ENGLISH Vocabulary Differences US vs UK vs Australia vs New Zealand vs South Africa 

the older people use that but younger ppl use "shap-shap"

Yea, not sure where that potato fell out with "kiff", that is not nearly as widespread or recognizable as "shap"

Yeah, I think he also for got that we call the male swimming costume "baggies" too

@@MetaalMeerkat never heard of "kiff" or "lekker" that is "sharp"😅😅

Of awe

I definitely agree with this! Also it’s a generational thing- where I’m from it would be very awkward/outdated to say “Mickey D’s”. No one says that in general where I’m from and even when I asked my friends they agreed. It really does depend where you’re from and slang is also always changing with the times!

I mean it’s the exact same in the UK people speak a different language depending on where you are.

You mean it's the same as every other English speaking country on the planet? Regional & generational variation is a thing? Gosh, who knew?

@@iatsd except Australia, it’s literally just thicker or thinner accent

Im from the city of the worst accent and ye I can say theres a lot of diverity in the way people talk from anywhere else in the US

Nah I'd say we're more like siblings, stick together in the presence of other countries then fights to the death when alone 😂

@@irisma6439 yess!

​@@irisma6439yu

​@@irisma6439yh

Fr

Similar? It's hard to imagine how they could be more different.

@@MikeAG333 They do sound similar.

@@leoui5081 Erm...........no. Not at all. One sentence and I'll tell you where they're from, and be right every time.

@@MikeAG333 I doubt that very much.

@@leoui5081 Well, you're wrong. It's incredibly easy to distinguish between the 3 accents. However, to try to distinguish between South African and Zimbabwean or Namibian is almost impossible for the outsider. I suspect you might be American, in which case you just dump them all in a basket called "foreigner".

I think we use trousers and pants interchangeably, I do, in any case. But you're right, a lot of words are regional and even different between the socio-economic classes within that region. Swimwear in WA are typically called bathers or boardies, speedos (budgie smugglers) but we are certainly well aware of togs, cossies, swimmers, etc. I really enjoy these language similarity/difference videos though, they are fun and the presenters are doing a great service, I think.

Growing up, we often referred to long pants as either pants or strides,,,trousers were more formal like a suit or in particular, a tuxedo... I think a lot of the variation depends on your location and/or generation... the shoes were sneakers, plimsolls or joggers, depending on what they were made out of...swim wear was what the Kiwi and Aussie girls said... I don't think much has changed over the years...I have noticed that with more and more American telly and movies over time, a lot more americanisms are coming into the language and that is starting to see the loss of the older aussie-isms...

@@grandy2875 agreed. My dad says strides some times but usually trousers.

I mean, I'm Aussie and generic swimwear is bathers so yeh it varies xD

When I was living in Queensland, we would call board shorts “quick dries” because they dried quick.. I suppose… when I moved out of Queensland everyone thought that was strange. Now I think it’s a bit weird too.

Hotdogs can also be called a sausage sizzle or a snag!

@@MatterhornedCrassy87 Snags yes I remember that!

"Ice block" is also used in some parts of Australia.

Sometimes we say icy pole purely because there’s a type of ice block called a icy pole.

Iced coffee is the ducks nuts

I was surprised that so many used the term Speedos, but no one brought up the fact they were originally designed and made in Sydney Australia (Straya) in 1914 by a Scottish immigrant - Alexander MacRae.

Yeahhh! As a kiwi togs are where it's at! Right on🤙

When I lived in Queensland we all called them Togs. When I moved to NSW no one new what I was talking about lol. So swimmers was the new word I had to use.

Don’t forget that the biggie smuggles can also be called DT’s AKA Dxxk togs the first word has also been censored

I was so confused when she said “if your from Queensland you would probably say bathers or cossies” like I have always said togs? 😂

RIGHTTT

Kiff what it’s supposed to be sharp ou

@@n.jmsimanga6544 Ja nee, exactly man. Kiff is not a term that I hear a lot. When you like end a conversation 9/10 times the other person just goes "shap shap". Maybe its like a Cape thing? I know those guys down there are a bit different from us Highveld guys. 🤔

"ja no, I mean, it really depends..." 😂

@@imaanwallace9298 its actually kinda cool that even though our entire country is about the size of one State in the US we have very distinct regional vocabularies. A guy from Durban sounds nothing like a guy from the Highveld. Same thing with guys from the Cape. Geez man imagine if they asked a colored guy from Cape Town to share some local dialect on there hey XD

@@n.jmsimanga6544 or "sha(r)p sha(r)p" ;)

This is so true! And this is why I put a disclaimer in the comments. Also I’ve only visited about 13-14 of the 50 states so honestly I haven’t experienced a lot of other regions and most of my visits were brief so I didn’t interact with the locals that much. Our way of speaking and terminology is vastly different depending on where you go. I honestly answered these questions based on my experience of where I’m from but of course my experience can be completely different from other people’s experiences!

@@emmasherbine5938 of course. Not many Americans get the opportunity to see all 50 states and even when they do they don’t always indulge in the local culture. You did a fantastic job at representing and were also very entertaining! Keep it up!

My mom and i grew up in colorado, my dad in New Mexico. And my mom spent like 6 years in west Virginia. We also say tennis shoes or sometimes even tennies We don't say "stop or traffick" before light. Jus "the light." And one that my boyfriend and I argue about is buggy vs light. I say buggy. Apparently that's a southern thing?

I'm from the Midwest and I call them tennis shoes as well

America is MASSIVE, and you guys have quite significant accent changes state to state, so I can imagine that slang changes as well. whereas in Australia is it very subtle or no difference from state to state, unless you're from Queensland, they're a different breed up there hahah

Why when the Guy said "pommy" to the British girl she was sorprised and everybody laughed? 🤔😂😂

@@carlosocampo3585 because in South Africa we like to call British people or people from England “pommies”

@@skylasmellsrosesIn nz we just call em 'Poms' :) I believe aussie also does that

and there's even more in between with the south, Midwest, Texas, the plains, mountain states, the Southwest, etc.

she doesnt represent the east coast either. trust me

We also call sneakers tennis shoes or whatever the shoes specific use is for like running shoes.

@@bigploppa154 she seems like elite east coast. She seemed like she’d be kind of snobby.

We need a southerner in there for a whole other language 😂I volunteer because I’d love them to try and guess cattawampuss

In Australia ir has changed since I was young. A ute was always a version of a sedan but a pick up was more truck like.

Bakkie is one of the only words I remember from when I was in South Africa and now I just use in my everyday vocab when describing that particular car and then I have to remember most english people don't know what it is 🤣

'Pickup Trucks' basically don't exist in the UK, I have seen about 5 in my whole life and have never saw one at a car shop before so don't know where the people got them lol. Also in some parts of the UK 'baccy' is a slang word used for tobacco.

@@Oxley016 I see quite a few pick up trucks but I live in country so it could be. That's normally what people think of when I say bakkie is tobacco but I use the word for both

@@cheesemonkey98 Yeah I suppose that makes sense having them out in the country and on farms

Not only that the 👍🏻he didn't say shap disappointed

Exactlyy

Why didn't he say shap very disappointed

A Spaniard here. Can I please ask for the joke explanation? : D

@@hanschristianrodriguez which joke dude

We have alot of languages, but lekker is basically a afrikaans word that is used throughout the whole country regardless of the language you speak. Afrikaans has is a language that has a dutch influence to it. It also has indigenous influence such as isixhosa words are also mixed in there. Sa has more than 10 official languages, so yes there are alot of international influences to our languages❤

That would probably be due to the Dutch influence in the Afrikaner language!!

@@alicehutchings1755 Yes, the Dutch East Indies had a big influence in SA going back nearly 400 years.

About 90% of Afrikaans vocabulary is of Dutch origin. The European settlers were mostly Dutch or Flemish.

@@johanlebacq1998 yep. I know! While I didn’t think it was that high a percentage, it doesn’t surprise me as I know that Dutch and Afrikaner speakers can just about understand each other!

Lmao so that's how it's spelt😂

i just call it a sucker lmao

Probably in Gauteng, we call em lollipops here in Cape Town.

lol i came here for this comment and the speedos we call them shorts

Eh. I thought it was "stocksweet" and "shap " 🤣🤣

Ye fr Never heard anyone call them broad shorts or anything, always been togs! Another common phrase of ours is chur 🤙

YESSS my teacher always says chur bahah ​@@KatDoesCrime

Hi , Lauren or Clare 🇬🇧 , i loved your video , loved your outfit , the only one no black 💙❤

@@henri_ol you know what month it is right?

Thank you very much Lauren🤎 I love you and your videos, there are more fun with you) I'm from Russia, and I'm studying English hard and I want to speak with British accent (your accent is soooo beautiful✨) 🤍🤍🤍

"Maize" (corn) comes from spanish "maíz", which comes from Tahino (Caribbean) "mahiz". Corn is originally from Mexico.

@@niccolopaganini1782 What have that to do with the months?

Yeah I was wondering why he didn't say that? Far more common and less regional than "kiff". Everyone knows "shap"

I have never heard of Kiff before, is it from the Western Cape or something?

Everyone knows sharp but kiff is used by certain group of people

@@Coolio_za where’s kiff from?

@@lalapoo7110from the 90’s, where it should stay…

Also is a Canadian thing

The NZ woman in this video doesn't have a strong accent. Ppl with a strong NZ accent actually sound quite different from Australians. They lengthen vowels that we shorten, and vice versa.

i dont find his accent that thick at all.

Australia and NZ are not on the same continent. Australia is its own continent and NZ is part of the mostly underwater continent Zealandia.

@@s6r231 Australia = Oceania New Zealand = Oceania Australia isn't a continent neither is New Zealand

Oceania is a region, not a continent. Zealandia is indeed a continent in the geographical sense, albeit mostly submerged. One can see it if one cares to Google it specifically or looks at global terrestrial and marine topography. New Zealand is the bit above water and is a small fraction of it. It’s going to become an issue in time as exclusive economic zone legal languages use the word continent and continental shelf to assert mineral rights and sovereignty.

Ye same in East London as far as I know

You mean bros across the dutch

Thanks for checking us out! Good to see you again! :D

Those in the picture are definitely sneakers though.

Can confirm this! They're all just shoes, never ever went out to try get some trainers Sometimes I hear the word sneakers thrown around, but usually just shoes

Depends imo, i know people that buy Jordans and like expensive shoes as sneakers. Even say kicks to some degree

Definitely "suckers" (if on sticks), and then "sweets". Also we used to say "cossies" for swimming costumes.

Stalk sweet sounds more like it

Stephanie our speech is similar I'm mountain grown too.

I say mickey D's and I'm east coast

Sure. I'm Spanish and I'm uttlerly confused about the American and the British ladies. They sound completely opposite to eachother. Emma sounds slightly English, and the British girl sounds slightly American, isn't? :-S

@@hanschristianrodriguez I thought the same. It's probably the influence of television.

Yeah, I was confused by that. Most Americans don't say something is "a bit dodgy."

That uk girl is dumb I'm sorry but it's true

Emma you're beautiful, you remind me of Dakota Johnson.

Very true, no 1 person can fully encapsulate what everyone from the US will say for different things. Personally as an Ohioan, my choices for these words would be: McD’s, tennis shoes, swimming trunks, stop light (but when I’m driving just light), candy (but you are spot on with the suckers specifically 😂), corn, and great/good/awesome/etc My all time favorite different word we have though is “sweeper” for a vacuum cleaner. We also say when we are going to vacuum that we are going to sweep. I would love to see one of these episodes where we get multiple people from the US and see how our own words compare.

@@benperry2725 I'm from Cincinnati, we also just say light like if were giving directions we'll say something like "go 3 lights and turn left and then you'll hit a stop sign and then you'll turn left.

Emma..!!!❣️ You're Very Gorgeous Chik, Y reminds me of Gigi Hadid ; Thinking of Y loud.😍

I grew up in Chicago in that little lingual pocket where we call them "gym shoes."

LMAO so true

The 10% is for mate

I would call it sweetcorn only when it's loose but if its all together then I'd call it corn on the cob

Maize is a different from sweet corn

I would call it fishing bait, it tastes so awful I would never dream of eating it.

As a South African, sweetcorn is an entirely different product. It’s sweetened corn in a can…

Interesting!☺My fiancé is South African and I crack up when he mentions 'robots' hehe

Ive seen this American in these videos and i think she's from a strange enclave somewhere. She has an unusual accent and doesn't know words common in the parts of the country I've lived in.

@@jenniferpearce1052 was thinking the same thing, she says her a’s weird-

She must be from the North North East

No one really says that though. I know that slang, but I’ve never really heard anyone say it. Most people just say McDonald’s.

@@LilRedRasta most people say mcdonalds. but i find it hard to believe you grew up in the US if you havent heard it referred to as mickey ds. as for mcdicks, me and my friends have always called it that and at work when someone goes to get lunch at mcdonalds weve always called it a mcdicks run

Banana hammocks

Here in South Africa we say words in a different way but I have never heard of "KIFF". The guy was letting me down on the things he was saying.

Maizemeal kiff and Speedos I heard for the first time actually I always knew it as mieliemeal shup and shorts

Kiff is rarely used for "shap" or cool. Kiff is now more generally known as the dust that's collected after crushing some "dagga" and smoking that.

Kiff is from the early 90’s, no one uses it anymore

ngl i hear kiff about the same amount of times as i hear shap these days

The other thing I’ve observed is that many examples of Australian slang originated in the UK. Fair Dinkum originally came from Lincolnshire where it has fallen out of use. Similarly there are Elizabethan English phrases which are preserved in rural America but no longer in use in England.

I've been listening and watching an academic called Simon roper and it turns out that thousands of years ago dialects and slangs were changing quite drastically within each century so actually I dont think modern globalisation is changing things as much as we thought. At least the study I've looked at was British accents which are very diverse, I can't speak for more isolated countries.

@@henryluczak9156 i keep forgeting that fair dinkum is something australian people say... like ive lived in australia my whole life and ive never heard someone say it

Do not know about English people but the south Dude get a three out of ten

I just moved down south, I was kinda shocked by this

Yes!

But here around northwest we always call the one a stick stock sweet

Yea most say togs

Everyone says togs never heard someone say boardies or something like that in Tauranga Edit: have now tho

Togs is whatever you wear to swim in

Only ever heard of togs, we don't call em anything else :)

Yes, in South Africa too. (Although I suspect we got that one from the states).

never heard that in my life i’m from LA so maybe it’s regional

Sounds like midwest lingo for the states

Sorry Canada...definitely needed you on this. Love the way you say 'about' which to my Aussie ear sounds like 'a boot'.

@@kalayne6713 I am a Torontonian and have only visited Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Québec but I have never heard any Canadian actually say 'about' like that.

Ah, so you are the ones who say Mickey D's, they talked about it on the video lol

@@rebbiakiva As an Aussie, I always thought it was a joke until a colleague at my old job said it. I’m not sure if he was trying to be a stereotype and get a reaction though, as he said it in the phrase “What’s all this about, eh?”. I nearly fell out of my chair. And it was relatively strongly aboot.

Hey! I’m Afrikaans and yes “lekker” is afrikaans.

and in the case of the yanks, a great big fucking ocean (thank christ) xD

I wonder if mielies comes from the Portuguese influence in Africa. After all the famous Portuguese explorers like Diaz and da Gama sailed around SA to get to India. Mozambique is right next to SA and used to be a Portuguese colony. In parts of SA we use the word brinjal for eggplants (aka aubergines). It comes from the Portuguese word beringela.

@@thelibraryismyhappyplace1618 I didn't know any of that, thank you! And yeah, I can see how berinjela became brinjal

Budgie, ( an Aussie version of Budgerigar ) aa Australian parrot, brightly coloured around 18-20 cm from head to tail.

@@sof9254 Budgies are tiny and fit in your hand.. the size of a robbin or sparrow

@@IvarDaigon I know,our family had a couple ..!

The SA guy has probably been out of the country for a long time, a lot of the names he gave were Americanised. We don’t call them “board shorts” they’re baggies. And we don’t say “lollipops” we say “suckers”

@@rue3816 Ey... we use lollipops or stoksweets where I'm from (Limpopo) and around the uni I'm in (UP), maybe don't generalise there haha. Suckers sounds as American as board shorts to me.🤔😅

@@tshegofatsomabena6029 that’s so weird… in Durban I’ve only ever heard them called suckers. Maybe I shouldn’t have generalised hahah

Onya, mate

There's heaps of terms for swim briefs. In addition to Speedos (never singular) and budgie smugglers there's DTs (Dick Togs) and DPs (Dick Pointers) just off the top of my head

@@lztx Yeah I mainly use Speedo for all swim briefs even if they aren't Speedo branded. It's interesting how many slang terms there are for them in Australia. I guess they must be more common than in other English-speaking countries. Here in Canada, only people who swim for sport wear them and generally only when in a lane pool. Wearing them at any other time would be seen as weird.

@@DanTheCaptain I have/had swim briefs from many brands including Speedo, Mambo, Adidas, Aussiebum, Budgy Smuggler (they tried to un-genericise the trademark with different spelling), and a few generic Chinese brands. It's only slightly weird to wear them in Australia, to the beach, pool, water park, etc. Not many do these days but you won't get anyone making comments or get angry! I would still wear them but I need better sun protection now due to some melanoma scares.

@@lztx Don't forget Sluggos...

In the southern US we call them tennis shoes and bathing suit and we also call them suckers.

@@wesleymartin7114 Which part of the US calls them suckers?

3 or runners

same with uk tbh. its not big but the amount of different accents are ridiculous

same with australia like every single state has different slag they mix over a bit but it very much varys like if someone from western australia said something (im not even gonna guess what they say cause im not from there) but like it could be completely different to tasmania

One person will never be enough for one country, even for New Zealand.

@@fallenangel_899 wdym "even new zealand" it is by far the least diverse country accent wise in the video

@@nickhyphendbl2782 tf theres more than one accent here in nz

Heh. I once worked with a girl from down under. Who'd rather not use the french based pronunciation of "router". I didn't know about 'root' then, but quickly found out.

@1993DJC No fight here. I did as a kid too. Language is very open to influences from all over.

@@kalayne6713 And if you go down to the nitty gritty every person speaks a dialect of their own.

I say bathers not swimmers

Yeah she said “100% runners” but I call them joggers. Nobody I know has ever said togs…

I’m from the Midwest too and we always say Mickey D’s and lights too!

Florida here, we say Mickey D’s too. We also use sucker. And the mens swimsuits are swim trunks or just trunks.

I have been hearing Mickey D’s all the way back to being a little child in the 80s when I lived Southern California.

I'm from Wisconsin and some say "Stop & Go Lights"

I was waiting for someone to say this. I am also from Chicago and I literally called them gym shoes for the longest time. 😂

Or maybe because 10 million people in SA speak Afrikaans as a 1st language....

​@@sajidastander9311 yes but Afrikaans is actually influenced by the dutch bc of colonization so a lot of words are similar ( :

@@Eclpse_ that was the whole point of her comment..

Bonza, cheers cobber

Almost my guy, Ozzy is usually spelt 'aussie', but right on! 🤙

@@KatDoesCrime My jandals would beg to differ, they're green and say "ozzy, ozzy, ozzy, oi, oi, oi" on them, Mrs bought them taking the piss, she calls them "thongs"🤣 To be fair, seen it spelt both ways though..

@darianistead2239 You make a fair point there, i suppose the spelling really depends on who you ask. Ozzy it is, then! 👍

Kiwi isn't fruit. Stop calling kiwifruit Kiwi.

I agree. Also maize is used for the plant, or in a list of ingredients on a packet to distinguish it from corn which is a general term covering all cereal crops (traditionally wheat, rye, oats and barley).

I'm Spanish and I need to ask: does the British girl really sounds from somewhere in the UK? She sounds slightly American to me. I wasn't thinking on an English accent on her, isn't?

When i was young in the 60s. Bathers were all types of swimwear but then you could have for men Speedos, togs or boardshorts and for women one piece or bikini. We some times called them togs but that came from the shorts boxers wore ie any bathers that were in a cut like boxer shorts were called togs.

I think it's regional because in NSW we use most of the words that are used by other countries, and I found the Aussie rep to not beware aware of them.

its both generational, regional and also did you grow up in a city, town or village

Interesting...I'm from Sydney, a Gen Z and I use those exact terms too! Joggers and Swimmers, though I might occasionally say 'Cozzies' as well.

In Australia we use the term shopping 'trolley'

It’s actually written as Tekkie. There is even a shop callet “Tekkie town”. But nowadays, youngsters use Sneakers as they adopt American english

@@Das644 I took my brother on with this, and direct translation, tekkies are sneakers, but in the young generation slang, sneakers are the outgoing tekkies, whereas tekkies are seen as training shoes or jogging shoes. We could get 'n nice Afrikaans word to differentiate the two.

@@BloodHawk31 i guess. It would depend from region to region but i grew up with “tekkies” being closed shoes and the introduction of the word sneakers was when i got introduced to hip hop(well and american culture).

Yep, I commented the same. I'd call them sneakers... more like a dress sneakers. But definitely not runners. Runners would be a sports sneaker/shoe.

Sounds a little like he may have something else going on, like an immigrant parent or spent a lot of time abroad

@@christeebs yeah thought so too

He is probably from Oranjastaad 😂 even as a fellow South African I’m also struggling to hear what he is saying 😂

He sounds very American to me, and I don’t think he’s Afrikaans because he butchered the pronunciation of the Afrikaans words. Probably trying to sound American or he’s been o the country too long.

Follow her on instagram she has super cool outfit 😉 i love her style ✨

So am I Victor and yes “tennis shoes” is the term that I use.

Not everyone talks like that i'm from Detroit born and raised I am aware of people calling sneakers tennis shoes but no one in my family or friends calls them that and I never say pop always soda of course it might depend on the age difference I am 43 and don't get me started on Gov.Whitmer everyone outside of Michigan thinks we sound like her 🤢🤮

Sounds really cool! Definitley would be epic to have one you guys on the show!

@@Rob-nd1qb it depends where your family from. My family came to America from Africa in 1950. They learned English from Detroit. If your family from the south and moved to the d for automotive jobs than that’s probably why

My Grandma calls flip flops "thongs"

@@bethyann89 Is she from Australia?

@@rebeccasimantov5476 no. She's just really old and I think that was an old fashioned word for them. I might be wrong about that part though

@@bethyann89 That's really interesting... btw where is your grandma from?

I would be interested in the SA name. I know the kiwis call them jandals (Japanese sandals)