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hi everybody my name is alicia 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 not used as
an adjective like a flat area or a flat
space
as a noun uh
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
and next the next key difference then uh
the american word we use the word
vacation for this uh 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 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 americans will look for a parking
lot a little bit different
okay another interesting difference uh
british english you might hear the word
chemist used for what we say in american
english as drugstore or pharmacy we use
drugstore or pharmacy in american
english to talk about a place where we
get medicine
medicine or maybe every day
every day 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 or both about uh 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 that lots of cars travel on usually
quite large so we say highway or freeway
in american english british english uses
motorway
alright another maybe confusing one
sometimes is the difference between
torch and flashlight 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
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
uh in london it's the tube 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
meaning be careful of where you put your
feet so uh in british english in london
in the tube for example we say are 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 video of course make
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english study tools thanks very much for
watching this lesson and i will see you
again soon bye
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