Amusing Vocabulary Differences Between American and British English

The American spending a long time in England will probably be amused very often by the vocabulary differences he or she encounters. There is a very long list of British-English vocabulary words, used on a daily basis, that are completely different words from what an American would use, but mean the same thing. Below are some of the more amusing ones:

1) What an American calls dish soap, the British call washing up liquid.

2) The act of washing the dishes to the British is doing the washing up.

3) A dishtowel is a tea towel.

4) Laundry detergent is washing powder.

5) The act of doing the laundry is doing the wash.

6) A lemonade is a Sprite.

7) A soda is a fizzy drink.

8) A café can be referred to as a caf, which can be very confusing if hearing caf makes you think of a little baby cow.

9) A sweater is a jumper.

10) A camisole is a vest.

11) The Game of Clue, or Clue, is called Cluedo.

12) Tic-tac-toe is actually called Noughts and Crosses.

13) A movie is called a film. They don't have movie night in a friend's room in England. Instead they have film night in a friend's room.

14) You don't go to the movies, or go see a movie in England; you go to the Cinema.

15) Horseback riding is simply horse riding. They simply assume that you'll be riding on the horses back, rather than on any other part of the horse.

16) If you are pursuing a higher level degree in England, you won't say you are in College, nor will you say that you're a University Student. You would say that you are atUni.

17) Plus, if you were heading to campus for a class, you won't say you're going to campus, you say you're going to Uni.

18) Uni classes in England are either lectures or tutorials.

19) And people don't study for their exams, they revise.

20) And if you get tired in the middle of the day from all that revising, you don't take a nap, you have a lie down.

21) And when you're writing a paper, remember that a period is called a full stop.

22) What an American would call a dormitory R.A. (Room Advisor), the English call tutors. Tutors actually are very different beasts from RAs, too. They're much less there for advice and counseling and much more there to be the Gestapo.