Unlocking the disconnect between Americans & Brits

[Roy Hersh]

What a great page this is. I can now refer back here, anytime I am clueless about what one of our friends in the UK is saying. Amazing how different the English language can be, depending on what side of the Atlantic one resides.

Enjoy this:

http://www.effingpot.com/slang.shtml

[Rob C.]

Comprehensive. Is there a reciprocal one?!

When i lived in NY, i remember being very suprised at the quizzical looks when i called someone a prat. References to "lift" (as opposed to elevator) and "mobile" as opposed to cell also sometimes caused confusion.

The difference between ground floor (UK) and 1st floor (US) also had caught me out a few times!

[Roy Hersh]

As would asking for someone to put a case of wine in your boot.

[Cynthia J]

I have been asked to explain: a gas hob is a cooktop or stove which runs on natural gas. I like the link posted - good list, brings back fond memories of the first time a few of them were tried on me... like the night I was told I was the dog's bollocks.

[Carl D]

Most of those make perfect sense to me - must be from watching too much Monty Python and Benny Hill in my younger years...

[John M.]

In college in a physics lab a Brit exchange student asked some girls if he borrow their rubber--you can image what ensued--every one laughed (but the girls) until they realized he just wanted to borrow an eraser.

Translation for the Brits: in America a rubber is a condom.

[Rob C.]

Translation for the Brits: in America a rubber is a condom.

I think this is pretty universal, and the in-joke was well played out in my school at least.

In particular if there was anyone in a class called John or Jonathan, you could bet that they'd be subjected to "Can i borrow a rubber, Johnny?" every now and again! Although one enterprising English teacher made the most of it and seized the opportunity to introduce us to Lady Chatterley's Lover and D.H. Lawrence after none of us could actually explain why it was so funny to ask Jonathan in particular. Good times.

[Derek T.]

And we mustn't forget the old classic "a kick in the fanny" - a very different outcome on each side of the pond

[Moses Botbol]

As would asking for someone to put a case of wine in your boot.

Not if you have a Jag.

[Phyllis D]

And we mustn't forget the old classic "a kick in the fanny" - a very different outcome on each side of the pond

At least they both refers to south of the waist.