AMERICAN vs BRITISH English Words Vocabulary Differences

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to introduce some

common differences in vocabulary between

British English and American English so

for this lesson yes I’m saying British

English but some of the words in the

British English column are also used in

other places outside the UK you might

hear this in like Australian English or

Scottish English or Irish English but I

just want to introduce some different

vocabulary words you might hear in

different parts of the world from

different speakers of English so let’s

get started

okay first one over here let’s begin

with the British English word lift the

British English word is lift the

American English word we use is elevator

elevator so take the lift or take the

elevator in American English which I

speak the next difference is the word

petrol petrol so petrol is the British

English word the American English word

is gas or gasoline so gasoline is quite

long we shorten it to gas but gas in

American English and petrol in British

English have the same meaning okay next

one the British English word flat as a

noun used as a noun not we’re not used

as an adjective like a flat area or a

flat space as a noun is the equivalent

equals American English apartment so we

use the word apartment to talk about a

place we live the apartment we rent in

British English the word flat is used or

can be used okay next the next key

difference then the American word we use

the word vacation for this but you

you’ll hear a holiday used in British

English to talk about time away from

work to take a holiday we say to take a

vacation in American English so holiday

is the British English word for this

also the next word for Americans we use

the word parking lot to talk about a

place to park our car

the British English word is car park so

let’s find a car park or where is a car

park the Americans will look for a

parking lot

little bit different okay another

interesting difference British English

you might hear the word chemist used for

what we say in American English as a

drug store or pharmacy we use drugstore

or pharmacy in American English to talk

about a place where we get medicine

medicine or maybe everyday everyday it’s

small like life goods or household goods

perhaps too but usually medicine so

chemist is used in British English to

talk about this place okay let’s

continue on to the next group the first

two here on this side are both about

trash are both about rubbish so when you

talk about what we say in American

English as the garbage can or the trash

can you might hear dust bin you might

hear this part bin as well by itself

where’s the bin or the dust bin or maybe

rubbish bin as well this relates to the

next word rubbish as a noun we say

garbage or trash in American English

British English also uses the word

rubbish so rubbish is not commonly used

in American English but very commonly

used in British English okay another one

is the word motorway motorway so

motorway in British English equals in

American English highway or freeway so

this is the high speed road like the

lots of cars travel on usually quite

large so we say highway or freeway in

American English British English uses

motorway alright another may be

confusing one sometimes is the

difference between torch and flashlights

actually there’s no difference but to

even American English speakers this can

cause some confusion

so torch just means a flashlight so that

handheld light that you can use the

British English word is torch the

American English word is a flashlight

flashlight okay next one another

important one to keep in mind the word

in British English for the clothing you

wear under your regular clothes is pants

we can use the word pants to talk about

our underwear we use underwear

in American English but pants can be

used in British English to talk about

that so in American English like what

I’m wearing now today I would say pants

I would describe these as pants in

American English but this could be

understood in British English to mean

underwear if I say pants so please be

careful about your use of pants and

underwear in American and British

English okay next one the next one is

tube in British English and subway in

American English so these two words they

refer to the public transportation

system underground so Americans use the

subway like the New York subway system

in London is B - you can use the I mean

we can use subway but tube is also used

to refer to the subway system in London

so the tube last one I want to mention

since we talked about tube here is a

verb difference to mind to mind

something to mind something is used more

commonly in British English we can use

it in American English but it’s not so

typical we use to be careful of or to

watch out for something so I included

this because if you have visited London

you might have heard the announcements

on the subway platform that say mind the

gap mind the gap between the train and

the platform so we wouldn’t say this in

American English we would probably say

watch your step watch your step

so I meaning be careful of where you put

your feet so in British English in

London in the tube very example we say

or we here to mind the gap mind the gap

be careful of the gap between the train

and the platform

so this is a verb difference here these

are some common nouns that you may hear

in British English or in American

English and they have the same meaning

we just use different vocabulary words

to describe them so I hope that this was

helpful for you and you can keep an eye

out for this the next time you’re

reading or listening to something that’s

in a kind of English that’s a bit

different from what you’ve studied

before so I hope that that was helpful

for you if you have any questions or

comments or want to try to make a

sentence with these please feel free to

do so in the comment section of this

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good English study tools thanks very

much for watching this lesson and I will

see you again soon bye

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