You have to laugh.
Should have said "bro" or "cuz", cuz.
@jnawk83 in a professional setting? No. Not acceptable.
I'm a Kiwi, and if someone says Sir to me, I say "Sir" back then say "I'm not a knight, call me Tony", but I continue to say Sir back to them if they don't give me their name. It would never in a million years occur to me that someone who was following the literal formal respectful phrasing COULD condescend to me. They might not MEAN respect, but Sir IS RESPECT.
@uncletiggermclaren7592 as an Australian, calling someone “sir” is like saying “with all due respect.” It means the amount of respect due is approximately none.
@lmnop6140 You fail to understand the point of the role of the NZ compliance officer in 99% of cases. They exist to compel the businesses and the Exploiter Class to follow the wording of the laws that we have fought for. They don't make the worker "comply" with Big Brother.
"Restroom" sounds like a living room
I think "Can I get ..." sounds wrong to us because we see "get" as an active verb - but you're *not* "getting" it, you're being *given* it. "Can I get" sounds like you want to come behind the counter and get it for yourself.
or we can just not use "get" for anything. in 99% of contexts, its just lazy.
Except, you are also getting it, because you have to reach out your hand and grab it and give them money for it. We would also say "I'm going to the store to get some food". I am acquiring the ice cream.
@abudhabikid I don't see why I'd want to avoid my speech being lazy. Simpler terms are all the better to be understood
Or... to actually be polite, "may I please have" or "will you please get me"
Fascinating. "get" is receive; "go get" is fetch.
The word restroom is especially weird for me to hear because my parents were funeral directors and the rest room is where the bodies are kept after they’re finished being embalmed and dressed.
Oh, wow! Very different meaning.
Chapels of Rest they are commonly called.
Wow. That's a rest room I'd shit myself going into.
That's actually very fitting I like it being the dead is having a rest. I also like rest peacefully instead of rest in piece because like they aren't in pieces but what if they are? Qwq I geuss its meant to be "peace" but they sound alike so rest peacefully is more assuring and reassuring because if your in pieces you can't be piecefully
oh my!
i’m an american living in germany and people say “write an exam” instead of “take an exam” and it confuses me because when I hear writing i think more like they’re the one creating the exam
im australian and in this context i would say "take" however maybe thats a state thing cus i was born in queensland + definitely picked it up from there but now i live in victoria and the majority of people here ive heard say "sit" instead which will never not confuse me. do people say sit in other places?? i had never heard of it before i moved (nor have i heard of "write" unless its like an essay specifically) and i just cant unlearn take
@ronan.outoftime pretty sure brits also say take (or sit) an exam, probably just a difference between English and German as languages rather than dialects
I hope the pure poetry of the word “Reißverschluss” is a good compensation. "Zip"? - Pah!
what if it's an art exam? 😂
in my country we say "do an exam" and i dunno which is worse
Growing up in Switzerland, (speaking german) and visiting my uk boyfriend, I was indeed very confused when he wasn't at all as stressed as I was at 3 o clock for our "Half Four" meeting...
Thank you for bringing that up!
I always thought band aid was a fund raiser for charity using a band performance
It was a very intentional pun.
No you didn’t.
it was
I live in a small town in the UK and the public toilets near one of the car parks (which I think were built a very long time ago) is labelled “Public Conveniences”. It actually sounds the most old-school upper class British because it is very indirect and polite.
Fun fact, convenience would translate into Dutch as gemak. That word is used to refer to an outhouse.
Like "Water closet'
And the least polite is “Crapper”…
So is rest room.
@robhughes3442 where no one rests......
16:40 the irony of me screaming ‘it’s Maths! Not math’ here is funny to me lol
"Where is the seat of ease?"
16:24 My favorite part of this type of video is the British-ism you don't seem to realize you're using. I have never heard anyone say "does my head in" in an American accent lol
That one jumped out at me too :)
Ha, I just commented the same, didn't notice that somebody else had already said it. Really just jumped out immediately.
Curious if you are British? Asking due to how you've spelt in your post, 'Favorite' and 'Realized' are the American English spelling variety's. And yeah same I've only ever heard other Brits use "does my head in" 😂
The choice of words was done very deliberately my friend
@evan It definitely felt very natural!
0:37 Bogs, innit
@bottyhammer Hahaha this is the best comment I’ve seen in a while :D
Lats, or Latrines maybe.
Know what I mean, mate?
@bottyhammer kharzi
i'nt it
Hi Evan! Congrats! After living in the UK for a decade, your brain now speaks English like a Canadian! We take some things from US usage (counter clockwise, a "zed" at the end of words like "utilize") and some from UK ("zed", chocolate bar, the fun "u" in many words like "honour"). And some things we just have our own way of doing.
I love that you Canadians pronounce both the 'h' and the 'r' in herb. Best of both worlds.
The or in words like honor was the original English.
@Xubuntu47 I feel violence rising whenever I hear erb, but I've never heard it said without the r. Other peeves include pronouncing Craig to rhyme with Greg instead of spayed, Graham as if you would smoke it, Aloominum which will make anyone sound like they are inbred hick, and the whole biscuit/cookie/crackers/scones (NOT to rhyme with stones on any side of the Atlantic) thing.
@mankle30 And then there's the word "washroom", which is all your own.
@laurahamilton4972 pronouncing Graham as Gram always annoys me, and I can never understand why they always add an "h" into any British place name that ends in "Cester" to make it "Chester" I'm guessing they had to find a use for the leftover h's they removed from "herb" 🤣
The word laveratory for restroom has disappeared, but that's what was taught to me in school.
Schools and other institutions always called public toilets, lavatories. I think they still do.
5:10 What I got was the ever useful "Oi!"
Oi, mate or both for me.
OI MATE
OI HUGHIE
@evan Oi ma'e!
@kleiner_grüner_Kaktus the NYer in me immediately said yo! The American oi!
"You're flying without a licence" -- when your fly zip is undone.
I used to work with a woman who had tons of these - 'you're flying low' for flies undone, 'you're advertising' for a label sticking out, 'you've got a bat in the cave' for a bogey, 'there's snow on the ground' for a petticoat showing (we were working with people in costumes so yes they were actually wearing petticoats!) Brilliant code if anyone actually knows what you're referring to, but I did wish she would just tell me in normal words, it's not so embarassing that I can't take the truth!
“You’re flying low” and “You’ve got egg on your chin” are used here in Manchester
” The sausage factory is open” in Sweden, in Swedish though 😅
In the Netherlands: "it's draughty in here!" (litt: "het tocht hier!").
Fitting for this video, I learned a funny one many years ago - I think it was from The Simpsons - "X Y Z"... like a shorthand for "close your zipper".
3:24 I think part of problem with “Can I get…” is that at some point in our schooling we all had that snarky teacher who responded to something like “Can I borrow a pen, mines just broken?” sarcastically with “I don’t know, can you?” The teacher and entire rest of the class would then laugh at us because we used the word can rather than may. As a result we all have a Pavlovian shame response to the phrase “Can I…”.
THIS!
Oh, we've also had to deal with that in the US. We just don't care once we're not in school. "Can I go to the bathroom?" being met by a pedantic teacher with "I don't know, CAN you?" is something everyone I know has had to deal with.
Which is a weird distinction given that they're both equally wrong if you were being literal or both equally correct as a way of making a request indirect and therefore more polite.
You're neither asking whether getting the thing is possible nor whether it's allowed. You're actually not asking any question at all, but instead making a request that's simply being phrased as if it were a question. So "can" or "may" work equally well.
("Can I" is more common, though, so "may I" might come across as a bit more stiff and awkward).
Same in german
@Niwashi_ at my school a number of teachers were very clear that you were asking their permission to ask your fellow pupils if one could lend you a pen, permission that may not be given if they were feeling particularly evil that day or this was too regular an occurrence for their liking.
3:27 The polite way to request something it to say "May I..." instead of can I
My dear departed Mother-in-law (I'm 73) was the only person I ever knew who use to "Electrolux the carpet".
🤣🤣🤣🤣I'm in my 50s, we used to use the word vacuum all the time in the 1970s. But we didn't actually own one. We had a broom and a carpet sweeper.
Departed might be an other term of this kind.
My gran worked in service in a stately home (think downton abbey) back in the 1930's. Back then, even the big houses with staff didnt own a vacuum cleaner, they rented one for a few hours a week and a chap would bring one on a truck and come collect it after a while. One of the compaies which used to do this were called "Goblin" - which is now sometimes seen branded on really cheap machines. Anyway, my Gran always called the vacuum the Goblin, vacuuming "goblin the carpets" and called the vacuum cleaner shop the "goblin" shop.
Luckily us further down generations use the correct term: Hoover.
Credit to your late mother-in-law. We gotta bring "electrolux" back. I'd vacuum twice as often if I thought I was "electroluxing" something.
@kaseywahl 🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Maybe the Brits ride other parts of the horse, too" - The fact that Americans have to specify which part of the horse they ride leads me to believe that they are the ones who sometimes ride other parts of the horse, not the Brits.
Sometimes the horse rides them, there are videos I would not recommend looking up!
I was looking for this comment as I had the exact same thought.
Nah that’s the Russians
What kind of weirdness is this? Americans ride a horse.
May I have, or I’d like…please , is what I’d say, not” can I get”
Horseback riding, where else would you ride a horse? Therefore back is redundant.
@williamjackson2089 funny thing about german... we even skip the horse! In german its just "reiten (riding)". 😆 And still everybody knows what your are talking about because we ride nothing else like cars or bicycles, we drive them! ;)
Perhaps they also ride the "fifth leg". It's possible!
@TheStevieD182you drive bikes‽ Do you fly planes or drive them too? I actually think driving a plane makes more sense since if you could fly you wouldn't need a plane.
English is hardly concerned with redundancies
@williamjackson2089 And bareback riding doesn't involve bears.
Can I get an ice cream, means can I get it myself
I'd say MAY I please have ___?" and I'm American, but that's also because I always hear an old relatives voice in my ear "CAN? I don't know, can you? You MAY have it, however" haha.
Interesting. 'Give me xyz (zee)' sounds more American to me.. ;)
Well done. He seemed confused regarding this. Different meanings.
That’s exactly why I always use can instead of may
May is the shortened word for maybe it seems dominating and that's strange to say to younger people and strangers
@Junaoe May, in this sense, is from the old English word which is giving permission or allowing one an action, so it IS the correct usage, at least what I was taught. Maybe is a compound word (also from old English) and contained the May word which I think in old English is Maeg? It's been awhile since I sat with my tutor, maybe 30 years or so, haha. "May" and "Maybe" share a root word but one is not the abbreviation or shortened term of the other.
8:45 I think a lot of Brits would default to ‘I got sick’ rather than ‘I have got sick’ (the latter implies you have something). Also we’d probably say ill rather than sick, unless someone was actually being sick.
@AWAL602 Which confuses Americans even further since here "sick" and "ill" are basically synonymous - other than in obvious context we wouldn't interpret "I got sick" as "I just threw up/vomited"
I am sick is what I hear in south africa
Mother, I have become unwell. Thusly, I have been rendered unable to attend school.
I’m an American and will probably never be able to remember the British fine differences between “got” and “have got” and “sick” and “ill” in this context. 😬 “Sick” and “ill” here both mean “have a cold”, “have the flu”, “have the stomach flu”, “have mono”, and so on, except “ill” seems more “formal” than “sick”, and “I’m going to be sick” means only “I’m about to vomit.” 😅
@dividebyher0in Britain the word 'sick' literally means vomit. To be sick means to throw up. We use the word 'ill' to means unwell.
My Garmin SatNav thinks that every road layby has toilets because the map calls them rest areas.
@Rearda ok garmin
@Ragebaiter_Xx video speichern
Not every rest area necessarily has to have restrooms just from the name alone, although most if not all of them in the U.S. actually do have them.
@CompuclesOne amusing side-effect of American euphemism is that, on British roads are many lay-bys; tarmac-covered pull-in areas on the side of the road where drivers can stop and rest etc. However, because Garmin has seen them described as “rest areas”, my Garmin SatNav map shows 🚻 symbols on all of them. they are just a bit of road!
12:40 in Canada, I always hear "your fly's open"
Yes. But the “fly” in that sentence is Singular because the “s” is the contraction for is - meaning “Your fly is open.” indicating possession and not the plural for Fly. You even spelt it the correct way! In Britain they say “your “flies” ARE open” Multiple flies. I’m not sure why a man would have multiple slits in the front of his trousers - or do “flies” refer to the buttons they used to use to fasten their fly with before zippers were invented? Before buttons they used to use tied strips of fabric that have been sewn into the sides of the slits - so maybe those strips are flies? BTW I can’t say the CDN “pants” for “trousers” because that means underwear in Britain!)
What about your flying low?
@TheRattyBiker what?
@WeStandOnGuardForThee Something like that I think. I remember reading a book set in the 1500s and a boy carelessly left some of his "points" undone. Points were strings tying the hose to the doublet.
Americans say that too
10:03 missed the opportunity to tell us to Google it
“The worst British-ism that DOES MY HEAD IN” 😂 not many more things are as British as saying does my head in.
One that bugs me is 'waiting ON' a person instead of waiting FOR that person. If you are employed in catering, then you might be waiting ON a customer or waiting AT table, but the customer is waiting FOR their food.
@Canalcoholic Not that weird in languages outside of English, however. The Czech for "to wait for" someone is "čekat na", which directly translates as "to wait on."
Americans do a lot of strange things with prepositions. My pet hate is "off of". Why use two prepositions when one works just fine?
@sigmaoctantis1892 Because using and abusing and loading up on prepositions is quintessential to English. Does onto work for you or is that too much, too?
In Scotland we do wait on things though. If some mishap is clearly about to happen ( say someone spills a tray of drinks on the way back from the bar because they overloaded the tray ) , we'd say " Ah was just waitin on that happenin !"
@sigmaoctantis1892 Because English isn't a constructed language, and therefore, like all natural languages, it's got quirks.
3:05 that persons just a snowflake, anytime I’m ordering something I ask “can I get a ___ please” because there’s always a chance they’re out of it and it’s also literally what you get taught in school 😂
p.s. "oftentimes'" rather than "often" gives you away too.
Whilst
@unclepete2252 ‘oftentimes’ (like ‘gotten’) is creeping into UK English …much to my irritation.
Yes, both Shakespeare and the AV Bible used all of "oftentimes", "ofttimes" and "often", but the UK gradually came to prefer "often" and the US "oftentimes", while "ofttimes has become rare.
@lynnstewart7034 Actually, they're creeping back -- both Shakespeare and the AV Bible used both of them.
@RobertScott-pp6gjI suppose I've heard "oftentimes" in the US, but I would never use it.
I say "I'm going FOR a shower"
@karatefella I say, “I’m going to shower”. “I’m gonna go shower”.
@karatefella As an Australian, I'll sometimes say "I'm going to grab a shower", though I rarely actually physically grasp it.
i’ve never thought about this before - having a quarter life crisis 😂 i say i’m going to go take a shower, i didn’t realize i was stealing the tub this whole time lmao
“I’m going to have a shower”
@SparksMurphey “rarely” lol. I get it though. Sometimes water looks grabbable and you just gotta go for it to see if it works this time.
I went bike seat riding yesterday. 15:19
That sounds painfully specific.
What happened on your previous ride?
😂😂😂
😂
😂 That made me snort!
😂
Ma'am, mum, mom, miss, mummy... in the end, they're all birds.
At school in the UK, in my day anyway, we did not learn the alphabet by singing that song!
That song is mostly used by parents before their children are old enough for school in the United States.
@dbyrne231sounds like if you feel the kids are to dumb so you need to indoctreen them before they know what it is meant. 😂 But we are using something similar too. Btw. Zed in germany is Zett.
@fenrillratz9890What? Did you reply to the wrong comment by accident?
Also, I learned the a, b, c song ending in “x, y, z, and &” which I think is an older version.
@AlexandraNagy-v8f Wait, the ampersand was included as part of the alphabet??
It's wild but the amount of times you said "math" on that final point was driving me mental! I was sure it was a bit
number of times!
Please kick me - I would. All best.
I was fully expecting him to bring up math vs maths
As an American, it's difficult for me to say words ending with 'ths.' So maths is right up there. My tongue just doesn't want to cooperate.
If you were studying gymnastics, would you call it "gym class" or "gyms class"? Economics to "econ" or "econs"?
To say "maths" is very odd.
@ReidTheRulesGuyphysic!
In Poland in 70s -80s every vacuum was called elektrolux 😂
Well, in Czechia to this very day we say "lux" and "luxovat", but yes, we have "vysavač" a "vysávat" as well. However those are quite formal.
The "halb fünf" always gets me too...
4:35 ah, another example of being being accidentally raised bilingual-I just “shower” because it’s a single word in Spanish (ducharse). Same in Dutch, Latin, and Czech
Even funnier because i’m also hispanic and we always say “bañarse” regardless of if we’re showering or bathing. Even in different spanish speaking countries we use different words for the same thing
Not about bathing, but can you confirm that in Spanish its weird to order food by saying "can I have" or "may I have"? I was told not to do that and learned that you are supposed to say "dame" (sorry, my keyboard doesn't have the accent for the E), which simply means "give me," which in English may be considered rude. Please educate me, thanks!
@thewhistlingpixie Dame is used in more casual and informal settings, and is rude to use in restaurants. The verb querer is more appropriate in this scenario or just simply just saying the noun, followed by "por favor".
It can also be a verb in English, but for some reason less commonly used.
In French you usually take (prendre) a shower.
Water fountain vs drinking fountain.
When I was in London I asked a few people about water fountain and all of them looked at me funny and thought I was asking for the giant water foundation in the middle of a square...
@ru40342 icl bro I think that's more cus you were asking about a water fountain in the middle of the city which is out of the ordinary. We all say water fountain mate
@fedc3173 yeah I'm British and I say water fountain
In the US Navy it is referred to as a "scuttlebutt" and that is how you must refer to it which confounds every new sailor. The US Navy has an entire lexicon of odd words that one must learn.
Long ago, in New England, they were referred to as ‘bubblers’
@daisy-rothschild in australia theyre either bubblers or bubble taps, always thought that was just an aussie thing so thats cool to know!
As an Australian I love these. We wind up with bits of both but with a lean towards UK words by far. Same with traditions etc.
Except that we say “lollies” instead of “sweets” or “candies”.
@experimental_error the best one is thongs, for us Brits that is sexy underwear and its never used to mean flipflops.
Yeah I've noticed the same thing as a Canadian. We use a mix of both US, UK, and our own weird shit.
@jacnel It's called French 😉
@experimental_error🇦🇺
My favorite part about this whole 'can I get' situation is that 'may I get' is, in fact, proper 😂
Can you get me
“Johnson & Johnson, a family company.” - Branded into my mind also!😂
They would have you believe it, but to me, they are just another company making profit selling us things that are useful when properly utilised, but must be regulated so that their industrial activity does not cause us harm.
Isn't it S.C. Johnson?
Ah, yes, I have a few tubs of (possibly asbestos-contaminated) baby powder here for when/if the need occurs. 😁
@tweer64 They're two different companies.
@florariemer6112 Yeah, but S.C. Johnson's slogan is "a family company", not Johnson & Johnson.
My parents would have told me to say "May I have" rather than "Can I have".
But yeah usually we just say "[ITEM], please"
@alexwright4930 Same here
The worst Americanism is "I'll have the X"... rather than asking politely for that thing.
@UltraAitch Literally the only time I've ever heard that is in SpongeBob...
can is capability
may is permission
I usually say, "I would like a ___, please."
Surprised there was no mention of aluminium?
One of the annoying things about AI narration is where there is a clearly "English ' accent, purportedly jarringly spoiled by the use of " aloominum" and "dee po".... aided and abetted by "gotten"......not to mention uttet mangling of many number combinations.
@jeanjones718If it is an actual spelling difference, AI is not going to know that.
Mum (not mom) and Ma'am have very different pronunciations in the UK
My guess is a lot of Americans do not hear the difference, since they are pronounced very differently here, so their ears aren't trained. Apparently my Southern Midwest dialect has pen and pin sound the same to many. I can hear a difference, as can others with the same pronunciation. For example, my husband is one who doesn't hear the difference, and he grew up less than 50 miles away from me.
The clips he showed sounded just like mum.
TV military/police drama shows are nothing like reality. If you inflected ma'am wrong it wouldn't go unnoticed. Similarly when they say sarge, it's abbreviation is sa'nt.
@agresticumbra Americans seem to have trouble with the letter A. In Mazda or pasta they think they are doing a long A i.e. "ah" but it just comes out as Mozda and posta.
@greggb1686I’ll have to be more mindful of other dialects in the US, because I know mine sound like mahzda & pahsta. Many Americans who went to doctors for checkups as kids were told to say “Ah” when doctor wanted to look in their mouth. I’m curious what was said then as well.
Another big difference is the American use of 'line' versus 'queue' in the UK. Americans will say " I'm in line for the sale" whereas UK will use "I am queuing for the the sale" or "I'm in the queue".
an american frend of mine got this mixed and to me she had to wait in a z for 10 mins.
Brits do say line i.e. “is this the line for the queue?” 😂
@PV1230: And if you’re a New Yorker like me, you say “I’m on line”.
No thats not so cut and dry. We absolutely use line and queue interchangably
Canadians would either say what the Americans say, or "I'm lining up for the sale." or "I'm in a line-up for the sale."
15:11 where else people can ride Evan? If you’re riding a horse, it’s obviously gonna be on its back.
@Tom-at-O-Puree I know an engineer at boeing that would disagree with you
you don’t ride the ears?
This sort of redundancy is hardly unusual in English
You know this is the internet, right? People definitely ride horses in other ways 🤢
@drigondii you know exactly what I’m thinking 👁️👅👁️
I only use hoover as a verb when talking about someone eating a lot quickly.
5:57 That was true when I lived in New Zealand in the 1990s, as well. Female teachers were "Miss" and male teachers were "Sir".
Same as the 60s in NZ. Although I do remember saying Mr or Mrs ... to my teachers in Intermediate, mostly. But Yes sir or Miss if they asked you something.
Canada 1980s. Same.
@TheRatsCats Which province, if I may ask?
@Ice_KarmaNorthern Ontario
I have always said: "I'm going to shower." Since 'shower' is also a verb. You also use fewer words that way. There are so many different ways to communicate the same concept in so many cases; I think it's interesting to discuss, but wierd to get hung up on.
Yep. Weird in an OCD way.
"I'm going to shower ______"
Shower what? Shower me with praise?
That's why this verbiage sounds weird.
"I have got ... " nah mate just "I got ..."
Not “They have gotten used to it” but “They have become used to it”
More likely than mentioning a zip or zipper in that particularly scenario is "You're flying low."
Or "flying without a licence"
Absolutely @trueriver1950
Canadian and I've always heard "Your barn door's open"
Flying without a licence.
@Spacejam420 or just "your fly is open"
1:45 Similar embarrassing workplace faux pas when I, an American, was working in Australia. I was asked by the person in charge of decorating our offices whether I wanted some "pot plants" and I thought she was making a joke about how I had a kind of hippie aesthetic. I laughed and said with broad sarcasm "uhhh ... yaaaaah suuuuure, throw in some pot plants why not!" And she very seriously said "so....do you want pot plants or not?" And now I thought she was trying to set me up or something. It was so weird and I just said "no, no need for pot plants at work, thanks". And she walked away VERY confused and frustrated and left me feeling as if I had just been hazed.
Turns out, in AU (and presumably UK) "pot plant" just means "potted plant" and not "cannabis plant" as I thought.
I once asked someone for some meth and they thought I was asking for methalated spirits! Probably thought I was an artist or something and I wanted to clean my brushes! It was so embarrassing.😅
@lewiswarburton1224
Ah, you see, where I live that's meths (methylated spirit). 😉
You can't buy meth in your local hardware shop, but you can buy meths. 😂
@seegee8564Ahh, I see my mistake... Don't do meths, kids!
17:00 I learned the time thing from the American sitcom “Rules of Engagement” when a British national told his American coworker that a project will be done by “Half-Ten” and the coworker responded with the question, “So, Five?”
🤣🤣🤣🤣
No half ten means 10:30
@Dancestar1981 That was the exact response the American got to that question, and he responded, “Well, here in America, we say what we mean…”
I should probably mention that this character is the resident moron in the cast.
@Dancestar1981and in German it (halb zehn) means 9:30
😂😂😂
got me with that bit at 3:57 lol
Hmm. Have or take a shower/bath. As a Canadian, I have said both but saying, "I'm going to have a shower" sounds more natural to me to say.
For me (also Canadian), "have" implies more immediacy. Like I will always have a shower now, but i might take a shower later.
@pbilk I'm gonna go hose down. Ya need the bif before?
I'm also Canadian, and I can't say I've even registered hearing of people doing other than "taking" a bath/shower. (Aside from "drawing a bath" to fill the bathtub)
I go with 'I'm gonna jump in the shower' usually. Dunno if that's a rare one or not.
@RealGrouchyI’ve lived in the UK almost 30 years and still find it weird when I hear Brits talk about “taking exercise.” But yet they find it weird when we say “taking a bath”
"Excuse me, where's the bathroom?"
"I'm sorry - you want to have a bath?"
Washroom, to wash up. 🇨🇦😋
Yes, is it expensive?
@jasompinard4576Always makes me think of laundry. 😅
It's nice to have the option while you're there. 😃
K, where's the poo room?
The funny thing about 'Dragonball Z' is that the Japanese pronounce the 'Z' as "Zetto", the Japanese form of the British English 'Zed'.
It was when the U.S. acquired it, they recorded a new OP to use the American 'Zee' in it's place.
"I have got better at it"
no... "I got better at it" or "I have gotten better at it"
I was very confused as a kid when I read about an American being named for someone. It took me a second to figure out they meant what we’d say as being named _after_ someone
"Named after" is the most common way for Americans to say this, too, but I have heard "named for" occasionally.
@MidtownSkyport I’m an American and have never heard “named for”.
Or the kid "'er mister, wots your name called?"
Named for is uncommon even here. Pretty sure it's an older term
@TimothyBaker-kt2xu weird! "Named for" is all I ever heard growing up. (Most of my family is from Virginia.) My brother was named for our uncle, who was named for our grandfather. I always heard it as "he was named in honor of" the previous person by that name, i.e., giving him the same name was a gift for the person who was still alive when the baby was christened. Naming someone "after" someone else is something I have heard, too, but for some reason has a corporate feel, as in, "they named the new stadium after the corporation that funded it." If I named a baby "after" an ancestor, I'd likely mean that ancestor has long since passed away.
I thought the ice cream one was going to be because you didn't call it a 99
Me too
A single flake is a 99.
A double flake is/was bunny ears.
Does make me laugh because they have been a 99 in years🤣
This is the most deranged exchange and I love it
9:43 hoover has became so generic that Henry is called Henry Hoover a lovely literation, Henry vaccum cleaner sounds wrong and Henry Numatic International sounds like a robot (Numatic International are the boffins that created Henry)
There was an appliance repair shop where I lived that had a sign outside saying "Dyson hoovers repaired here".
50 years ago in the US (or at least the part I lived in) it was also "hoover".
"a lovely illiteration"
Not sure if intended or wonderful irony.
Brit in Aus, constantly use Hover instead of vacuum.
There's Henry, and I believe he has a couple of friends as well. I know there is/was a Harriet & I think Hetty as well.
No clue why this showed up in my algo but I really enjoyed it. 👍🏼new sub.
Welcome aboard!
At around 6:30 they’re actually saying “marm”, it’s an abbreviation of madam, as male officers are sir
To my British ears (30 years removed to the USA) "marm" is absolutely clear - sounds nothing like mum/mom
@alanmoore2197 But it can sound like American mom.
"ma'am"
Not to British ears @Al.2. ‘Mom’ is a longer ‘o’, as opposed to ‘m-ar-m’
@p75369yes but I was spelling it as said
13:26 - that's the American alphabet song, to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. When I was at school in the 70s, I was taught a totally different song / rhyme which was much faster and of course, ended in zed.
Same. The American one feels like it would be harder to remember for kids, because every line has a different number of letters, some sung slow some sung fast. Ours is more consistent.
Although ‘emm’ and ‘zed’ don’t strictly rhyme they are close and have the same ‘e’ sound.
Ahh - similar here! The first part of the alphabet was like a fast 'twinkle twinkle'. Then 'q r s t u v w' was said in one go, also pretty fast. With 'Ex, why, zed!' said more slowly and with emphasis on each.
@KatieRae_AmidCrisis The one I learned was fast all the way through, with no Twinkle Twinkle in sight. I can't write it out, but it's going round & round in my head now, haha
abcdefg, hijklmn, opqrstu, v, w, xy, zed is what I learned and zed rhymes with the n
Canadians say Zed and when I hear young,, screen raised Canadians say Zee, it grates!
This reminds me of when the company I was working for said all the staff have to say "have a nice day " to customers. They told us to stop saying it after someone said it to a customer that had just been complaining, and got punched. Here in the UK it sounds like sarcasm.
Yes here in Ireland too we don't like that it sounds disingenuous.. Thanks for shopping with us would be good.
@mascara_lashes what about “Get a nice day”?
@mascara_lashes but why doesn't THAT sound sarcastic?
@mascara_lashes And talking about shopping in Northern Ireland, I loved exiting from a supermarket carpark in Londonderry and a sign flashed 'Safe home"
that’s wild to me. i say “have a good one” to almost every stranger i speak to. it’s more normal than goodbye!
"Zed's dead baby, Zed's dead"
I was just wondering, if you get as many funny looks in the USA,when you use British terms you have adopted ?
My man what an excellent video idea. I’ve got about 9 or so this happens with
@evan My US friends mock me for having adopted 'cheers'
@CoridanNJCheers!
@CoridanNJI still haven't gotten to that point yet, but my old housemate has. I think it comes from upbringing location or age.
During the two years I lived and worked in New Jersey, I resisted calling a restroom anything other than a lavatory. I obviously carried smelling salts to revive the more sensitive Americans who failed to cover their ears in time.
"Bathroom" implies there is a bath in the room. "Restroom" implies me fighting for my life squeezing out a monster turd is somehow a "rest"
Edit: for the multiple people commenting that I need to change my diet or change my methods of evacuating, this was clearly a joke.
😂
if you want to avoid hemorrhoids, I advice eating more fiber and do more resting, and less squeezing.
I'm Canadian and say "washroom."
Years ago I was in the States for SDCC and asked someone in service where the washrooms were and he was sincerely like, "what...? The what?" And when I kind of switched it up and said "bathroom?" he exclaims "where you from??" 😂 I noticed washroom wasn't even mentioned here.
Lot of Americans thrown off by my 'accent' as well. Never really thought I had one....
@buchichu7034 to my ears, washroom sounds like a place to clean yourself, not evacuate yourself
"Bathroom" doesn't implay a bath -- it *states* a bath!
RESTROOM always sounds like a place full of lazy bags and comfy chairs and beds :)
Lazy bags?
@SputnikNSOfficial sometimes going to the restroom is a true escape, especially in some professions! Might not be restful..but more of a stress reliever!
It originally was
Sometimes for restroom I like to say "The room of much rest"
"fly's undone" around here is usually said "barn door's open" or "cow's in the field" or "aye you're selling hotdogs"
@gingered That made me laugh re selling hotdogs. I look forward to using it. 👌
Flying low!
@JaquelineFarrow-e3d without a license
Old stand-up comedian line,
'Unexpected laugh,....Check flys' (Bob Monkhouse).
Note I don't know why but Flys as in zip is not normally spelt flies, I believe
‘The cage is open, but the beast is asleep’, Jim Royale reply.