American English vs British English

[jnelsoninjax]

This is something I have been wondering for sometime and I tried to ask on Reddit but the post was removed before even getting posted, so I am going to ask here and see if anyone has some insights on it.

 

In American English, we call our underwear underpants/panties but in British English, it is called pants and knickers. In American English pants are what the British refer to as Trousers. I know the list goes on much longer than this but those are the primary examples that I think of. I am wondering what is the reasoning for this, I know that English (language) is a mix of Latin, and many other languages, but is that the reason for the same word to have completely different meanings or is it more like slang?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

'cause we kicked the Brits arses.

 

Also...

 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/pants-word-origin

[jnelsoninjax]

That makes sense, thanks for the link!

[Sir Topham Hatt]

You mean you became lazy and dropped U's from a variety of words 😛

[Guest]

"innernet" instead of internet.

 

Lots of UK place names end up seeingly getting overponounced by Americans (or totally wrong) Derbyshire (Pronounced darby-sh) turns into (der-be-shiyar) Nottinghamshire (pronounced nottingham-sh) turns into noddinghayam-shiyar.

 

Also, not just pants for underwear, I tend to say boxers (or wait for it..... underwear), seeing as I wear boxers, not pants which is something I'd usually expect children to wear lol.

 

So, as you can imagine, trousers reffered to as pants is a little bit cringe with that context.

 

There's also using brand names to describe an action, we have certainly caught up with that though "hoover" being a vacuum cleaner.

 

I don't think anyone refers to a photocopy as a Xerox here but we definitely do Google for things.

 

This is quite relevant -

 

[aphanic]

I wouldn't know, English not being my mother tongue and all, but we have that in Spanish as well, things having (sometimes radically) different meanings on the other side of the Atlantic; I'd say they gained those other meanings over time after repeated usage, maybe began as slang. A good place to pose the question however could be the Stack Exchange for English, perhaps you get some good answers there too

 

Your question reminded me of a book on crazy Spanish idioms and their origins, Con dos huevos from Héloïse Guerrier and David Sánchez. It's written in Spanish, English and French (all in the same book) and it names the idiom (with a direct translation to the other two languages), explains what it means and has an illustration accompanying it.

 

Here, two examples in case you find them funny or interesting:

 

Spoiler

 

 

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Here is an interesting one for you, what do you call this in America?

 

One thing is for sure, we can't agree on this in the UK! 😅

 

[Guest]

On 23/08/2021 at 21:21, InsaneNutter said:

Here is an interesting one for you, what do you call this in America?

 

One thing is for sure, we can't agree on this in the UK! 😅

 

I'm still convinced that a lot of these are either made up or haven't been used for 100 years or something!

[dipsylalapo Supervisor]

On 23/08/2021 at 21:21, InsaneNutter said:

Here is an interesting one for you, what do you call this in America?

 

One thing is for sure, we can't agree on this in the UK! 😅

 

image snip

Ah man cob! I'm from the East Midlands and when I said cob to my wife from the South she didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I've now lived in the South long enough to start calling it roll. 😂

[+InsaneNutter MVC]

Back when I was in Uni we ended up having a debate on the correct name for a "Teacake".

 

I called it a Teacake, then got some funny looks. My friend from Nottingham called it a Cob and another friend from Surrey called it a Bap! It then turns out someone else also called it a Barm, just to confuse matters even more 😂

[SnoopZ]

Basically America took our English and ######ed it up, and they talk funny. 🤐

[TCA]

On 24/08/2021 at 04:42, SnoopZ said:

Basically America took our English and ######ed it up, and they talk funny. 🤐

Not really. We used too! It’s still English it’s just non-Rhotic. It kept changing over the years/decades.

[FloatingFatMan]

There's no such thing as "British" English. There's English and there's American English.  Just tagging "American" in front tells you it's not the same thing. 

 

As for spelling... Well, America decided to go their own way before many spellings for formalised, so they stuck with the "make it up as you go" method.

 

Honestly though, the differences don't really bother me.  What DOES is that though most Brits know the American differences and spellings just fine, the same cannot be said for many Americans!

[Nick H. Supervisor]

On 26/08/2021 at 07:50, FloatingFatMan said:

Honestly though, the differences don't really bother me.  What DOES is that though most Brits know the American differences and spellings just fine, the same cannot be said for many Americans!

I think that depends. Here in Switzerland for example, you have quite a lot of Americans that have moved over. These Americans know the differences without an issue because they have travelled outside of their own continent.

 

Also, think about the amount of American film and tv that gets distributed around the world. The amount of British film and tv distributed is miniscule. Which is a shame, there are some great shows that people end up missing out on - and I don't mean Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and all that rubbish.

[FloatingFatMan]

On 26/08/2021 at 07:11, Nick H. said:

I think that depends. Here in Switzerland for example, you have quite a lot of Americans that have moved over. These Americans know the differences without an issue because they have travelled outside of their own continent.

 

Also, think about the amount of American film and tv that gets distributed around the world. The amount of British film and tv distributed is miniscule. Which is a shame, there are some great shows that people end up missing out on - and I don't mean Eastenders, Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and all that rubbish.

Movies yes, but there are quite a lot of British shows available in the US...

[Jim K Global Moderator]

On 23/08/2021 at 15:21, InsaneNutter said:

Here is an interesting one for you, what do you call this in America?

 

One thing is for sure, we can't agree on this in the UK! 😅

 

Those are buns...as illustrated.  The North is correct. 

[jnelsoninjax]

On 26/08/2021 at 01:50, FloatingFatMan said:

There's no such thing as "British" English. There's English and there's American English.  Just tagging "American" in front tells you it's not the same thing. 

 

As for spelling... Well, America decided to go their own way before many spellings for formalised, so they stuck with the "make it up as you go" method.

 

Honestly though, the differences don't really bother me.  What DOES is that though most Brits know the American differences and spellings just fine, the same cannot be said for many Americans!

So the correct term would be American English (what I speak and spell with) vs "English" which one might argue is the more proper way of speaking/spelling? Is that a fair assessment? Does anyone know when 'American' English took off and became it's own (i.e. dropping the U's)?

[Jim K Global Moderator]

On 26/08/2021 at 07:53, jnelsoninjax said:

So the correct term would be American English (what I speak and spell with) vs "English" which one might argue is the more proper way of speaking/spelling? Is that a fair assessment? Does anyone know when 'American' English took off and became it's own (i.e. dropping the U's)?

You can thank Noah Webster...

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Noah-Webster-American-lexicographer

 

Some of his suggestions didn't stick though...like "tung" vs. "tongue" ... thankfully 

https://www.bbcamerica.com/anglophenia/2014/05/america-drop-u-british-spellings

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

On 26/08/2021 at 08:45, Jim K said:

Those are buns...as illustrated.  The North is correct. 

I would also accept roll (but I did live in UK for a while - maybe I picked it up there)

 

Muffin is VERY different and the rest of those name make no sense to me...

[FloatingFatMan]

On 26/08/2021 at 13:53, jnelsoninjax said:

So the correct term would be American English (what I speak and spell with) vs "English" which one might argue is the more proper way of speaking/spelling? Is that a fair assessment? Does anyone know when 'American' English took off and became it's own (i.e. dropping the U's)?

Friendly jibes about illiterate yanks aside...   I would argue that both are proper English, for each nation individually.  You have your way and we have ours, as it should be.  As long as we can understand each other, and unite against the insipient cretinism that is "leet speak", all is good!

On 26/08/2021 at 14:08, E.Worm Jimmy said:

I would also accept roll (but I did live in UK for a while - maybe I picked it up there)

 

Muffin is VERY different and the rest of those name make no sense to me...

Originally I'm from the Midlands (Nottinghamshire to be exact), and where I grew up, a "cob" is a crusty top roll, and a roll is a soft bread roll...

[+Random Stranger Subscriber¹]

On 26/08/2021 at 09:09, FloatingFatMan said:

Friendly jibes about illiterate yanks aside...   I would argue that both are proper English, for each nation individually.  You have your way and we have ours, as it should be.  As long as we can understand each other, and unite against the insipient cretinism that is "leet speak", all is good!

Originally I'm from the Midlands (Nottinghamshire to be exact), and where I grew up, a "cob" is a crusty top roll, and a roll is a soft bread roll...

Leet speak - does it even exists?

 

As someone who originally jumped from BBS'es to first AOL dial up CDs with free codes and then started using IRC - l33t speak was all the rage back then...

 

But as far as I can see - it is almost gone now- almost extinct.

[BritBronco]

I'm from Wigan originally, but have lived in the US for 17 years so far. My kids and wife still complain at me for pronouncing vitamin, garage and yogurt correctly (its the hill I will die on). I do enjoy switching pronunciations of schedule sometimes in the same conversation most people tend not to notice.

[Astra.Xtreme]

This is one of my favorites:

 

Grey - e-->Europe

Gray - a-->America

[Guest]

On 24/08/2021 at 08:32, InsaneNutter said:

Back when I was in Uni we ended up having a debate on the correct name for a "Teacake".

 

I called it a Teacake, then got some funny looks. My friend from Nottingham called it a Cob and another friend from Surrey called it a Bap! It then turns out someone else also called it a Barm, just to confuse matters even more 😂

I can accept cob, bap (if I'm feeling cheeky) or roll, but teacake?! GTFO

[Guest]

On 26/08/2021 at 14:41, BritBronco said:

I'm from Wigan originally, but have lived in the US for 17 years so far. My kids and wife still complain at me for pronouncing vitamin, garage and yogurt correctly (its the hill I will die on). I do enjoy switching pronunciations of schedule sometimes in the same conversation most people tend not to notice.

"thigh dah min" "gah raj" "yo gert"