ONE language THREE accents UK vs. USA vs. AUS English

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and everyone and welcome back to english

with lucy i have got such a treat for

you today i’ve been excited about this

for such a long time

I am shortly going to welcome two lovely

guests who have generously given their

time to help teach you the differences

between Australian English American

English and British English this is

going to be a two-part series today we

are going to focus on vocabulary and

then in the next part of the video we

are focusing on pronunciation we may all

speak the same language English but we

have a very different accents and we

speak with different vocabularies so

this video is perfect for improving your

vocabulary but if you want to improve

your pronunciation and your listening

skills even further then I highly

recommend the special method of

combining reading books whilst listening

to their audiobook counterpart on

audible this is how you use the method

take a book that you have already read

in English or a book that you would like

to read in English I’ve got plenty of

recommendations down below in the

description box and read that book

whilst listening to the audiobook

version on audible reading alone will

not help you with your pronunciation

because English isn’t a strictly

phonetic language the way a word is

written in English may not give you much

indication at all as to how it’s

pronounced in English but if you listen

to a word at the same time as reading it

your brain will start making connections

and the next time you hear that word

you’ll know exactly how it’s spelt and

the next time you see that word written

down you’ll know exactly how it’s

pronounced it is such an effective

method and the best part is you can get

one free audio book that’s a 30 day free

trial on audible all you’ve got to do is

click on the link in the description box

and sign up I’ve got loads of

recommendations down there for you right

let’s get on with the lesson and welcome

our guests firstly I would like to

welcome Emma to the channel hey there

I’m Emma from the English YouTube

channel coming at you from Perth in

Western Australia and we also have

Vanessa hi I am Vanessa and I live in

North Carolina in the u.s. I run the

YouTube channel speak English with

Vanessa it’s so lovely to have Emma and

Vanessa on the channel

I’ve known Emma for a very very long

time four years now and I’ve recently

got to know Vanessa

both of them have fantastic YouTube

channels and all of their information is

in the description box if you want to

follow them so I have got some pictures

and Vanessa Emma and I are going to tell

you how we would say what’s in these

pictures in our own country you might be

surprised at some of the answers okay so

let’s start with this one in the u.s.

these are chips 100% just chips I can’t

believe you started with this one these

are chips we call these crisps crisps

the other word that you use lucy is the

most complicated word in the english

language to say so let’s just call them

chips and move along yeah I’ll give you

that one

crisps is a notoriously difficult word

for learners of English it’s the sound

at the end crisps you’ll find a lot of

people mispronouncing them as Crips

Crips when they should be crisps so here

is the next one and it gets even more

complicated because in the UK we call

these chips so in the US the cold

version is chips and in the UK the hot

version is chips let’s see it what

Vanessa has to say about this what does

she call them these are french fries I

know that they’re not really

French but we still call them french

fries or you can just say fries by

themselves the next one’s chips as well

right they’re hot chips hot chips oh my

god

hot trail Ian’s just caught everything

chips there it is worth noting that if

you go to England and you order fries or

french fries we know exactly what you

mean

okay next we have this one we call these

cookies or chocolate chip cookies

specifically okay they are biscuits

don’t really hear people saying cookie

yes two against one these for us are

biscuits as well and we would use cookie

to refer to an American style normally

chocolate chip cookie however if you use

the word biscuit in the United States

you might get something that you are not

expecting vanessa has more on this if

you ask someone do you have any biscuits

or I want a biscuit they would not give

you this instead they give you a savory

kind of fluffy type piece of bread a

biscuit is savory and a cookie is sweet

so that we have it if you fancy

something sweet with your coffee in

America don’t ask for a biscuit you will

be bitterly disappointed okay Vanessa

got very passionate about this next one

very passionate here is the picture

Vanessa seems to think that she knows

the absolute correct answer and she’s

even done research I did not expect Emma

and Vanessa to get books out for this

video I have the proof that my answer is

the most correct because you can see my

two-year-old son is obsessed with trucks

we have so many truck books let me read

to you what truck do you need a

tractor-trailer so this is also what I

would call it a tractor-trailer I might

call it a semi alright that yellow thing

is a truck so Vanessa thinks it’s a

tractor trailer and she’s very very sure

about it

in all of these books they call it a

tractor-trailer so we’re gonna go with

that one

that really tickled me Emma thinks it’s

a truck in the UK we would call this a

lorry a lorry it’s a truck whatever Emma

it’s a lorry okay what about this next

one what half the women got up here if

these girls all have bangs we would

definitely say Fringe bangs is probably

becoming more popular especially

colloquially so in the UK we definitely

call this a fringe and when I started

hearing the word bangs in movies and

things like that

I was really genuinely confused okay

what about this next one this is candy

they are lollies Lily’s Knollys that is

so cute

so in British English these are sweets

or sometimes if you’re talking to a

child they might call them sweeties

lollies for us are sweets on a stick

right what about this next one this is a

swimsuit some people might call it a

bathing suit you can also call this a

one-piece okay this one’s really funny

in Melbourne where I am from it’s really

covering to call them togs but no one

else in Australia really calls them togs

they call it swimmers in Sydney they

call them cozies or costumes but

generally it’s swimmers or bathers oh

gosh there’s another one bathers or

swimmers oh my word I did not expect to

receive so many different ways of saying

swimming costume this for us is a

swimming costume we can also say

one-piece and we can also shorten it

down to cozy I remember my mum say and

get your cozy on before my swimming

lessons when I was a child but that’s

quite a childish thing okay what about

this next one this is the forest

that is definitely a forest no it’s the

woods woods plural this is definitely

the woods I mean in general we say the

woods forest implies a huge huge area of

trees of woodland the wood sounds kind

of like something you might hear in an

old-fashioned fairy tale

yeah well Vanessa sometimes life in

England is like an old-fashioned fairy

tale I think a lot of Americans have

this vision of England as a place with

so much culture and history like a fairy

tale

and then they come over and they are

just so disappointed okay what about

this next one this is a bathroom you

might say it’s a restroom but it would

be really unusual to call a place that

actually has a bathtub a restroom

usually we use the term restroom for

public places that room is a bathroom

yeah it’s a bathroom

okay so Vanessa touched on restroom and

bathroom now we would never use the word

restroom in British English if we were

in a public place and we are looking for

a bathroom we would say toilet however

if there is a bath there like a bathtub

then yes we might say bathroom as well

but we would ask where’s the toilet if

you say where’s the toilet most people

in the US would just say it’s in the

bathroom

I mean she is not wrong the toilet is in

the bathroom there is also a slang word

which I use a lot which is the loo

where’s the loo I went to the States for

a business trip and I asked people where

the loo was and they were utterly

confused all right let’s move on to the

next this is an apartment this is mostly

cold an apartment we would never say

flat okay so in British English this is

a flat we have a block of flats I’ve

lived in many flats in my life we don’t

use the word

apartment okay the next one maybe the

picture wasn’t clear enough for this one

because Emma did get a bit confused but

she gave us all of the options good old

Emma this is a grocery store I’m not

exactly sure what I’m looking at in that

image but it could be a trolley it could

be an aisle or it could be a supermarket

a bingo it’s a supermarket for us as

well or we call it the shops I’m going

to the supermarket I’m going to the

shops the shops is more general it could

mean any type of shop we would never say

grocery store we might however say

grocers the grocer’s this is a shop that

just sells fruits and vegetables all

right

next one this is a comforter oh my god

how weird is the word comforter that’s

weird in Australia that’s called a

dinner I love that emma is saying that

the word comforter is weird and then she

goes to say that in Australia it’s a

dinner that’s weirder Emma

so in British English this is a duvet a

duvet which apparently Vanessa finds

weird say we will find each other weird

I didn’t know what a duvet was maybe I’m

very sheltered but I didn’t know what a

duvet was until I visited Europe we just

do not have those in the US okay I feel

there’s gonna be a lot of conflict about

this next one these are bell peppers

okay they’re capsicum red green yellow

capsicum no they’re just plain old

peppers red peppers green peppers and

yellow peppers capsicum what Latin this

is English okay another one that’s gonna

cause a bit of conflict

these are rain boots and also the jacket

that goes with it is a raincoat or a

rain jacket I guess in the u.s. we like

really clear straightforward names for

items like this rain boots what’s it for

it’s for the rain it’s very clear boots

for the rain I mean she’s not wrong it’s

American English is sometimes more

simplified than British English and this

is no bad thing really let’s see what

Emma has to say when it’s muddy and

rainy I would put my gum boots on to

walk around in the wet yeah I mean we

would we never say

gum boots I think I’ve heard my grandma

say it so it might be quite an

old-fashioned thing in British English

we say wellies or Willie boots are you

ready for this next one are you ready

because what Australians call these is

frankly shocking let’s hear from Vanessa

first these are flip-flops yeah

these are flip-flops Emma what do you

call them when we go to the beach in

Australia we wear Alf

thongs Alphonse it’s plural and we’re

talking about the shoes on our feet

there are thongs so I have to explain to

you what thongs what a thong is in

British English and American English a

song is like a g-string it’s a type of

underwear where there is just one string

at the back instead of more fabric if

Emma said to me can I borrow some thongs

I would probably lend herself but I’d be

a bit concerned okay

next one where would you go to fill up

your car this is a gas station where you

put gas into your car so when I fill up

my car I fill it up at the petrol

station good I am with Emma again on

this one

she’s redeeming herself after the thong

situation yes we also call this a petrol

station the fuel that we put into our

car is petrol I spent much of my

childhood confused but I was especially

confused by the fact that Americans put

gas into their car because I thought

well petrels

quit it turns out it’s just short for

gasoline now the next one’s quite

interesting I want to know what they

call a shop that only sells alcohol and

this is interesting because in America

their attitude towards alcohol is

slightly different we’re very open maybe

to open to alcohol in the UK and

Australia the alcohol is more controlled

by the government and the states in the

United States this is an ABC store which

I just learned because I just looked it

up it stands for alcohol beverage

controlled state so this is a story that

sells only alcohol and that last word

state is because it is run by the state

or run by the government now let’s see

what Emma calls it because I have heard

that Australians have some fun names for

places like these when I go and get a

bottle of wine I go to the bottle shop

which in Australia we also called the

bottle ooh bottle oh love it it would

sound so stupid in a British accent I’m

just going to the bottle oh do you need

anything awful oh yeah it only works

really when you pronounce your T’s as a

bottle Oh in British English we call

this an off license and off license okay

what about this next one I feel like I’m

going to get ganged up on here these are

pants pants pants old people might call

them trousers well excuse me I must be

very old then because these are hands

down trousers they are trousers we do

use the word pants to refer to

Underpants oh because they go under your

pants yeah maybe they are right my whole

life has been a lie underpants because

they go under your pants Oh under

trousers doesn’t work does it

well anyway these are trousers and I’m

not old ever yet now what do we call

this the little walking space beside a

road this is a sidewalk

the concrete beside the road where

people walk in Australia is called a

footpath interesting we don’t say either

of these we say pavement pavement now we

would never say sidewalk

we do say footpath but a footpath is

normally not beside a road a pavement is

just beside a road and a footpath is

anywhere else

okay another car-related one what do we

call this this is a highway or you could

call it an interstate a highway or maybe

a freeway in Australia ooh

we don’t say either of these either we

never say highway in in British English

interstate well we don’t have two dates

so that doesn’t work either freeway no

freeway sounds dangerous it sounds like

you can do whatever you want you’re just

free to drive however you like and thank

you so much to Emma and Vanessa for

coming on this channel and helping me to

make this video as I said before I’ve

left all of their information in the

description box make sure you watch the

other video in this two part series on

pronunciation so we’re going to be

focusing on the same words that are

pronounced differently in each accent

don’t forget to check out audible you

can get your free audiobook that’s a 30

day free trial all we’ve got to do is

click on the link in the description box

to sign up and don’t forget to connect

with me on all of my social media I’ve

got my facebook my Instagram and my

Twitter and I shall see you soon for

another video

you

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you