British vs American English Differences | English Listening Practice

August 27, 2025•23 min read

British vs American English: What are the Differences?

Welcome back to another episode of the Peach Teach English Podcast! In this episode, I’m joined by Clare from Wales as we dive into the fascinating differences between British and American English. From vocabulary and spelling to pronunciation, slang, and funny cultural misunderstandings, this conversation is full of insights that will help you understand how English changes depending on where it’s spoken.

This transcript is perfect for intermediate and advanced learners who want to practice listening comprehension, expand vocabulary, and get used to real spoken English. You’ll not only improve your English skills but also gain cultural awareness that makes communication smoother in real-life situations.

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📝 Episode 31 Transcript:

00:00 Introduction & Guest Introduction

Welcome back to the Peach Teach English podcast. I'm Frankie Memer, your host, and today I have Clare from Wales, and we're going to be talking about American versus British English. Can you introduce yourself, Clare? Hi. Yeah. So my name is Clare. I know Frankie 'cause we both used to be English teachers together back in Colombia.

I'm British, but then I moved to America a few years ago, so I'm aware of both the British and American English and how they differ. And how long have you been in the US, and why did you move there? I've been in the US for about two years now, and I moved because my husband is American, so he's from Massachusetts, so we're in Massachusetts now.

And what city are you located in? Near Worcester, which is like the second biggest city in Massachusetts, but about an hour away from Boston. Okay, cool.

00:53 Life in the USA vs the UK

And how does that compare to life in the UK? I think if you move country and they speak the same language, it's obviously an advantage.

But I think one of the big things being from like Europe is like car culture. You've probably experienced that too. Car culture in America: if you're going somewhere, you are driving. And in the UK, we use more public transport or even taxis.

That one was difficult to adjust to. Are you saying that like it's difficult adjusting to not having as many public transportation options? Yeah.

If you don't have a car, you're gonna struggle to get a lot of places. Outside of New York City, maybe some of the New England area might have some public transport going on, but I still think it's very limited compared to like, here in Medellin, where we lived together or in many places over in Europe.

If you don't have a car, you're gonna need to Uber everywhere, which can get very expensive. On the positive side, the weather's much better. In Massachusetts, you have the four Seasons. You have fall or autumn as I would say, which is beautiful. You have a really good summer, it's really hot, and then in winter you have the snow. People go skiing.

02:10 Adapting to American English

You said fall, but generally in British English, you would say autumn. Yeah. So, I'm having to adapt. Do you find yourself saying some things more American than you had before?

It's funny, for a while I was stubborn. No, I'm gonna use British English, but now I work in a school. I work with teenagers. I need to use American spelling or it'll be confusing if I'm using British spelling with American students and American colleagues.

And I think that's really key because at the end of the day, language is about effective communication, right? And it doesn't mean one is more correct than the other, but if the words you're choosing to use are confusing people, it could be more helpful to just adapt to where you are currently.

Or you might just sound funny and then people laugh at you. A bit of both things that happening. For example, when I went to your wedding in the UK. I could have asked, Where's the bathroom? But I have been taught that's not the common word used, and maybe some people would giggle about it or something.

So perhaps it's better just to say, Where's the toilet? That's what I said. I don't know exactly what the most common way to ask. So it's funny, American English is definitely influencing British English. So now I think it's becoming more common to say, Where's the bathroom? But like my parents, they would say, Where's the toilet?

And are there other variations that are used? You wouldn't ask a stranger, but more colloquially Where's the loo? And of course, sometimes in American English, we would also say, Where's the restroom?

Is that one used? No, that one's quite American. I think we laugh. You're not gonna take a bath. You're not going to rest. What are you talking about?

04:04 Measurement Systems

And what about terms of measurements? How is that different for you? Yeah the UK, where I'm from, it's in the middle. We use a lot of metric, but we also still use some imperial, the system that you guys use in America. For the weather, we're using centigrade only. But then, for weighing things, it depends. Am I doing a science experiment or a recipe?

I'm going to use grams, kilograms. But if I'm talking about myself, I'm gonna say, oh, I weigh so many stones or pounds. Or if I'm talking about my height, I would say, Oh, I'm five foot nine. I wouldn't say I am one meter. I don't even know what it is. And if we're talking about drinks, we would call this, pint glass.

I don't know how many millimeters it would be. So we're in the middle. We use a bit of both. Are there any of the measurements we use in the US that are confusing for you? Yeah, the temperature took me a long time. You guys obviously use Fahrenheit, and that one is difficult because if I wanna work that out in my head, I think it's like you need to like minus 17 and times by three. I don't even remember. So to do the calculation in my head, it's not possible for me anyway.

I completely understand, and I think that's something that English learners might struggle with. It's not even just learning the words; it's learning the measurement system that we're using, and then you're throwing in numbers and different systems.

It can really get all jumbled up in your head. So it takes time. And living here in Colombia, I think I pretty much only use Celsius in my daily life. I'll even talk to my family and not think about it, and say Celsius.

05:51 Driving Differences

And Clare, what about driving on the opposite side of the road? This is another difference.

In the UK, we usually use a manual. So we have first gear, second gear, and in America, automatics are much more common. In the UK, I shift with my left hand, and oh, now I need to shift with my right hand.

Is that gonna be so complicated? But it's funny, your brain, I think, flips quite easily. It happened automatically. I didn't need to think about it too much, but how people drive is quite different. I think in the UK we're famous for, we really like rules. We have a lot of rules and we're quite strict.

We have a lot of cameras, for example, on our roads for our speed, and it's quite regulated. And in Massachusetts, there's more cars, so I think people are maybe a bit more aggressive. If there's a space, they take the space, and people drive faster and closer. And so that was more difficult to adjust to than the actual car. I feel the same way here in Colombia when I drive. It's also more common, the stick shifts here. You guys don't say manual, do you? I guess generally I say stick shift, but manual is understood.

But yeah, I made sure I bought an automatic car. I didn't want to drive a stick shift here, but I do think drivers here are very aggressive. That's something I have to get used to. And the motorcycles are crazy. Oh yeah, that's a whole other thing.

Maybe Americans are a little more aggressive drivers than Brits, but I think Colombians beat us too very aggressive drivers here. Maybe you haven't driven in Massachusetts. You'll have to drive and then tell me.

7:25 Funny Stories

And Clare, do you have any funny stories of American, British English since you've moved to the U.S.? I think in the UK, with Hollywood and music, I think we're quite aware of American English because you guys have so much popular media.

I think it's more common my husband doesn't understand me. So, for example, we use a lot of idioms. I was trying to describe someone who's quite shy and timid, and I used the expression, Oh, she wouldn't say boo to a goose.

Which is an odd idiom. I said that to my husband, and he, Why would anyone say boo to a goose? Never heard of it before. So the expression is boo to a goose, and you're saying that this describes a shy person? Yeah. Very shy, very timid, not confrontational. Yeah, it's a cute expression. And boo and goose, they have that similar sound.

Then, there was another time my cousin was describing a friend of his who'd had too many drinks. She'd got very drunk, and he said, Oh, she was absolutely trolleyed. Do you know what I mean if I say that? Trolleyed? I think I was checking some like common slang in the UK, and I saw it on the list. But I don't remember what it meant. Drunk? Drunk. And I have no idea the origin.

When you go to the supermarket, you put your food you guys would say shopping cart. Shopping cart or buggy. Yeah, if you wanna say someone's drank too much, you can say, oh, she was trolleyed. Oh, so trolleyed means drunk. And for me, when I think trolley, I don't think a shopping cart. I think like the tourist buses that are used.

Oh, yeah. A tram, I think. A tram. In my hometown, there's trolleys everywhere for tourists. Yes. Okay. Interesting. One of my funniest stories was when I was a waitress. I had a guest come in the restaurant, and he was from the UK, and he ordered like a vodka lemonade.

I went. I put it in on the screen. The bartender made the drink for him, and then I picked it up and took it to him. And, he was looking at it strange 'cause it was very yellow. And then he tasted it, and he was like, I'm not sure this is what I ordered.

And I said you ordered a vodka lemonade, correct? He said, Yes, but I'm not sure this is a lemonade. So Clare, what is lemonade in British English? So in British English, lemonade would be like Sprite or Seven Up. It would be clear with bubbles. Not very natural. So that's what he was expecting, right? He was expecting something more like a vodka Sprite, as we would call it in the US. And then that's when I explained to him, oh, for us, lemonade is like fresh lemon, squeezed with water and sugar. It's like a juice. And he didn't complain about it.

He said the drink was good and he drank it. But at that point, I realized if I ever had a British customer order lemonade, I need to check do they mean a British or an American lemonade? Because it's gonna be very different.

10:37 Drinks, Clothing & Sports Vocabulary Differences

Yes. It's the same thing we would call that cloudy lemonade. The fresh version we would call cloudy lemonade. And for fresh apple juice, where it's that dark brown, we would call it cloudy apple juice. Whereas you guys, I believe, call it cider. Is that right? Yes, cider. And we often drink it like around Christmas or the fall. It's like a spiced apple drink, but it's not alcoholic.

Yes. And in the UK, cider is alcoholic, so you need to be careful when you order. If you don't want an alcoholic beverage, don't order cider in the UK. There are a few common like apple cider drinks in the US, like Angry Orchard and Redd's.

Hard cider, right? If there's alcohol in it. That's what we call it. Hard cider. The hard means alcohol. I think the only other like confusion we'll get sometimes is if we're talking about pants. So for you guys, pants is I'd say trousers, right? Any kind of like jeans or khakis or whatever. But for us, it's underwear. So someone's oh, I'm not sure if I should wear pants like. Wait, you should definitely wear pants. 100%. Yes, exactly. You'd be saying you, you don't want to wear underwear.

Yeah. There are a few other ones related to clothes. Sneakers. Yeah. And in British English, what is sneakers? Trainers. Trainers. We would say shirt in British English is a lot more specific.

In British English, A shirt has buttons. Whereas in American English, it's more like generic, right? This is a shirt. That's a shirt. We're all wearing shirts, I hope. Yeah. But in the UK, a shirt is what you wear with the suit.

Only that one specific item of clothing. What we would refer to as like a dress shirt. Yeah. I think jumper. Jumper. Yeah. You guys would say sweater.

Maybe overalls. Oh yeah. Dungarees. Dungarees is what we call it. And those are the common clothes ones I can think of. Oh, and also in sports, we say cleats, or what do you call cleats? Football boots or, yeah, boots. Football boots. And then of course, the classic football, soccer.

Yeah. We would call it American football. Now that you're living in the U.S., do you say soccer? Sometimes, if I have to.

I'll say now that I'm not living in the U.S., I do sometimes call soccer football. A lot of other people use it that way. It's the common word used around the world, so I have no problem calling it football. I'll use both.

13:21 Spelling & Car Vocabulary Differences

Are there any other vocabulary differences that you've noticed? So I mentioned briefly, to qualify as a teacher over here, I had to take some exams, so I had to teach myself to spell again. The most famous ones would be color, so in British English, C-O-L-O-U-R, and then in American English, C-O-L-O-R. But there's a lot, really. For example, organize, I would say Zed. You would say Z. But in British English, O-R-G-A-N-I-S-E. So there's quite a lot of spelling differences.

Yes. So that type of thing takes a while. A lot of the car vocabulary is different, also. So I would put my things in the boot of the car, and we would say, the trunk. And then to open it. If there's something wrong with my car, I open the bonnet. I look inside the bonnet of the car. We would say the hood of the car, and then we would say gas or oil. And we would say petrol or diesel. Not so many diesels anymore.

14:22 Food Vocabulary Differences

There's obviously some with food too. I think one of the common ones would be like jam and jelly. Do you guys use jam at all? I'm sure there are technical differences, but we use jam, jelly, and marmalade. To mean basically the fruity thing you can put on bread.

Yeah. But yes, jelly for you would be jello. Yeah. So, like the dessert, you can make it a shape, and it wobbles. That would be jelly. And then of course, the famous like cookies and biscuits. In British English, like the one with chocolate chips, that's a cookie. Everything else is a biscuit. Then there's the chips and French fries. It's funny 'cause you'll see both on a menu, and usually they're describing something different.

So like chips is the most common we'd use all the time. But if I see chips on a menu, I expect it to be thicker. Whereas if I see French fries, I expect the very thin McDonald's style, chips, the thin ones. Okay.

And potato chips for us are crisps for you guys. Yes. What do you call shrimp? Prawn. Okay, so prawns would be like the little ones, and then king prawns would be the big ones. Oh, like baby shrimp and, yeah. King shrimp. Do we say king shrimp? Jumbo, that's the one we use.

Can you think of any more about food? Candy, we wouldn't say candy. We'd say sweets. Sweets, but that would only refer to candy? What do you mean? For us, candy is things like a chocolate bar, like gummies. Sweets would be like maybe like the fruity, sugary, like a hard candy that you might chew or suck. For us, sweets is more like a big umbrella. So like candy is a type of sweet, but so is cake and brownies, and cookies. What would you call that? Confectionery okay. But you know what really threw me was menus.

In American menus, you have appetizer, entree, dessert. We call on our menus, entrees, like the main course, the big meal. What would you call it in the UK? Main, your main course. The main course, which we use too, but not on the menu, I guess. Yeah. I think the French sounds fancy, right? Maybe we weren't very good at translation of languages. Americans are famous for that, unfortunately.

That's like a lot of really interesting vocabulary that we can see that's different between the US and the UK.

16:57 Slang & Accents

Are there any funny slang that's very different? Excuse my language. We have the word in British English, that means you've, again, drank too much. But in American English, that means you're angry.

Yeah, we would say, I'm so pissed at you right now. I'm so pissed right now. And yeah, it's a bit of a vulgar word, but it means you're angry at showing you're very angry. While in the UK, you're just saying, I'm drunk, I'm pissed, or I was so pissed. I don't know if that's how you would say it. Yeah, something like that.

And then I think accent is a big thing. I like, obviously, we should probably say all of this is massively generalized because the UK has a hundred different accents and America has a hundred different accents. But the obvious one would be like water, sister, mother. Water, mother, sister.

If I'm trying to do American accent, the thing I often think about is for us, what will be a T sound sometimes sounds like a D sound, so I would say party and an American accent, party. Party. Our R is a bit stronger, and the T can become a D a lot.

Yeah. But there are other times where we don't even pronounce the T. Yeah. Can you think of any examples? Internet? How would you say it? Internet. The t would definitely be there. Yes. Or mountain. Oh, mountain, yes. I actually often tell my students, there's no correct way to speak. You can choose. And honestly, I think. Maybe it's a bit easier to pronounce the r the American way and the t the British way.

'Cause it's a little more obvious there for them. And I even notice myself doing it sometimes when I'm teaching. I don't say mountain. I say mountain because I know my students will understand me better if I say mountain compared to Mountain, for example. Then there's like some of the famous ones, tomato. Tomato. Yeah. Tomato. Tomato. We don't say potato, though. I don't know. There's that song. You say tomato. I say tomato. You say potato. I say potato. Nobody. Nobody says potato.

And then there's aluminum. Yes, aluminum. Vitamin. Vitamin. Yeah. Another one that's just different. We say cilantro. Yes. I have a theory about this. I think there's a lot of times where in American English, you guys take the Spanish word. Whereas in British English, we take the more French word, so like cilantro, and then we would say coriander.

The other one is eggplant. Yes. We would say aubergine. Do you guys say napkin? Is that another one?

We say napkin. Yes. Okay. What do you say? We'd say napkin, or we also say serviette sometimes. Yeah. I heard serviette from an Australian English video. I'll be doing an Australian English video later this month. If any of you guys want to check that out, it'll be really interesting. They've got some good slang.

20:05 ChatGPT Slang Game

I am curious 'cause I was asking ChatGPT here, like some different British slang, especially compared to Americans. And I just want you to confirm to me if ChatGPT knows what it's talking about.

The first one is high five? Yeah. Do you say that? Yeah. What do you say? No, they say, give us a fiver. So that would be for money. So a fiver would be a five-pound note. Huh? And then a 10-pound note would be a tenor. You owe me a tenor.

A common one that I have heard a lot is buddy, bro. What would you say? Mate. You all right, mate? Are you all right? Becomes you all right? And it's one of those questions where you're not expected to answer. I'd be surprised if someone answered, 'cause it's just like a greeting.

Do you guys say goofball? No. I say like clumsy. It says Numpty. Numpty is like a stupid person, and that's a goofball. You're a goofball. Goofball to me is like more intentional, whereas numpty is you're not trying to be stupid, but you are stupid. Yeah, 'cause goofball is, it's more like silly. I think I would be more offended if someone called me a numpty than if someone called me a goofball.

And do you use weirdo? Weirdo? Yeah. Okay. Here it says Barmy. Yeah. Crazy. It's quite regional. I don't think I've ever said Barmy.

What about I'm beat, I'm wiped out? Knackered. Yeah, that one. Yeah. They got knackered. Yeah. My husband found that one funny.

Another one he's found funny as well is if someone's having a bad day, so like the other day, oh, he bumped his head and then he burnt his hand and then he tripped, and it's oh my God, you are in the wars to say like you're having a bad series of events.

And he had never heard that before. You said you're in the wars. Yeah. Okay. Wow, a series of bad things have happened to you. You're having bad luck, you're in the wars. Let's do one more. Drama queen.

What would I say in British English? It says here, Moaning Minnie. I've never heard that.

Let's try to find one more. Bummer. Oh, I'm gutted. Yeah. Yeah. It's not exactly, but I definitely use gutted all the time. Gutted is more like disappointed.

Which we would use Bummer for. What a bummer. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I'm so gutted. What a bummer. Yeah. I suppose how you use it would be different. You'd say, I am gutted, versus oh, what a bummer.

Okay. I see. And I wanted to do this activity because I do think we can learn a lot from AI, ChatGPT, but they're just collecting data and sharing it with us. So I think it's really nice to be able to talk about it together and see what's really accurate.

Yeah, there's good stuff in that, but yeah, moaning Minnie. What is moaning Minnie? Maybe another British person can watch it and be like, I've heard that one. Maybe it's like super common in like the north of England.

22:56 Conclusion & Farewell

I just wanna say thank you for joining me today, Clare, and everyone else here.

It was really fun sharing our best tips about the differences between American and British English. And as I've mentioned, neither one is more correct or better. You can use a mixture of both. You can try to maybe speak more one way because of where you live, and it's more useful for you there.

But the most important thing is to be aware of the differences so that you can communicate and understand correctly. So guys, see you in the next podcast. Bye-bye.

⚽British vs 🏈American English Study Guide:

NOTE: Remember that the UK and the USA are very big countries, so some of these could be regional.

Seasons

Autumn ⚽ = Fall 🏈

Bathroom Words

Toilet / Loo ⚽ = Bathroom / Restroom 🏈

Cars

Manual ⚽ = Stick shift 🏈
Boot ⚽ = Trunk 🏈
Bonnet ⚽ = Hood 🏈
Petrol/Diesel ⚽ = Gas/Oil 🏈

Clothing

Trousers ⚽ = Pants 🏈
Jumper ⚽ = Sweater 🏈
Trainers ⚽ = Sneakers 🏈
Dungarees ⚽ = Overalls 🏈
Shirt (with buttons) ⚽ = Shirt (any top) 🏈

Sports

Football ⚽ = Soccer 🏈
Football boots ⚽ = Cleats 🏈
American football⚽ = Football 🏈

Food, Drinks & Restaurants

Lemonade⚽ = Lemon-lime Soda (Sprite/7Up)🏈
Cloudy lemonade ⚽ = Lemonade 🏈
Cloudy apple juice (non-alcholic) ⚽ = Apple cider (non-alcholic) 🏈
Cider (alcoholic) ⚽ = Hard cider (alcoholic) 🏈
Chips ⚽ = French Fries 🏈
Crisps ⚽ = Potato chips 🏈
Cookies ⚽ = Chocolate Chip Cookies 🏈
Biscuits ⚽ = Cookies 🏈
Prawns ⚽ = Shrimp 🏈
Sweets ⚽ = Candy 🏈
Jam ⚽ = Jelly, Jam, Marmalade 🏈
Jelly ⚽ = Jello 🏈

Main course ⚽ = Entrée 🏈
Coriander ⚽ = Cilantro 🏈
Aubergine ⚽ = Eggplant 🏈
Serviette ⚽ = Napkin 🏈

Slang & Idioms

Mate ⚽ = Buddy / Bro 🏈
You all right? ⚽ = What’s up? 🏈
Pissed (Drunk) ⚽ = Pissed (Angry) 🏈
Fiver ⚽ = 5-pound note 🏈
Tenor ⚽ = 10-pound note 🏈
Knackered ⚽ = Beat, Wiped out🏈
Numpty ⚽ = Goofball 🏈
Boo to a goose ⚽ = Very shy 🏈 (no US version)
Trolleyed ⚽ = Drunk 🏈
Barmy ⚽ = Crazy/Weirdo 🏈
In the wars ⚽ = Having a bad day 🏈
I'm gutted ⚽ = What a bummer! 🏈

Pronunciation/Spelling

Tomato /tə-MAH-to/ ⚽ = Tomato /tə-MAY-to/ 🏈
Aluminium /al-yoo-MIN-ee-um/ ⚽ = Aluminum /uh-LOO-muh-num/🏈
Vitamin /VIT-a-min/ ⚽ = Vitamin /VAI-ta-min/ 🏈
Water /WAW-tuh/ ⚽ = Water /WAW-der/ 🏈
Sister /SIS-tuh/ ⚽ = Sister /SIS-ter/ 🏈
Mother /MUH-thuh/ ⚽ = Mother /MUH-ther/ 🏈
Party ⚽ /PAR-tee/ = Party 🏈 /PAR-dee/
Internet /IN-tuh-net/ ⚽ = Internet /IN-er-net/ 🏈
Mountain /MOWN-tuhn/ ⚽ = Mountain /MOWN-nin/ 🏈
Colour ⚽ = Color 🏈
Organise ⚽ = Organize 🏈
Zed (letter Z) ⚽ = Zee (letter Z) 🏈

💬 Practice Question for Learners:

Do you usually use ⚽ British English or 🏈 American English? What did you learn today? Do you know any other differences?

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