Hello! It’s konkaz (@konkazuk) here.
With this article, we are going to have a look at the difference between British English and American English, especially with their vocabularies.
(By the way, you might find this article slightly Anglophilia…but that’s because I am based in London,)
If you are planning to make a career that involves communication skills in English and you already have a specific country in your mind, then focusing on the vocabularies which are characteristic of the country might work good for you…
The difference in vocabularies between British English and American English
Right. Let’s get started!!!
There must be some interesting discoveries… ✨
Well, let’s start with vegetables…
I have never lived in America, therefore I don’t know how things work over there, but if you call 「nasu」“eggplant” in England, people won’t recognise it…
「nasu」is called “aubergine“here in the UK
Another one from the vegetables.
What we call「zukkiini」is one of the popular vegetables which you can find easily in the supermarkets and groceries in England,
but over here,
it is called “courgette” [ kɔːˈʒet]
The word “zucchini” is not common here in England.
courgette 🇬🇧 zucchini 🇺🇸
aubergine 🇬🇧 eggplant 🇺🇸
Right. The next one is… “potato chips” and “Frech fries“
These two could confuse those Americans or Japanese who visit England for the first time, and I guess it will take some time to get used to them.
A bag of crispy potato snack called “potato chips“is called “crisps” here in England, and “French fries“which you eat in McDonald’s are called “chips” over here.
crisps 🇬🇧 potato chips 🇺🇸
chips 🇬🇧 French fries 🇺🇸
This American-English vocabulary “elevator” is commonly used in Japan.
Although the word can be recognised by British people, you don’t really hear it from their mouth.
“lift” is the equivalent word of “elevator” in the UK.
lift🇬🇧 elevator 🇺🇸
As for 「chikatetsu」, different words are applied between British English and American English.
An American-English vocabulary “subway” is an equivalent word of「chikatetsu」, and here in Britain, “tube” or “underground” is used instead.
When I was in Japan, I personally had believed that the English word for「chikatetsu」was “metro“.
However, it has turned out that the word is neither British nor American. (Well, strictly speaking, it was originated from London’s Metropolitan line though.)
“Metro” is actually the word for “underground” but is used pretty much internationally including France, Japan, and Egypt, etc.
tube 🇬🇧 subway 🇺🇸
I guess American English “takeout” is commonly used in Japan.
British version of “takeout” is “takeaway”!
takeaway 🇬🇧 takeout 🇺🇸
This vocabulary is characteristic of British-English.
American-English vocabulary’s “liquor store” (by the way, this was the name of my last band…) sounds straightforward, while British-English’s “off-license” is like… “what???”
The name derives from…
If the license is “on”, it means “You are permitted to have a drink”.
So it implies the places like “pubs” and “bars”.
On the contrary, if the license is “off”, it means “You are not permitted to have a drink.” Hence, even though the alcoholic drinks are sold in the shop, they are not allowed to be consumed in the premise. You are to have it elsewhere.
In a nutshell, it’s about the license to have a drink in the premise.
Off-license generally sells variety of things from packets of snacks to toilet rolls other than alcoholic drinks.
off-license 🇬🇧 liquor store 🇺🇸
Since I do not drive myself, I feel unrelated to the vocabularies of this area.
However I watch news from time to time, and when I hear an American-English vocabulary “gas” instead of a familiar word “petrol”, and sometimes it takes some time for me to figure out what it is…
Incidentally, I had regarded the word “Main Street” as a British-English vocabulary till recently, because there is this cool album called “Exile On Main St.” recorded by The Rolling Stones! w
motorbike 🇬🇧 motorcycle 🇺🇸
motorway 🇬🇧 highway 🇺🇸
high street 🇬🇧 main street 🇺🇸
petrol 🇬🇧 gas 🇺🇸
aeroplane 🇬🇧 airplane 🇺🇸
Apologies for categorizing the following six vocabularies roughly as “shopping”. w
Calling “trousers” as “pants” is very American, I presume…
Anyway, whether you call them “trousers” or “pants”,
just like when you call scissors as “a pair of scissors“.
“Queue” is a very British vocabulary.
(👉 Attention!!! It is pronounced as [kjuː])
Because the spelling of the word is so different from its pronunciation, I have memorized it as “ku-e-u-e”… It sounds appalling, doesn’t it?
Using the word “bill” for paper currency is kind of weird to me because I am so used to the British vocabulary “note“…
The word “bill” is used for many things but the first thing that comes up in my head is paying your bill in a restaurant… We say “bill please?” with crossing our fingers, don’t we?
trousers 🇬🇧 pants 🇺🇸
trainers 🇬🇧 sneakers 🇺🇸
wardrobe 🇬🇧 closet 🇺🇸
queue 🇬🇧 line 🇺🇸
shop assistant 🇬🇧 salesclerk 🇺🇸
note 🇬🇧 bill 🇺🇸
Office sorts… umm… w
Apologies again for being terrible for categorization!
(But honestly, I couldn’t find any simpler way of classifying all these miscellaneous words.)
I suppose “cell phone” is a familiar equivalent English word of “Keitai denwa” ? (I’d never had one while I was in Japan… w)
In England, it is called “mobile phone“, or simply “mobile“
Japanese vocabulary “gomi” is called “rubbish” in England”.
And also, insignificant opinions or unfunny jokes are called “rubbish“, too.
One of the “rubbish-related” words that often fails to come up in English, is “chiri-tori“!!!
umm… how was it called???
Well, let’s nail it this time!
“Chiri-tori” is called “dustpan” in English.
Just imagine the shape of “frying pan” and you will get it from next time!
Regarding an English equivalent word of “kyuu-ryou“, “salary” must be the one that is familiar to us Japanese due to the Katakana word “salary-man”.
“wage” is a British equivalent word of “kyuu-ryou“.
mobile phone 🇬🇧 cell phone 🇺🇸
rubber 🇬🇧 eraser 🇺🇸
rubbish 🇬🇧 garbage/trash 🇺🇸
holiday 🇬🇧 vacation 🇺🇸
bank holiday 🇬🇧 public holiday 🇺🇸
wage 🇬🇧 salary 🇺🇸
There is this notable difference in calling stories between British-English and American-English.
In England, ground level is regarded as “zero”, hence the 2nd floor of a building with American-English is equivalent to the 1st floor with British-English.
ground floor, 1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor…
1st floor, 2nd floor, 3rd floor, 4th floor…
The word “guy” sounds somewhat neutral to me, while equivalent British word sounds more brutal. (…just a personal impression)
A word “bloke” is commonly used in England.
“soccer” is a national sport in England, but you don’t hear the word from natives.
(You only hear it from foreigner’s mouth.)
“football” is the one!
flat 🇬🇧 apartment 🇺🇸
ikkai (1st floor)
ground floor 🇬🇧 1st floor 🇺🇸
plaster 🇬🇧 band-aid 🇺🇸
pharmacy 🇬🇧 drugstore 🇺🇸
primary school 🇬🇧 elementary school 🇺🇸
biscuit 🇬🇧 cookie 🇺🇸
bloke 🇬🇧 guy 🇺🇸
football 🇬🇧 soccer 🇺🇸
There are only two here… ha ha ha
It’s good to know that British English “post code” is known as “zip code” in America.
By the way, (it is not quite related to the subject here, but…) there was this occasion that my wife had to send a parcel to Hong Kong, and after a bit of struggle to find out its post code, we found this shocking truth that there was no post code in Hong Kong!
post 🇬🇧 mail 🇺🇸
post code 🇬🇧 zip code 🇺🇸
“Autumn Leaves” is a jazz standard song…
The tune is in an album called “Somethin’ Else” performed by Cannonball Adderley and Miles Davis, etc. and it’s very popular.
But my personal favourite is the version performed by Barney Kessel (guitarist).
autumn 🇬🇧 fall 🇺🇸
something to carry… w
Umm… it’s an air travel…
luggage 🇬🇧 baggage 🇺🇸
Well, this is it.
Having looked through all these vocabularies, I see most of Japanese “Katakana (loan word)”s are American English…
I had never actually heard any of these words “takeaway”, “petrol”, “tube” and “wage”, while I was in Japan.
Anyway, there must be lots more, but these are the ones I can think of at this moment…
While I’m living in England, I occasionally come across those people who tell me the fact that they are not really fond of American English accent…
Well, if you were born or have lived in one place for a while, I presume what you normally deal with will become “your standard”, and some kind of local folk guts will be built in your head without realizing it?
In my case, I don’t really care about the difference between British English and American English, however I am a bit allergic to some particular area of American accent, to be honest.
(oops, hope I am not creating any enemies…)
Anyway, they are the sound of to and er, or ter and tor, which are the bold part of…
Water, Elevator, Calculator, and Tomato.
For instance, in Britain, “water” is pronounced as…
or you often hear youngsters pronouncing it without “t”, like…
However, with American accent, it is pronounced as…
It sounds like bridging the “t” sound…
When I hear the phrase like “See you later, alligator!” with American accent, my brain starts to melt…
That flap T sound between two vowels plus finishing with very strong R gives me an impression of…
something very commanding!
and it makes me feel like… as if I had been shot by tranquilizing gun…
I don’t know the cause of this… it’s something I cannot explain…
(I can’t wear polyester shirrrrrrrrrrrrrrrts!!）
Although you might catch young generations talking with omitting the letter “t” from the words , “t” sound is generally pronounced clearly with British English.
Linguistically, English is pretty much different from Japanese in many ways, however I find a sort of familiarity in British English’s characteristic of pronouncing the “t” sound clearly, knowing the fact that the “t” sound of English pronunciation is “unvoiced”, and it doesn’t really match up with Japanese Katakana sound (ta, chi, tsu, te, to)…
Like “watashi” (= I ) or “Kitani” (=dirty)…
Well, it’s just a very personal impression…
Anyway, this is it with this blog post…
Hope you have found it helpful…