so today's lesson super simple looking at five words five words that when said in
the UK absolutely fine quite acceptable but if you are using them well not just in the USA in
America but also with an American speaker they could land you in a bit of hot water
meaning trouble so the last that I'm going to share with you is a faux pas an error that I
have made with language and an American that I really think was potentially very offensive
and certainly quite rude so I want to share my experience with you as well there and I would
love you to share any stories that you have where you have made a similar error a simple
case of using a word that in British English is perfectly acceptable perfectly okay to use
but with Americans it might not be the right thing to say so let's have a look five super
simple basic words that really could cause a little bit of offense foreign [Music]
rubber now you can make this even worse by asking someone have you got a big rubber I need a large
rubber now ordinarily in the UK this is not a problem in the UK a rubber is an eraser when
you've written something in pencil and you want to remove it from the paper you can use a rubber
but in American English a rubber is not referring to an eraser something that you use at school
at work it's referring to a condom yes so if you ask for a large rubber as well then you're really
going to land yourself in hot water this is such a small difference in language but rather than
offend it would probably be quite entertaining if you make this mistake but still depending on the
situation if you're at work you might not want to make this mistake so just be aware in British
English rubber in American English eraser number two a word that actually we use both versions
of in the UK but probably more commonly used referring to a pacifier in American English or a
dummy in British English so I have a two-year-old son he had a dummy when he was younger and that
was perfectly acceptable but dummy in American English means stupid it's more commonly used
to refer to a stupid person in the UK we would normally call someone that's stupid an idiot uh
either way it's pretty offensive um but just so that you're wearing case there's any confusion
that's the difference so you don't want to be asking for a dummy if you're in America you'd
be asking for somebody who's stupid has anyone seen a dummy around here has anyone seen an idiot
right number three now only enough I knew what the American word meant but actually
didn't know what the British version meant so hooker when I say hookah what do you think of
yeah I think most of us would probably think of this as referring to a prostitute however in rugby
a sport traditionally played well everywhere um we're not too bad at it in the UK the Welsh are
pretty good as well but essentially a hookah is a position in a rugby team right so hookah is a
forward who wears the jersey number two they're in the front row of the scrum and their primary
role in the scrum is to hook the ball with their feet apparently um if you know anything
about rugby you will probably understand what I said better than what I did so hookah prostitute
most commonly used in America but also in the UK and in rugby it's simply a position that's played
write a number four now I think this is particularly useful because you could be insulting
someone if you said wow I didn't realize your dad's loaded or your parents are loaded now if you
say this in America then your friend might think that you're talking about their parents being
drunk okay that they've drunk too much alcohol that they're intoxicated so in the UK however we
actually use loaded to refer to someone being rich it's colloquial it's slang if someone's loaded
they have a lot of money you might see someone with a particularly expensive car or I don't
know expensive jewelry clothes designer clothes whatever it might be and say wow they look loaded
but if you say this in America you're suggesting that they're drunk which could be insulting it
certainly confusing so I would love to know any Americans out there or speakers of American
English would you confuse that would you think if I said loaded I'm referring to someone being
drunk or Rich I'm curious to know how familiar American English speakers are with the term loaded
in English right and number five there's a little bit of a story to go with this I hope you enjoy I
moved to Portugal a year ago and I initially met a very lovely woman with a son the same age as mine
we met for coffee we took the children with us and her son was playing on the floor he was
walking around you know as toddlers do wobbling about but he was picking up lots of things
um and one of the things he was picking up off the floor were what I referred to as fagbutts
so this is me speaking quite casually using English slang now an American when they hear that
[ __ ] butts there's two things going on here but okay can refer to the base of the cigarette the
end of the cigarette that's been discarded that's been thrown away and [ __ ] out of [ __ ] as well
but in this case I'm referring just to [ __ ] uh is actually a very derogatory disgusting term to
refer to someone who is homosexual who's gay it's a word that I would absolutely hate anyone to use
I would never use it to refer to somebody in this way it's disgusting it's a horrible horrible word
but in my innocence with my English colloquial English slang I referred to a cigarette as a
[ __ ] which is perfectly normal in the UK but in America it would be a derogatory name
for a gay person so not a word you want to use a word that could be highly embarrassing with the
wrong people and certainly offensive so [ __ ] butt okay of course also referring [ __ ] the
gay part and then but referring to bottom uh ass in the UK we'd often say ass in the slang
um in America I think you say ass but but is also bottom so I said [ __ ] but meaning
this but the connotations uh the imagery that it conjured was probably something quite different
so embarrassing for me humorous thankfully for my friend but still something to be aware of so
let me know have you made these mistakes with any of the words I've just shared or is there another
word that I have missed an English word that's perfectly innocent in the UK but in America but
not buttocks or fagbutt but in America could be a very offensive rude or humorous do share comment
below if there's a story to go with it I would love to hear more right so simple lesson but
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