BRITISH VS AMERICAN WORDS

After years of watching Spice World and flexing my fake British accent with my sister whenever I got the chance, I thought I’d be a pro when visiting England… or at least be able to understand everything they were saying. In short, I was wrong. I wish I kept a count on how may times I said, wait what? over the course of the week.

First of all, just like in the United States, there are different dialects and accents all over England. Turns out the Mary Poppins accent that I’m accustomed to is known as a London accent. I spent my time in Northern England, and the accent there is completely different. THEN on top of that they use SO many different words and slang, I seriously questioned if they were even speaking English at all. As the week went along, I took mental notes of all the words I heard. And here is my list:

Everyday stuff

Proper (adj.)— satisfactorily or correctly

Owt (pronoun)— something or anything

Nowt (pronoun)— nothing

Aye (adverb)— yes

“Me” for “my” OR at the end of a sentence

Gender

Lass (noun)— girl

Lad (boy)— boy

Mate (noun)— friend

Food

Bits (noun)— orange juice pulp

Chips (noun)— french fries

Crisps (noun)— potato chips

Mash (noun)— mashed potatoes

Candy floss (noun)— cotton candy

Love/Relationships

Bird (noun)— girlfriend

To fancy (verb)— to like someone or something

To shag (verb)— to have sex with

Feelings

Bollocks (noun)— literally testicles, but also nonsense, contempt or disagreement

Gutted (adj.)— devastated

Chuffed (adj.)— pleased or delighted

Money & Time

Skint (adj.)— broke

Quid (noun)— slang for pound (money)

Fortnight (noun)— 2 weeks

Clothes/ Style

Pants (noun)— underwear

Trousers (noun)—pants

Jumper (noun)— sweater

Fringe (noun)— hair bangs

Random

Posh (adj.)— elegant, or in an upper-class way

Car park (noun)— parking lot or parking garage

Football (noun)— soccer

Lift (noun)— elevator

Uni (noun)— short for university 

And then ON TOP OF THAT the Brits use different grammar and spelling than us Americans… but that’s a whole video in itself!

Truly what I found most interesting is how they had no problem understanding me, and they knew all of my slang. I can only conclude it’s because they watch a lot more American TV and movies than we do of theirs.

All in all, I won’t be showing off my northern England accent anytime soon… but you can bet that the next time I’m in England I’ll get some use of these words!