1 Language, 3 Accents! - American vs. British vs. Australian English

Aw yeah! Today we have a  very special lesson for you. 

I'm super excited, we have wanted to do this  lesson for a long time and now we finally can,  

because we have added a new fluency coach  to the team: Ollie, from New South Wales,  

Australia, who you will meet in just a moment. So we gather together to show you the differences  

between American, British and Australian English. Now although we all speak the same language  

it's no surprise that there  are many different varieties. 

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Right, now we're going to start with vocabulary  differences, so we will look at some different  

pictures and basically each of us will say  what we call that in our part of the world.

So are you guys ready? Bring it on. Ready!

All right so this first one  how would you call that Andrea? 

This is of course a pepper. I almost agree with you, I would call  

that a bell pepper because we have many different  types of peppers in my part of the United States. 

At least and in Australia it's a little  bit different because for me pepper is  

something really hot and spicy and this  is not spicy. This is called a capsicum. 

This is like the most bizarre word I have  ever possibly imagined for this vegetable. 

It's a really difficult word  for something quite simple.

What would you call this Ollie? Yeah so this is an elevator. 

You would call it an elevator as well? That's  what we'd call it in the States. Andrea? 

No, no, no. I'm sorry, this is called a lift. I suppose that makes sense, it kind of like  

lifts you up but that sounds like a little  bit- I feel like that might be what I would  

call it for a kid or something like that. Well I don't know, I think elevators  

may be a bit advanced for what it is a  lift. Is just such a lovely easy word. 

Yeah, that's true. It's probably important to  note as well that we would say you're going  

to take the lift or get in the lift, and this  shouldn't be confused with giving someone a lift  

or taking a lift from someone, which  would describe a situation where you  

take someone maybe in your car to  a place that they need to go to. 

I think in in the States and in Australia  as well you probably use the same term,  

right? To give someone a lift. Absolutely. -Yep.

Yeah, so in Australia we call this a petrol  station but sometimes we can even shorten it  

and say a peti station. So someone might  say to you "uh I need to get some petrol,  

let's go to the peti station." I love that, it's very similar.  

We don't shorten this word like you do  Ollie in Australia but in the UK we also  

call this a petrol station because it's  where you go to put petrol in your car. 

What the heck is petrol? We put gasoline  in a car. We would of course call this a  

gas station because it's where you get gasoline. See when we think of gas we think of air,  

when you think of the elements so if  you're saying you're going to a gas station  

it makes you think maybe you're going to pump  your tires up because they need air or something,  

or you need gas you know like when you have an  operation or something you need gas and air- 

Yeah we think like you actually  Andrea, exactly the same, gas is air,  

not what you put in your car. It's not gas, it's gasoline. Okay.

What would you call this Andrea? These are of course sweets. 

For us if you say sweets- we could actually  say that as well but it might also refer  

to like anything sweet. So if you have a  sweet tooth you might want like a cupcake,  

you might want a pastry or something  like that and those could all be sweets. 

For us this certain type of  sweet we would call candy. 

Okay, and down in the land down under  in Australia we call these lollies. 

Like a lollipop? Yeah, I mean- well we actually caught a lollipop  

is a lollipop. And these are lollies, with -ies. But are they on sticks and things? 

No, they're not on sticks. I guess like  lolly is even more general than sweets. 

What would you call the place where  you buy this? Would it be a lolli shop? 

Oh, I don't even know if we  have these types of stores! 

I don't think a- good question. Yeah we have candy stores here. 

Oh and we'd call it the sweet shop.  The sweet shop, the lolly shop. 

In the States if you say that  it's like that shop is sweet,  

like it's an awesome- a really great shop. 

I love how we have all different words for this  one. We've got three words there for one thing.

So moving on to the next one this of course would  be called a drugstore or maybe even a pharmacy. 

Yeah so I we could in Australia we could call this  a pharmacy and you can also call it a chemist. 

I'm with you there Ollie, in the UK we call this  a chemist. But you could also call it a pharmacy. 

Chemist... it sounds like way too archaic,  it sounds really old or something like  

you're actually going there and the guy's  going to get like his potions and kind  

of like mix it up for you. Yeah, that's what happens! 

So in the UK if you told someone you were going  to the drugstore they think that's where you're  

going to buy drugs, like narcotics, because  we don't call this drugs we call it medicine.

All right so moving on to the next picture.  We talked about candy or sweets or lollies,  

what do you guys call this? So I would call this fizzy drink. 

Fizzy drink... it sounds like a great thing again. You call it the same Andrea? 

Yeah so this one actually has lots of different  names, so it's quite an interesting one.  

We'd probably call it a soft drink  but you'll also hear people call it  

a fizzy drink or fizzy pop or even just pop. I think if you go to the North of England,  

especially people would call it pop. In Australia you can ask the the waiter  

what fizzy they have and they'll fit and  they'll say "Oh we have Coca-Cola-" Actually  

we call it Coke. Uh, Fanta, Pepsi, Sprite. In parts of the US I've heard that they'll-  

for like all soft drinks they'll say Coke. So it  doesn't matter what type that they want, they can  

you say like as a general- they call them Coke. Where I'm from the US we'd probably say soda,  

but it's the same as like in the UK that depending  where you go you could hear people say pop or soda  

or both of them together: "soda pop" and soft  drinks also would be like in general to refer to  

them, but I would never actually say that to say  like "I want a soft drink" or something like that.

So what would you say is the most  universal that you could use everywhere? 

I think soft drink, right? I suppose people would know what you want but  

it just sounds unnatural in the States for sure. So you better say soda or pop. 

Interesting! So be careful because if you go to  the UK and you order a soda you're going to get  

basically like a fizzy water, a sort of water- Yeah that makes sense.

Uh, we would call that the trunk of the car.

So this is not what we call it in  the UK. This is the boot of the car. 

The boot? But that sounds like  it should be underneath it. 

Your boots, you wearing your feet.  That sounds like it would be like  

another name for the tires or something. Well it's because it's in the back, I suppose,  

it's in the back of the car, so it's the boot.  It's like the the end of it, maybe- I don't know. 

Where do you wear your boots Andrea? Help me Ollie, what do you call it?

Well we also call it the boot of the car. 

I had never heard trunk before until  I met my first American, so this is  

it's definitely the boot of the car. Ethan, you're outvoted on that one. 

Voted off of the island.

So I suppose trunk because that's  like another name for suitcases. 

Oh, I see... So like that's what you put your suitcases in  

and there's a lot of space for you to put  things in, so that's why you call it trunk. 

Exactly, so if you call this the trunk  what do you call the front of the car? 

The front is the hood. Hmm,  

interesting. I would say bonnet. Same here, we call it the bonnet. 

The bonnet, that sounds really old as well. You calling us old Ethan? Or passion right?

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All right I believe I'm looking at liquor  bottles. So we talked about soft drinks  

and then think in all cases of English we  could also call these like hard drinks, but  

what would you call a store where you buy these? I think I've heard it in Australia, so I want to  

I want to hear what Ollie has to say. In Australia we call this a "bottle-o." 

I think that's like the best possible  name that you could have for it. 

So it's so strange because it sounds  like also it's a really good name,  

because it sounds like whoever invented that  name for it was maybe a little bit drunk. 

I haven't heard that before,  that's a completely new one for me. 

So wow this is a tricky one. Actually because in  the UK you can buy this in many different places,  

so there are some shops that just sell  alcohol and these are called off licenses. 

So you would say "I'm going to  the off license to buy something,"  

but you can buy this in  other shops as well. You can  

buy at the supermarket. Lots of people will  probably buy at the supermarket nowadays,  

but you do still have some off licenses. We can't buy alcohol in the supermarket at all,  

it's illegal, so we have to go to the bottler  if we want to buy some hard, hard liquor.

Okay, now both of your guys I find them really  bizarre. I think ours is a lot better name for it  

and it's- we're in the same boat with Australia  depending on the state that you're in,  

you can't buy it at the supermarkets. You have  to go to a liquor store, which a liquor store  

is a store that sells liquor. But what is liquor, Ethan? 

Liquor is hard alcohol, right? We have also a really good- there's like a- I  

guess it's a poem that fits really well with this  that says "Candy is dandy but liquor is quicker." 

I think bottle-o is like the  shorter version of "bottle shop"  

because you go there and buy  bottles or cans -if you want cans- 

Okay, we only have two of these left. I believe  this one is referring to the actual room that  

you're supposed to go to, so I would call  it the bathroom, like, "I have to go to the  

bathroom" or "Where is the bathroom?" Well are you going to have a bath? 

Yeah, this picture even only has like a toilet  in it but we'd still call it the bathroom. 

Yeah, well, I'm going to the toilet. 

To the toilet me too. We would say "I'm  going to the toilet" or you could even say  

"I'm going to pop to the loo." Yeah, I'm going to the loo. 

Yeah that's a nice little.  Did you say that in Australia? 

Yeah I'm going to the loo, I mean that's  me always just sounded like super British,  

I wouldn't imagine that you'd say it also. Yeah and if we're talking about the actual object  

we can call this "the dunny" We definitely wouldn't say that,  

we'd say maybe like "the can," like  you say "I'm going to the can," but  

it's a little bit crass, it's like not so polite. Yeah and in the UK our version would be "the bog."

So if you go to the States and you say toilet it's  like quite literal, so I think it's considered  

maybe not so polite and I think we say like  bathroom or washroom or powder room. We have like  

all these euphemisms because I guess people don't  really want to imagine what you're doing in there,  

or something like that. So we say the bathroom  

and you could be doing so many things: taking  a shower, having a bar, washing your hands... 

Doing a little personal  dance party, you never know!

Okay and then finally we talked about some  different sweet things. These of course would  

be cookies. -  

Biscuits. - Biscuits.

Biscuits? It's a cookie. If it is a type  of biscuit, you know with chocolate chips  

and things like that, but this is an  assortment and so we call these biscuits. 

Biscuits for us would not be sweet, it'd be  like a- it's kind of like a pastry that you  

might have at breakfast. It's like a kind  of a buttery bread roll sort-of-thing,  

maybe you can show like a picture of what that  looks like, but yeah if you go to the Sand  

you ask for biscuits you're going to be sorely  disappointed if you were wanting something sweet. 

Wow! Interesting! We love a  good biscuit with a cup of tea.

Now if a lot of this seem new to you do not  let it stress you out. For us natives when  

we meet someone from a different country or  even just a different region from our own,  

most of the time even though they might use some  different words or pronounce something differently  

our ears become quickly attuned and we can  understand most new words by the context,  

or even if that fails by simply being  curious and asking that other person. 

So if you work on your base listening, you'll be  able to do this too. And this is something else  

that we help you to do constantly here  on this channel, so if you haven't yet  

I highly recommend that you Subscribe  and check out some of our other videos. 

And now it's time to go beyond the  classroom and live your English. Aww yeah!!