Tuesday 13 November 2012

British versus American word meanings

Third in my columns for BBC America's "Mind the Gap" web site, is a piece about how we may have the same words on either side of the Pond, but they often don't have the same meaning.

Pop over and have a butcher's. 

8 comments:

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  2. Since Son#2 goes to an international school with a British division, he runs into some of these quite often. I wrote a post last year about his misunderstanding of the word, 'revise,' when he was told by his teacher to 'revise' for an upcoming exam and assumed he was exempt since he hadn't written anything that needed revision. Lesson learned: AE: revise= to edit or re-write something that has already been written. BE: revise= (among other things)to study for an exam. Sigh.

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  3. Oh yes, crikey - that's rather a tough lesson. Not many people know, but there are enough differences between British and American English to cause problems.

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  4. That post is extremely helpful. Since I've begun blogging, I've "met" quite a few folks from "across the Pond" and it constantly amazes me at the differences we have in the same language.

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  5. "I'm good" confused me for a while. It is used by Americans to decline an offer, and is used in the sense of, "I'm fine without". In the UK, being good for something can mean the opposite, that you are up for it.

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  6. Oooh, yes. Good one Paul. Forgot about that. When I say "I'm fine thanks" I mean "No thanks" and that sometimes confuses Americans for some reason.

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  7. OOh, love that you are writing for the Beeeb! Well done you!

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