For instance I know what I would call pants is called trousers there, or what I would call fries is called chips, things of that nature. One example, what would you/they call a paper towel?

I've sensed that British English varies in not only accent, dialect, and diction, but in snytax also.

And here:
http://www.effingpot.com/index.shtml

What's tough, in my experience, is turns of phrase. For example, in America, to "table an idea" is to decide to talk about it some other time. In Britain, if you "table an idea" you want to talk about it now.

In an American bar you might say to the barkeep, "I'll take a beer." In a British pub you'd say to the the barman (or barmaid) "I'd like a beer." -- or more likely, "A pint of Pride, please." (Fuller's London Pride is one of our best beers--and you'd send it back if the pint glass was not absolutely full to the brim, that being the traditional measure; it becomes a matter of pride to walk it to the table without spilling a drop.) In Britain you would not tip as heavily as in the USA, and if the service were bad, you would not dare to complain. UK bar conversation would be about the weather, football and cricket--not "the game"--and you'd probably be able to count the number of TVs in the bar on the fingers of one, maybe two hands. Waiter service is less likely in British pubs than American ones.

One way to "tune in" to British ways of speaking and living might be to watch British TV soaps, drama and sitcoms.

Accents, word choices, slang and turns of phrase vary not only according to geography, but by class. The landed gentry speak quite differently from the hoi polloi. BTW BBC English (the kind of English used by newsreaders) was once rather upper class, but these days it's generally more well-educated-middle class.

Here are a couple of BBC websites that might be helpful. They were available outside the UK and I believe they still are.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbc7/listenagain/

Radio 4 is the BBC's flagship radio station, broadcasting high quality drama, news, documentaries, discussion and comedy.

Radio 7 specialises in comedy and drama, and re-runs from the last several decades.

On Radio 4 listen to the Today programme to understand the issues of the day, or--when it's on air--the News Quiz to get the satirical version. To hear a variety of regional accents tune in to The Archers, one of the longest-running radio soaps. Radio 4 broadcasts many plays, set in both contemporary and historical times, and their recreations of the ways of speaking of the day will be quite accurate. Try listening to some of the comedy programmes; the English laugh at themselves--and everyone else--very easily.

Oh, and don't forget English understatement:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Understatement

We use understatement, not only for humour, but to be tactful:
http://learnenglish.ecenglish.com/lessons/how-use-understatement

I had to learn not to do it in America, where I was forever being asked to get to the point.

Hope this helps,
Pat

[This message has been edited by TaleSpinner (edited August 18, 2008).]

My local supermarket calls it a kitchen towell.
http://www.sainsburys.com/groceries/index.jsp?bmUID=1219159512412

Cheers,
Pat

Would you be up for that?

about 6,000 words

In America we say: He walked toward her.
In England they say: He walked towards her.

In Sophie's Choice the narrator and Sophie were of different national origins.

But I don't think it answers your question. The Brit is still going to talk like a Brit. even if the American hears it slightly different.

In Australia/UK "I'm going to knock her up" means you are going to knock on the door and pay her a visit.
In the USA "I'm going to knock her up" means you are going to make her pregnant.

I've gotten laughs from my UK friends' writings over this one.

Another one I've noticed in my writings, in the USA we tend to say "she's mad" when we mean "she's angry." My Irish friend says that mostly means "she's crazy" in the UK. They don't generally use it to mean anger.

I hear that the term "bugger" is considered more of a profanity in the UK than it is in the states, as in "That little bugger" which is more thought of as a little pest, a bug so to speak. My understanding is that in the UK the term refers more to ... um... sexual activity.

I attended a church service where the guest speaker, a former Episcopalian minister from England, was talking about his mother, a proper English matron. When his mother was introduced to an American Episcopalian bishop, she liked the man a great deal and said to him, "You are so sweet I could just kiss you on the pecker." She meant on the lips. The word does NOT have the same meaning in the US.

"Bugger" is one of those bloody useful cuss words that can be a verb or a noun. While it's usually used to describe something undesirable or bad, it can also be a term of endearment:

"Sorry dear." He was holding an enormous bunch of lilies, her favourites. "I was a bloody idiot. Kiss and make up?"

"Come 'ere, you daft bugger," she said ...

Pat

Then there's spoof, in American English it means a hoax or a parody. In British English slang, the term refers colloquially to an onanistic sexual act.

A flannel in British English is a washcloth. In American English, flannel is a style of cotton fabric--sort of an American tartan-like weave pattern--or a type of longsleeve shirt made of flannel fabric.

The punctuation ending a sentence that's neither interrogatory nor exclamatory is called a full stop in British English and globally by English speaking printers and typesetters. In British English, period commonly refers to a woman's courses.

Hurling is what an American boozer does after a long night of pub crawling or getting plastered. In Ireland, hurling is a sport somewhat like a cross between stickball and lacrosse and the assorted footballs and hockey.

American tic-tac-toe is British naughts and crosses.

Brits queue; Americans stand in or on a line. American students study or review; British students revise.

We speak the same language, don't we? Chalk the variants up to a rugged desire to be individual and fuel for characterizing differences between characters.

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Chalk the variants up to a rugged desire to be individual and fuel for characterizing differences between characters.

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Yes, absolutely.

I think RobertB's insight is interesting here. He said, "English dialects are dying out slowly, but they're the product of a culture in which people didn't move around much, so one region would be pretty much isolated from the next."

Here's an example of that: Americans use "gotten" as the past tense version of "to get". They might say, "I've gotten a new bike," while the English would say "I've got a new bike." We used "gotten" in the same way, once, but now we regard it as archaic--or, when Americans use it, quite quaint. Me, I've gotten accustomed to using it and I'm buggered if I'm gonna quit now I'm back in England.

When communities are isolated from one another, if they started with a common language, they diverge, each losing and inventing different words and idioms. I wonder if that will happen less in the English-speaking world as we use the internet (and TV and radio and movies) more and more each day.

There's a fair amount of that just between American English and British English. (Even some of the things Canadians say can boggle the mind.)

It's amazing how different two countries speaking the same language can be. As well as the linguistic differences, there are all sort of cultural quirks which apply to one but not the other. That said, both cultures are definitely beginning to merge. There is quite a bit of crossover - you get people saying 'stand in line' here nowadays; also I've seen a lot of American spelling around, and not just in foreign advertisements.

A friend of mine went to Canada to lecture at a university, and a student asked if a certain design idea would work. "I dunno," said my friend, "let's knock one up in the lab and see." His suggestion was greeted with a mixture of horror and amusement.

Also, who here is willing to read/translate my story?

marchpane seemed interested, is that true? Anyone else? Talespinner? tnwilz? Other brits/former brits?

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Also, who here is willing to read/translate my story?

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At 6000 words that's a big request, Zero. Read, perhaps; translate, probably not, because it's your story--have the responses and links above not helped you to help yourself? I thought the BBC radio programmes might have been especially helpful.

For the reading, I've made it a rule for myself at Hatrack only to read stories whose first 13 appeal to me. I'd suggest posting its first 13 in F&F and asking for crits from Brits.