ONE language, THREE accents - UK vs. USA vs. AUS English! (+ Free PDF)

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Hello everyone and welcome back to

English with Lucy. I have got such a

treat for you today. I've been excited

about this for such a long time. I am

shortly going to welcome two lovely

guests who have generously given their

time to help teach you the differences

between Australian English, American

English, and British English. This is

going to be a two-part series. Today, we

are going to focus on vocabulary. And

then in the next part of the video, we

are focusing on pronunciation.

We may all speak the same language,

English, but we have very different

accents, and we speak with different

vocabularies.

So, this video is perfect for improving

your vocabulary. But if you want to

improve your pronunciation and your

listening skills even further, then I

highly recommend the special method of

combining reading books whilst listening

to their audio book counterpart on

Audible. This is how you use the method.

Take a book that you have already read

in English or a book that you would like

to read in English. I've got plenty of

recommendations down below in the

description box. and read that book

whilst listening to the audiobook

version on Audible. Reading alone will

not help you with your pronunciation

because English isn't a strictly

phonetic language. The way a word is

written in English may not give you much

indication at all as to how it's

pronounced in English. But if you listen

to a word at the same time as reading

it, your brain will start making

connections. And the next time you hear

that word, you'll know exactly how it's

spelled. And the next time you see that

word written down, you'll know exactly

how it's pronounced. It is such an

effective method. And the best part is

you can get one free audio book. That's

a 30-day free trial on Audible. All

you've got to do is click on the link in

the description box and sign up. I've

got loads of recommendations down there

for you. Right, let's get on with the

lesson and welcome our guests. Firstly,

I would like to welcome Emma to the

channel. Hey there, I'm Emma from the M

English YouTube channel coming at you

from Perth in Western Australia.

And we also have Vanessa. Hi, I'm

Vanessa and I live in North Carolina in

the US. I run the YouTube channel Speak

English with Vanessa. It's so lovely to

have Emma and Vanessa on the channel.

I've known Emma for a very, very long

time, four years now, and I've recently

got to know Vanessa. Both of them have

fantastic YouTube channels, and all of

their information is in the description

box if you want to follow them. So, I

have got some pictures, and Vanessa,

Emma, and I are going to tell you how we

would say what's in these pictures in

our own country. You might be surprised

at some of the answers. Okay, so let's

start with this one.

In the US, these are chips. 100% just

chips. I can't believe you started with

this one. These are chips. We call these

crisps. Crisps.

The other word that you use, Lucy, is

the most complicated word in the English

language to say. So, let's just call

them chips and move along.

Yeah, I'll give you that one. Uh, crisps

is a notoriously difficult word for

learners of English. It's the sound at

the end. Crisps. You'll find a lot of

people mispronouncing them as crips.

Crips when they should be crisps. So,

here is the next one. And it gets even

more complicated because in the UK we

call these chips. So, in the US, the

cold version is chips, and in the UK,

the hot version is chips. Let's see what

Vanessa has to say about this. What does

she call them? These are French fries. I

know that they're not really French, but

we still call them French fries. Or you

can just say fries by themselves. The

next one's chips as well, right? They're

hot chips. Hot chips. Oh my god. Hot

chips. Australians just call everything

chips.

It is worth noting that if you go to

England and you order fries or French

fries, we know exactly what you mean.

Okay, next we have this one. We call

these cookies or chocolate chip cookies

specifically. Okay, they are biscuits.

Um,

don't really hear people saying cookie.

Yes, two against one. These for us are

biscuits as well. And we would use

cookie to refer to an Americanstyle

normally chocolate chip cookie. However,

if you use the word biscuit in the

United States, you might get something

that you are not expecting. Vanessa has

more on this. If you asked someone, "Do

you have any biscuits?" or "I want a

biscuit." They would not give you this.

Instead, they'd give you a savory kind

of fluffy type piece of bread. A biscuit

is savory and a cookie is sweet.

So, there we have it. If you fancy

something sweet with your coffee in

America, don't ask for a biscuit.

You will be bitterly disappointed.

Okay, Vanessa got very passionate about

this next one. Very passionate. Here is

the picture. Vanessa seems to think that

she knows the absolute correct answer,

and she's even done research. I did not

expect Emma and Vanessa to get books out

for this video. I have the proof that my

answer is the most correct because you

can see my 2-year-old son is obsessed

with trucks. We have so many truck

books. Let me read to you. What truck do

you need? A tractor trailer.

So, this is also what I would call it, a

tractor trailer. I might call it a semi.

All right, that yellow thing is a truck.

So, Vanessa thinks it's a tractor

trailer, and she's very, very sure about

it. In all of these books,

they call it a tractor trailer. So,

we're going to go with that one. That

really tickled me. Emma thinks it's a

truck. In the UK, we would call this a

lorry. A lorry. It's a truck. Whatever,

Emma. It's a Lori. Okay. What about this

next one? What have the women got up

here? These girls all have bangs. We

would definitely say fringe. Um, bangs

is

probably um becoming more popular,

especially colloquially. So, in the UK,

we definitely call this a fringe. And

when I started hearing the word bangs in

movies and things like that, I was

really genuinely confused. Okay, what

about this next one? This is candy. They

are lollies.

Lollies.

Lollies. That is so cute. So in British

English, these are sweets. Or sometimes

if you're talking to a child, they might

call them sweeties. Lollies for us are

sweets on a stick, right? What about

this next one? This is a swimsuit. Some

people might call it a bathing suit. You

can also call this a one piece. Okay,

this one's really funny. In Melbourne,

where I'm from, it's really common to

call them toss, but no one else in

Australia really calls them toss. They

call it swimmers. In Sydney, they call

them cozies or costumes.

Um, but generally it's swimmers or

bthers. Oh gosh, there's another one.

Bathers or swimmers.

Oh my word, I did not expect to receive

so many different ways of saying

swimming costume. This for us is a

swimming costume. We can also say one

piece and we can also shorten it down to

cozy. I remember my mom saying get your

cozy on before my swimming lessons when

I was a child, but that's quite a a

childish thing. Okay, what about this

next one? This is the forest. Uh, that

is definitely a forest.

No, it's the woods. Woods plural. This

is definitely the woods. I mean, in

general, we say the woods. Forest

implies a huge,

huge area of trees, of woodland. The

wood sounds kind of like something you

might hear in an old-fashioned fairy

tale. Yeah. Well, Vanessa, sometimes

life in England is like an old-fashioned

fairy tale. I think a lot of Americans

have this vision of England as a place

with so much culture and history

like a fairy tale and then they come

over and they are just so disappointed.

Okay, what about this next one? This is

a bathroom. You might say it's a

restroom, but it would be really unusual

to call a place that actually has a

bathtub a restroom. Usually, we use the

term restroom for public places. That

room is a bathroom.

Yeah, it's a bathroom. Okay, so Vanessa

touched on restroom and bathroom. Now,

we would never use the word restroom in

British English. If we're in a public

place and we are looking for a bathroom,

we would say toilet. However, if there

is a bath there, like a bathtub, then

yes, we might say bathroom as well. But

we would ask where's the toilet? If you

say, "Where's the toilet?"

most people in the US would just say,

"Uh, it's in the bathroom." I mean,

she's not wrong. The toilet is in the

bathroom. There is also a slang word

which I use a lot, which is the L.

Where's the L? I went to the States for

a business trip and I asked people where

the L was and they were utterly

confused. The L? What's the L? All

right, let's move on to the next. This

is an apartment. This is mostly called

an apartment, but we would never say

flat. Okay, so in British English, this

is a flat. We have a block of flats.

I've lived in many flats in my life. We

don't use the word apartment. Okay, the

next one. Maybe the picture wasn't clear

enough for this one because Emma did get

a bit confused, but she gave us all of

the options. Good old Emma. This is a

grocery store. I'm not exactly sure what

I'm looking at in that image, but it

could be a trolley.

It could be an aisle, or it could be a

supermarket. Hey, bingo. It's a

supermarket for us as well. Or we call

it the shops. I'm going to the

supermarket. I'm going to the shops. The

shops is more general. It could mean any

type of shop. We would never say grocery

store. We might, however, say grocerers.

The grocerers. This is a shop that just

sells fruits and vegetables. All right,

next one. This is a comforter.

Oh my god, how weird is the word

comforter? That's weird. Um, in

Australia that's called a duna.

I love that Emma is saying that the word

comforter is weird. And then she goes to

say that in Australia it's a donor.

That's weirder, Emma. So, in British

English, this is a duvet. A duvet, which

apparently Vanessa finds weird. See, we

all find each other weird. I didn't know

what a duvet was. Maybe I'm very

sheltered, but I didn't know what a

duvet was until I visited Europe. We

just do not have those in the US. Okay,

I feel there's going to be a lot of

conflict about this next one. These are

bell peppers.

Okay, they're capsicums. Red, green,

yellow capsicum.

No, they're just plain old peppers. Red

peppers, green peppers, and yellow

peppers. Capsicum. What? This isn't

Latin. This is English. Okay, another

one that's going to cause a bit of

conflict.

These are rain boots. And also, the

jacket that goes with it is a raincoat

or a rain jacket. I guess in the US we

like really clear, straightforward

uh names for items like this. Rain

boots. What's it for? It's for the rain.

It's very clear. Boots for the rain. I

mean, she's not wrong, is she? American

English is sometimes more simplified

than British English, and this is no bad

thing, really. Let's see what Emma has

to say. Um, when it's muddy and rainy,

um, I would put my gum boots on to walk

around in the wet.

Yeah. I mean, we would we never say gum

boots. I think I've heard my grandma say

it, so it might be quite an

old-fashioned thing. Uh, in British

English, we say wellies or wellie boots.

Are you ready for this next one? Are you

ready? Because what Australians call

these is frankly

shocking.

Let's hear from Vanessa first. These are

flip flops. Yeah, these are flip flops.

Emma, what do you call them? When we go

to the beach in Australia, we wear our

thongs.

Our thongs. It's plural and we're

talking about the shoes on our feet.

They're our thongs.

So, I have to explain to you what thongs

what a thong is in British English and

American English. A thong is like a

g-string. It's a a type of underwear

where there is just one string at the

back um instead of more fabric. If Emma

said to me, "Can I borrow some thongs?"

I would probably lend her some, but I'd

be a bit concerned. Okay, next one.

Where would you go to fill up your car?

This is a gas station where you put gas

into your car. So, when I fill up my

car, I fill it up at the petrol station.

Good. I am with Emma again on this one.

She's redeeming herself after the thong

situation.

Yes, we also call this a petrol station.

The fuel that we put into our car is

petrol. I spent much of my childhood

confused, but I was especially confused

by the fact that Americans put gas into

their car cuz I thought, well, petrol is

a liquid. Turns out it's just short for

gasoline. Now, the next one's quite

interesting. I want to know what they

call a shop that only sells alcohol. And

this is interesting because in America,

their attitude towards alcohol is

slightly different. We're very open,

maybe too open to alcohol in the UK and

Australia, but alcohol is more

controlled by the government and the

states in the United States. This is an

ABC store, which I just learned cuz I

just looked it up. It stands for alcohol

beverage controlled state. So, this is a

store that sells only alcohol. And that

last word state is because it is run by

the state or run by the government. Now

let's see what Emma calls it because I

have heard that Australians have some

fun names for places like these. When I

go and get a bottle of wine, I go to the

bottle shop, which in Australia we also

call the bottle. Bottle. Love it. It

would sound so stupid in a British

accent. I'm just going to the bottle. Do

you need anything? Otto. Yeah, it only

works really when you pronounce your T's

as d bottle. In British English, we call

this an offlic. An offlic.

Okay. What about this next one? I feel

like I'm going to get ganged up on here.

These are pants. Pants. Pants. Old

people might call them trousers. Well,

excuse me. I must be very old then

because these are handsdown trousers.

They are trousers. We do use the word

pants to refer to underpants.

Oh, cuz they go under your pants. Yeah,

maybe they are right. My whole life has

been a lie. Underpants. Cuz they go

under your pants. Under trousers doesn't

work, does it? Well, anyway, these are

trousers. And I'm not old Emma yet.

Now, what do we call this? The little

walking space beside a road.

This is a sidewalk. The concrete beside

the road where people walk in Australia

is called a footpath. Interesting. We

don't say either of these. We say

pavement. Pavement. Now, we would never

say sidewalk. We do say footpath, but a

footpath is normally not beside a road.

A pavement is just beside a road and a

footpath is anywhere else. Okay, another

car related one. What do we call this?

This is a highway or you could call it

an interstate. A highway or maybe a

freeway in Australia.

Ooh, we don't say either of these

either. We never say highway in um in

British English.

Interstate. Well, we don't have states,

so that doesn't work either. freeway.

No, freeway sounds dangerous. It sounds

like you can do whatever you want.

You're just free to drive however you

like. Thank you so much to Emma and

Vanessa for coming on this channel and

helping me to make this video. As I said

before, I've left all of their

information in the description box. Make

sure you watch the other video in this

two-part series on pronunciation. So,

we're going to be focusing on the same

words that are pronounced differently in

each accent. Don't forget to check out

Audible. You can get your free audio

book. That's a 30-day free trial. All

you've got to do is click on the link in

the description box to sign up. And

don't forget to connect with me on all

of my social media. I've got my

Facebook, my Instagram, and my Twitter.

And I shall see you soon for another

video.

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