Kevin's Watch

The contingent of E-festers who went to Santa Fe after the fest was pretty diverse, English-speaker-wise. We Americans found ourselves having to translate pretty often for at least one other Watcher (*cough*Iolanthe*cough*).

I know this has come up in other threads around the Watch, often in the Galley. So I thought we ought to start a Brit/American English dictionary, just to have it all in one place.

Here are the ones I can remember off the top of my head. American term is first, then UK (because, of course, the American term is the correct one ). Feel free to add your own!

eggplant -- aubergine
zucchini -- courgette
curb -- kerb
tire (the rubber thing on a wheel) -- tyre

From the top of my head:

cell - mobile
faucet - tap
subway - underground
soccer - football
sidewalk - pavement
cellar - basement
chips - crisps
fries - chips
counterclockwise - anticlockwise
cookie - biscuit
suspenders - braces
cotton candy - candyfloss
parking lot - car park
movie theater - cinema
movie - film
drugstore - chemist
store - shop
driver's license - driving license
cross walk - zebra crossing

And zillions more.

(car) trunk - (car) boot
back yard - garden

There were loads of others but can't think of them at the moment.

Highway - Motorway

(While serving as the Andelain Taxi Service, I purposefully changed the voice on my GPS from female US English to female UK English.)

I wondered why Iolanthe looked at me funny from time to time. Turns out, she didn't understand a damn thing I said.

But I did! Most of the time.

I think your accents are diametrically opposed.

Interstate highway -- dual carriageway (tho I guess England wouldn't have "interstates" anyhow)

I forgot about the trunk/boot thing.

That doesn't seem quite right, ali. A dual carriageway is pretty much just a road with two lanes each side, where the interstate seems more specific (maybe more like motorways)?

Highway = Motorway = Autobahn
(except the Autobahn is really more like the other two on steroids.)

aliantha wrote:The contingent of E-festers who went to Santa Fe after the fest was pretty diverse, English-speaker-wise. We Americans found ourselves having to translate pretty often for at least one other Watcher (*cough*Iolanthe*cough*).

I know this has come up in other threads around the Watch, often in the Galley. So I thought we ought to start a Brit/American English dictionary, just to have it all in one place.

I miss Stonemaybe...

I'm Murrin wrote:That doesn't seem quite right, ali. A dual carriageway is pretty much just a road with two lanes each side, where the interstate seems more specific (maybe more like motorways)?

Interstates are limited access roads modeled after the Autobahn. Eisenhower was impressed by the latter's design and pushed for the U.S system to be modeled on it. The official name of the interstates are the Eisenhower Interstate System.

I guess a dual carriageway would be called a divided highway in the US. Our interstates are limited-access divided highways.