1) Mean. In the US, the word means mistreating something or someone as in 'that guy is mean with his dog', meaning he beats, does not care for or otherwise misbehaves toward his dog. In the UK it means 'cheap', such as 'that guy is so mean I am shivering in his living room!'.
2) "Spit the dummy". A UK phrase that needs explaining twice in the US: first, the word 'dummy' in this case means a baby's pacifier, not a stupid person. So the expression refers to someone who will not be pacified, such as when an infant will not take the pacifier but instead spits it out. It would mean having a temper tantrum in the US.
3) UK: 'That man was injured and so I took him to hospital'. In the US, it sounds like a sentence from a 2 year old who forgot 'the' or 'a' before hospital. Same thing with 'that is good value for money' which in the US would become 'that is a good value for the money'.
I believe Mike kicked this whole thing off by asking what Americans would think 'moving house' means, in another thread.
Brian
Nope I would say "That man was injured so I took him to A&E"O.k., what does A&E stand for? Ambulance & Emergency, Alcohol & Enema, etc. Arts & Entertainment (television network) is probably the most commonly known A&E in the U.S.
O.k., what does A&E stand for? Ambulance & Emergency, Alcohol & Enema, etc. Arts & Entertainment (television network) is probably the most commonly known A&E in the U.S.Accident & Emergency
O.k., what does A&E stand for? Ambulance & Emergency, Alcohol & Enema, etc. Arts & Entertainment (television network) is probably the most commonly known A&E in the U.S.
Accident & Emergency
Probably alcohol and enema. Their health care is "free" so they probably have to make a hospital visit painful in other ways. We just overcharge for the service and so do not need the enema.....
Brian
this is as good time as any to point out that the USA is the only place inthe world to write the date as MMDDYYY
Pretty much the rest of the world (whether civilized or not and with the exception of some tiny African country some Asian country or another that use both) uses either DDMMYYY or YYYYMMDD
Technically it's not free as it is paid for by General Taxation & National Insurance contributions.
https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/projects/nhs-in-a-nutshell/how-nhs-funded
Also more common now is being sent a bill after being involved in a road accident (although in theory you can claim back via your motor insurance.
http://www.trafficaccidentadvice.co.uk/who-pays-for-hospital-treatment-after-accident.html
Where they may apply a 'plaster' to cover a cut or wound. Here in the US, we use plaster to cover our walls and ceilings, and a bandage to cover a wound (although we often call the small, self- adhesive bandages "Band Aids" after a common brand name of such bandages).
I believe you call, or used to call vacuuming the rug 'Hoovering' after the Hoover brand of vacuum. See if an American walked in an Aunt Bessie said 'Come on in Lad, I am just finishing up Hoovering', said American would watch intently to try and discover just what 'Hoovering' might be and whether or not he / she really wanted to watch Aunt Bessie actually doing it.
Brian
Liberals, cover your ears: Nothing is ever free, but we humans just love to mask or forget that fact entirely. OK Liberals, you can listen now. I told Mike that in America, the government is going to pass legislation that will force clouds to rain money down on everyone.
Brian
I believe the best system is the one the Chinese (and perhaps others) use, which is YYYY/MM/DD/Hour/Minute/Second/second decimals. This system cannot be confused and can be lengthened and shortened with no modification needed. One can specify the year or the microsecond of an event with one unchanged system.
Brian
The guy in the office next to me is from the UK and we do this a lot. Some of the more obvious ones are:
elevator lift
cigarette fag
doofus numpty
tire tyre