Florida Guide > Miscellaneous
Talk American
Considering that we are able to easily understand the basic “ English” that our fellow Americans talk there are lots of differences in many of their words and phrases.
Words that we use that have a totally different meaning in American, .
Lets go through some of the most common examples, our cars have a boot where as theirs have a trunk, we call the stuff that we fill the cars with, petrol or diesel from petrol stations they fill theirs with gas from the gas station. Similarly we would press the accelerator they would put their foot on the gas!
We go on holiday and Americans take a vacation. They simply do not understand us when we tell the time if we say a quarter past or a quarter to the hour because they always use the minutes and say 15 minutes past or for example 6. 45 and not quarter to 7 where as it would take us quarter of an hour to do some thing it would take an American 15 minutes, they do not have fortnights they have 2 weeks.
Some things are quite comical and the meanings to some things are totally different to ours, for reasons I won’t go into never ask an American for a rubber if you want an eraser ! ! it might make you blush!
The word guys is used for both male and females and it’s Mom and not Mum. Babies sleep in cribs not cots and we push them around in buggies they have strollers.
While outside we have our barbecues on the patio and the Americans use the deck, our rubbish bins are their trashcans. Our cookers would be stoves and a hob a range. The bedrooms have closets instead of wardrobes and our bedside tables are side tables to our US friends.
It is fascinating to hear all the differences and can sometimes be a bit confusing.
Our Autumn is their Fall and when they are out they would ask for the restroom and not the toilet
Fizzy drinks are all sodas and chocolates are candies, lemonade is not the fizzy sort that we expect but the still variety that you would have made from lemons! Chips are fries and crisps are chips, many a time have I ended up with a very odd expression from the waiter as he served my meal with crisps on my plate when I thought I was getting chips ! !
You soon get used to it and now I am proud to say I speak fluent American!
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