One of the most delightful (and occasionally confusing) things about English is how the same object or concept can have a whole range of names, depending on where you live. Of course, there are differences in pronunciation (pasta, about, garage, aluminum) and spelling (I do love myself a “u” in favourite and neighbour, and yes, I write the bank a cheque, not a check).
Last week, Melissa left a comment on a post and mentioned a “windcheater.” I’ll admit, that was a new one for me! I assumed it was the same thing I’d call a windbreaker – a lightweight, zip-up jacket more for blocking wind than providing warmth.
That got me thinking about other regional quirks in English…
- Sweater or jumper? In Canada, a sweater is a warm, long-sleeved top, usually knit. A jumper, on the other hand, is a sleeveless dress you wear over a shirt. To my Australian and British friends, jumper = sweater. Same item, different name.
- Sneakers, tennis shoes or runners? I’ve only ever called them sneakers. What about you?
- Chips, crisps or fries? Thin, salty, potato slices in a crinkly bag? Chips. But in the UK and Australia, chips are what I’d call fries – fresh potatoes, deep-fried and eaten hot, usually with ketchup (here in Canada) or mayo/vinegar elsewhere. Their crisps = our chips.
- Cookies or biscuits? To me, a biscuit is more like a scone – fluffy and eaten with jam or butter. A cookie is a sweet, handheld treat like ginger snaps, chocolate chip, or oatmeal raisin.
- Couch, sofa or chesterfield? The long, padded seating in your living room? It’s always been a couch to me. Some say sofa. And if you’ve ever heard chesterfield, you might be from the UK (or Canada, a few people still use the term here).
- Pop or soda? Fizzy, sugary drinks are pop. Always.
- Lunch, dinner or supper? For me, lunch is the midday meal, though sometimes I’ll call it dinner. Supper is the evening meal.
- Trunk or boot? The storage space in the back of a car? That’s a trunk in Canada, but “across the pond,” it’s a boot.
- Pants, trousers or slacks? I wear pants – or jeans if they’re denim. Full stop.
- Toque, cap or hat? I’ve never called it a toque, but that’s very Canadian for a warm knit hat. I only say cap when it’s for swimming or showering. Otherwise? It’s a hat – whether for baseball or keeping my ears warm.
Your turn. We can build a global glossary…one mix-up at a time! What regional terms do you use that might confuse someone from another area?
Discover more from The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Katy @Practical Walk
Funny timing! My Scottish sister-in-law is visiting right now and we’ve been discussing word usages! Even things that have the same meaning, but are considered polite in one area and not as polite in another. For example, here in West Texas it’s very polite to say “yes ma’am” and “yes sir”. Other places people find it offensive.
Elisabeth
I notice lots of ma’am and sir when we’re in South Carolina (where all my family that lives in the US resides)! My daughter has picked it up and says it occasionally as a nod to her American cousins. She also likes to say y’all now 🙂
San
I LOVE THIS POST. I love languages. I learned British English in school, but then I think, in 9th or 10th grade we were introduced to American English and were asked to choose and use one or the other. I think I mostly adopted American English (especially since I moved to the US) but of course, I still know some of the differences.
Interestingly, it seems like Canadian English is mostly using British English, with some exceptions… is that right? I thought “supper” simply was the British word for dinner… but my MIL (from New England originally) also says supper sometimes. I don’t think pants, trousers, and slacks are all the same. Aren’t slacks dress pants? And I have yet to figure out what the difference between a couch and a sofa is (I’ve heard both), chesterfield not so much.
Since English is not my first language, I’d like to throw out another interesting difference between languages. Sometimes there is one word for multiple different things in one language, but many different words in another language. So confusing! LOL (E.g. in English there is heaven and sky, but in German it’s the same word (Himmel) for both.)
Elisabeth
Canadians tend toward the British spelling for most things, but I would say a lot of our words more closely mirror American English?
Slacks ARE dress pants, but I would never call them slacks. I would call them…pants (or dress pants in a pinch). I would call ANYTHING a couch, but I wonder if some of the terms have to do with the formality of the furniture? I do call a futon a futon, though.
I always so enjoy your German language posts. It’s fascinating!! And often points to what a certain culture prioritizes (like some Aboriginal cultures have something like a dozen words for snow…and we have one.)
Stacey in the UK
Being from the UK, I do find some of the American spelling annoying 🙂
I do have sympathy for those learning English as a second language as the pronunciation of similar words can be totally different, words spelt the same way mean different things depending on how they are pronounced, or words spelt differently all pronounced the same!
Here are a few more different words UK vs US
Aubergine – Eggplant
Chemist – Drug Store
Courgette – Zucchini
Grill – Broil (broiler)
Pavement – Sidewalk
Petrol – Gas (gasoline)
Elisabeth
Yes to all of these! Also, cilantro = fresh green leaves and coriander = seeds, but you would call the fresh herb coriander as well. I think?
A funny aside that we would always say “spelled” not “spelt” here in North America.
And I love how people from the UK call a green space in the back yard “the garden” – here we could call it the lawn, or the back yard. Your reference is so much more refined!
Nicole MacPherson
You’ve never said toque??? Elisabeth! I usually say toque, although sometimes hat. Windcheater is a new one on me, I love those Australian things!
I have always said runners or running shoes, I don’t think I’ve ever said sneakers or tennis shoes in my life. Sweater, fries, cookies, always. I use couch and sofa interchangeably, but as a kid it was chesterfield. I wish I still said that, it’s so Canadian. For the rest, it’s pop, trunk, lunch. My grandma used to say dinner (it’s a farm thing I think!) and I was always confused. Dinner is in the evening! I sometimes use dinner/ supper interchangeably.
Here’s one for you: napkin or serviette? I use napkin usually.
Elisabeth
Napkin!!! Who says serviette???
And for menstruation products I always say “pad” never “sanitary napkin”.
I also say bathroom (not washroom or water closet).
I feel like British/Australian words are much more refined. “Napkin” sounds casual while serviette sounds very refined. I am not refined 😉
Nicole MacPherson
I say pad too! I use bathroom and washroom interchangeably but never restroom!
Jenny
Now wait just a minute! What is the alternative pronunciation for “aluminum?”????
Anyway. I love “pop” so much. That’s what we called it growing up, but when I moved away from the midwest I started calling it “soda.” I still say “pop” every once in a while, just for the fun of it.
For me, lunch is lunch and dinner is in the evening. I never say “supper!” But I have yet another term- my grandmother sometimes referred to lunch as “the noon meal.” I have no idea if that was a farm thing, a small town thing, or just her own idiosyncrasy.
All my other terms are probably typically American- sweater, sneakers (or running shoes), fries, cookies, couch, trunk, hat (or cap.) DEFINITELY pants. “Trousers” and “slacks” sound very old fashioned to me.
Elisabeth
The aluminum pronunciation is about where you stress the syllables, but they also spell it differently. We spell it aluminum and they spell it aluminIum (with an extra “i”).
Here’s a YouTube video that shows the difference in pronunciation.
Canadians/Americans stress the “MIN” and British (and perhaps other places?!) stress the “IUM” where the I sounds like a long “e”.
Katie
To me, lunch is midday and dinner/supper are the evening meals. But I feel like this is an age thing for me in the Midwest, a lot of older people I know say dinner for lunch!
All pop/soda are just “Coke” to me.
Elisabeth
Yes! I forgot that so many people call all pop/soda Coke. So you’d say that about any colour as well? Like 7-Up is a “Coke”? How do people know what flavour you actually want. Inquiring minds want to know 🙂
Katie
Haha- fair questions! Yes, I would say it for any color… “Do you want a Coke, we have Dr Pepper or Sprite in the garage.” Makes no sense as I’m typing it, lol.
Lisa's Yarns
I grew up in a house that said pop and on called the noon meal dinner and the evening meal supper. I have converted, though, and use soda, lunch, and dinner.
A couple of things that tripped me up in Australia were beetroot (which is beets in the US) and capsicum (which is pepper (green/red/yellow/orange/etc) in the US). I also could not believe how much they used beets in general. It was a common topping for a sandwich or burger and my roommate would put chop up canned beets and put them in a salad. I like beets, but not really as a condiment/topping on things, generally speaking!!
Elisabeth
That’s hilarious that our families overlapped with the dinner/supper.
I think one of the most famous burgers at McDonald’s in Australia has a slice of beet on it! I like beets too, but they’re such a nuisance to prepare so I rarely (RARELY) eat them.
Ernie
I studied in Ireland my junior year of college, and I was thrown by their reference to a sweater as a jumper, as I envisioned someone wearing a little Catholic school girl’s plaid uniform jumper. They also call diapers = nappies. Ask me why that word is in my regular vocab. 😉
I call sneakers: gym shoes, thanks to my Catholic school days when we wore ‘school shoes’ and we brought sneakers to wear for gym class, thus gym shoes. I’ve graduated to calling them running shoes, I guess. Most of the time, I am saying, “Put these shoes away!” when shoes litter my kitchen floor.
I am also team pop.
Elisabeth
Nappies. Ohhh…a good one that I forgot. I am definitely always and only diapers!
Christa Lamb
Brit living in the USA here……..sneakers etc are ‘trainers’ to me. Pants to a Brit are your underwear (knickers). Also, reading the comments, it’s serviette for me: napkin is more a nappy (diaper) to me. Sometimes I feel like I am living in a foreign land!
Elisabeth
Trainers!
Knickers makes me laugh – it strikes me as such a hilarious term.
I am 99% certain if you asked my kids what a serviette was they would have no idea. Then again, I used napkins at the table about once a year…
Central Calif. Artist Jana
Other than: 1. a few spellings; 2. pronunciations of out and about; and 3. prodigious use of “eh”, Canadian English is closer to American than to British English. Maybe it is due to geography more than heritage.
My great-aunt didn’t have a couch, sofa, or chesterfield; it was a divan, pronounced di-VANN (short i).
Around here we’ve shortened many words —tennies, sody (why?? sodie-pop, of course!), and they’re all hats unless they are baseball or trucker caps.
Do the British call crackers “crackers”? Or is that just some goofy thing they pull a cord on New Year’s Eve?
Thanks for explaining the pronunciation of aluminum; the British way never made sense to me until you said (in a comment) that they have an addition “i” in their spelling.
Here’s another mystery: asphalt, tarmac, or macadam?
Elisabeth
What on God’s green earth is macadam?
As for “out” and “about” it really is such a small subset of Canadians that says it differently than Americans. Promise. But we do say “sorry” and “eh” a lot.
I would call the paved roads at an airport a tarmac and nothing else. The rest I call pavement. I know they’re made of asphalt (or concrete), but I always call them pavement.
I’ve head sody pop before, but never just sody!
I’ve heard of a divan. I always thought of it like a lounge chair. Thanks for clarifying.
Stacey in the UK
Crackers:-
1) small biscuits to put cheese on
2) novelties to be pulled at Christmas to get your hat and a silly gift (this is slowly creeping into other festivities)
3) someone who is a bit mad – she’s crackers 😀
Suzanne
Ooooh – I say “ball cap” for a baseball hat. “Cap” makes me think of Panama hats or some other business-y men’s headwear. (Is this because of “Caps for Sale”? Perhaps!)
I say “couch” or “sofa” interchangeably. My grandmother called it a davenport!
While I’ve occasionally used “sneakers,” I mostly say “tennis shoes.” Which is quite confusing now that my daughter has specific sneakers she uses only for tennis!
Someone in my life (my dad???) used to refer to flip-flops as “thongs.”
Elisabeth
I’m stuck on Caps for Sale. It has been so long since I read that book, Suzanne. Now I have all the feels! What a classic.
MOVING ON.
Davenport. Shut the front door. That is too cute for words. It sounds like something that would show up in The Blue Castle.
I just can’t with “thongs” – I know other people that say this and it makes me soul wilt a bit each time.
Michelle G.
I love all the differences in English and all the different accents. I say pop, tennis shoes, couch, lunch, dinner, pants, and sweater. I think Canada is so cool because you also have the French influence.
Oooh, here’s one – do you say “agaynst” or “agenst” for against? (I’m agenst)
Elisabeth
I’m “agenst”!!
Schedule – I’m sked-u-al, not shed-u-al.
Is it pEE-can or pe-kahn? I’m the former.
Alexandra
Language is, indeed, malleable especially what we like to think of as standard English, that is anything but standard across the planet. Throw in regional differences and you have a bottomless pit of confusion as to what someone might be saying. Case in point …
“I need to pare my pair of pears to remove the skin …” Three pairs for the price of one? 😉
Another was my mother (a Scot) use to call bread, pain (pronounced: pan), a left over from Mary Queen of Scot and the French influence. You just need to criss cross the UK to see how confusing English is by region.
Elisabeth
“I need to pare my pair of pears to remove the skin …” Ha. I consider myself forever fortunate that my first language is what is widely known as the “universal” language because I cannot imagine trying to learn all the idiosyncrasies of it. I have so much respect for people who master English as their second language!
Alexandra
Which is why I am always in awe of those fortunate enough to be able to learn more than one language and more, be fluent in them. Like my OH, who speaks English and French. While lil old me took decades to master the Queen’s English.
Btw, Aussies call a wardrobe a ‘robe’. I’ve always found that one funny, along with the toilet being the ‘dunny’.
Elisabeth
Dunny? I’ve never heard that one before.
mbmom11
Growing up in New England, we called soda” tonic” and ice cream sprinkles “jimmies”.
Elisabeth
Jimmies?! No idea where that came from, but it feels very festive and fun.
F
Sweater = hoody type/sports top; jumper everything else except long sleeved t-shirts and similar which are tops.
Fizzy drinks = soda
Trousers or jeans
Crisps ( what you buy in a bag); chips ( fries). In French they call crisps chips ( pronounced similar to sheep) so always have to double/triple check!
Path=pavement
Runners, but since that seems to be our standard wear here it has also morphed to shoes
Cookies are a type of biscuit. Biscuits are always hard and crumbly. Crackers can be either those things you pull at Christmas or something you serve with cheese ( in principle a savory biscuit but we’d never call them a biscuit since biscuits are always sweet).
Mostly sofa, sometimes couch
Living room/sitting room/parlour/other? Does it depend on the room?
Chemist or pharmacy
Hood of the car or bonnet?
Cap is a type of hat – baseball cap, flat cap
Tarmacadam for me!
Dinner is main meal eaten either at lunch or for tea. Supper is snack before bed.
Elisabeth
Ahhh. It’s helpful to know what you call a sweater/jumper/top!
Living room is all I would call it (or I’ll sometimes refer to our TV area in the basement as the “family room”). I feel like “den” was more common in the past for this, but I rarely hear anyone use that word now.
Pharmacy for sure (no one that I know of in Canada says “chemist” though it makes a lot of sense).
Hood for the front of the car. Trunk for the back.
NGS
There are weird ones from Australia that I only know because of yoga videos and romance novels like anti-clockwise instead of counterclockwise and brekkie for breakfast. CBD (I think it’s Central Business District, but Australians should correct me if I’m wrong) instead of downtown. I feel like I would not understand anything if I visited Australia despite supposedly speaking the same language.
Native Wisconsinites say bubbler for a drinking fountain. I also say water fountain sometimes and get told that a water fountain is a decorative element found in courtyards.
What a weird language English is!
Elisabeth
Anti-clockwise. I have NEVER heard of this. Hilarious. I do know brekkie (don’t say it, but wouldn’t look like a complete fool if someone used it in a sentence).
I could call it a water fountain, too!
Kathleen S
For the love all that is good and holy, they are gym shoes. Which you wear for gym class. In the gym. (Also a former Catholic school person.)
As a former Chicagoan, this is the hill I die on.
(It is truly a local thing.) (Laugh with me folks. I moved 120 miles south in Illinois and they look at me funny when I say this.)
Elisabeth
Ha. So what do you call them if you’re outside and NOT in the gym? Outdoor shoes? Tennis shoes? For me it’s the style of shoe and it’s always sneakers!
It really is hilarious how a short distance can make such a difference in turns of phrase.
JMH
Couch in the Midwest, but my midwestern grandmother always called the couch a “davenport.” My mom calls the living room the “front room.” I’ve never known anyone else to use that term – she grew up all over the Pacific Northwest, California and Japan so not sure where she picked it up.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
You are always finding these nuggets of fun things. So cool.
Since English isn’t my first language it’s hard to compare really.
However one things most countries in Europe say is “pommes” which mean French fries.
And a sweater is a pullover usually. sweater is more like a sportive pullover. Does that make sense?
I need to think on it … there is probably more.
Birchie
Agree with you on just about everything. My two non-breakfast meals of the day are lunch and dinner.
The one that I have to think about is pop/soda. I grew up with soda, but starting in high school I moved to a land where it is called pop. I call it pop to fit in, but I really think of it as soda.
Gigi
Growing up in Texas, of course “y’all” was a big one (still is even here in North Carolina). But we also called any soda Coke. And the waitress would then ask “What kind?” Here you can’t do that – you have to ask for the soda by name, i.e. Diet Coke or Dr. Pepper. But when talking about cola in general, I just call it soda to avoid confusion.
Jacquie
What a fun topic, Elisabeth! I’m enjoying all the answers in the comments.
My family came to Canada from Scotland when I was two, so here’s the Scottish terms we were accustomed to:
trainers – runners
goonie – night gown
dressing gown – housecoat
jumper – sweater
shrink – knitted vest
lemonade – 7-UP
crisps – potato chips
mince – ground beef
fat – lard
We didn’t vacuum the rug, we hoovered it. We turned on the cooker – the oven.
My sister was 11 when we arrived and she learned very quickly not to ask one of her school mates if they had a “rubber” – that’s an eraser!
It’s funny because when I go home to visit my parents, I default to the Scottish terms when talking to them, but don’t use them with my own family. I do, however, spell “mum” rather than “mom” on all my cards to both my mum and when signing cards I give my daughter.
Maria
I’m with you on most of these except it’s soda. I use couch and sofa totally interchangeably.
A couple I’ve noticed living in NB:
Calling an immunization a needle. As in “I’m taking my baby to get her needles.” I’d never heard this before – it was always shots/vaccines/immunizations.
Going to emerge. I’d always heard it called the ER/ED/emergency room.
Using “right” to mean “very” as in “It’s right cold today.” Never had heard that before in my life.
Stephany
I love this post! And all of the comments. For the most part, we say things the same. But I am someone who calls it soda, not pop. It’s the southerner in me, haha.
I also say “running shoes,” never sneakers, even though I don’t RUN in my running shoes. But sneakers makes me feel like a 10-year-old, haha. I don’t know why!!
I think I’ve mentioned before that my grandma used to call dinner “supper,” and every time you use that term, I get nostalgic and happy, thinking of her. We call it lunch and dinner, never supper, though!