7 Harmless British Words Americans Might Find Rude 

In the U.S. you can still come across the phrase "tit for tat".

Poppycock isn’t a very common but not unheard of word here. Banger has made its way into American vernacular to mean a song that you can jam to or bang your head along to, thus, banger

I remember my late stepmother telling me about when she was on a business trip to London. She asked for a 7AM wake up call and was told "I'll pop up at 7 and knock you up". She was not amused...

About 15 years ago, a guy from Scunthorpe joined our team at work. When making polite conversation at lunch on a Monday, I casually asked "did you do anything exciting this past weekend?". He replied "I smoked a joint". After a pregnant pause, I followed up with "did you barbeque a large cut of meat?"

In Colorado, we'd call junk cars "beaters", not "bangers".

"Laugh all you want about that bird, but remember it can fly, what can you do?" is the greatest line and burn I've heard today.

Your American accent when describing what your stage director said was spot on for the Midwest. As someone from the Midwest, it was very uncanny to hear the same voice go from British to American Midwest in the span of a second. Great job.

The old British TV show "Are You Being Served" played on a few phrases like this all the time. As a kid back in the late 80s, early 90s, I first heard some of the phrases on PBS reruns of the show. I quickly changed the channel because my parents wouldn't want me to be watching a TV show with that kind of language! 😂

Here in Brazil we have a similarly rubbery confusion. In most of the world, Durex is a brand of condoms. But here, it's a brand of adhesive tape. You can imagine how "I have to buy some durex" can be misunderstood. It gets worse if you try to explain that you need it for work.

Banger in the US is also used as slang to refer to a great song. I.E. "that song is a banger"

A friend came to the US and was filling out papers at immigration when she needed an eraser, and stood up in the middle of a room and asked for a rubber. She couldn’t understand why people were averting their faces in embarrassment.

As someone who grew up with an American father and British mother in the 40s and 50s, this was a delight! Many household use words/terms ended up with me in the principal's office at school with a parent conference to clear things up.

As an American visiting London as a college girl I was mortified by not knowing what "fanny" meant there.

Poppycock is also a popcorn based snack food very similar to Crackerjack. Rubbers are sometimes used in place of galoshes that you put over your shoes in bad weather.

Years ago when i was a little kid, my ex mother saw a cute fluffy bird and wanted to know what it was called. I looked it up for her in a bird book we had and once i said “Tuffed Tit Mouse” she yelled at me for saying an obscene word. I tried to show her the name in the book, to prove im not being vulgarly immature, but she refused to look at the book, and told me to never say disgusting adult language ever again. She flipped out as if I named the bird. 😑

Telling anyone in Britain that something is a bummer or that you were bummed about something leaves the funniest look on their face. 😂

Here's another one, although it may be obsolete in Britain now. My work friend had a British Dad and American Mom. They met during WWII - he was a soldier, she was a WAC stationed in the UK. They went out on a first date and had a lovely time - until it was time to go. He asked, "May I knock you up tomorrow?" She was horrified and said NO! They managed to solve the miscommunication and eventually wed after the war. He did knock her up, of course, but that was after they were married.

5:53 "What Americans refer to as an ERAZER..." It should be noted that while the spelling is the same on both sides of the pond, Americans pronounce the S in eraser with an... S sound, whereas Brits (and some others) vocalize it into a Zed sound. I noticed this while teaching in South Korea. Koreans usually tend towards teaching English with American terminology and pronounciation, but for some reason they teach this word with the UK pronounciation. Which is fine, except the Zee sound doesn't exist in Korean, so it's hard for many of them to say. It often comes out as "erajer." I think about the word "eraser" way too much.

The first time I went to Pennsylvania to visit my old college roommate in Hershey, he took me on a guided tour of the area. That tour included a ride on an old-fashioned steam locomotive that went through Amish territory. The train line was just a local one for the area. After we boarded the train, the tour guide told us that our ride that day that Intercourse was halfway to Ecstasy! (Ecstasy was the end of the line!) Needless to say, the passengers roared with approval.

A friend of mine visited England when she was in college. When she checked into a hotel, the concierge asked what time she wanted to be “knocked up.” That would have been quite a wake up call, in more ways than one!

‘Bonk’ has a slang meaning in the UK that it doesn’t in North America. I was travelling across Europe by train many years ago. On one overnight stretch, a Canadian lady who was sitting next to me accidentally hit her head against my shoulder several times as she drifted off to sleep. At some level, she must have been conscious of it because she apologised in the morning for having ‘bonked you all night’. The Britons in my car were most amused!

My mom's name is Tommi; she was named after her dad. When she was a little girl she was very small. Her family used to call her a titmouse and say "Tommi, Tommi titmouse, came to live at our house". A titmouse is a small type of bird. I wrote this before I saw the portion of the video talking about the titmouse. LOL

I had a supervisor who was Irish and she was showing us some new procedures. She made a mistake and asked someone to pass her a rubber. Giggles broke out amongst us adults. “You know what I meant “ she huffed and someone passed her an eraser. Which by the way I’ve never heard pronounced with the zee/zed sound, always heard it pronounced e-ray-sir.

I had a friend who married an Englishman. They were visiting his family when, at dinner, one night his mother asked her if she would like something else to eat. She said no thank you, I’m stuffed. Apparently his parents were shocked while his siblings thought it was hilarious. The common usage in the US was apparently not so common in the UK!

I love how Ron Weasley's "Bloody Hell!" was offense in both countries but for different reasons.

I noticed that you avoided talking about the British slang for cigarettes. 😉

Amazed that you left out the British slang word for: "cigarette".

I'm reminded of a headline from a few decades ago featuring the names of two Minnesota towns "Fertile Woman Dies In Climax."

Growing up in Minnesota and then Chicago we used the word "rubbers" to describe what are actually called galoshes. Those rubber overshoes used to protect your regular shoes from wet and snow. Mostly from snow. Moms would regularly yell to their kids, "Put on your rubbers before you go out!" Nobody thought twice about it. The funny thing is we never transitioned to the word galoshes (except for me, because I own expensive leather shoes), but instead just stopped wearing galoshes altogether - mostly.

For me it was the use of the word "rubber" in a Sherlock Holmes story by the chief inspector going on about being called away from his bridge game that caused trouble. In a classroom of mid-1970s 13-yr olds at a Baptist school, this caused an infectious titter. Which caused a prolonged telling off of the class by the teacher.

I use poppycock all the time. No one even blinks. In England, I have heard someone suggest a situation has gone "tits up". My mother, teaching 4th grade, told her students to get out their pencils and rubbers. The class dissolved into giggles. The all time best one was when my mum asked my dad to " knock her up at 6" the silence in the room was profound!

I think most people are aware that in America "pants"=trousers and in Britain "pants"= underwear. This little difference led to some quiet chuckling from my friend's British husband as we were shopping for "work pants." In another instance, a friend of my in-laws had a difficult time calling his friend who was staying at a British hotel. He would call the front desk and ask to be transferred to his friend's room. When they asked who they should say was calling he would say "Randy" (a common American nickname for Randall) and the hotel personnel would hang up on him thinking it was a prank. 😂😂😂

Anyone else notice there’s a lot of “weird” things that the Americans do that if you go back, the Brits started but for some reason or another changed their minds.

This video was hilarious. I didnt find a single word of it offensive. Thanks for the laugh, Laurence!

When I studied abroad in the UK, I balked at how the Brits would ask for the toilet. I had a whole conversation with a Scot about how Americans would seldom ask someone in public where the toilets were. We'd ask for the restroom or the bathroom. He couldn't understand my discomfort! I said it's basically akin to asking where the "shitter" is. Hopefully that translated ;)

When I was in Primary School in the very early 80s, and about 9 or 10 there was a teacher exchange. My class had a teacher for the year from St Paul, Minnesota. She was great 👍. I sometimes wonder about contacting her to let her know that this little girl (who is now past 50) still remembers her with fondness. In addition to my first ever try of pumpkin pie, she set us up with pen pals back at her school (this was long before email and nobody had home computers). One of my fellow pupils wrote to her little US pen pal that she collected rubbers (erasers), and she never heard from her again.

My grandmother's generation (born 1900) used the word "rubber" in place of saying "rubber band". This gave middle school me great fits of laughter.

I love your 'American' accent and would love to hear more of it.

I said poppycock in a meeting and was threatened with discipline for swearing. Uneducated people in positions of authority.

Another is "fanny pack". I was working in a store here in America and an English woman asked me if we sold any...she couldn't think of the name so she indicated the area around her waste and I said, "Oh, you mean a fanny pack?" After her face turned 4 shades of red I realized that there was a miscommunication of some kind. But I brought her to the area where they were located and went on my way. It wasn't until later that I found out that "fanny", which here in America is as tame* as can be and simply means the buttocks, means the woman's parts located in the front in Britain! I also had an experience with a young English boy asking if we sold "rubbers". Since he was only about 10 years old you can imagine my initial shock! But once he described what it does I realized what he meant. * "Fanny" is so tame that most Americans wouldn't even blink an eye if you said something like, "Now, don't misbehave young lady or I'll spank your fanny!" to a 4 year old.

I remember a new student from the UK asking our teacher if she had a rubber. She was stunned and set him to see the principal. I recall the principal having a talk to her afterwards.

I have a friend in law enforcement, who tells a tale of an officer who visited on exchange from Britain. He was appalled when a particular weapon was referred to as a "sawed off shotgun". Once feathers were soothed, my friend inquired as to what the weapons were referred to in Britain. The answer a "sawn-off shotgun."

Poppycock was used by my grandparents like the word davenport for couch or sofa. Mom used wonderful words nere- do-well for someone who didn't work hard enough to support themselves.

I remember one episode of the Australian cartoon, Bluey, the girls were playing doctor and pretending to have to operate on their dad. They did an "x-ray" at one point and the drawing was called "a pot plant." And all the American Karens LOST THEIR GOD DAMN MINDS! Because they instantly went to a marijuana plant and not use their eyes to see it was a potted plant!

Let's do the Australian version. That'll be fun.

When I was growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950’s and 60’s, rubbers referred to small overshoes.

So in high school I was in a production of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Trial by Jury." The producer was a traditionalist and insisted we sing, "Is this the court of the exchequer?" "It is." "Be firm, be firm, my pecker." First night the audience laughed for five minutes. After that we used "Have courage."

This has nothing to do with "rude" words, but I've always wondered about the word "homely". In Britain it seems to mean a comfortable and inviting home. In the US homely refers to something (or some one ) that is unattractive or ugly. Can't remember if you've addressed this one before.

Poppycock is also the trade name for a delicious brand of candy coated popcorn with almonds or pecans.

His ability to switch to different American accents is amazing.

My mother, who was French-Canadian, use to tell me to "Remember your rubbers"! Yikes Mom! What she actually was telling me was not to forget to wear my glosses, or Rain proof footwear, before leaving for school in the morning. To, which, I would giggle, and then she'd mumble something rude in French at me. 😅😂

I remember talking to my grandfathers second wife who was British born, the question came up about what virtues I Like in a women and I said that I liked "spunky girls" or "girls full of spunk" meaning spirited or strongwilled but I remember her bursting out laughing and was confused and she never did tell me why. I later learned the british slang term spunk.....

The British phrase "I'll knock you up later." caught me off guard when I first heard it. To an American "knock you up" or to get "knocked up" means to get pregnant. But in England they mean it as they will come by later and knock on your door to visit you.

Laurence using his American accent sounds eerily like a boss I had (from Chicago) in the early 1990s. Thanks for this cracking good video!!

I lived with British roommates in Japan who smoked cigarettes. I was mortified the first time I heard one ask another if they could “crash a …” (in the us we would say ‘bum a cig’, which probably also mortifies English folks). I’m a colonial and an Anglophile 🇬🇧 thank you for your videos!

For place names, there is in Barrington, NH a spot called Bumfagging Hill.

While on a college choir trip to England, we spent many evenings in the homes of those people brave enough to volunteer to board us. The best story from this 2 week trip that I can share is this. My friend Nick and I were staying with a very nice family for 2 days in central England, on the first night, they served pot roast for supper, and it was fantastic. We both probably shocked them in how much we ate. When the lady of the house asked us if we would like more, Nick said "no thank you, I'm stuffed!" This led to five minutes of laughter from the entire family, while Nick and I just looked bewildered. Then, still snickering, she explained what stuffed was slang for at the time!!😂

Might I add the word pissed. Here in the US it means you're angry and in the UK it means you're drunk.

American concierge to British visitor: “Hi, I’m Randy, let me know what I can do to make your stay more enjoyable.”

“I don’t know how to not get demonetized.” That’s a completely fair assessment. :D

I laughed out loud so many times during this episode, and I thank you.

I use "Oh, poppycock and balderdash" not infrequently, especially when expressing frustration at strangers online.

I love this channel! I've always been fascinated by the word differences on each side of the pond, and been intrigued and amused by the old saying that America and Britain are two countries separated by a common language. Keep up the good work!

The British “rubber” is for fixing mistakes while the American one is for preventing them.

Poppycock is also caramel popcorn snack that includes nuts, that is sold in the US. 😋

So a teenage British girl on an exchange program comes to the US and asks a handsome young lad in her class if he has a rubber handy. That could get ugly. Or perhaps not so ugly.

If you asked to stroke the dog's FUR, I'm sure no one would bat an eye.

This feels like one of those channels that just make for a goldmine of out-of-context clips

My Nana went on a work trip many years ago with a group of men and women. There were only two women, my Nana and a British lady. They were at dinner and she asked a male colleague who was staying on the same floor as her to "knock her up in the me up in the morning". The man went beet red and didn't know what to do or say. Everyone was laughing The British lady was confused. My Nana explained what the phrase means in America. The lady was embarrassed and said she just wanted him to let her know when he was leaving in the morning. .

I’m guessing “fanny pack” will be in the next video.

I love this kind of "class"! Having watched a lot of the BBC imports when I was younger, i consistently had a good time saying things with the UK usage and watching my fellow Americans. It was a hoot. And i never ended up in the principal's office at all!

Also I’ve heard “Banger” also being used to describe an appealing piece of music or media. It makes total sense they would also relate to fire works, or explosive sausages.

In graduate school at the University of Kansas, I was a teaching assistant for the Intensive English Center. Yes, a student once asked me if I had a rubber. I turned several shades of red. He noticed and made a motion over his paper and said he needed to rub out an error. Eventually, I understood the meaning. But, yes, I was shocked at first.

I heard poppycock growing up in the south. But mostly from traditional southerners.

Living in Lincolnshire spital in the street comes from shortening the word hospital, meaning long ago there was a cottage hospital there...along with many other places with spital included🎉 happy new year

I'm quite enjoying this series! Thanks Lawrence and team! 😝

Rubbers in America referred to protective footwear that you wore over your shoes, especially in the winter months, to keep your feet and shoes dry.

I had a friend who visited the UK years ago and saw a cute baby. Trying to be friendly they exclaimed "what a cute little bugger" and the baby's mom got so offended. They did not use "Bugger" again on that trip.

Great video Lawrence! I love bangers and mash, and I am amused by your American accent when you choose to use it.

you have found your calling! You are so witty and talented! Keep on keepin' on!

Knackered meaning exhausted in the UK, can also mean Drunk in the USA

I believe Gyles Brandreth explained titmouse as coming from "tit": small and "mace": bird; in either "The Joy of Lex" or "More Joy of Lex"; if you've not read these books, I highly recommend them.

I made my mom a cross stitch of some of these birds with the label "Great Tits" and she hung it up in her living room. We're from the midwest US and are easily amused.

Excellent! Been needing these addressed.

Your American accent is hilarious! Spot on ! (Or is it someone else doing a voiceover ?)

Poppycock is a word I heard my parents and grandparents use. All from northern Indiana.

I had a friend who went to summer camp once as a young teen. She shared her cabin with a girl from Scotland. One day, the Scottish girl got up early to have a quick shower. When she got out of the bathroom she saw that my friend was awake and said “I’m so sorry, did I knock you up this morning?” Needless to say, it took them a minute to work out what she meant.

I used to work for an international accountancy firm whose office in East Anglia frequently employed the wives of US servicemen deployed to Britain. The trainees in particular used to enjoy asking these ladies to get them a rubber from the stationery cupboard and watch their expressions.

When I went to England for my son's wedding, I was shocked to hear "toilet" for bathroom or rest room. It sounded almost vulgar to me because "toilet" to most of us is the porcelain flushing thingy in the bathroom and we don't say, "going to the toilet." At least not here in Idaho (not exactly the most suave or sophisticated state in the Union). I love it when you speak with an American accent.

I thought for sure you would have mentioned "Tits Up!" I have a UK friend who told me his computer had gone tits up and I laughed like a mad man. He stood there asking ok Wolf what did I say now. I'm crying tears laughing saying your computer has gone "tits up." He says to me yes Wolf as in Broken and beyond repair. As in Dead. Turns out I was able to fix his computer. It's what I do. Now that I look for it I've heard the term on a few UK TV shows.

As a Dutch guy I didn't know that poppycock is derived from the Dutch word pappekak. We don't use this Dutch word anymore. I didn't know it either. But I'd love to use it in modern Dutch again.

Pissed in America means annoyed, but in the UK it means drunk. I've never understood the euphemisms Americans use for going to the toilet. They use bathrooms with no bath in them and restrooms in which I wouldn't want to lie down.

When my sister was in England visiting our cousins. My cousin told her he would knock her up in the morning. Being my sister was 15, and what it means here in the US. My sister told my Mom, we have to leave now, and then my Mom explained what he meant. LOL My sister-in-law gave the peace sign to my cousin and got offended. They all had a big laugh after all was said and done.

I love this channel so much! My family is full of language nerds and this just makes my day!

Excellent. You out did yourself on these videos. Had a good laugh thank you!

Maybe it's not used much anymore but when I lived in England the phrase "come and have a go if you think you're hard enough" was in very heavy use and well, to American ears it sounds like, well, an invitation to have sex. I actually burst out laughing on several occasions to head tilted looks of confusion.

I noticed he distinctly didn't mention cigarettes.

I know a woman who's name is Randi. She was shocked, horrified and more than a little amused to find out what that word means in England

I suggest you catch some old reruns of the later episodes of M*A*S*H with Harry Morgan as Col Potter, as POPPYCOCK was one of his more common epithets (next to HORSE-HOCKEY!) Also, to your pictures of the Coal Tit, you might want to note to your viewers that it might LOOK like a North American Chickadee, but it is a different critter all together, being slightly larger than our bird over here, and according to its Wiki page, dominating the middle of Europe and Asia.

When I was in high school a Brit exchange student got quite embarrassed when the teacher told her she was full of spunk.