English and American Words

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naturalplastic
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12 Apr 2016, 6:49 pm

Sweetleaf wrote:

Empathy wrote:

Sweetleaf wrote:

I have never heard anyone in the U.S call a boot a trunk, or did you mean vice versa?

Basically an american would understand boot as a kind of footwear....by trunk they'd think you mean some sort of storage box, a tree trunk or an elephants trunk.

A boot is best referred to as the back of a car. In this case anyway.

Oh so in british english boot can also refer to what in the U.S we'd refer to as a car trunk, in that case does boot still also refer to the footwear in england or is there another term for that?

What he means is that:what we Americans call the "trunk" of a car the Brits call "the boot" of the car (the part for storing stuff in the back).

He is not tallking about either foot wear, nor tree, nor elephant, trunks. Those "trunks" and "boots" are all the same on both sides of the Atlantic afaik.

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14 Apr 2016, 3:07 am

ASPartOfMe wrote:

Pop is used in many areas of the US. Soda is used here in New York

lot of us use "coke" as well.

my relatives when in mexico refer to the fizzy brown stuff as "coca" regardless of the brand most of the time.

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LonelyJar
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18 Apr 2016, 4:34 am

Pergerlady wrote:

Yes, there are pubs in America. In fact, there's a pub not far from my house. Another general rule is that when spelling words that have "ou" in them (colour, favourite) us Americans tend to exclude the "u." Here are a few more:

English/American

Centre/Center
Crisps/Chips
Football/Soccer (not to be confused with another game played in the U.S. that is commonly called "football," while players try to run to one end of the field while carrying the ball, and opponents try to block or tackle rivals)

Outside the US, I think non-soccer football is called gridiron, and the ball in question is called a handegg.

Empathy wrote:

^^ If you are referring to the 'trunk' as something, I would guess its the boot of a car.
Wellington boots you wear in the rain, but most of us just say we are wearing wellies today because its raining.
I've got winter boots I've stashed away for storage now.

I've never referred to a trunk as a storage box, but I don't know if you'd say your garage is referred to as container?
I wouldn't say its the attic or anything. Outhouse, seems a possibility, because some rear extensions, have but a number of names, like out on the porch is front and out the garden or decking means back.

Um, I'm confused. A garage is where one parks one's car, while an outhouse is an outdoor lavatory.
Also, this might be relevant: "English to American 2015", by Mike Jeavons

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18 Apr 2016, 5:08 am

We Yanks young women chicks, while Britishers call them birds.

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naturalplastic
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18 Apr 2016, 7:22 pm

The word "garage" (meaning " where you shelter your parked car in both countries) rhymes with "carriage" in the UK, but rhymes with "mirage",or "barrage" (ie "gar-raazh") in the USA.

Earthling
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18 Apr 2016, 7:25 pm

Hambourger.
Just kidding.

Kiprobalhato
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19 Apr 2016, 1:08 am

LonelyJar wrote:

Um, I'm confused. A garage is where one parks one's car, while an outhouse is an outdoor lavatory.
Also, this might be relevant: "English to American 2015", by Mike Jeavons

"garages" could be places where one takes their car for servicing.

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19 Apr 2016, 5:27 pm

Somewhere, somehow, at some point.. these are all things which seem to take up a lot of Hugh Laurie's time if you've seen him act, but these two exchanges do have a funny ending mixed intermittently with the rest of our 'people's way' of a two way banter.

What appears to be the sarcasm or the butt of jokes seems to be avidly portrayed with our stand up comedian Ricky Gervais, doing what he does best. Making a pigsere of it!

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