Can you name the common US equivalents?

UK term	US term	(Type)
Bonnet		Car
Chips		Food
Crisps		Food
Trousers		Clothing
Pavement		Roadway
Biscuit		Food
Jelly		Food
Jam		Food
Sweets		Food
Treacle		Food
Candy Floss		Food
Nappy		Babycare
Plaster		Personal Care
Ladybird		Insect
Noughts and Crosses		Game
Draughts		Game
Jumper		Clothing
Tights		Clothing
Waistcoat		Clothing
Trainers		Footwear
Braces		Clothing
Wardrobe		Furniture
Boot		Car

UK term	US term	(Type)
Petrol		Fuel
Windscreen		Car
Motorway		Road
Number plate		Car
Flat		Housing
Tap		Furniture (sink)
Lift		Housing (in a building)
Torch		Household Item
Football		Game
Estate Agent		Job
Rubber		Stationery
C.V. (Curriculum Vitae)		Job
Aubergine		Food
Courgette		Food
Spanner		Tool
Wellington Boots (Wellies)		Footwear
Autumn		Season
Holiday		Getaway
Dinner Jacket		Clothing
Polo neck (sweater)		Clothing
Canteen		Room
Bun/Fairy cake		Food
Daddy-long-legs	Food

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US/UK Words Quiz

Rating:	Report a mistake
Created by: ntnon -
Published: February 28th, 2009
Category: Language
Plays: 301,232

Tags: term, common, type, equivalent, uk pack

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	MovieDynamic:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 04:30 GMT	18 points
	Thank goodness it's the US term we have to guess, otherwise I wouldn't do so well here.

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	bsd987:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 04:36 GMT	43 points
	bandage should be accepted since "Band-Aid" is a brand name.

	Rhys:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 04:38 GMT	64 points
	Do Americans seriously call spanners, wrenches?

	MRL:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 04:45 GMT	28 points
	@Rhys: Yes, we do. Out of curiosity, if you in the UK use the word "jam" for what we call "jelly", what do you call the substance we call "jam"? Preserves? And in a similar vein to Burton DeWitt's comment, "gelatin" should be accepted as "Jell-O" is a brand name.

	Jaspers:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 04:46 GMT	98 points
	Do Brits seriously call wrenches, spanners?

	Bailey:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 04:47 GMT	68 points
	Does Han Solo seriously call a space wrench a hydrospanner?

	mennoknight:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:06 GMT	41 points
	So Americans don't call it a "tap?" Up north of you we do...is that a monarchist leftover?

	greggyd717:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:09 GMT	22 points
	Definitely need more than 4 minutes for that one

	mattrd08:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:12 GMT	16 points
	Condom should count for rubber. :P Also, I knew galoshes, I just couldn't spell it!

	treblat:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:18 GMT	28 points
	It's nice being Canadian, I've always heard these terms spoken interchangeably (although this was the first time I ever heard of "crane fly" -- I and everyone I knew called them daddy-long-legs).

	Mish:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:18 GMT	12 points
	@MRL: what's the difference between what you call jam and what you call jelly? Incidentally, in the uk we also use cafeteria, cupcake and cranefly. @Jaspers: yes, yes we do.

	jawa88:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:19 GMT	86 points
	Is autumn really just a British thing? I say autumn all the time and I'm American.....I call it a tap too, where else would we get the term tap-water?

	treblat:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:21 GMT	14 points
	Also, there's an interesting and funny documentary on youtube called "Talking Canadian" about British & American influences on Canadian English, and they talk about these kind of linguistic differences and their usage over time.

	Michael:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:26 GMT	34 points
	@ jawa88: I agree! So many of the terms that are from the UK are words and phrases that i use daily, and I have never left the US. Also, I have never used the term 'Crane fly' in my life. Lastly, the term dinner jacket is very common in the US, it often refers to a white tuxedo jacket worn with black pants and black tie.

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	Jahudo:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:32 GMT	39 points
	I agree with Michael. I've never heard of Crane fly. I call them Daddy long legs and I'm from the US.

	Tahnan:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:38 GMT	12 points
	I suspect that y'all you think you call "them" Daddy-long-legs are (like me) referring to a spider, as opposed to a crane fly--for which, I should be clear, I have no word in my (American) dialect beyond "bug".

	Fawkes:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:40 GMT	30 points
	What Americans call Daddy-Long-Legs and what the British call Daddy-Long-Legs are two completely different bugs.

	CANDM:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:43 GMT	29 points
	Spigot should be accepted for "tap." Also, thank you Harry Potter for teaching me what treacle is.

	brenlo:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:43 GMT	10 points
	I've also heard Crane Flies called "mosquito dragons," and have heard people mistake them for male mosquitoes. They basically just look like a huge mosquito (like the size of a fifty cent piece) but they don't bite or hum.

	maniacalclown:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:48 GMT	11 points
	Personally, I've always called them "mosquito hawks." I think I've heard the term crane fly before, though.

	MRL:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:49 GMT	16 points
	@Mish: It's mostly a difference in the consistency of the spread. Both are fruit spreads. Jelly is smooth, has an even consistency, and doesn't have distinct bits of fruit in it. Jam is typically lumpy, as it has bits of the fruit its made from (usually berries, but not always) and tends to separate easily into the pulp and a runny liquid.

	ntnon:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:53 GMT	9 points
	Yes, it's not an exact science - just as not everyone in the UK has standard words for various terms, so too are there are US people/places where the 'UK' (or both, or another) term is still used. Some of these might fall under "received wisdom" rather than full "blanket usage," but I've heard all (originally 50/100) of them in reasonably-normal conversation.

	Nuclear_Knuckles:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:56 GMT	20 points
	As an American, not all of the British terms are equally "foreign." "Autumn" is probably not used as much as "fall," but I'm sure everyone knows what it means. People don't usually call the "faucet" a "tap," but do tend to refer to "tap water." But some of the other UK terms I've never heard and never could have guessed.

	phw:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 05:59 GMT	16 points
	@mennoknight: I'm American. Here tap and faucet are both understood and are interchangable. But what comes out when you open one is always tapwater, never faucetwater.

	ntnon:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:00 GMT	14 points
	To MRL: I think that the point is that there are technical differences between Jellies, Jams and Preserves that are broadly true the world over. However, the generalised catch-all terms differ in the the UK and US and are liberally applied to all three (roughly). Technically, though, I think the differences are in the fruit makeup: juice, pulp and chunks for jellies, jams and preserves. Generally the UK conflates the second two into "normal jam" and the former becomes "seedless jam." And then there are conserves, too...

	ntnon:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:02 GMT	6 points
	To Nuclear Knuckles: That's sort of the aim...! The hope was that some of these would be instantly recognisable (and maybe even used), while others would be less-known and more 'points of interest'. I also suspect that the terms that are seen as completely "foreign" will differ depending on where precisely you hail from.

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	k3lit0:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:22 GMT	1 point
	Never heard the daddy long legs one.. that's what we call them here, I thought? Other than that a pretty good quiz.

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	tobinw:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:25 GMT	7 points
	Cool quiz. I've spent a lot of time in both places and there were several I didn't get. Some others: loo, pram, rubbish, bin

	RockMusic11:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:36 GMT	-2 points
	I live in the US, and I actually think that some of these UK terms make more sense. Like "petrol" for instance... where the ** did the term "gas" come from??? But if you went around saying "petrol" in the states, there would be a lot of people that would have no **ing clue what you are talking about.

	RockMusic11:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:37 GMT	31 points
	oh how cute, sporcle stars out your cuss words.

	starsaphire:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:49 GMT	20 points
	46 of 48. Smoke me a kipper; I'll be back for breakfast! ;)

	jayskum:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:49 GMT	4 points
	I could've used more time.

	beatrix kiddo:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 06:58 GMT	13 points
	didn't do too shabby on this one. maybe if they do a part 2 they can have the US words and guess the UK equivalent.

	mrdrake:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 07:04 GMT	7 points
	Had a feeling about the Jello thing instead of Jam, since here in new Zealand we seem to borrow a bit of both, I mean, we say jam, petrol, but do tend to use US things too like Soccer and checkers, etc, etc. Still a nice quiz indeed.

	Mish:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 07:13 GMT	12 points
	@MRL yeah we call them both jam, unless its made from oranges in which its called marmalade for some reason. @thesean - its actually rubber johnny, not jimmy.

	onetheta:	Feb 28th, 2009 at 07:41 GMT	9 points
	The Daddy-Long-Legs in the UK is a fly, with wings, a long thin body and big spindly legs. They live in the soil as a 'leatherjacket' for some time (years possibly) and emerge in autumn. As a child I HATED them. They are also called Crane Flies. Do not paint your house with yellow paint - they like yellow.