It has been brought to my attention that Americans are not familiar with some English words .
Ie Yob
We on the other hand don’t use some Americanisms
Ie rednecks
There are other example
We say chips they say French fires
Chips for Americans are what we call crisps
There must be many others
Elevator-lift
Sidewalk-pavement
Hood-bonnet
They say john, we say bog.
Don’t ask if you can borrow a rubber!
Similar problem when Americans use their term for one’s bottom. ‘He patted her on her bottom’ is a bad enough notion but translates even worse.
I have noticed that on you tube.
We are very similar in many ways yet totally different in other ways,even down to food.
FWIW…
My wife is American so we are quite comfortable with USA and British language words. We mix and match quite regularly. Just now and again a few need correction. Like Fahrenheit/Centigrade…
I think the US is now one of a very, very few countries that still use the complex and meaningless Fahrenheit temperature scale. I can see that if you grow up with Fahrenheit then it is the comparison you are familiar with (hot day is 80 deg and a cold day is 40 deg). However that is where its value, even for people growing up with it, simply ends.
What’s the American word for “utterly redundant and out of date”?
I grew up with F deg. But went to Cdeg for school science. My education was electrical engineering and that was all Cdeg. And all Metric…
Exactly. Centigrade makes sense and eases calculations. And once you are familiar with it the comparisons are as valid (hot day is 33 deg and a cold day is 1 deg).
I still use Fahrenheit, 70+ is good and below 50 not so.
Actually I’m comfortable with both. The engineer in me ? And my ancient age of course…
Fahrenheit,
takes me back to the shipping forecast on the radio, I used to listen in sometimes: dogger, fisher, german bight, what fun!
I was 9 in '62, that when the beeb switched to Centigrade, so I’ve never thought in Fahrenheit.
Many people do, especially with elder people. A little tale. Our nurse gives me a regular check up which included a temperature check which is done in Celsius. She then expects me to concert it to deg F. I remind her I don’t need the correction. I expect she think it’s my age at late seventies.
A few irritating ones
Hacks -hints
Hacks always sounds like a cough sweet
Candy - sweets
Bangs - fringe
That’s your take being English. Americans are just fine with their words.
Naturally I speak English 
Indeed you do and probably do so rather eloquently. I do also even though I am a Scotsman.
I hadn’t even started school in 1962. But don’t think people were using centigrade then because I remember the summers of 1975 and 1976 when daily the tv and newspapers would have headlines about temperatures being in the 70s and 80s Fahrenheit
Yeah, 100 in the shade, sounds more dramatic than the true figure. Plus a lot of old tabloid readers were living in the past.
