50 Fun Facts About British vs American

'Soccer', mocked in Britain as an Americanism, first appeared as slang in English public schools in which decade?

The 1880s produced 'soccer' as public-school slang, a clipping of 'associationer' used to tell association football from other codes, and only later did it come to sound American to British ears.

Which garment does a Briton mean by 'pants', the word Americans use for trousers?

Underpants are what most British speakers picture when they hear 'pants', so an American complaining of muddy pants sounds oddly intimate in London.

In Britain, what kind of institution is a 'public school' such as Eton, the reverse of the American meaning?

Fee-charging and private describes an English 'public school', a usage formalised by the Public Schools Act 1868, while Americans use the phrase for the free state system.

Which Commonwealth country sides with the Americans in saying 'elevator' rather than the British 'lift'?

Canada is the lone Commonwealth exception: 'lift' is Commonwealth English everywhere else, while 'elevator' is North American and Philippine usage.

A British pint is roughly how much bigger than an American one, thanks to the imperial system of 1824?

About 20% bigger is right: the imperial pint is 568 ml against the US liquid pint's 473 ml, because Britain redefined its measures in 1824 while America kept the older ones.

In which decade did Britain's government officially adopt the American 'billion' of a thousand million?

The 1970s ended the old British billion of a million million, the government adopting the short scale in 1974 for all official purposes.

Britain charges a 20% VAT nationwide; how many US states charge no general sales tax at all?

Five states, namely Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon, levy no general sales tax, whereas Britain's VAT has stood at 20% everywhere since 2011.

On an American menu, what does 'entrée' mean, the opposite of its sense in Britain and France?

The main dish is the American entrée, whereas in France and most of the English-speaking world the word means a dish served before it, a starter.

'Eggplant', the US name for what Britons call an aubergine, was first applied in 1763 to fruit of which colour?

White cultivars that look like hen's eggs earned the name, which only later stretched to the glossy purple kind most shoppers know.

An American 'biscuit', a soft bready side rather than a sweet snack, is closest to which British bake?

A scone is the nearest British match for the American biscuit, a word that in Britain covers both the dessert biscuit and what Americans call cookies.

What do Britons call the thin fried potato slices that Americans sell in bags as 'chips'?

Crisps is the word in the UK, Ireland and South Africa, and British 'chips' are the thick-cut fried potatoes that Americans would call fries.

Which word do Australians and New Zealanders use for what Britons call the pavement and Americans the sidewalk?

Footpath is the Australian, Indian, Irish and New Zealand term, a third option beside the British pavement and the North American sidewalk.

The British 'nappy', for what Americans call a diaper, is thought to be a diminutive of which word?

Napkin is the likely parent of 'nappy', and napkin was itself originally a diminutive, making the baby's garment a pet-name of a pet-name.

The British 'boot' of a car, America's trunk, takes its name from a compartment on what earlier vehicle?

A horse-drawn coach had a built-in 'boot', first a seat for the coachman and later a luggage space, while 'trunk' recalls the travelling chests strapped to the back of early cars.

Which verb means 'discuss now' in Britain but 'shelve' in America, a clash Churchill saw muddle an Allied meeting?

To table an item opens it for discussion in Britain and removes it from discussion in America, a reversal Winston Churchill chronicled causing real confusion between the wartime Allies.

Which British city's underground railway was the first anywhere to be called a 'subway', a word now heard as American?

Glasgow's small Subway was the first system to carry that name, even though Britons now treat 'subway' as the American word and 'underground' as their own.

Samuel Johnson's 1755 dictionary, which fixed colour and honour, spelled the head of a colony how?

Governour sat beside ambassadour, emperour and errour in Johnson, spellings whose u Britain quietly shed while keeping it in colour and honour.

Which '-our' word do Americans usually keep the 'u' in, because it comes from Scots rather than Latin?

Glamour keeps its u in most American usage, a Scots word that escaped the Latin-root logic behind color, honor and labor.

The z-spelling house style used by the United Nations and the journal Nature is named after which British publisher?

Oxford University Press gives its name to Oxford spelling, which prefers -ize on Greek-etymology grounds, so 'organize' is not the Americanism many Britons assume.

American 'defense' and 'offense' keep spellings inherited from which language, rather than being Webster's inventions?

Anglo-French is where defense and offense come from, spellings America kept while Britain settled on defence and offence; the derivatives defensive and offensive take an s everywhere.

Humphry Davy's first proposed name, in 1808, for the metal Britons call aluminium and Americans aluminum was what?

Alumium was Davy's 1808 coinage; 'aluminium' followed once critics wanted an -ium ending with a more classical sound, and the American Chemical Society settled on 'aluminum' only in 1925.

Noah Webster tried and failed to get Americans to respell 'tongue' as what, reviving an older form?

Tung was Webster's revival of an older spelling, one reform that never caught on even in America, unlike his successes with color and center.

The British spelling 'storey' for a building level was among the first used by which American novelist, in 1852?

Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote 'storey' in Uncle Tom's Cabin, one of the earliest uses of a spelling that is now British while Americans write 'story' for buildings too.

America's 231-cubic-inch liquid measure, adopted as its legal standard in 1836, was known in old England as what?

The wine gallon, also called Queen Anne's gallon, became the standard US gallon in 1836, while Britain had replaced it in 1824 with an imperial gallon based on ten pounds of water.

Which US president switched the federal government onto Letter-size paper, America's answer to Britain's A4?

Ronald Reagan moved Washington onto the regular 8.5 by 11 inch Letter sheet, half an inch longer and wider than the government's old size, while British offices use A4 at 210 by 297 mm.

Read by British day-first convention, the figures '9/11' point to which date, rather than 11 September?

9 November is what a Briton reads, because the UK writes day, month, year, so 31/12/99 is New Year's Eve and the American 9/11 would be written 11/9.

A Briton who says 'half four' means which time, an abbreviation of a longer, more formal phrase?

4:30 is 'half four', the clipped British form of 'half past four', which keeps the hour and drops the 'past'.

'Cilantro', the American name for the leaves Britons call coriander, is borrowed from which language?

Spanish gave America 'cilantro', itself from the Latin coriandrum, for a herb that a variant of the gene OR6A2 makes taste of soap to some people.

At a Burns supper, the root Britons call a swede and Americans a rutabaga is mashed and served as what?

Neeps are the mashed swede served with tatties (potatoes) beside the haggis, and the American 'rutabaga' comes from a Swedish dialect word meaning 'root lump'.

The Popsicle, an ice lolly to Britons, was by its inventor's own account first made in 1905 by a boy aged what?

11-year-old Frank Epperson said he left a glass of powdered lemonade soda with a stirring stick on his porch on a cold night, a tale still printed on the back of Popsicle boxes.

What do British speakers call the marks " and ', which Americans call quotation marks?

Inverted commas (or speech marks) is the British name, and British style also tends to open with a single mark where Americans reach first for doubles.

Besides 'zed' in Britain and 'zee' in America, the alphabet's last letter has which archaic third name?

Izzard is the occasional archaic variant, while 'zed' follows the Greek zeta through Latin and 'zee' is the American preference.

US servers can legally be paid a federal tipped minimum wage of how much an hour, with tips filling the gap?

$2.13 an hour is the federal direct wage for tipped staff, provided tips lift them to the full minimum wage, which makes an American tip part of the pay packet rather than a British-style bonus.

In British catering, what is the pooled pot of tips and service charges shared out among staff called?

A tronc is run by a 'troncmaster', who may even be the one responsible for deducting income tax on the shares rather than the employer.

Governor William Weld proclaimed 26 December 'Boxing Day' in 1996 in which US state, at British expats' urging?

Massachusetts gave the day a proclamation but not a day off work, and the holiday is otherwise not widely celebrated in the United States.

Britain's Mothering Sunday, which revived in answer to the American Mother's Day, falls on the fourth Sunday of what?

Lent's fourth Sunday has hosted Mothering Sunday since the Middle Ages, when the point was visiting one's 'mother church' rather than buying flowers.

Which Pacific nation switched in 2009 from American-style driving on the right to British-style driving on the left?

Samoa changed sides so its people could buy cheaper cars from Australia and New Zealand, becoming the first territory in almost 30 years to switch.

A British driving licence covers a moped from the age of 16; from what age does it cover a car?

17 is the age for a car on a British licence, while a moped or light quad bike is allowed from 16, and provisional and full photocard licences each last ten years.

The striped 'zebra crossing' that Americans would call a crosswalk first appeared in 1951 in which English town?

Slough High Street got the world's first zebra crossing on 31 October 1951, its stripes signalling absolute priority for pedestrians under British rules.

Britain's first roundabout, whose modern form the US only adopted in 1990, was built in 1909 in which garden city?

Letchworth Garden City built the first British circular junction in 1909, and modern roundabouts reached the United States only in 1990, starting in Summerlin, Nevada.

Like America, Britain still signs its roads in miles; which drink is by law still sold in imperial pints?

Draught beer and cider by the glass, along with milk in returnable bottles, remain legally imperial, as do road-sign miles and precious metals.

English pupils aged 16 to 18 are in Years 12 and 13, which many schools still call by what older names?

Lower and Upper Sixth survive from the old form system, and the two years together make up the sixth form, the final stretch of secondary education.

Rugby School, one of seven reformed by the Public Schools Act 1868, codified the rules of rugby football in which year?

1845 is when Rugby School wrote down its rules of rugby football; the Act also reformed Eton, Shrewsbury, Harrow, Winchester, Westminster and Charterhouse.

Archie Bunker's sitcom All in the Family was Norman Lear's remake of which British comedy written by Johnny Speight?

Till Death Us Do Part, Johnny Speight's BBC sitcom, supplied the template that Norman Lear and Bud Yorkin reworked into All in the Family for American screens.

Redd Foxx's Sanford and Son, the American remake of Steptoe and Son, set its junkyard in which city?

Los Angeles is the setting, at 9114 South Central Avenue in the Watts neighbourhood, where Fred Sanford and his son Lamont run the junkyard that Steptoe and Son had made a rag-and-bone yard.

The American Office, adapted from Ricky Gervais's BBC original, is set at a paper company in which Pennsylvania city?

Scranton's branch of the fictional Dunder Mifflin Paper Company hosts the mockumentary, which Greg Daniels adapted for NBC from the Gervais and Stephen Merchant series.

Which Broadchurch lead reprised his detective role, renamed Emmett Carver, in the 2014 Fox remake Gracepoint?

David Tennant played Detective Emmett Carver opposite Anna Gunn in Gracepoint, and won a 2015 People's Choice Award for it even as the remake faded.

Shark Tank is the US version of Britain's Dragons' Den, a format that was itself remade from a show in which country?

Japan's The Tigers of Money (Manē no Tora) was the original; the Dragons' Den name travelled from Britain and the sharks took over on ABC in 2009.

What do Americans call the knitted pullover that a Briton would put on as a 'jumper'?

A sweater is the North American word, and British dictionaries say 'jumper' is the usual British term, some keeping 'sweater' for heavier ones worn for warmth.

'Fortnight', the everyday British word for two weeks, descends from an Old English phrase meaning what?

Fourteen nights is the literal sense of fēowertīene niht, because early English speakers counted time by nights rather than by days.