Americans may enjoy this.
 

I found this quite fun and thought some of the americans here may enjoy it.

http://www.americanexpats.co.uk/very%20british.htm

:-)

A cookie isn't a biscuit and a biscuit isn't a cookie.

If we ask for a cookie, we mean the American style thingy.

I don't think Americans have what we call biscuits, and an American biscuit is something utterly different.

What the Americans call biscuits are scones. What the Americans call oatmeal we call Polyfilla.

I love oatmeal for breakfast, but the question is, am I having oatmeal or polyfilla? :-)

That was interesting, Mischka, thanks for sharing! My daughter had to keep a journal when she missed school to go to London, and one of the things she did was to write the American word and the British counterpart~"elevator" and "lift" "line" and "queue" She came up with quite a few!

boot and trunk, cubbyhole and glove compartment, fender and bumper, faucet and tap........

It's skinny milk, not skim! I could have used this link before I moved here :-)

The one that cracks me up is when the ATM machine displays the message "We are busy dealing with your request" whilst I'm waiting for my money. I always feel apologetic as though I'm inconveniencing the machine.

Glove compartment is glove box, cubby hole is any kind of niche or a good tucking things away spot.

I've asked this before:

If what we call a caravan, you call a trailer, what do you call what we call a trailer?

"ATM machine"

Cashpoint if you don't mind :)

Oh thanks Lizziea06, now I'll never feel the same about the atm again. I shall forever feel as if I am intruding on his/her time. Is there a "please sir can I have some more" button?

Also, we Americans needn't imagine that everything referred to as a "scheme" is some sort of trick or conspiracy--as it is back home.

JR, perhaps you could describe the thing you refer to as a trailer?

They don't have trailers, do they?

If they want to take a hundredweight of garden waste to the recycling tip (yes I know, but indulge me) they just chuck it in the pickup.

Though what's the generic term for those U-Haul things you hire, stick behind the boot of your car, put all your possessions into then drive across country with to a new life?

Oh. I've only ever heard it called a U-haul.

If I moved to the UK, I would quickly start using the UK terms -- I find them charming.

Yep, it's a two wheeled box, generally full of junk, that you tow behind your veehickle.

"ATM machine"

What exactly stands the "M" in ATM for?

Oops (for them):

>>saying 'h' as if spelled 'haytch'<<
Not in most parts of Britain, and never in RP or "BBC English": in Ireland and Australia, taken to be a sign of a Catholic education.

>> Referral to wheat bread as 'brown' bread.<<
What is white bread made of in America, may I ask?

American expats don't always know what they are talking about re the bread. I think all bread is made of wheat flour to some extent, although you certainly an add in other kinds of flour (like soy or rye, etc.).

But what that must be referring to as brown bread is American whole wheat bread (I suppose, I don't know what brown bread is in the UK). So it's the whole part that is missing. A lot of it is the bleaching, also, that affects the color, but I guess that goes with the kind of flour, you don't ever find bleached whole wheat flour (do you? don't think so)

I think....

Brown bread was originally made with unbleached flour.

An ancestor who was in France in WWI had never seen "white bread" before.

Then the hippies came to power, and we got wholemeal, which is unbleached and includes the husks etc and is good for your bottom.

Then wholegrain, granary and the whole panopoly we have now.

J_R_Hartley: &quot;<i>A cookie isn't a biscuit and a biscuit isn't a cookie.</i>&quot;

The &quot;Biscuit thing&quot; gets a bit muddled. What you call a digestive biscuit or a ginger biscuit or a - well you get the idea -- an American would call a cookie.

But a whole meal biscuit or a water biscuit - an American would call a cracker.