England VS America Five Different Verbs
hi i’m vanessa from speak English with
vanessa calm and one more time i’m here
with my friend Victoria hi from England
and I’m from America so today we have a
new topic five verbs that are different
in England and America and these aren’t
the most used everyday common verbs in
the whole world it’s just firms that I
noticed over the last week that were
used and I don’t necessarily use them
frequently so let’s get started number
one verb is psycho hmm so what is a good
sentence that you would use the word
cycle in I guess I would say I cycled to
work my cycle to school which means to
me I bike to work I ride my bike to work
yeah and if you want to know more about
biking in England we have another video
where Victoria talks about her awesome
job where she teaches kids about riding
bikes and you can click on the link and
watch that awesome video about
Victoria’s life and so you would say I
cycle to work I cycle to what and I
would say I bike to work yeah but
bicycle is the similar word so it’s not
too hard to understand yes you can
pretty much guess it just like you
wouldn’t say it but you’d still
understand me if I said I was like oh of
course yeah it just sounds very British
alright number two is nicht nicht
nicht what do you think that means next
well if I heard next I would think oh I
I nicked my car meaning I have a scratch
on my car we can say that as well
actually you’d like that does mean that
like this oh there’s a there’s a nick in
my brand new ceramic something I get
scratched life is a problem like this
something yeah something like a tiny
little nick out of it but there’s
another meaning in England that I would
not use yeah and it means to steal so
someone nicked my bike someone stole my
bike but the meaning is slightly
different to steal
you can you can kind of use it
interchangeably but when you say Nick
it is quite informal so if you were
going to the police with a statement you
wouldn’t say someone it’s my bike you
would be somebody stole my bike so it’s
more professional they say yeah or more
formal it’s more formal to say stuff but
also it means it’s kind of less
significant I mean you can still say it
for serious things like yes someone
stole my bike somebody you need my bike
somebody nicked my handbag that’s that’s
not insignificant but you can use in an
insignificant way so I think the pizza
out of the fridge hope you don’t mind
but if you said I stole the pizza it
sounds like serious I think I would say
oh I grabbed the pizza out of the fridge
for lunch I hope you don’t mind because
no you can’t have it I have it sure so
Nick is something that only young people
say because it’s informal or could
anybody say this I think anybody can say
it okay but because it’s informal by
default young people are probably more
likely to say because they’re most more
likely in informal situations yeah cool
all right let’s see number three is
phone me mmm okay this is a verb that
would be used how so instead of saying
call me maybe we would say phone me not
necessarily maybe but so yeah phone me
or you can even say ring me mmm
which I know you don’t use no I don’t
use me I would just say please call me
when you are free which we can’t say we
do say call me as well but you have
quite a few other words that we would
not use so you could say phone me ring
me drop me alive drop me a line I would
say that but it’s not in my personal
vocabulary but I think in America people
would not say that’s
quickly British but it is probably more
likely to be said here maybe than a
number I don’t know you’d probably say
it and you know drop me a lot ah sure
sure or you could say give me a bell
there I’ll give me a bell literally give
me about but it’s big obviously because
when your phone rings it sounds a little
bit like that’s really a boy take it
isn’t it we got poetic
very nice I’ve gotta move on to number
four number four is to let let in the
word let and of itself usually just
means hmm allow oh I let my dog I’ll go
outside I opened the door and the dog
walked outside I let the dog go outside
but this is a different kind of it’s the
same spelling but it’s a different
meaning for the word blood yeah
and this means to mint so we still use
the word to rent and we even use the
word to hire as well but the word to let
is use in a specific context of renting
houses
so Vanessa noticed this because she saw
lots of signs outside houses in London
that said to let outside of them and
I’ve always thought this is quite funny
because it looks a little bit like the
way to it that’s what I thought was
funny anyway so yeah that’s quite
crucial though if you’re coming to the
UK and you want to rent a house you can
say yes I’m renting but when it comes to
the official negotiations and who you
need to contact you don’t go to a
renting agent you go to a letting agent
so if you’re typing on Google letting
agency in London or in some other city
in the UK that is how you’ll find an
agency if you say another Americanism
then you won’t necessarily find now
you’re looking for you would you just
get lots of real estate places in the
u.s. yeah is there’s real estate so in
the u.s. were more likely to say rent
and you have said another one bonus word
number five point five four point four
is higher I would
never say I’m going to hire a cab or
higher attack so you mentioned that Oh
what you hire is only for people like
you can hire an employee when I can hire
a car and I have that around here yeah
you can hire a machinery you can hire
almost anything hi in the days when
Blockbuster Video is still around and
you could hire a video hmm and I would
just say rent you can rent a video yeah
you could rent it and that’s just the
flat word we would use for almost all
those situations all right final one
number 5 is come up top up top what does
that mean well we use this particularly
in the context of phones so if you have
a pay-as-you-go phones or not on a
monthly dough in a big contract a lot of
tourists might have this kind of plan
Magana you if you want to add credit or
add money your funds or whatever you
call it to your pot of money on your
phone on your SIM card and we call it
top-up like oh I need to top up my phone
where can I go to top up my friend
hmm that must been really important for
me when my phone is losing credit if I
only have one pound left on my phone I
need to go to a store and tell them can
i top up my phone here yeah but if I
said can I add credit to my phone I
think they would understand you probably
would but it wouldn’t be more accurate
to say can i top up my phone here mmm
that would be yes yes to wait to be
understood and that was just the very
typical phrase that is accepted phone
top up phone top up here in this shop
and I think can you use the same word
for your subway or tube card I’m topping
up my card would be the same or
definitely so if you have your oyster
card which is what you use in London and
you go into the station the first thing
you’d look for is where can I talk about
my Oyster card so that’s a really
important word for tourists because you
can top up your tube or subway card and
you can also top up your phone credit
which a lot of tourists have that kind
of plan yeah oh this have been very
helpful words rent you a house getting
the credit on your phone going to the
subway Mixel ends yeah well thanks so
much yeah well and I hope everyone out
there learned something as well if you
know any other words and you like to add
them please do and we can all learn
something new all right thanks so much
talk to you later