🇬🇧 BRITISH ENGLISH vs INDIAN ENGLISH 🇮🇳 How much difference?

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- Hello everyone, welcome back to English with Lucy,

today I've got a very special guest.

It is Anpu from Conquer British English.

- Hello everyone. It's a pleasure to be here.

- So this is the first part of a two-part video.

The second part of the lesson is on Anpu's channel.

The link is in the description box.

Today we're going to be looking at the differences

between British English and Indian English.

I grew up in Bedford here in England,

but I live in Cambridge here

and I speak with a modern RP accent

sometimes with a bit of estuary as well.

- And yeah, I actually speak with a similar accent

to Lucy's, but during the course of this video,

I'm sure you'll be able to hear the differences

'cause I actually grew up in London.

And I also have hints of Multicultural London English

shortened down to MLE in my accent too.

And just to let you know, I'm of Tamil ethnicity,

and we just wanted to also mention to, you know,

India is such a diverse country and the population is huge.

It's over 1 billion people living in India.

And just to put that in perspective,

if you kind of compare India to Europe,

just the number of nations in Europe

and the languages that they speak,

you will notice some differences

in the Indian English that you use.

So we'd love to hear whether you use any words

slightly differently,

and we'd love to hear your thoughts on that

in the comments section.

- Yes, definitely. This is all about learning and sharing.

So please do use that comment section

to tell us how you speak and the words that you use.

- What I'd love to do is give you a taste

of what one form of the Indian accent sounds like

when we're discussing these words.

- Yes, please do so.

If you give some of the examples in that accent.

- I'd love to do that. - That'd be really cool.

Another important thing to note

is that Anpu has created a PDF for this lesson,

with all of the vocabulary differences

and some extra quizzes- - Absolutely, yeah.

- And interesting things.

So you can click on the link in the description box

to download that for both videos.

Okay, so the first one is this one, it's a vegetable.

I would call this okra.

- We would call it lady fingers.

- That's so funny because lady fingers

is actually the name of spongy biscuits.

- Oh really? - Yes.

It's kind of the bottom layer of a tiramisu, sometimes.

- Do you like, do you like the taste of lady fingers

in tiramisu?

- I mean the vegetable, yeah. I love it.

Honestly, I think it's quite a boring biscuit.

I think that's really funny.

I mean, you can see why it's called that can't you?

- But I've grown up eating okra, lady fingers

and it's got a very slimy texture to it,

but yes, you can use in a lot of our dishes.

- Yeah, it's not something that we cook with a lot here,

but we absolutely love curries.

I think we've actually named the chicken tikka masala

as our national dish.

It was voted as the British national dish.

- Really? Wow.

- That's how much we love it, yeah.

- So the next word we've got for you,

it's- - This one.

- Brinjal. - You call it Brinjal.

- Brinjal - That's so funny.

I wonder where that comes from.

We call this aubergine.

But this is quite a controversial world.

- Yes, that too. - Yes, that too.

(both laughing)

- No this is quite a controversial word

because in American English they call it eggplant.

- Eggplant. - Eggplant.

because the flower bud looks like an egg.

Have you ever seen it?

- No, I've never seen it.

No, it's that word, yeah.

- We call it aubergine,

and brinjal. - Brinjal.

I'm gonna start calling it brinjal.

- I'm gonna start calling it eggplant.

- Eggplant, I love the accent.

All right, the next one is this,

it's the ingredient that makes up a lot of curries

and I eat it for breakfast a lot.

We call it yoghourt.

- In Indian English it's often called curd.

Which is really interesting

because curd actually has a different meaning,

I guess in British English when we imagine curd,

do we imagine a different consistency?

- Yeah, isn't it curd like the creamy part of milk?

- Exactly, yeah.

In Indian English, you would often hear phrases

like, could you add some curd to my dish

or I'm just gonna pop out and buy some curd.

Well not pop out,

(both laughing)

'cause I guess pop out is a British saying.

I'm going to go to the shops and buy some curd.

- Interesting, but like a dessert yoghourt.

So strawberry flavoured yoghourt,

you wouldn't say a pot of curd.

- No I don't think you would. No

- Okay, interesting.

- The next one we've got is a really interesting one

because I've grown up hearing it all the time

and it's often been a source of argument in the household.

This one is lakh or lakh

- Okay. - Yeah.

- So we don't have a picture for this one

because I need to guess what it is.

- Lakh - Lakh

like luck, but it's not spelled with an U,

it is spelled L.A.K.H.

- Okay, lakh.

Something to do with luck? - Nope.

- Something to do with the bird?

- It kinda sounds like it, right?

So one lakh is a unit in the Indian numbering system.

It actually represents 100,000.

In conversation, you might hear someone say,

I bought that house for 10 lakhs.

- So that would be a million pounds.

- Yeah, exactly.

- 'Cause 10 times 100,000 is one million.

- Right, I just think also it's amazing

the way you can switch between those two accents

- Thank you. - That's so cool.

So does that,

is that maybe because rupees are a smaller value?

So you're more likely to have something

- Perhaps so.

- Because we would, 100,000 pounds is a lot.

- Absolutely, yeah that could be a viable reason.

I think there might be a difference

in the numbering systems as well,

across the different nations.

So that will influence how we think about numbers.

And then the term that we attribute to a particular sum

of money or a particular number.

- Amazing, 'cause I just would have no idea

if someone told me 10 lakhs.

- In my household, when we're talking about numbers,

my parents always use lakhs

and my siblings and I, we use 100,000 or a million

and we often have miscommunication

when we're talking about numbers,

it leads to lots of confusion in the household.

- Even within your own household.

(both chuckling)

All right, this next one.

I wonder if you can tell what it is from the picture.

In British English, we would refer to this as marriage.

- Now you would often hear this

being referred to as an alliance.

Sounds really formal,

doesn't that have forming an alliance?

- Yes, it does.

- But yeah, that's often a term that-

- Would you also use marriage as well?

- Yeah, for sure.

But in terms of an example sentence,

someone could say that these two people

are seeking an alliance or they're looking for an alliance.

- That's so funny

'cause I would think that would be a business person

looking to join forces with someone else,

when actually it describes an emotional connection

and an official one as well.

- Let us know if marriage

is often referred to in a different way

from the parts of India that you're from.

So the next one is, you know,

when it's a rainy day and you just want to catch that bus,

you're gonna be waiting at a, how would you say it?

- A bus stop - Bus stop.

In Indian English, you often hear it as bus stand

or a bus halt.

- It makes sense. - Yeah.

- Halt is kind of a more formal word.

Like a more old fashioned word for stop in British English.

And then a stand where you stand there, don't you?

- So yeah, I guess that maybe referring to the actual stand

of the the pole of the bus signs on the top

of the signage.

- If I heard bus stand,

I'd know exactly what is meant by it,

but we definitely tend to say bus stop.

Okay, this next one is the word we use to address a man

in a position of authority.

For example, a teacher or your boss.

I mean in British English,

we would just say first name terms for the boss

or Mr. and then their surname for a teacher.

I remember Mr. Purdum was my favourite teacher at school.

So I would just call him Mr. Purdum or Mr.

- Yeah, that's absolutely right.

In London, I've grown up calling my teachers, Mr.

Mr. Smith, for example.

In India, you would refer to your male teacher as sir.

That's quite commonplace and your boss has sir as well.

So with the accent, it sounds something like this, sir.

So you would hear an Indian person

saying sir, can you please help me with the homework please?

- Sorry, I was just so in love with what you were saying,

I really, really the accent it's just so gentle.

It's like, it's almost like caressing the R sound.

We do use the word sir.

- We do, don't we?

But I would say for boss, that's too formal.

That's like showing too much inequality, I would think.

But in some schools it depends on the school's regulations,

maybe some private schools, places like that

would insist on a more formal code.

- Yeah, that's true.

- But I never had to call my teachers sir at school.

- What about female teachers?

- Females, so in British English,

we would say madam wouldn't we?

But in a really formal setting.

Just wondering whether sir and madam is used in India

because in an email you would say dear sir, madam.

In Indian English, we would refer to a male teacher as sir.

How do you guys refer to your female teachers at school

or your female boss?

- Yeah, that would be really interesting to know

because we say miss or Mrs.

depending on if they're married or not.

Yeah, I'd like to know that.

- The next one is all about how you refer

to members of our family.

So Lucy, if I was to say

that I met up with my brother yesterday,

how would you understand that?

- That you met up with your male sibling.

- My male sibling who is my immediate sibling, right?

- Yes, has the same parents.

- In Indian English,

brother could also mean my male cousin.

- Interesting, so do you use the word cousin still?

- No, so this is why when we speak to a person

who's speaking with British English,

we would have to clarify that and say cousin, brother.

Even though it means cousin,

you would often hear in Indian English,

someone referring to their cousin as their cousin brother.

- Interesting, well, we would just say cousin.

- Or cousin, sister, if it was a female.

- Okay, - Yeah.

- Yeah, just the same for us, cousin.

Okay, the next one is this,

in British English, we say boot or car boot

- In Indian English we say dikki.

So could you put the luggage in the dikki

or could you lend me a hand

and put the luggage in the dikki please.

- Awesome, and we've also seen a couple of other spellings

for it like diggi as well.

I guess it just depends on the pronunciation.

- I guess so.

As we mentioned earlier, lots of different Indian accents,

so I guess that's what influences the spelling there.

- Yeah, and again, this is another word

that is also different in American English,

they call it a trunk.

- They do, don't they?

I've always imagined an elephant trunk

whenever I hear trunk. - Same

They wouldn't put any luggage up there.

(both chattering)

- So the next one that I wanted to introduce you to

is how we use the word current in our day-to-day life.

If I said current, what would you understand that as?

- Current as in, in the moment?

- That is a good homophone,

isn't it? - Yes

The current for it is in the current moment,

in the current moment, Lucy and I are filming.

But this version of current is used in day-to-day life

for something else. Do you want to take a guess?

- Current as in like an ocean current

or electricity current?

- Yes, so we use the word current to replace electricity.

I could advise you, be careful of the current Lucy

when you are plugging in the plug into the socket.

- Be careful of the electricity.

- Yes, perfect.

- Awesome, I never knew that.

The next one is a word used to describe an illness.

In British English, we say diabetes

- And in Indian English you could hear this

been referred to as sugar.

And this is commonly used in the state of Tamil Nadu

- Interesting, and is this because diabetes

or some forms of diabetes are brought on

by excess consumption of sugar?

- Absolutely, absolutely.

- Very interesting.

And how do you pronounce it again?

- So I would pronounce this as sugar.

So do not eat too many sweets

because you could develop sugar.

- Interesting.

- The next one we've got on the screen,

in Indian English, it could be referred to as the washroom,

but could also be referred to as the toilet too.

But what about British?

- Well, we also say toilet.

I know that's something that in American English,

they find a bit disgusting,

'cause it's too specific to the actual toilet,

but we said the toilet or the loo, that's slang.

I always say the loo. I think I heard you call it the loo.

- I call it the loo as well.

- Yeah. - Yes.

I don't think washroom is that common,

but that's not to say it's never used in British English.

- That's right, yeah.

- The next one is this one,

in British English we call it crisps.

I know that's quite a hard sound. The sound crisps.

What do you call it in Indian English?

- Chips, it's commonly referred to as chips.

- Chips, and what about fried potatoes that are served warm?

Also chips?

- Yeah, I guess.

- Everything is just chips?

(both chuckling)

- So the next one we've got here is referred to as capsicum.

Now, how would you refer to it?

- We would call this peppers or red pepper, green pepper,

yellow pepper.

- But then, surely that gets confusing.

The kind of the pepper that you put on

your fish and chips.

- Yes, but then the pepper we put on, like as a seasoning

is an uncountable noun, so I'd say, can I have some pepper?

That would be the spice of it.

It's not necessarily a spice. The seasoning.

If I ask for a pepper, I'm asking for a capsicum.

- That is a fantastic tip.

- So that's the end of the first part of this video

we have got the next part,

which is so interesting over on Anpu's channel.

You can click the link in the description box

or just go straight to his channel.

Again, please share any other differences that you know of

down below in the comments section.

And also if you are from another English speaking country

and you would like see another episode,

please tell us which variation of English

you'd like us to feature next.

Don't forget to download your free PDF.

The link is in the description box

and you can find us on our social media.

I've got my Facebook and my Instagram and my mailing list.

- I'm also active on my Instagram,

Conquer British English.

- We will see you soon for another lesson.

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